14 replies to this topic

[Rv16]

I genuinely want to know what do you do to continue to fuel your passion in the [somewhat discouraging] world of quality assurance in manufacturing. I joined QA right out of college knowing nothing about quality except some college recruiters that came and talked about how great the job is and you are keeping the world safe. And like many sales pitch, I didn't hear anything negative or discouraging about the career path. That was 8 years ago, I have progressively moved up and the higher I moved up, the less passionate I am about the role. I constantly have to play the "bad cop" (probably like many QA professionals) to keep our process and product safe. It's difficult to think about millions of good quality shipments we have made when Quality is one of the two roles that are forced to read every discouraging (sometimes down right mean) comments that come in (the other being Customer Service, a hugely underappreciated role). Over the years, I watched my colleagues in Operation and Sales get recognized for all the successes and see my names and other quality folks left off in almost all recognition. Yet when there are problems, Quality names will be first to come up. Some time I joke with people that I wish people would call me up and tell me how great the products are instead of just calling me when products are not up to standard. Of course, Sales get those positive calls. Sorry if I sound like I am complaining, I understand the importance of the role and regardless of how I feel about the role, I will continue to do what I need to do to keep our product safe. I just want to see what other people on here do to continue to love what you do. I know changing career is an option but I want to do everything I can before considering that option especially I have already invested almost 10 years in this.

[zoelawton]

Hello. 

 

I'm glad you have posted this because I am in the same situation and I could do with a rant. 

 

I am 'quality control' (i would 100% say technical also) for a site that ships 4 millions units a week, I have one 'on-the-floor' QC lady who does the basic checks but (god bless her i love her) she is 60+ and foreign so it's not the ideal candidate, so i have to oversee everything that is done. I am literally the only person on site who does all the quality and technical work, ensuring compliance with several standards and raising areas that are not up to speed. Because senior management do not care, I am also the one creating and implementing the corrective actions. All of this is done without even speaking to anybody else because my emails just get ignored. (i have actually started writing a list of emails and the details that have been ignored just to cover my own back) My role is not taken seriously, I was told just 2 days ago that i should not be working overtime, (absolute joke, and i don't get paid overtime so not sure why it was an issue). I could go on and on, our role is not taken seriously because we bring issues to light and are constantly cracking the whip, and a lot of issues result in money needing to be spent. 

 

I have battled with this for 4 years now, 'why do they not care, i don't understand' etc. etc. etc. and i'm exactly the same, anything goes wrong a finger gets pointed in my direction, no questions even asked, even when its completely nothing to do with me. 

 

I do think a lot of this is partly down to me being a young female in a company of egotistical power needing men (not a sexist comment just an observation at my site). 

 

I am at a point now, where i want to ring the standards myself and say 'hey, come take a look at our site, things aren't right', or even when the next unannounced auditor walks in i feel like holding my hands up and saying 'right, you guys have failed to confront all these issues i've raised, you've failed to discuss all of the changes i've made, so you deal with the audit' (i wouldn't, it's annoyingly not in my blood to be able to do that)

 

It has taken me 4 years to realise actually, it is not my job, or my role, that i am no longer passionate about, it is the company. 

 

Don't let a company that isn't doing things right, or isn't seeing the whole picture, strip you of your passion for a job, I now know that I need to find a company who appreciate food safety, genuinely, instead of trying to make a company who don't care, care. This ship is sinking and I ain't going down with them. 

 

I will keep doing what i'm doing because i want to help, it is in my nature as a person to help, and i see this role as helping companies be the best they can be, get the best grades they can. I would eventually love to be a consultant. 

[jenw91]

Oh my gosh I'm glad I read this because I feel the same! 

I am a technical manager and the only technical/quality within the company having started 5ish months ago. I'm facing a massive uphill battle to change behaviours and reintroduce food safety measures all whilst getting spoken about and disrespected. I am lucky that I have the support of the owner, but the workers don't half make life hard!

[Scampi]

It's almost always the company, and not the job

 

If the QA department isn't meaningfully supported by the organization, find a new one and move on

 

A great company actually walks the food safety talk, a bad one has you there because they HAVE to---and in those ones, as Rodney Dangerfield said, " I don't get no respect"

 

There is a reason turnover is high in this field!    If a company cannot correlate our roles with $$ savings over time, they don't deserve us and they will always be happy with a score just high enough to pass

 

For me, my ideal would be teaching but I'd have to move to make that work and that's a sacrifice I'm not willing to make just now :)

Edited by Scampi, 14 April 2021 - 11:57 AM.

[TimG]

To me, it's been to find what I do well/enjoy about the job and try to focus on that. I like the investigation portions of quality. What happened (cause)? Why is this happening (root)? What is the most manpower/cost efficient way to stop it from happening again? 

Also, a big thing that helps me is I don't do it for my company, my boss, the owner, or even the customer. I do it for me. I strive to improve myself through improving my surroundings and things I am responsible for. Every year my current company pushes their 'core values' and 'how do you live up to our Core Values' when management self eval time. My response has always been that I have my own set of core values that supersede and go above and beyond the values of whatever corporate entity I find myself employed by. I actually write this word for word on the review read annually by the global executive committee. They did call me out on it and asked me to submit my core values; I guess it was acceptable because I'm still here.

