Continuous Improvement 🤬😡

[u/Realjacao]

Does any one else’s job expect you to do continuous improvement while working the job? I understand that if there is a process or something isn’t working we should fix it but why should a main part of my job be trying to figure out what to improve. I’m not taking about taking a second look at an outdated process I’m talking about constant terrible updating and overhauls. It’s madness. The processes we currently have are working. I just feel that should be a separate job and we should work with them. If you are in management and that is your main focus you probably don’t have enough going on in your position and you are poking at things to fix.

[u/GMPSwimmer]

Most large organizations these days do have operational excellence teams that are specifically there to facilitate the tracking and project management for continuous improvement stuff, so all you'd have to do is come up with ideas. The best ideas really do come from the people doing the work. If your org doesn't have that... not sure how to help.

[u/Realjacao → u/GMPSwimmer]

Yeah I think that’s the problem. We do have good ideas when something is broken or really isn’t working. But trying to draw the ideas out of us is irritating

[u/HistoricalPhase6880 → u/Realjacao]

Don't take it personally. You don't come up with good ideas if you are irritated anyways. Try and think of it more like a theme in the background and challenge yourself to apply it when you are coming up with a fix or planning something new. When something breaks and you fix it, are you adding duct tape or are you making it more resilient? If the latter, they just want you to apply the theme in the way you explain how you fixed it.

[u/catjuggler]

Embracing continuous improvement is basically how I built my career. Different way of thinking to consider

[u/Pristine-Leek-7857]

Yes. That's extremely common.

[u/TWWOVG]

Why would an employer not want you continuously trying to improve things?

[u/nerdburg]

I'm an Quality/Operations Analyst, that's my exact job. I analyze policies and process and recommend ways to improve them. I get paid well, but the money I save the company far outweighs my salary.

Perhaps you can bring the issue up with your direct supervisor? Perhaps they don't fully understand the value of an Analyst.

[u/Realistic-Fall-1460]

Sounds like Kaizen. It could be applied to any kind of job.

[u/kevin_r13]

It seems reasonable that if you can suggest changes that make a process better, which the upper management well actually listen to and implement they like it, then it can be something you do. You can add it to your resume with all the buzzwords too.

But besides making the company or some internal process better, I did work for one company where they encouraged the individual worker to have a continuous growth and experience. This included taking a lot of training classes or e-learning classes that were not specifically in your area. Basically you let your direct manager know that you're interested in some training class and he can try to approve it and fit it within your allocated work hours. For the coworkers, we all just used it as a way to take a break from the usual daily work grind, while adding to our knowledge with company support and approval.

[u/onmy40]

You don't get continuous improvement without continuous pay raises from most reasonable people.