Thoughts On STG

[HeavyLeadBelly]

I need to feel I've earned what I'm paid. I "ride for the brand" as it were. If I take a man's money, he gets my best. That's how I was raised.

What a convoluted thread. Very entertaining though even the posts where the members have stayed on topic.

You’re entitled to work how you want to work. I work hard and take pride in it but if I feel like I’m being exploited, then I look for different opportunities. Life is to short to be short changed for your labor

 

[sablebrush52]

What was the winning $?
Shouldwouldacoulda: I was able to buy as many tins as I wanted at less than 1/2 price.

I still have a jar or two from the 2016 WCPS.

 

[Chasing Embers]

f I take a man's money, he gets my best. That's how I was raised.

Exactly.

 

[woodsroad]

Exactly

No matter what I price a job out to be, the client gets the same work out of me. Some jobs are more complicated and require more backend work, so they are priced higher, and sometimes I give folks who are in need of what I do but can't afford it a much better price. And I've always had non-profit clients that pay nothing. I give them all my best.

 

[Chasing Embers]

No matter what I price a job out to be, the client gets the same work out of me. Some jobs are more complicated and require more backend work, so they are priced higher, and sometimes I give folks who are in need of what I do but can't afford it a much better price. And I've always had non-profit clients that pay nothing. I give them all my best.

Yep, you're selling your reputation. Any job deserves your best.

 

[warren]

You’re entitled to work how you want to work

I don't believe that for a minute. Wow! Entitlements? Hell, one isn't even entitled to a job. You should work at a level at least minimally acceptable to your employer or be terminated, quickly.

 

[sablebrush52]

You’re entitled to work how you want to work. I work hard and take pride in it but if I feel like I’m being exploited, then I look for different opportunities. Life is to short to be short changed for your labor

I agree with this, except for the first sentence. When you go to work for a company you enter a contract, which means that you work how you're expected to work by your employer. If the arrangement doesn't work for either of you, you're entitled to terminate it.
I've never been fired off of a production, but I have quit because the conditions were toxic. And, I have renegotiated with employers when their expectations exceeded the scope of work I had agreed to do.

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

I don't believe that for a minute. Wow! Entitlements? Hell, one isn't even entitled to a job. You should work at a level at least minimally acceptable to your employer or be terminated, quickly.

You misunderstood me. I meant you’re entitled to how you choose to approach work.

 

[warren]

You misunderstood me. I meant you’re entitled to how you choose to approach work.

Then you must grant that the boss is entitled to can you if he chooses if your "approach" doesn't match his/her standards. You feel a job is all about you and your feelings. I feel just the opposite, the employer sets the standards, not the employee.

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

????

Like how you view work as work. You stated something along the lines that you ride with the brand of whatever company you’re employed with. Your personal philosophical view of work.

 

[warren]

To me it's black and white, no equivocating or philosophizing. One either works ethically or not. Situational ethics are anathema to me. You and I simply see work differently. There is nothing you could write that would change how I work. Take the money. do the work as best you can. To do less is akin to theft in my book.

I've never run across an employer who says, "Just do as good of a job as feel like."

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

I always felt like there was no way for both the employee and the employer to get a square deal with hourly or salary pay.

Give me commission based pay, or just move out of my way and I'll go into business for myself.

If you really think about it everybody works by commission, it just doesn't always seem like it.

Even the coppers and the government paper pushers have to pull their own weight... One way or another.

I've had hourly wage/salary jobs, but it always either felt like I was robbing them, or they were robbing me.

 

[Peterson314]

We're over here now? I love this thread.

I usually do my best and own a job that I get into. But I've gotten myself into some hopeless soul-crushing gigs that made me reconsider a career in arson.

We made industrial heaters, and I had one customer from the oil and gas industry call me screaming on a project because they made up a spec that wouldn't allow any welds in their heater core. I told them we had a mile and a half of pipe in this heater and they had no authority over our construction because we built and tested it to code. They stopped the project and flew in from around the world to discuss a "solution". My "solution" was to build the damn heater they bought in the contract. We never shipped it. Wasn't surprised at all when the parent company wrote off $1.38 BILLION on that failure.

I had another gig where I ran a software package on some extremely old tech... older than the original iPhone. I spent half a career getting every drop of performance out of that old platform, and couldn't convince the new boss that he couldn't just replace my operating system with some slapped together off-the-shelf software components. I was right, but I lost my career fighting over that one.

Pay me to do a job and I'll do it. But if you're gonna pay me to do a job, let me do the job.

I'm done with the corporate world. My new boss is an asshole and he doesn't pay me what I'm worth, but at least I'm finally working for myself.

