u/Disastrous-Number-88

Has anybody successfully switched to selling Kinetico? I'd like to be able to sell and work on these units- but I'm worried about it being "pay to play"

I'm not a new manager, but I'm not a seasoned one either, I've got around 6 years of experience: this is mainly a rant and self expression, I guess

Long story short I was called back to work at a plumbing firm I resigned from as a supervisor- I took the job because they matched my salary but provided healthcare paid in full for me and the wife. I resigned because there was a few BIG safety issues that they refused to address, my resignation brought them into full attention of the executive suite. I took the job because it's guaranteed work in this unstable economy and my niche as a plumbing manager is rare to find positions open to just 'find another job', trust me I've tried- each outfit is similarly dysfunctional.

They say when you have problems with everybody, then maybe *you're* the problem? That's how I feel here. The employees were used to walking all over management and using HR to gain power. When they called me back to work here, HR told me they resolved this issue and there's lots of training programs to prevent clashes between managers and technicians...

So I work the swing shift, I get most of the new employees and I've developed a kick-ass team that's tight knit, who I'm able to teach and coach and grow. It feels awesome to have this core group of 10 guys that would just conquer the plumbing problems of Southern California. 5 guys off my team were sent out by executive management to go help start new plumbing divisions for our clients in areas where we don't exist yet. Super excited for them, but at the same time that's HALF of my team.

So I'm left picking up the pieces with the other technicians. These guys have known me for years as their co-worker and then field team leader, but now as a manager they are not only insubordinate when pushed to provide *better* work, but literally cuss me out on the phone, hang up and call my boss to tattle on me and lie- saying that I'm the verbally abusive one. It's gotten so bad that a few of them I only correspond via email. Now, I don't yell at people at all, that doesn't get you anywhere. I've had managers yell and call me slurs- that's when I up and leave to find a new job. It's rampant in our industry. I refuse to stoop to that level.

The sad part is I've confirmed my fear that HR is also lying about having fixed their own issues. If anything it's worse. I've terminated 6 individuals (it's a big team) for illegal use of company property and theft (taking the company van to joyride and run errands on the weekend, massive wage theft, using company equipment on their own side jobs and posting on social media, letting non employees borrow the company van, selling drugs and soliciting prostitution from the company van)

I mean this place is a cesspool. I thought it was me at first because I'm butting heads with so many guys but for Pete's sake literally half of our technicians are not only staking from the company but using the van to commit crimes! There's 3 other managers and NONE of them have been policing this, we have a 4 person safety team and NONE of them have been policing this

So since my return, we've parted ways as a company from probably 15 people (about 200 people in the company) because the management has "woken up" to these abuses. The other managers are appreciative of my boldness and are looking to me for advice on how to stand your ground and hold technicians accountable- but they are not good at confrontation and back down when verbally abused by the technicians.

Back in the day softeners weren't as efficient and softened water was known to possibly kill plants from yes high sodium content. Is that still the case in the modern day?

I'm not talking about backwash, but just good old soft water from a Clack WS-1 in an area with 25 gpg hardness.

I have a client who is very concerned with the softened water killing plants and possibly affecting his granite countertop.

I manage service plumbers. We have a fairly labor intensive jobs at times. As we get older our bodies change, whether we like it or not. I have more than one guy who lists themselves as fully physically fit but have issues lifting heavy and climbing. I've seen him use his utility cart to assist his mobility, kind of like a walker.

To be blunt: the employee is around dwarf height, he shows extra efforts just in his regular movements, and you can tell he's been bullied about this his entire life. I've tried to bring it up and he sabotages the situation, definitely is triggered easily.

Despite his stubbornness, I keep bringing it up in different ways. At first he would hang up on me and curse at me, nobody wants to deal with this guy, but he's starting to warm up to me. I keep offering him help on jobs, sometimes I just send people and don't ask. But the guy is handicapped. He can do the job mentally but physically he really can't. I met with him and HR before to address concerns he had about management and I brought up the fact he refuses to climb ladders, dig, lift stuff... He had a temporary medical excuse for each thing.

I had two guys die this year at my company due to health issues. One of them died on the job in a parking lot and his partner that day ended up doing CPR on him waiting for the ambulance. Both deaths didn't have to happen like that but we're expedited by stubbornness.

This guy's gonna hurt himself, safety and HR chose not to do anything about it, what would you all do?

I've been thinking a lot lately about negativity and negative thinking in our industry. At first I thought I was just a douchebag jerk and that everything annoyed me and triggered my anger issues. But as I progress in my career, (plumber) my subordinate plumbers are even worse than I am. I have 65 plumbers, drain cleaners, and helpers that I manage, and the negativity I hear from them is unreal. Then the office folks react to them with even more negativity and it's a vicious cycle. I have at least two heart-to-heart talks with grown men about negative thinking and speaking negatively about their co-workers.

My dad was and is a really complain-y guy, very negative and easy to trigger. I'm falling into that trap but I refuse to be my father, plus being negative doesn't feel good. I'd much rather joke, smile, and have fun. I used to have more fun but the negativity got to me...

Anybody got any advice on how to harden your mind to the negativity, or how to cleanse and regenerate your positivity?

I [40M] have been married to my wife [39F, dx unmedicated, also dyslexic] for 10 years. We have two kids, 7 & 10. I'm a plumber and make decent money. We decided at the beginning that she'd be a stay at home Mom and take care of the house & bills, I take care of the work and income.

This year hit us hard with the economy, I took a high stress construction management job during the evening so that I can start my own company and do that during the morning hours. Needless to say I'm never home, and I'm starting to feel that my wife is more of a 3rd child than a partner. Money is an issue now more than ever, but we can't stick to the budget- there's daily entertainment spending for her and the kids while I'm at work. When I bring it up, she feels attacked, no matter how gently I bring it up. I'm starting to get bitter because I get shot down and accused of being controlling and abusive when I try and communicate any of the actions I'd like changed.

