New Boss, No Clue.....

[no8no3]

I hope i dont get fired again, But my new boss is absolutly clueless. I've been with this uy for 7 weeks and he has yet to impress me. I was doing a teardown on a unit last week, and he calls me back to town to help him with a CCAC process chiller that has been down for two days. He just cant get it going and needs my help. I show up 2 hours later to find him with a meter and two maintenance men pouring over this thing like surgeons in an operating room.

I immediately jumped out the flow switch, and the little chiller sprang to life. They use a paddle wheel type switch that has a history of messing up. I put my tools up, and listened to him tell me how the switch was "made" when he checked it, as if i were his boss.LOL This is not the first time for this, i've bailed him out on several occasions over equally stupid things, and talked him out of selling a new screw chiller to be placed outside of a library just yesterday.

I guess what i'm trying to find out here, is this acceptable behavior for your boss? or shouldn't they be a little smarter than you? I do pretty well here, 7 over scale, but it's really anoying to babysit this guy. I mean it's kind of embarassing, I had heard this guy was a little dippy from the hall, but some of this stuff is rediculous.

Anybody got a similar situation? How do you handle it?

[pilot]

Sounds like you were a hero! If he can admit it to him self thats a good thing. I would say your one up on him. If your really worried about keeping your job just stay laid back and keep your skills houned learn more if you have to and in time you will have your pick and choose of jobs.

[Edited by pilot on 01-08-2004 at 02:02 AM]

[tinman]

A good manager will surround themselves with people that are smarter than themselves. If you are treated well and paid well does it matter?

[mattm]

These guys are great talkers and I bet he is one of them. But like my daddy used to say "perfume will only cover up the smell of sh*t so long". Word will start to get around the shop and he'll get into pickles and nobody will be around to bail him out. He'll be working for the compitition in no time.

[MikeJ]

Boss: (bos, bos,)n. A person who employs or superintends others; foreman or manager. 2. US a politician who controls his party organization,.. 3. A person who exercises authority, dominates, etc....

So you got a great opportunity to help someone in the profession and to daily, weekly show off your skills, Reap the benefits of the situation. Think this guy will ever stab you in the back? You can have a friend for life. He will always be owing to you. Treat him like that.
What do you have to lose? You can always look at your watch and say, "Geez, it's lunch time, coffee time, let's go grab a bite and discuss this further." Your overtime will accumulate.

[ozone drone]

I had a boss who liked to troubleshoot and then send me to change out the parts he condemned. Once he handed me a 3 hp supply fan motor for a rooftop unit. On a whim I pushed in the contactor and the motor just hummed and sounded single phased to me. Found one of the contacts burned off...replaced the contactor...motor worked fine. I dumped the 3 hp motor on his desk. A week later at 5.00 p.m. he hands me a box of parts for a job 40 miles away...A package unit on the ground for a modular home...workin with the truck headlights ...its zero degrees outside..change combustion blower motor, pilot ignitor assembly and some other stuff....go to fire it off...nothing. Found heat anticipator open on t-stat. I started swapping back the original parts...everything worked.
Next morning I dumped the box of parts on his desk...Said my days of being your parts changer are over. I'll do my own troubleshooting. He never said a word or ever sent me out with parts again.

[flange]

let it go. you're getting 7 bucks over the rate to be that go to guy. the best advice i can give is to do your thing and enjoy the obvious benefits of your talent. not every mechanic is the best at any one thing. some arent good at anything period. BUT they all have a place. just remember the grass is always greener till you hop the fence. think of the advantages you already mentioned, you got an extra fourteen bucks to jump out a flow switch. you got your boss to save you from a lifelong headache by not installing a screw machine in an obvious bad location. it sounds to me like you are doing ok. wow, i just read that back, could i be mellowing too?

[no8no3]

And dont think i'm about to give this up....But it's really strange to be in this situation. Normally, you have six or eight guy's in a company that have many more years of experience and know-how. And all are willing if not insistant on applying those skills to YOUR job. I've never had a job where i felt that i was the last word on everything. Today he asked me about how long it would take to check the float valve on a 19c during a PM....I asked why would you want to check it annualy? He had it in the contract as part of the PM and had 3 hrs. to check it. I told him that would probobly be right, once the 3 days were over to remove the refrigerant.

This is what i'm dealing with guy's.

[airdocc]

If it was me I would get back in the phone booth and change out of your cape.Just deal with him like you are clark kent.If he thinks your dis respecting him he may throw you under the buss.
As I get older I have found it easer to help when you can and never be little someone who has lesser knowledge. I don't know about you butI was technically challanged in some areas and the guys thatI worked with showed me grace .I am in a position now that I have been able to return the favor. I got several of these guys into good jobs after our shoped close.You never know when you will need a connection it's a small world.

[slimwoodie]

for $ 7 over rate, i'd jus' keep smilin' :D

[Getsome]

I know this is out of left field but i'm interested in how this is going.

[no8no3]

Getsome....the situation has changed somewhat since November. The owners of the company have demoted my previous boss, to sales, and placed a partner in the day to day operations. Things could be better, but i'm not complaining. It seems my old boss destroyed a plate evaporator on a process chiller, by jumping out the freeze stat. I really dont know why this guy couldn't keep his hands off the equipment, or why he never asked for assistance from the rest of us. The new boss is a paperwork freak, which may be worse LOL.

[stevehvac]

As a boss why would you want to hire people that know less than you do? It's no longer my job to fix everything so I need guys that are the best at fixing and maintaining the equipment. The boss isn't suppose to be the best technician (most of the time the best tech's do not make the best bosses).He is suppose to be the best manager or at least trying to be the best.

