My first week I was informed by several people in the office that they always take a bet on how long someone will survive in my position. Apparently I was number 6 or 7 in the past four years. When I introduced myself to other team members, they smirked. "I wonder how long you will last... haha" was the first comment I got from the person in the desk next to me. As I walked the production floor, that theme of "you will never last" continued even with low level production workers. I have a happy, optimistic attitude, which meant that I did not fit in plant culture.
Leadership in the plant is unable to delegate, and overcompensates due to insecurity. Staff are in paralysis, fight with each other, can't take any action on even the smallest of decisions without approval etc. Like an old top-down communist regime, the facility is in decay, nothing is improved, and no new ideas are generated at the plant level. I have never been happier to now work in a highly motivated work environment leading a large team of engineers, supervisors and technicians. With all this behind me, I realize that Dormakaba Chino was a tutorial in bad management worth more than any tuition I could have payed for a university course in organizational management. Despite the bad experience, I am grateful for what I learned from this experience.
