A Skilled Factory Worker Spent 20 Years Fixing Million-Dollar Problems—Then Quit to Become a Package Courier
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After more than 20 years building expertise in an industry, walking away for a lower-paying job might sound like an unusual career move. But one manufacturing worker says years of watching companies undervalue the very people keeping their operations running finally pushed him to his limit.
OP says he learned highly technical skills on the job, solved problems worth millions of dollars and eventually got the opportunity to move closer to the management side of the business. Instead of feeling like he’d finally made it, however, the experience only reinforced everything that had been frustrating him about the industry.
From broken equipment and inefficient processes to overworked employees and inexperienced leadership, OP says he’s watched manufacturing companies demand more and more from skilled workers without giving them the resources, recognition or compensation to match. Now, he’d rather take a pay cut delivering packages than keep burning himself out to make someone else richer.
They squeezed so hard I gave up. I was considered a skilled worker. Now I’d rather deliver packages.
In manufacturing for over 20 years. I was at ground level learning the things that people go to college for to get an engineering title. I’ve solved a multitude of problems at several companies. Multi-million dollar saving problems.
American manufacturing is in distress. People used to get promoted from the ground floor and trained to become engineers, or schooled if the company really required a degree.
Yes there used to be engineers without a degree. That’s where the college courses came from… The whole degree mindset from the top down really took over in the last 20 years. Now it’s all about hiring a fresh college grad with a mechanical engineering degree to tell “peons” how much they stink.
Woof.
Total disconnect and the effects are real.
These college grads feel that they’re entitled to sit in air conditioning and not get their hands dirty. They look down on workers and do nothing to help them.
They side with management. There’s so much inefficiency and so much waste over not giving the workers the things they need.
Sounds wasteful.
A lot of these companies are held together by people struggling to get the job done without the things they need, because they’re so desperate to keep their job.
Broken machinery, old parts, processes that should/could be streamlined.
I was recently given a chance to be on the other side. But I could not for the life of me in the meetings sit there and sh*t on hard workers.
Fair.
Also they didn’t pay me enough for the amount of value I brought to the table. I held a position that needed at least two or three people.
I’m just so done. I could have helped make some company make a lot more money if only they just give me some kind of cut. But I’m not going to bend over backwards for an hourly wage while people in c-suite get golden parachutes for being morons.
F*** you. Good bye. I’ll take an income hit and a lower stress job rather than making fat cats more fat and burning myself out for a “way to go,” and a pizza.
The post struck a nerve with workers who said OP’s experience reflects a much larger problem: companies can become so focused on credentials, cutting costs and squeezing productivity out of fewer employees that they lose the institutional knowledge keeping the business running.
Many commenters agreed that experienced floor workers can possess decades of knowledge that can’t simply be replaced by hiring someone with the right degree. They weren’t necessarily against college-educated engineers, but argued that the best workplaces need both technical education and hands-on experience—and problems arise when either group dismisses the other.
Others focused on OP’s decision to walk away. While taking a lower-paying job may look like moving backward on paper, commenters understood why less stress, fewer responsibilities and the ability to leave work at work could ultimately be worth more than another impressive title.
After spending years solving expensive problems without seeing much of that value reflected in his own paycheck, readers couldn’t blame OP for deciding that company loyalty had finally stopped being worth the cost.
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This person has a similar path.
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If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a longtime bank customer who walked away after the teller gave them a hard time.
This person is nodding along.
And this person couldn’t agree more.
There’s only so long you can ask skilled employees to do the work of three people for the pay of one before they decide the pizza party isn’t worth it.
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