My company is a Printing Maufacturing company in Central Texas (Near Abilene) that has had great success implementing Self Directed Work Teams throughout our plant.

If there are others out there that would like to visit our company to see how our teams operate, or would like to trade site visits, please feel free to email me.

Sincerely,

Shirley Stovall Wes-Tex Printing

-- Shirley Stovall (shirley@wes-tex.com), July 31, 2002

Answers

i dont know if i am even supposed to be doing anything like this. our newspaper just started teams 2 weeks ago. i know nothing. and dont know where to go to get some kind of feedback, info, guidance, etc. i am sure that i probably will get somehelp from out mgmt. etc etc. but i always want to study up on stuff so i dont feel so stupid when things happen. anything that you could offer me that wouldnt be too much trouble, i would really appreciate. i know mgmt has visited some papers in ut and in id. maybe yours too, idoont know. and i certainl y dont want to go over anyones head. but lots of people are depressed, and crying over all this. im hoping it might turn out ok. but dont know and dont have any basis for any judgments. 2 people got fired, and our prepress dept. wages got lowered 2 to 3 dollars an hour, and now were blended in with sales. some commission is involved, but not many making it this first month. i hope things smooth out, but havent seen any of it yet. they seem to be in a hurry to get us printers to learn artists programs immediately (very urgent). so there are about 4 prog. which of one is photoshop (ive had a little) they want all this done in one month. then they want a charter, vision statement, rules of the road etc. in a fancy presentation, too. this month. but we also have a product that is 96 pages. hectic 2 weeks getting all those ads in, too. i guess i dont or cant quite figure out why the charter, etc. seems to be coming before the customers. oh well. im the only one that got chosen to be a designer/team assistant because weve got a new team inside sales. so i have to learn all those programs, too. excell, power point and pbs baseview and some other stuff, then have to progress more into the designing part (being a printer wasnt as creative) i am excited about that part...but time seems like its going round in circles. also, my hours are just 5 hrs. a day and they really want to try to stick with that. just the team asst. work takes up most of that. all the other 4 teams have 2 salespeople, 2 designers and one team assitant. so i am challenged, but i think i am doing pretty good. wish i knew photoshop. classes start next week.

you know, i just want to thank you for letting me ramble to a stranger. it really has made me feel better for some reason. i dont normally do this. i am generally an upbeat with great morale. but to see people upset, and depressed and crying, and when i have had them with me in my prepress dept. for the nine years i was there;...it hurt me. they're my family..and they are doing the best they can. i know. and i miss our dept. but we must move on. so i have been open about all of this. all i need is some infor or an area to go to to study about it.

so thanks very much. i will sleep better tonite and if i am lucky, you'll see that i have a great sense of humor and am fun and a good worker, and my company spoils me because i can tell they like me. they really like me.

again.. i work at the wenatchee world. in wenatchee, wa. it's a beautifuly town with lots of apples, peaches, cherries, apricots and our paper is really pretty good. we have an awesome press.

if ive bugged you, i am sorry. but it's been cathartic. have a great 4th of july.

(p,s, is this a chat room or what???? i am not online much. thanks again jeannie

-- jeannie rosebeary (rosebearyj@aol.com), June 30, 2003.