WARNING: RANT IN PROGRESS

Normally I would not choose such a public forum for a rant, but this particular rant deserves to be public.

My "gift" is to see the pattern of workflow and the little changes that can be made to improve flow. My area of expertise is digital printing and I work as a little satellite in a company producing large silk-screen decals. A new supervisor was brought in last year to make things better for the company. He has no print experience but is a good number guy was what I was told.

I'm all for good numbers but being diplomatic to a short sighted, narrow minded, chauvinistic man who seems determined to reinvent the wheel is irritating. Watching him try to make employee hand puppets is painful - micromanaging is NEVER successful. All of this behavior was outside of my small segment of production until a few weeks ago. Large format printing is becoming a lucrative branch of the print industry ... now his hand-puppet management philosophy has been draw to my room (think eye of Sauron...) To improve my production, my supervisor has decided to hold back information on jobs I handle until just before they go into production so I will not be "confused" or "overwhelmed." Some jobs I do not see at all, nor do I have the specs for future reference as he has decided to hold the entire information jacket in his office. Those jobs are "too complicated" for me to handle "on my own." Gosh, I find this attitude offensive and I am more than a little shocked by the idea that anyone could be fooled by this crap.

I have spent all of my adult life knowing I am equal to any and every task that comes my way. In the three departments I managed, production went up, errors went down and we were able to streamline our processes which let us be more creative. Synergy is my favorite and most used model and I have had great results. I have never been overwhelmed or confused for more than a few minutes. I took this job 3 years ago so I could relax into retirement, however, at this rate I expect this business to fail in 2 to 3 years. Lets be realistic, competition is stiff. Paring production costs and finding new markets for our products are important. Our employees are our biggest expense and our biggest asset, tapping into their expertise and loyalty is key! Until this dude realizes he is surrounded by experts with years of valuable experience in their heads he will continue to cause this disruption that has infected my entire department. To a person we've had to sit back in amazement and "dumb" down our jobs to accommodate his ego.

Okay, I'm finished and I feel much clearer. Thanks for your patience.