spoiled chinese girl

Just so this doesn’t confuse people, I lost this job on Oct 27th due to some bullshit excuses that really equate to there being not enough work to have hired me in the first place.

I would have figured this would be easy enough to read.  The customer asked for pricing to print three different quantities.  Say for example, 10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000.

The quote gives everything out in a chart format.

• 10,000………. $500.00
• 20,000………. $750.00
• 30,000………. $950.00

But after I send out the e-mail, I get another phone call.

Cust: So you just sent me a quote, I’d like to ask you a few questions about it?

Est: Sure, what did you want to know?

Cust: The price for 10 thousand… is it really 500 dollars?

Est: Yes, the cost for us to print 10 thousand is 500 dollars.

Cust: What about 20 thousand?

Est: I think that price came out to 750 dollars.

Cust: And finally… the cost for 30 thousand?

Est: The cost to you for 30 thousand would be 950 dollars.

Cust: Ok that’s great I just wanted to make sure!

*SIGH*

Just so this doesn’t confuse people, I lost this job on Oct 27th due to some bullshit excuses that really equate to there being not enough work to have hired me in the first place.

Had a customer’s quote request stating that they wanted a price to run the English and French versions of a piece at the same time.  Considering Canada is an official bi-lingual country, the request is not uncommon.

So their quote request stated:

• 10,000 English
• 2,500 French.
• Run at the same time.

I wrote the following description into the quote that was being submitted to them:

• 10,000 English + 2,500 French.  Total 12,500.

Because of the way I formulated the quote in the system, it also threw in the following:

• Charge for Plate changes – x8 (4 front + 4 back)

Then I get a phone call…

Cust: So, my quote, did you include the English + French versions?

Est: Yes, 10,000 English and 2,500 French, right?

Cust: Yes.  I wanted to make sure you knew they were running at the same time?

Est: Yes, my price is based on a total quantity 12,500 for both versions running at the same time.

Cust: well did you charge me for the plate changes?

Est: Yes, the plate change cost is included in my price, that should be indicated on the quote.

*headdesk*

Just so this doesn’t confuse people, I lost this job on Oct 27th due to some bullshit excuses that really equate to there being not enough work to have hired me in the first place.

Started my job on Tuesday at 08:00 (ignore the fact that I was 30 minutes early my first day)

Started sending out live quotes direct to customers at 08:55.

On my first day I sort of ended up showing up way too early. 30 minutes. I got to meet one of the people who works upstairs, and his newly aquired (as in 2 days before) puppy as he made his first tinkle on company property! So cute. *squee*

And then I walked into the building as an employee.

It was sort of like no one really knew what to show me, do for me, do with me…

The whole situation felt extremely awkward.  My coworker is someone who’s just recently graduated and recently entered the work force, so while she knows the basics of how the company runs, she’s still very much a n00b.  But she’s the one that was basically left in charge of training me.  So she showed me the basics of how the system worked, then handed me a bunch of stuff to calculate.  At some point I had to ask where the washroom was before that was shown to me, and then later I asked where the lunch room was before I was pointed in that general direction.

I didn’t even sign my employment letter/contract until almost the end of the day.  To find out there were some errors in them that needed to be corrected.  Then I was shown sort of one alley-way of the production area, quickly introduced to 4 other office employees… then back to my desk.

Which is where I’ve been every single day since. That or the lunch room.

I mean, I don’t want people watching over every single thing that I do, and I’m enjoying the fact that I wasn’t really being babysat (like at my last job for the first week or two) to make sure I knew what I was doing, since I do know what I’m doing.  But still.  Things are different here than at my last company. And different at the company before.  I think half a day’s investment into the newest employee would have been a wonderful idea.

Because it’s frustrating when I end up getting lectured or something due to not doing a quote properly… when I wasn’t shown the quirks of the non-perfect system. How do I know to look for errors if I didn’t know the system doesn’t work properly? Or if I pick a less-then-optimal way to run something… because I have no clue what equipment this place has, or the capabilities of that equipment.  And when I ask for a list of equipment? “Oh it’s something that will come with time.” And until that time comes, I keep getting quotes wrong, you (the boss) keep making me feel bad for potentially losing work due to improper pricing and it’s a lose-lose situation all around?

I really do feel that if I’m working in a printing plant that boasts over 100,000 square feet… that I should have been able to sample/see more than 100 square feet before getting my hands dirty in the bowels of the estimating department.

*Sigh*

Just so this doesn’t confuse people, I lost this job on Oct 27th due to some bullshit excuses that really equate to there being not enough work to have hired me in the first place.

Frequently used math problems exist in my fingertips only as muscle memory and not as something I could actually go out and explain to someone.

The formula I’m talking about is to calculate the total weight of a any size of any stock.

Length x Width x Mweight / Basic Size x Qty(in thousands)

I was slightly panicking at work because I realized that I didn’t remember this formula to save my life. And seeing that I’m back into the estimating department of a printing company, it’s probably going to be quite necessary.

But at some point my boss comes up to me and mentions that a quote I finished “might not fill an entire gaylord” which is basically a giant card board box that holds an entire skid’s worth of product.

While trying to not be a jerk about it, I pulled out my calculator and calculated 11×17 (size) x 160 (weight) / 950 (basic size) x 340 (thousand sheets) and pointed out that at 10,000lbs of paper, it will probably be 6 or 7 skids and definitely fit into a gaylord.

It was totally automatic. I didn’t think at all about that one, just came to me in a flurry of numeric pad typing.  Boss looked at my printed quote (which stated 9,970lbs and 8 skids in the description) and then looked at me in that “How did you do that?” type of way, before dropping the subject.

Weird eh?

Just so this doesn’t confuse people, I lost this job on Oct 27th due to some bullshit excuses that really equate to there being not enough work to have hired me in the first place.

What in the everlasting f*ck is a “Gaylord”??  It certainly doesn’t sound like something that belongs in a printing plant!

It does.

It’s one of these:

A big gigantic cardboard box that is about the size of a skid/pallet.

They… couldn’t come up with a better name I’m guessing?