I currently work at the GE Gas Turbine facility in Greenville, SC. Fortunately for me, I am very busy. However, I'm having a real difficult time dealing with a few coworkers that do nothing all day. Management thinks these guys are working hard. As soon as they appear in the office each morning they talk and flap their jaws for extended periods of time (couple hours). Then they move to other areas to continue their social club. They usually leave for lunch for an hour. The real kicker is they don't eat until they return to the office. Then they continue talking inside the office for another couple hours. The social club then makes a tour to different areas until about 4:30 pm. They constantly complain about other people not working and get deeply offended if you criticize their work ethic. They are "buddies" with management so they are all protected. I've seen many hard workers shown the door while these guys remain in the SNWBC (Social Non-Working Buddy Club).
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I too used to work at the Social Club aka GE. I worked hard and they promoted the a-s-kissers and the bootlickers with no people skills at all. My boss was the biggest, lying tu-d. I hated his guts! If you weren't in their social club, you didn't move professional unless you moved yourself out, like I did. Good riddance!
So what Spawned the GE-Greenville Slacker Club?
The Slack Culture of GE Greenville resulted from decades of financial leaders taking over rolls they have no technical knowledge about. So the hard working technically savvy employees simply had enough and began coasting on the job (riding the clock). GE leaders were hired more based on their connections with inventors and accountants rather than their technical ability to manufacture.
product. Top GE managers worry about quarterly numbers, Some even take blood pressure medicine in order to get through number reporting season.
GE is getting worse and worse. Those with valuable skills and a good work ethic have long departed GE Greenville. Those remaining are mostly career corporate politicians focused on their next role. Never focused on their current position because it is temporary. GE needs to collapse before there is any hope for GE's survival. GE lost its direction once Bean Counters gained control. The goal should be on producing a viable product competitively while making a profit. If leadership focused on the real goal then the balance sheet to investors would take care of itself.
I work at GE in Greenville, SC as well. You are correct! I see this everyday! People making $40/hr+ not working. They just walk, talk, and sit while on their phone. I work hard in the Blend room and it disturbs me!! These are the people that they need to fire!!
They can’t get out. They have to ride the ship until it sinks. They have no real skills other than the gift of gab and buddy system organization. Nobody outside GE wants talkers. They want doers.
To OP...& anyone else for what it's worth,,,
Words of wisdom from someone that has seen the same issue many moons ago,,,
It ain't gonna change(.)
The slackers pride themselves for doing as little as possible and yet get their weekly Check$, laughing all the way to the bank.
But !, when their jobs are sourced out so GE can continue cutting Co$t$, then it's Everybody's fault but theirs & the last laugh is on Them...buncha' id–ts !
So the moral of the story is this, if you know what's good for You !...
GET OUT WHILE THE GETTINS' GOOD !
The GE Greenville Slackers have several looming threats:
- Some of their prime leadership protection will be retiring soon. Their shield of protection will vanish.
- GE continues to lose $Billions in market share. Money is quickly vaporizing.
- GE Greenville Science Projects will no longer be funded. Resulting in unfortunate loss of many jobs.
- Gas Turbine Sales continue to be so low GE simply cannot sustain the infrastructure and overhead.
- GE Greenville is too top heavy. Too many worthless salaries compared to those who work.
I’m surprised the Greenville Slackers hasn’t claimed exposure to the Coronavirus so they can be quarantined at home for 14 days. These guys will do anything to avoid work. They actually work harder avoiding work.
As a long-time GE Healthcare employee, I can say GE employees run the gamut from worthless, even harmful to the business, to great. Unfortunately, the culture at GE has created an employee pool (individual contributors and managers alike) that is growing less and less competent and concerned with GE's long term health every day. The culture problem I am talking about is valuing looking good over being good. Many managers don't know their business/processes well, and quite frankly, choose not to. Many individual contributors play politics and image games instead of focusing on their jobs. Why? They do this because the culture rewards those who make most fireworks & noise/best superficial impression instead of those who quietly get the job done. Nothing will get better until the company chooses to be better at what it does.
Unions are a thing of the past. Nothing but parasites.
Greenville would be happy to drink your union tears if you weren't too lazy to cry.
Salem used to say they were too too important, too critical for business, too big (3500 employees) for GE to ever close. Greenville says the same thing.
Unfortunately, the GE plant in Greenville SC is also not sustainable. Greenville needs to brace for the same announcement in the future. Greenville will not shutdown in the "near" future but eventually GE will no longer be able to afford the deteriorating infrastructure. Greenville is simply too expensive to operate with a declining market for gas turbines.
Im sure the Salem stud the GVL site inherited is solving it all!! NOT! what a joke.
I've noticed the same individuals in Greenville continue to be lazy. They truly believe their work ethic is superior. Bloviation is their only daily accomplishment.
GE Greenville is a wasteland of useless talent. They only talent that is prevailing is sitting in conference rooms and the gift of gab. I can't wait until they are faced with finding a real job. But of course, finding a real job is also their greatest fear.
One thing the Greenville slackers are good at is getting money for stupid science projects. I will give them credit about this. They are constantly convincing naive managers their project "NEEDS" funding. It's amazing to watch the extreme waste of money that continues in Greenville.
I must see the same slackers you're talking about. They really know how to schmooze.
