A promotion's promise and pitfalls

I know many supervisors, planners, estimators, engineers, managers and owners who began their careers on the shop floor and came up through the ranks. This is great! It shows manufacturing is alive and well in the U.S., even though the industry can be a roller coaster ride. Those ups and downs have always occurred. It’s a cycle that will never change. Some people, on the other hand, do change once promoted.

I have watched various promoted individuals over the years. Some have succeeded; others crashed and burned or at least had to adapt instead of becoming a promotion casualty. Concerning the latter, I knew an engineer who was hired at a company where I worked. He dove into his new position with resolve after being told there were opportunities for improvement.

Unfortunately, within a couple of weeks, he alienated many in the shop. How did he accomplish this? He forgot to treat others like he would have liked to have been treated when he was in their shoes. Instead, he came on like gangbusters, saying everything they were doing was wrong! They were using the wrong tooling, setting up improperly, incorporating poor machining practices–the list went on. He knew better and was going to cure all the company’s problems overnight. After all, he was the new engineer and was going to make a name for himself.

He also didn’t want to hear suggestions from the managers he interacted with, which posed a problem. 

Eventually, he realized he was doing something wrong. He had to backpedal and attempt to repair some of the damage he had done. He listened to people and became open to suggestions. The shop people, in turn, became more receptive to some of his ideas and implemented additional improvements on their own. He finally realized the big gains were not going to happen overnight and a series of little ones wind up making a big overall improvement. 

I don’t begrudge him his mistakes. We all have made similar mistakes at one time or another. 

On the flipside, co-workers often treat colleagues differently once a colleague is promoted. Sure, there’s some heckling or good-natured ribbing. That’s to be expected. But some are prone to give them the cold shoulder for awhile. 

I remember being promoted to programmer from the shop floor. Boy, oh boy! I was walking on air. I could do no wrong. Or so I thought. Most guys in the shop made me feel comfortable in my new position, but a couple tried to make my life hell by pointing out my programming shortcomings at every opportunity. I was resentful at first, but soon realized I needed to get my feet back on the ground and my head out of my … out of the clouds. 

Some of the criticism was justifiable, while some of it was based on envy from people who wouldn’t do anything to better themselves, let alone help someone else succeed. I took the constructive criticism in stride, which made me a better programmer.

One thing metalworking professionals need to remember is where we came from. As I evolved throughout my career, I have always tried to remember my manufacturing roots and view things from different perspectives when dealing with people. 

You have to treat people as individuals. Respect them for who they are and the knowledge they possess. We should always be willing to listen and learn. We can learn something from everyone—from the floor sweeper to the company president. The knowledge they have can be career-related or life lessons. One lesson I’ve learned is that the people you work with can make your job enjoyable or a living hell. When you’re promoted, the change is good—but don’t let it change who you are.