There's a clutter issue at the house and it's a complete mess by the time I get home at 1am, so she has a weekly cleaning lady to do dishes and pick up socks and wrappers, essentially. I'm teaching the kids to clean up but they aren't the ones making the mess, it's almost 100% her.

They went to Disneyland (we live in socal) but that's a 120 Mile round trip plus snacks and dinner and souvenirs- I installed two water heaters yesterday to pay for their Disney outing.

I now take extra time out of my sleep schedule to take them to the medical appointments for dermatology and orthopedic needs, the wife is overwhelmed by navigating the systems.

I'm at my wits end- I'm just gonna separate bank accounts because she can't spend money if it ain't there. I'm gonna be the bad guy anyways, might as well not be the broke bad guy. I'm working 6-7 days a week and sometimes she'll say how much she appreciates me and other times like today she'll be upset that I'm not taking her out on dates and trips. Bro I'm trying to pay the mortgage and keep up with your debit card

I can't work 2 jobs and be at home all day to help with the house and go with you to the doctor's appointments and have enough money left over to take you on a weekend trip. It's just not possible.

Ugh! I'm open to any and all suggestions

This post is mainly to commiserate but to also serve as a warning to future managers- trust your instincts...

I'm a manager at a commercial construction services company, we run plumbing service calls for commercial buildings like grocery stores and warehouse/shipping.

I worked here as a technician 10 years ago, left and came back again during COVID, made it to management and resigned because they wouldn't address an employee that was my subordinate who kept leaving his work in dangerous conditions.

Fast forward - they called me back to be a service manager in the office. What sold me on the job was the HR person advised they had resolved management issues and now have systems in place to correct employees actions when necessary. *This was the red flag* because she remembered me and why I left and carefully chose her words so that I might read into them without questioning the new system.

So basically it's worse than it was before LOL! I have to laugh because what else am I going to do?! I'm building a case for my own defence, but it's BAD.

Here's just one example: I have an employee that drives his truck home. He's not allowed to drive the truck to run errands or to clock in and drive around if we haven't sent him a job to work at. I found *multiple daily discrepancies* for my searchable period of the last 90 days. I bring it up to HR who finds even more... They have a meeting where he admits to clocking in and sitting around on his days off, often running errands, all while in the van. He doesn't get written up, punished, nothing. The following day I get an email from HR reprimanding ME for "benching him" as if I was purposefully cutting his hours...

I do a little more research and find that the employee fell asleep at a stop light earlier this year and rear ended someone, then drove away. When HR drug tested him, he failed for hard drugs. He was not written up. He's also been brought in for multiple meetings with HR about attendance, driving habits on and off the clock. I check his dash cam and find our safety guys moving the cam to perfectly be hidden by the sun visor. Now I had an apprentice ride along with him mention that he's dozing off while driving. The apprentice made him stop the van and forced him into the passenger seat for his own safety. I've called, emailed our safety department four times in two weeks with screen shots of the dash cam - he's gonna be high on the job and nod off and crash his truck.

So now I'm in a pickle because I didn't listen to my instincts- now I'm in a position where someone is REALLY becoming a threat to their own company. While I don't have proof of the guy nodding off, the company has internal documentation and I have written letters to upper management with my concern for his life and safety as well as others.

IDK if I made the right choice coming back here, I'm definitely learning a lot about people and how some companies work

So I own my own outfit but also manage a larger plumbing firm, and am way more exhausted at the end of the day when I do my management role vs when I operate my sole proprietorship. With my own company I know what I can do, know how to when with someone to get a job done, order parts, schedule work, or even apologize for a mistake. The larger company involves drama somewhere along the line, and it's almost always from lack of direct communication with someone.

Today I had a dispatcher report me to HR department because they thought I'm "benching" an employee and not giving him work. The dispatcher didn't call the employee directly, saw that he went home on his shift. I've told him a few times that he's doing great and he's learning very well, and to keep it up, but he's afraid to ask me questions directly.

Another employee is sure that I'm going to fire him soon and each day is his last day at the company. I've told him a few times that he's doing great and he's learning very well, and to keep it up, but he's afraid to ask me questions directly.

I have an additional employee who tries to get other employees in trouble and gets offended when I don't tell him who's job he's working in when he continues one. His other bosses hint at things and speak poorly of coworkers with him, but I'm refusing to participate in that and I tell him directly that it's really not his area of concern to holler at these folks.

This is just 3 instances, but I'm completely drained. How do you guys cope with different personalities in the workplace? And do you have any issues with direct, respectful, truthful communication?

Clack offers a 5 year warranty on non-consumable equipment, BUT in my 16 years I have yet to have an issue with any Clack product, re-branded or not, that wasn't immediately known about at time of install.

Long story short- I'm seeing these larger companies give lifetime warranties on lower end products, I don't see why I couldn't offer a lifetime warranty for any Clack product I install, where statistically they won't break anyways.

What does the community think?

Looking to broaden my horizons as far as equipment goes, I'm super happy with the Clack systems I spec and install, but I lost a client to Kinetico because they wanted a non electric valve head. Is Fleck 5600 pretty much my only choice for a non electronic valve head?

Looking for any and all recommendations. I want to compete with Kinetico in my area.

Hi all

The plumbers in my area are suggesting everybody install Halo 5 systems, seems a little suspicious to me and the folks I talk to. What's your guy's take on Halo products?

Also, I don't know how to put flair on a mobile post, so mods, please let it slide