 

But it's never going to be easy by any means. We have to deal with a lot of different departments with a lot of different goals and motivations. It gets especially hard when those goals and motivations come into direct conflict with quality/food safety.

Edited by TimG, 14 April 2021 - 02:46 PM.

[pHruit]

Personally I find that the most rewarding aspect of the job is the unnaturally fast manner in which my hairline recedes and turns grey, framing a face that is marred by stress lines that wouldn't look out of place on someone twice my age
 

The less flippant version is basically what TimG has written above - for me it's about knowing that I'm doing well at what I'm responsible for, and that it is making a difference even if it's not always recognised. I think it gets easier as you get more experience under your belt, as you're better able to see where this is the case.

There is a lot of satisfaction in making things better, in solving issues, and also in those rare (but hopefully not too rare) moments when you're recognised by other departments for the positve contribution you're making to the business.

 

Having said that, there are a couple of posts in this thread that sit a little closer to Scampi's observations than I'd personally want to be!

Not all QA jobs are negative all of the time, but some certainly are more so than others. Nonetheless there is a balance and, by its very nature, our jobs are ones that will always come into conflict with other departments, because we have a habit of wanting to do things that maximise long-term profit (i.e. continuing to make safe, legal, in-spec product, even if that means throwing questionable material away) rather than the inherently somewhat short-term view that sales and accounts often take.

[dgt39]

I genuinely want to know what do you do to continue to fuel your passion in the [somewhat discouraging] world of quality assurance in manufacturing.

 

I just look at my payslip at the end of the month.... (on second thoughts that doesn't work!)

Agree with most of your comments though.

[wandera]

As said earlier, Quality department is always prone to most of blames in an organization especially when thing get bitter. However, the crucial part giving the best output and proactiveness.

[dfreund]

The challenge of people is why GFSI has added food safety culture. 

 

In the stories where Management support is lacking, learn everything you can and get out before your name is ruined by a situation you were hamstrung to fix.  Those managers will use use you hard until something goes wrong and you become the scapegoat and kicked to the curb faster than the ink dries on the non-conformance/compliance reports.

 

I love my job. Been at this for 5 years now in this capacity. Upstream Management support from day 1 has been all in! I know how fortunate I am.  I can make more elsewhere, but being able to get things accomplished is more important to me.  Search you personal purpose statement. 3

 

I also enjoy pouring what I know (which is also a small snapshot of the entire scope of food safety) into the folks "doing it" every day. When something comes up, big or small, give it due attention and respect the concern, you may be missing something bigger that flushes out in the conversation.  They will continue to provide you feedback and support in not only implementation of the Corrective Action, but most times they can solve the problem more simply and efficiently than my approach. I tend to imagine the worst catastrophe possible with the issue and over complicate the right solution.  (thinking through worst case scenarios is vital but not actionable every time, use judgement and continuous improvement). Add meaning to peoples work and why they have to do it and you will see results...and a developing Food Safety Culture!!!

 

If you are not getting adequate support from above, you can bet the folks moving product are not either.  You become then the "authority" in the process and management structure, and give them the support they need. Be careful to not join the wrong team and undermine your management, that never ever helps the situation. Suck it up so to speak, and be the bad guy up-stream in management not downstream.  Given enough time and enough auditors your position will be justified and then you will gain managements respect.

 

I hope you find a place in this industry that feeds your interest and meaningful work life.

Dave

[Ieatcookies]

Great to hear that! 

I used to be an auditor and all I can say if there are any auditors round there, always compliment what you see useful to compliment. we just need to look after each other, I guess.  

 

my attitude is always - what is the gain here for me? I always set up the target for myself and when it is reached, I move on. Interim jobs are good for me. 

[Richaney Impraseuth]

Hi everyone, 

its maybe the organization your dissatisfied with. At my previous company  i was there for almost 6 years as a QA Manager, i felt so defeated everyday & under appreciated. Everyone issue was my problem but all the success was someone else,  i always had to play the bad cop, every time a manager felt like writing an employee up for not complying they would make me the bad guy (even though i was not involved with the matter at all) because they didn't want to be the bad guy. i was never recognized for any thing i did and absolutely dreaded my field of work, my position was not held as important as others unless its 3 months before audits but i stayed because i was extremely loyal to the company. it got to the point where i had enough and left to work for my current company im at now,

At first i was preparing myself for the same crap but came to realize, the new organization was so much better, easier, they appreciated everything i did even the little things, they listen & acted like they were interested in topics i talked about even when i was talking about things they didn't fully understand. they always give me shout outs, pat on the backs and it feels amazing, it reminded me of why i am in food safety field, they treat my position highly, as it should be because its important. they recognized my effort, my KPI's, how difficult my job can get, how much pride i put into every thing i do & that's how i realized that it was not QA that i hated but it was the toxic organization i was with.

