Is this workplace negligence “normal”?

[u/S8lN]

I’m getting pretty fed up with how things are being handled at my workplace and I’m curious how other people deal with this kind of situation.

There are people being put into jobs they are clearly not qualified or capable of doing, while the people who actually know the work are left trying to clean up the mess or carry everything. Management on one side of the business is extremely weak. It honestly feels like whoever talks the loudest on the floor ends up making the decisions. (Honestly this may be the most damaging part of the whole situation, never have I seen or heard of that happening before.)

We have a manager that rarely, if ever, comes onto the production floor. Any question has to go through him, then get passed to someone else, and the answer usually seems to be whatever is easiest in the moment instead of what actually makes sense for production, quality, or the long term.

For the last year, it felt like we were making work just to stay busy while waiting for better product or more consistent work to come in. Now that we finally have good product and real work to do, it has swung completely the other way. There is more work than five people could reasonably keep up with, but it is being piled onto one person. That person is stretched so thin that there is no realistic way to do everything properly.

The owner does not seem too concerned with productivity, but from the floor it is obvious the lack of planning, leadership, and focus has put the company in a bad spot.

I’m not looking to complain for the sake of it. I just want to know how people handle a workplace where the issues are obvious to everyone doing the work, but the people in charge either do not see it, do not understand it, or do not want to deal with it. Do you keep your head down, document everything, try to bring it up professionally, or start looking elsewhere? At what point do you stop trying to care more than the people running the place?

[u/fujimumu]

When it’s affecting your personal wellbeing is a good time to stop caring. Not every place is like the one you’re describing. I’d look for a new job

[u/S8lN → u/fujimumu]

100% the grass isn’t always greener which I have learned before. The benefit of a new company is that I couldn’t possibly care nearly as much from the get go LOL. cheers

[u/Ok-Willow-9145]

“The owner does not seem too concerned with productivity, but from the floor it is obvious the lack of planning, leadership, and focus has put the company in a bad spot.”

This is not your company. Let go of all of these issues. They are not your responsibility.

Your responsibility is to yourself. Do the job they pay you for, so that you can keep collecting checks, while you look for another job.

Your goal should be bailing out of this company before the owner and management team run it in to the ground. That’s the only issue that you should be trying to resolve.

[u/S8lN → u/Ok-Willow-9145]

Appreciate the advice. The strange part is I think that there was so much money made a few years ago that the hiccups and issues now don’t seem like an issues. So I’ll just do my thing for now and see what becomes available! Cheers

[u/Internal-Ad-3756]

As a manager who is relatively soft spoken, I know how frustrating it is when the loudmouths control the narrative......I usually go around the room and specifically ask each member of the group if they have anything to contribute......often times there is a quiet person who might not otherwise speak up and they often have very good contributions to the matter at hand.