[Dad]

Originally posted by stevehvac
As a boss why would you want to hire people that know less than you do? It's no longer my job to fix everything so I need guys that are the best at fixing and maintaining the equipment. The boss isn't suppose to be the best technician (most of the time the best tech's do not make the best bosses).He is suppose to be the best manager or at least trying to be the best.




Being a good Boss is…

Understanding your limitations and striving to be better

Understanding your employees limitations and assist in making them better

Placing qualified people in the correct position to handle the companies business to obtain the set goals and obligations to make a profit

Knowing when to temper your mood swings, family situations and ego

Knowing your employees mood swings, family situations and egos that effect company operations

Being able to work with and around your employee’s strengths and faults to match him with the customer needs

Satisfying the customers needs to the best of your ability and anticipating those needs

Placing yourself in a position to handle all aspects of the business 24/7

Knowing when to back off and when not to with an employee or customer

Knowing how to delegate and balance the work program to optimize the business

Being responsible and acting accordingly when the buck stops at your door

Understanding when to take a bow or give praise

Keeping your cool, after a 2 minute break, and going on with the business at hand responsibility

Equalizing yourself mentally and physically to the perform the task at hand

Knowing how to keep business and personal relations separate and befriending your employees within certain limitations

Knowing when to leave the communication door open and to slam it shut for the sake of the business

Being proud enough to say, “You are right and I am wrong”, “Good job” and “Thank You” and really mean it

Being strong enough to say, “This is the way I want it done”, “Don’t let it happen again” and “You are fired” and knowing when is the right time to say it


When you are the Boss and have others around you that know more about equipment than you do, it should be embraced as a positive. Your employees that have special knowledge should be willing to share this knowledge with a positive attitude in a receptive environment. Employees that have special training and experience should always be properly compensated. Employees that share knowledge and help others while keeping a positive attitude are normally the ones we they call Boss in the future.

[hvac3901]

in theory the boss has got to be smarter than you technically or remove himself from the technical labor aspect of the job. reason is this...

if you even start to feel like or realize superiority in any way to your boss he will lose comand and control and be ineffectual as a leader. this is why imo many service managers (at least the ones i've worked for) offer suggestions/ dirrections only and will not get too involved in the troubleshooting or work jobs for billable hours.

i.e. how can the boss hold you accountable for your hours if he runs over his own time on jobs.
i.e. how can he complain of missed troubleshoots if he himself misses them?

if any of you work for those that do manage and work hats of to them, we are all human, and your bosses are holding themselves to a very very high standard one that nears perfection.

[Dowadudda]

There is a fine line to this whole idea.

I can't recall how many times I have been in situations where I had to come through cause the boss could'nt. It gets real funky when they start saying you can do things way beyond what your capable of also. I hated that the most. Go do this. You know yourself it's imposible, and then it turns into a soup sandwich situation, then it's also all your fault too. An example of this is, say your a mechanic and they send you to do something like weld a steel door back in place. The company has no business doing things they aren't specialized in, but they do it and it turns into a huge mess. I have seen that go on so much it simply baffles me.

Sub out that kind of crap. Sometimes they never learn you know.

[wolfdog]

Originally posted by Dowadudda
.....An example of this is, say your a mechanic and they send you to do something like weld a steel door back in place. The company has no business doing things they aren't specialized in, but they do it and it turns into a huge mess. .....



So-o-o, Are you telling us you can't weld?

[Dowadudda]

I have hung doors, done drywall, I even got paid for a week to rip a large tree out of the ground. That was many moons ago when I was stupid and green.

It's not that I am saying you can't do something outside the trade once in awhile, but know your limits, know what your geared for and know what you can be pretty sure you can do. Too often I seen my supervisors go head deep into a situation on something for the sake of calling it "work" and it was simply a bad idea, and we would lose money, techs got blamed, even though they had zero experience for the job they were tasked with. I think it can be pretty unfair to do that to an employee. So I don't go outside my boundries really ever at all. I stick with what I know. Or what I am pretty certain I can learn.

[maintenanceguy]

Originally posted by hvac3901

if you even start to feel like or realize superiority in any way to your boss he will lose comand and control and be ineffectual as a leader.

I disagree. I'm the boss because that's my job. I don't loose my authority because someone working for me is smarter than I am or better at something than I am. My job is to manage people and to put the right people in the right places to get the job done the best that it can be done. And I do that by hiring smart people who hopefully know something that I don't. If you don't know any more than I do...what good are you to me? I already know as much as I know. You need to bring something more to the table. And if you do, you get to have me for a boss.

[seaboard]

If there is one thing that should be learned from this site, it's that no one knows it all! If you can help your boss and bail him out of a jam, what's the problem? Aren't you making yourself more valuable by doing so and certainly bettering his opinion of you. When I make a new hire, I prefer to hire someone who has a quality or skill different from my other employees that can enhance the services we offer and can rub off on others. Are there sour grapes because you weren't given the job? If so, keep a positive attitude and help the guy as much as possible. His boss will see this and if he truly isn't the right guy for the job, you'll be the next logical choice.

[no8no3]

You make a good point seaboard... and no, you couldn't run fast enough to make me take the bosses job. The fact i bailed him out several times does not mean i wouldn't do the same for anyone in my company, or any of you if i had the chance. What was of concern to me at the time was, we had lost a technician and my then boss decided not to replace him, and deal with the accounts he was servicing himself.

He never asked us to absorb the guy's accounts which we most likely could have done fairly easily. He was and still is Gung-ho, and trying to impress the owners.

To be fair, this was a new position at the time for me also, and i really did not know the extent of the guy's expertise, nor the fact that most of his experience was in selling. I found out a lot in just a few weeks. I think all this could have been avoided, if he had just hired someone competent for the job, and concentrated on sales and administration.