Essay/Term paper: Smacdata systems

Essay, term paper, research paper:  College Papers

It was hard to sleep, even though I was exhausted. For approximately a
year and a half I was employed with a small PC manufacturing company,
SmacData. Until my supervisor resigned it was a great job. Immediately
after he resigned business quadrupled, we
landed our first contract to build thousands of PC's. In the past we
only built a few hundred PC's a month. This would have been a great
opportunity, except for the presidents philosophy to work a few people to
death at low wages and then hire fresh pe ople. At this time I had to
decide whether to find a better job, quit , or stay and suffer. At first
I really made an effort to manage everything, but when there was not a
crisis, or constant chaos and production was under control; management
thought that was the sign they where not pushing hard enough. In addition
they were hiring people with little or no qualifications to assemble and
service PC's. Of which I was responsible for the finished quality and the
speed of production. I was working long hours seven days a week. It was
very difficult to manage and train incompetent, and uninterest ed persons.
On top of this some of the new employees would steal computer parts. This
created an environment of constant scandal and accusation. If I ran short
of worries I would entertain the thought of being accused of stealing and
the police taking me away. Other stress creators included the companies
habit of selling remanufactured parts as new, often times the quality of
these parts was less than used parts. The better part of my job was
becoming damage control as a result of these unscrupulous practices. It
was at this point that I was losing sleep or not sleeping at all. Another
trait of my new coworkers, was that they were very friendly to my face but
behind closed doors they would do or say anything in their power to go
against me or cause
problems. Even so, most of the time my coworkers where manageable.
Management had spent years perfecting the techniques of back stabbing,
ways to cause discord, and fighting among employees. All of these issues
made me seriously consider resigning. Unemployed I would be unable to pay
my bills, and considerable debt. I was living on my own since I started
at SmacData. During this same times my parents where in the process of
filing for bankruptcy. Since they where in worse financial condition than
myself, I felt a tremendous pressure to overcome my problems
independently. It would be very difficult to find a job when unemployed.
Already I was not eating, or sleeping well and I had grown quiet with a
constant melancholy expression. As disagreeab le as my circumstances were
I knew unemployment would be worse.
My old supervisor, Syed, was aware of the problems I was having.
He was the one who had brought me to SmacData, we had become friends
during the time we worked together. I was even renting the basement of
his townhouse as an apartment. When we would t alk about my problems at
SmacData he would become concerned that stress had really made my mind
sick. I needed to recuperate and have time for other parts of life
besides work. With my knowledge of technology, technical certification's,
and training; we
knew I was a candidate for a better position. Syed resolved to help me
find a position with a service oriented company. Some of the problems I
was having where unique to SmacData, but many have to do with the nature
of a production oriented business.
I have been in a new position for more than a year and a half now.
My salary is more than double what it was at Smac and I often do not even
work forty hours a week. I work independently now at many different
client sights, my skills and confidence gro wing faster than ever. In
hindsight I regret not leaving sooner.