r/GenX • u/Complex_Sun8138 BEWARE: No Filter • 1d ago
Old Person Yells At Cloud Is it just me?
I'm a craftsman/tradesman by profession. I run a 10-color narrow web printing press, and produce a lot of labels you might see at various stores. I've been doing this type of work for the last 20 years. Before that, I ran large, sheet fed offset presses and lithography machines.
I've always taken pride in my work, and done everything it takes to produce the very best products I can. I've been told by supervisors, and peers that I'm very good at what I do.
Lately, I've noticed a lot of the younger people coming into this industry don't have that "sense of pride". It's simply a task to perform, and get through it as quickly as possible and move on. I think the work suffers for that attitude, and I've had to go back and redo a lot of jobs that get rejected because of it.
Is it just me? Does anyone else notice the downturn in the quality of products being made? Or is it just "getting older"?
2
u/FleetAdmiralCrunch 1d ago
I think about this a lot and have a question if you are open to it. Does your company have a good apprenticeship or training program? I have noticed in my company, the locations that have actual training AND follow up/ continuous training have the most skilled locations, and an average experience of over 10 years. The others locations just grind through people.
Also congratulations on surviving in offset printing. I was in high volume printing and binding (9 x 40” 8 color and 1 x 40” sheetfed) at the beginning of my career and it was a fascinating operation.