Discussion»Questions»Jobs» Have you ever been the new employee who replaced someone who transferred, retired, was fired, quit or died? If so, what was it like? ~
"Yes" ... a job opened up in another department, that did the same type of work that we did, and I was asked to apply. The other candidate that applied was from that department, so I was a "complete outsider" ... I suppose.
Anyway, the job title was supervisor and duty was to supervise thirty men. I got the job and after a short time I was told by a friend that the reason I had won the job was because I was considered a minority. I was a little surprised and I assume the other applicant wasn't thrilled about it, but when the guys saw that I could do my job things worked out fine ... it seemed.
I took over a maintenance job and I had a new crew to supervise as well. The guy who had the job before wasn't showing up for work and he wasn't doing his job. After they hired me he was angry and I remember him staring at me. He's a weirdo. Then all of the sudden a bunch of vents and fans on the roof of the building got vandalized. I think it was him. His crew were not very receptive to me either. I tried to work with them to gain their respect, but they were used to the other guy who barely showed up. My few workers called in sick and stopped coming in. I eventually replaced them. I had to change a lot of things and it wasn't a very warm welcome, but I got through it.
This post was edited by Summer at June 18, 2018 12:04 PM MDT
It was stressful for a while. Luckily I had some contacts. I had some people who I worked with before who I could count on. They came in and helped me out. One of them is actually running the crew now. I've long since moved on, but it was an experience.
When I was young I used to sometimes work as a farm hand during the summer baling hay season stacking bales on the stone boat pulled behind the baler. I replaced the guy driving the tractor when he lost part of a finger trying to start the old John Deer by rotating the flywheel . Felt fine for a while running the tractor when the farmer hired a new guy to do all the sweat stuff.
This post was edited by Kittigate at June 19, 2018 12:17 AM MDT
Yes, and it didn't help that I was a grass-green civilian replacing a corporal. The military was just beginning to "civilianize" some clerical positions, there was an "us and them" mentality prevailing at the time - and I was the only civilian among 55 servicepeople. I didn't last, and vowed I'd never work for the ADF again unless I too was in uniform.
Benedict Arnold 