5/12/2014 9:05 PM
Virgil,
First supt job I had a single person owner. Course closed down a few years ago. Owner came out about 10-11 and would ride around in a golf cart and use his recorder so his staff could type us memos of what he reported. I think I received 52 one day. We had to respond back. One word answers were ok. NO, No, No, oK, will try, yes threw him a bone every once in a while. Sometimes these were one liners like pick up the cup on the side of the lake at #8. Or a few lines, why do we have to buy fertilizer for the fairways? Yes one of those. Even though he drove you crazy, he was very complimentary as well. He liked the fluff. Owned a hotel with themed rooms. Tarzan, Etc. Had decent equipment which helped.
Have not really kept up with the thread but there are many of us that have been through a pretty tough working environment. I left this job after 3 years for a landscape construction company and after a month, wished I had never left the course. Owner was abusive and just flat out dumb. We were in a management meeting one day and he said we needed to have training sessions with the guys on how to properly dispose of trash on the lot. I mentioned maybe we needed to worry about the 250 customers who were complaining about shoddy work or work not completed from the previous fall and winter, or the work we agreed to do but had no record. The landscape manager had a board with 250 little pieces of paper with all the people that had contacted him in the last few months about unfilled jobs. I was crap to him then after my comment. About a month later, had a tractor trailer load of milorganite outside. Saw thunder storms in a distance, was afraid I was going to have a pile of crappy mess so right near dark after a 15 hour day, I was off loading the tractor trailer into a covered building. He lived on property and came out from the shadows and said I was abusing the equipment. At the beginning of the day he cursed me out in front of the staff on the lot. Should have decked him but needed the job so he thought I was taking it out on equipment. Had skidded the tires but it was from lack of experience operating equipment.
I guess long story short, make the best of what you have. Work hard and do what you know to do. Be concerned about first impressions even though we know that is not necessarily the heart and soul of the operation. Sounds like fluff is ahead of substance in your situation. In the end, a new situation will come around that can utilize your talents properly.