I wish everyone at GE had the attitude of the people here. Everything would be better
Recently, the Greenville Slacker Buddies have been talking about their 401k and how they manage it. They say they plan to have at least $2,000,000 upon retirement. They talk for extended amount of time about how much money they already have. After 15 minutes of hearing them gloat, I start dreaming about launching myself off the Standera building. Please, somebody lay-off these slacker buddies.
Layoff the gift of gab slackers! You cannot bs us anymore.
The biggest problem I see in Greenville is the buddy system. Some people take zero vacation out of fear for their careers. While buddies take constant vacations. I see the same people taking over 12 weeks per year while some take maybe a few days. If GE can afford you to be gone for 10 weeks then GE doesn’t need you. I’m asking GE to please get rid of these slackers.
As a Greenville employee myself, it brings me great relief to know I'm not the only one that sees and is affected by these Shenanigans.
GE HR should document permissive time used. It’s being severely abused because nobody is tracking it. Those in the buddy network don’t have any fear of being a lay-off victim so they are taking more than 10 weeks per year. While those not in buddy protection are afraid to take a single day off.
Another metric that should be tracked is badge swipes. GE salaried employees are not working a full 40 all year. This is wage theft. If someone stole a $15 tool they would be immediately terminated. These slackers are stealing many $1,000’s each per year.
Also, these clowns are experts at looking busy. They use the same smoke and mirrors to “appear” overwhelmed with work when, in fact, they do nothing. I mean nothing!!
@3omd: As I read your post it’s obvious you are telling the truth based on experience. GE really couldn’t care less about the work you do. It’s all about how successful you are at following the collaboration meatball clubs throughout the GE Campus. Several birdhouses in the plant are known to be social clubs. Test has control rooms and a break room they choose to socialize in. Every area of the plant has social zones. Their leaders protect them with words like collaboration.
OP, what you are describing exists all over GE and most larger companies. It was the same way 25 years ago when I started. Even back then, when GE had periodic layoffs and ranked their employees. The bottom 10 percent had to spend extra time with their managers going through performance improvement plans. I had the illusion it would be competitive, and only the best would survive.
I shared a similar viewpoint as the OP in my first couple of years. Believing I could drive change from my entry-level position exposing the waste somehow. It doesn’t work that way. You will find yourself on a lonely path attempting to fight them. In the end, no one cares you got your work done, and all you get is a label that you are not a team-friendly person. When I became a manager, I thought I would be allowed to implement a performance-based structure. Simply impossible with the current GE culture. When the permissive time was rolled out, I had two folks take 24 weeks off in one year. I went to HR but couldn’t do anything about it. Their solution was to let me hire an extra person to cover. Realizing that being a manager isn’t my cup of tea with the GE cultural restrictions, I moved on into a consulting engineer role. The best and most rewarding job I ever held at GE, and as a bonus, I don’t have to deal with the clown show anymore.
My advice to the OP be friendly, focus and stop wasting your time watching these clowns. Not all groups are the same. Find one that is a better fit for where you want to go personally.
I really want to make a detailed log of who, what, where, when, and how. I prefer to be working on something productive than wasting my time watching these clowns do nothing. It would be generous to say they produce 10 hours of work per week while getting paid over $100,000 salary annually. These guys are always taking permissive time. I'm not exaggerating when I say they take over 10 weeks per year vacation. Their managers are getting even bigger bucks to manage these clowns. The waste is unbelievable. I think we need to hold each other accountable so I have decided to start logging the details and will report the details to multiple sources upon my exit. They need to get ready to pull their own wagon.
It is easier for their bosses to not deal with them and for you to get the work done. In the end, is the work not getting done? If it is, then what's to fix? Obviously it's all working out in the end. Doesn't make a difference if we barely make it by, in the end, we still made it. If you want anybody to take action and fix things, then you have to let it fail. GE still hasn't failed yet, which is why we are still barely getting by and celebrating every time the stock price goes up a tenth of a percent. The lazy are still allowed to be lazy and the overpaid are still getting overpaid and probably asleep while working overtime. You want something fixed, let it fail and then heads will roll. If you are in the position where it is your responsibility to fix it, then get to work, have some balls and make the hard decisions you know need to be made. Stop nursing this c-ap along just long enough to reach your retirement! This goes for everyone at GE! We live in a YouTube, Facebook, cell phone society! Get these a–holes on camera, post them anonymously on social media. Then let the stock holders and the rest of society raise hell about it!! I'm sure the people screaming for $15 an hour to flip hamburgers would love to know about all of the c-ap that we know goes on daily.
an hour for lunch? lightweights! I regularly take 2-3 hours for lunch.
Brown nosing gets you no where, probably disgruntled a scale
Take the challenge.
Stop seeing all the problems.
Start seeing the opportunities.
The problem with stepping up our game to become managers is the current buddy club would have to be circumvented.
You should step up your own game and earn a managerial position so you can make the changes you feel necessary.
My business is impacted by the dead sticks in the mud around me. It drags GE down even more. Stop riding the clock and do something that makes a profit.
There's a very good reason why the company is up to its eyeballs in debt and had to sell profitable divisions. Simply: we talk the talk, but we don't walk the walk.
Some SNWBC members will be shocked that people actually see the reality through their gift of gab.
mind your own bizness
Say it's no so.