How did I get here?

Let me tell you about how I became the Production Scheduler at my company.  I started as a filler. That’s on the lower middle range of plant floor workers. I was the only person in the bulk filling department when I was hired, so my work load was a bit heavier than normal, but we didn’t do much bulk. This allowed me to find plenty of other things to do, for example, learn aerosol filling and packaging. I became well-versed in many aspects of our production process, which helped me make friends and gain knowledge. Then, we purchased another bulk filling company and my life changed. I had more work than I could handle on my own, so we hired 3 extra people. None of them were brighter than a burned-out bulb, so they didn’t last.

 

After 5 months of this, I gave up. I saw a job advertisement for my own company in the paper. This was for a customer service position, which is a department I have plenty of experience working in. I was a little upset that there wasn’t an internal posting, but I applied anyway. They called me in with HR the next day and asked me why I never gave them my resume before. I told them it was right there in my file, which it was, and that they never bothered to look it over when we got rid of our old HR department. They offered me the job on the spot, and I moved from the floor into the office one week later. (Just long enough to partially train my own replacement.)

 

I worked doing mostly order entry and reception work and handling everyone else’s excess work, with just 5 accounts of my own. It was alright. All of the customer service women (mostly 15-30 years my senior) loved me and loved working with me. I hated it, but I’m really good at making people think I’m just as friendly as they are. This job only lasted for about 5 months. They then pulled me into HR again, only this time the President, CEO, my boss, the HR manager, and the plant manager were all in the room. My initial thought was that I was being fired, which didn’t make sense to me. They went through all the formalities before finally telling me that I wasn’t working up to my potential. I asked them what I was doing to make them think that. They responded by saying that customer service wasn’t a good fit for me because I could serve the company if I had a different position with more influence and responsibilities. They told me they wanted me to be the one and only Production Scheduler. My heart dropped. I was getting a 20% pay increase, but it wasn’t the money that was the issue. In my past two years working for the company, we had already gone through 4 schedulers. The 4^th was still working there, but was apparently moving to a supervisor position on the weekend crew. Schedulers don’t last long at my company, but I took the job anyway. I mean, Hey, who doesn’t want 20% extra? Well, that was 19 months ago. I’m just as miserable as ever, but I’m adding “valuable experience” to my resume, and biding my time while I wait for my takeover. That day will come, and when it does, it will be glorious.