Skilled Workers

Many place where I have ever worked, the most skilled technicians on every maintenance team are allowed to--even rewarded by bosses--to snitch, goof off and be unproductive, to bully and to serve as unofficial lead-workers targeting less skilled technicians--with harsher supervising, and heavier disciplining----the ones that do the bulk of the work--all for lower pay and no seniority on the job.

The newer, less skilled technicians work twice or three times as hard for much less financial reward and with much more disrespect and verbal abuse.

They are regarded by Management as less valuable and more expendable than the most skilled technicians that are integral, intimate members of the supervisor in-group.

The unannounced deal seems to be that the most skilled technicians are given some authority to supervise even bully junior department members of the team in exchange for keeping their jobs while performing minimally, for spying on new team members, for being yes-men, for working for years with meager wage-increases.

As a Mavellonialist, I would anticipate a future work force where bosses and the most skilled technicians work the hardest and the longest. Where the most skilled have the most skin in the game and lead by example, it rallies newer and less skilled workers to take it to another level, and then another level.