 

[eljimmy]

Back on my first major film, TRON, my boss gave me several words of wisdom, one of which was this: "No one is irreplaceable". 40 + years and a few hundred projects later, I can attest to that being absolutely true. Lots of people who thought that getting the sack would never happen to them, got the sack, and not always for cause.
I spent almost 4 years establishing a division at Warner Brothers and running its art department, only to see it get shut down because the studio decided to change course. And when they realized their mistake, it was too late. Stuff happens, so be prepared for it.
Short of being the majority shareholder, you are not special.

I'm guessing you knew Richard Taylor? I knew and worked with his late Son. I remember him telling me his Dad was involved in creating that killer TRON glow. I was blown away because I always loved that effect.

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

To me it's black and white, no equivocating or philosophizing. One either works ethically or not. Situational ethics are anathema to me. You and I simply see work differently. There is nothing you could write that would change how I work. Take the money. do the work as best you can. To do less is akin to theft in my book.

I've never run across an employer who says, "Just do as good of a job as feel like."

I think we’re not that far apart on how we see work. The difference between us is you seem to be a ride or die company man, whereas I work for the money and I’ll bust my hump for it. But I feel like I’m being underpaid or exploited, I’ll move on.

Just because I don’t want to work for a company that will exploit my labor for unreasonable pay doesn’t mean I don’t work hard. It just means I won’t put in 50-70 hr work weeks anymore like I was doing in the corporate world before the Great Recession.

 

[Andre_T]

You could risk some of your moneys, start a business and employ people if that's your big concern. You have to remember though, it's your money and you are taking all the risk. Do not forget to demand a day of hard work for a day's pay. It's only fair. Some members here though do not subscribe to that philosophy judging to their cavalier approach to their employer.

Let me check my bank book... Oh wait I am several tens of millions short. It's comments like this that is part of the problem. Enjoy your bland STG blends. Lowest common denominator. That's what they sell. Just stuff for the widest audience. Done in an automated factory.

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

Then you must grant that the boss is entitled to can you if he chooses if your "approach" doesn't match his/her standards. You feel a job is all about you and your feelings. I feel just the opposite, the employer sets the standards, not the employee.

I agree, the employer does set the standards for his or her operation. The employee chooses to work there or not. If they choose to work there then they meet the standards set or they are let go.

In regard to feelings and my point of view of a job being all about me, yeah you’re damn right it is. I don’t know when the last time you were out in the work force but today’s environment demands that a person engage in self preservation. The social contract between labor and capitol is severely frayed and those people who give 100 percent loyalty to a company are foolish to do so.

In 2008 I got laid off after years of being a loyal employee, working long hours without days off because I was committed to the firm I worked for. Almost everyone was. The owners told all of us that if we worked hard the company would ensure we were taken care of when times got tough. Well when times got rough I spent a day helping my colleagues pack up their offices as they were let go until it was just me and my boss and my boss helping me pack up my office.

Later on a few years down the road after completing my graduate studies after pivoting my career during the Great Recession I was managing a department spread across a number of locations when the firm I worked for merged with a larger law firm. One of the employees who worked for me was concerned she was going to lose her job and I told her that if she was worried she might want to look into finding work elsewhere. Sge was a good loyal employee but having only a high school diploma and no real office tech skills, she was disposable. Eventually she decided to stay telling me that since she had been a loyal employee for over a decade they would take care of her. Two months later the new firm canned her (I had no input on her termination, she got a phone call from St. Louis and was escorted out on a day I had off. It wasn’t a great situation and she wasn’t the only one to be let go).

In the modern world a person has to look out for themselves and make sure the work they put in to their job is quality. Everyone is expendable and the only loyalty companies have towards anyone is to ownership and the shareholders. Loyalty to a company is about as outdated as the dinosaurs.

 

[Peter Turbo]

C&D and GLP for me.

Hate to say it but a lot if the American micro blenders also use leaf from Sutliff so I wonder if their blends will suffer. Thinking of places like LJP, WCC, Wilke, Country Squire and how they’ll be affected.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

American micro blenders also use leaf from Sutliff so I wonder if their blends will suffer. Thinking of places like LJP, WCC, Wilke, Country Squire and how they’ll be affected.

I'm sure that these places will either get the leaf they need through STG, if STG is interested. But, there are all sorts of sources also, for a real blender. Whole Leaf sells huge bulk amounts, if these places are real blenders, they can process the raw leaf themself. Or, they can use C&D. GLP is C&D in my outlook. However, there may be blends that change, or if these places are ethical, they'll discontinue their blends and just come up with new ones using newer sources.

 

[Peter Turbo]

I'm sure that these places will either get the leaf they need through STP, if STP is interested. But, there are all sorts of sources also, for a real blender. Whole Leaf sells huge bulk amounts, if these places are real blenders, they can process the raw leaf themself. Or, they can use C&D. GLP is C&D in my outlook. However, there may be blends that change, or if these places are ethical, they'll discontinue their blends and just come up with new ones using newer sources.

Im out of the loop, whats STP? Or was that a STG typo?