After reading this bit, I lost a bit of the sympathy I had going here. The company seems willing to accept that some staff is important and needs treating right. You have similar, or even more skills... why do you think they wouldn't do the same for you if you asserted yourself? And if they don't, why not just move on?
That quote is absolute bollocks and brainwashing. Work is work. The difference is whether you get pleasure from it or not. Also worth pointing that regardless of you doing what you like there is still stress attached to it as you're not in charge of timelines and budget (unlike your hobbies, for example).
I always take the approach of asking for help or complain about something once. If it's not addressed, I move on and don't complain twice. This has caught some people off guard (maybe one of the times was culturally, but they hired me from abroad, so they should have taken that into account), but in places with managers that understood the position they were in, it got addressed pronto.
A company isn't a person... it's ok to have loyalty to people you work with, but they have to earn it and from what you say, they take yours for granted.
I understand what your saying. I'm not looking for sympathy either. I was really tired and ranting when when I started replaying to this thread last night. Its my choice to stay and only my choice. They don't treat me bad, they are good folks to work for, just a very high paced environment with a lot going on. The situation just kind of evolved this way. I started as Monday to Friday building the plant when it was new, before production started up. Then as production ramped up, so did the calls. Iv told them already, its not about money why I need some relief, its simply lifestyle. They do pay me well.
The other guy, very nice fellow, simply has no problem telling them how it is, he is in control, he's not available. take it or leave it. I need him, he handles a lot of **** that would otherwise come my way during the days, very occasional call ins as well depending on the time of day, availability, proximity to the plant at the time, so we take it.
The other part of all this is how hard it is to attract any new talent, then when we do find a potential, we tell them how much night, weekend and call in is required and we don't hear from them again. If it were me applying for the job, I wouldn't take it either based on the conditions we set fourth vs pay offered. Therefore, my faith that we will find good help is small.
Again last night they tried to call me in. I had 6 missed calls when I got up this morning. They started at 1:32AM. I was so tired though, I didn't hear the phone. I'm surprised the wife or the boy didn't hear it either, or they did and just ignored it for my sake. They ended up getting the maintenance manager in and the lead hand mechanic also was called in to help who was able with some head scratching (not an electrician) to find a blown fuse and get them going before I got in to work this morning with a couple hours of downtime. That's when its really rough, the second and third night in a row of a call in! Glad I missed this one as it makes driving in not so fun. One more night to get through and this week will be over finally. Saturday is always bad though, they burn a lot of gear when washing on Saturdays that has to be fixed for startup on Sunday..... ughh startup.
Iv a coupe irons in the fire. Hopefully one will get hot enough soon to pull it out and start the next adventure.
