u/Keiuu

I'm not sure if this is the right subreddit, as I'm not exactly a manager, but I'm the leader of a factory line where we assemble plastic car parts. We place tags, sponges, and cut off some things in them.

The work environment in this factory is just weird. New hires often last less than a week and stop coming in, and people are often late or absent. I have 6 workers in my line, and 5 of them are absent at least once a week or arrive late. Four of the workers in this line are middle-aged women who are physically too slow at doing things. One man in my team has been absent four Mondays in a row, and this week he didn't even come from Thursday to Saturday, but I was told by HR that they weren't going to fire him if he does comeback tomorrow Monday.

None of those 5 workers reliably hit the daily quota of their plastic pieces, and they're pretty bad at assembling 2 particularly cumbersome pieces. The work is very monotonous and physically tiring, especially for the hands. You can sit down, but doing so slows you down, which is bad, because not hitting a daily quota of plastic pieces affects your productivity bonus.

Then there is this dude who has been here for 8 months, and who hits the quota in all pieces everytime, even the two difficult ones. He's the only one who works overtime. He hasn't been absent nor late once. He's head and shoulders above everyone else.

Yesterday he worked extremely fast to do 472 (of the difficult) pieces in 6 hours, even though the expected quota is only 60 pieces per hour. I asked him if he could do this many because we were behind this day. No one in my team would have been able to hit 360 pieces, much less 472, so I decided to allow him to take a 1 hour lunch break instead of the usual 30 minutes. (our shifts starts at 6:00 am, we have lunch break from 12:00 to 12:30, and we clock off at 2:30)

A couple of my workers told me that they felt that wasn't fair, but I told them that they could get those perks if they were faster, and had better attendance.

Would you still give this dude the regular 30 min lunch break?

So I've had this physical factory job for a year that demands me to be on my feet 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. I move around a lot. Sometimes I work overtime to earn a little bit more, so I end up tired.

I've gone to the gym since late 2022. I think I've managed to be consistent enough that people notice that I have big arms, big legs, and strong pecs, which was my goal. I went from 107 kg to 97.

The problem is that my lifts are measly in comparison to guys who have worked out for almost four years like me (bench press 245 lbs, squat 305), and I feel that if I try to get PRs I would probably injure myself, as I arrive to the gym already tired, and whenever I work out very hard I have a difficult time at work the next day.

I feel demotivated. Should I toughen up and try to lift heavier, or is it a good idea to continue working out without depleting myself too much? What would you do?

I have a feeling that most people that relate to this subreddit were not gifted at all. We were simply well-behaved kids (probably shy, anxious, depressed) and we likely developed a little faster than most other kids (hence we learned how to read and write sooner, which created our "intelligent" or "gifted" label)

Since we were kind of unhappy, and being obedient and doing homework was something positive for us, we relied too much on that to get affirmation and feel special, among other things. Then, real life came and it hit like a truck, and we're facing the hard truth that developing social skills was better than relying on our supposed big intelligence.

Just one out of a huge amount of examples :/

https://preview.redd.it/5a451nsy4y6h1.png?width=543&format=png&auto=webp&s=4ad297f0a43eb58a4b3b03e6822e8e4f18916290

I feel conflicted at work. I work in a factory assembling plastic pieces. I'm the only man in an area with 7 middle-aged women. Because of that, I'm the only one asked to carry boxes, unload trucks with plastic pieces, and move around containers. I do NOT hold this against my coworkers, because I'm more suited to to these activities as a somewhat tall muscular man.

We work from Monday to Saturday. My coworkers are absent at least once a week for several reasons, but often their absenses don't have any authorization to be valid. Also, we have a daily quota of how many pieces of plastic we have to produce each day. In the four months I've been here, I can reliably hit the daily quota of all plastic pieces. My coworkers on the other hand can't do this, and are only assigned the ones they can do well. There is a piece that I find difficult to work with, and it's only assigned to me because my coworkers are much worse.

There is also a new project where a piece will be assembled with several other pieces, and it's simply a more complex process, and it was assigned to me, as apparently this piece being a little bit bigger and heavier means that I'm the best suited for the assignment.

My problem is basically being the only worker in my area who arrives on time, never misses a day of work, does the physical labor the rest can't, gets assigned the most difficult piece that the others are pretty bad at, and also gets assigned a new project. I sincerely believe I bring much more to the table than my coworkers. How should I talk to my manager about this? 

I drink one energy drink per day at 10:20am. It's a sugar free monster every time.

Most of my coworkers (all in the their late 40s to late 50s) have told me at least once that they're concerned with me drinking this many energy drinks. They tell me that they're basically poison, full of chemicals, and that they can cause a heart attack anytime.

For context, this is a factory job, and since I'm the only man in this area, I move around far more than my coworkers, because besides working on my feet all day, I also have to help carry heavy things, and unloading trucks. They only work on their feet (and they sit often, I find sitting to be actually more uncomfortable, and slows you down).

I've explained to them that my consumption is fairly reasonable (ideally I shouldn't drink them I guess), but they still tell me to cut them out if possible.

Also, interestingly, I'm fat and somewhat muscular. (1.77, 100 kg) and if they were so concerned for my health you'd think they would talk about my weight, but they frequently tell me how strong and healthy I look haha.

Why are middle-aged and older people so scared of energy drinks?

Me dio covid allá por finales de 2021 creo. Estuvo feo el asunto, si me sentía bastante mal. Desde ese entonces he notado varios cambios en mi.

1. Tengo peor memoria. Algo que siempre notaba es que podía recordar detalles fácilmente, pero ahora he olvidado cosas que siento antes jamás hubiera olvidado, como eventos pasados.

2. Batallo más para leer y escribir. Siempre he sido bueno leyendo en español y en inglés, y en estos años he notado que me equivoco de maneras extrañas al leer textos que antes no deberían de tener ningún tipo de dificultad.

3. Soy menos elocuente a veces. Nunca he tenido la mejor fácilidad de palabra, pero si me siento menos hábil al hablar.

En sí no son cosas que afecten mi vida en una medida considerable, pero al parecer no soy el único que siente es menos inteligente desde haber padecido covid.

So I work in a factory, and there are several different areas where people assemble plastic parts. In the area where I work, there are 7 people including me. The attendance of 5 of those people is abysmal, as they are absent at least once a week, often more. One coworker (let's call her Nancy) has only missed two days in the last three months, and I've never been late nor missed a day or work.

Also, Nancy and I are the only ones who can reach the daily quota of all the different plastic parts that we have to assemble. Two coworkers are aging women who can't realistically do it, and the others are kind of lazy, so they get assigned the easiest parts to assemble, if they for some reason have to work with the more difficult parts, they perform pretty poorly. I feel that this point is important because of what happened next:

Today one coworker was absent yet another time, so our manager gave us an ultimatum: any absense without a medical prescription would mean a 7 day suspension. Also, from now on cellphones are prohibited on our work-tables, and we are not allowed to wear caps.

I feel that Nancy and I being subjected to the same ultimatum is unfair. Everyone uses their cellphone from time to time at their work-tables, and I wear a cap sometimes, but why the others being so frequently absent made the ultimatum also apply to people who are not chronically absent? If for some reason I can't come to work, (not because a medical situation) am I going to be suspended 7 days, despite a perfect attendance record and performance?

Tomorrow we'll have a meeting about this issue with our manager, and I'm pondering what to say. What would you say if you were in my situation?