[GreyeagleA]

I have been with the company I am at for over 10 years and I started out as an operator before going back to school and educating myself for QA.  As an operator I had always found QA fascinating.   I moved into QA when a position became open and I do truly enjoy my  job,.  Like everyone else I had to apply for it and go through the interview process and in the end I was successful. There was some growing to do when I moved into the role and it's taken time but my former managers realize that I am doing my job and at the end of the day we all work for the same company and we all want to do the right thing... . deliver safe food to our customers.

I really enjoy training the operators and I have put alot of time and effort into developing our training program.  Before I took it over it was not helpful for the operators at all (and being a former operator I know this first hand) so I try and keep it interesting for them.  

We end up at odds with the production managers when we have to put things on hold for whatever reason and at times QA is a thankless job but at the end of the day we are keeping everyone safe.

[NC-FSQA]

My passion for food safety was something I shared freely about 10 years ago. Now I carefully understand my audience and their motivations before sharing my passion for food safety. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to share that I have passion for food safety for 2 years. Like others have said if the management team does not support food safety you are going to have a tough time no matter how talented and/or passionate you are. If you can I would suggest leaving a position as soon as possible if management doesn’t support food safety. For me I am changing my career and pursuing my masters degree to see where this takes me (perhaps QA in pharmaceutical or medical).

For the remainder of this post I will share a cautionary tale: I was hired to be a “back up” for another QA team member who had a fail on their last audit. I was tasked to improve food safety in partnership with this QA team member and I quickly learned there was really only one position open for this job (I compared my situation to the 26 other locations). At other locations it was clearly just 1 position for each location. Later on at 74 days of employment that QA team member made a complaint about me when I brought up concerns related to my job, food safety. I was then questioned excessively by a management leader and later by a hr manager and was told maybe I wasn’t a good fit for this job and maybe this job isn’t for you. Then I was terminated shortly after at the 80 day mark. I knew the management intentions were not to keep me around as I was told to act as a consultant and then later I overheard the hr manager joking with others that she was working on the intern problems (a reference to me). I know I try too hard to do the right thing (to my own detriment) as it relates to my work. Other team members told me I was the more competent employee pitted against the existing QA team member, but try as I might this was just a very unfortunate situation. It is a simple fact that the other QA team member was simply fighting to keep their job (as we were pitted against each other). Clearly this was a stressful situation and I believe I was terminated wrongly, but what can you do. I know the first 90 days gives an employer significant flexibility to do as they please with employees, but come on this is just not cool. I hope no one else gets put in a situation like this.

Edited by NC-FSQA, 17 December 2023 - 02:41 PM.

[Lynx42]

I have the same issue from a different angle.  I worked 8 years in a warehouse with no food (we had some hazmat products).  I started as a CSR, but not being able to "do nothing" when there is nothing to do, I helped out wherever I could (I was not above throwing damage) and moved into Inventory Control, then eventually ended up as the person who had done at least a little bit of everything.  I was mostly office, but could jump on a lift (previous experience) and move product, load, unload, help in parcel, everything.  I was the one EVERYONE, even my boss came to.  There were 3 in our office and I was the center of everything.  Tough work, but I loved it.  Our client downsized and our warehouse closed, so my company split us all up between 5 other buildings. 

To keep my pay level the same, they moved me into a Food Safety/Food Defense role.  I've been at it a little over 2 months and struggling to be passionate about something that was not even on my radar 4 months ago.  I do have some past food warehouse experience (over 10 years ago), but I wasn't part of the safety team and now I'm in an office of 20, in a cubicle in the corner, with only one person I interact with daily and two others who are making an effort to be friendly (one I knew by site before coming into this building).

It's been a big shift and I'm doing the best I can with what I've been given, but it's a struggle especially having no clue what HACCP or SQF was until early Oct (they are starting that journey with me at the head), and struggle with a lot of the terminology.  3 of the 4 warehouses I oversee are in nearby cities, and I've been focusing on 2 (due to a pending audit and one is run by my old boss), but I'm getting a lot of pushback on suggestions I'm making in the building I'm in, even though the 2 I've been working with are all in.  It's also a struggle on where I am in the pecking order and a LOT of people see me as "new" even though I've been with the company over 8 years. 

Mostly I'm going over SOP's and they don't like I am pointing out errors and omissions.  "Take pictures"  is a step.  That's it, nothing about what to do with the picture after you took it, and I'm the bad guy for pointing that out.  I do have lots of experience writing SOP's for 3 other companies the last 20 years, and I'm good at it. I've also got a little bit of editing experience and good at that too.  My boss loves it, the people who wrote them, not so much.  

I really, really miss the dynamics of my old warehouse.  There was a core of us that I was the newest at 8 years with 5 being hired after me.  We were close and I miss that terribly.  

 

Upper management in all in on the Food Safety... on paper.  I haven't been here long enough to really tell if they are willing to put their money where their mouth is.  

 

Amy

[MDaleDDF]

I just remind myself I like having my home, cars, food in my fridge, etc.

Honestly I started in the biz doing pretty much only R&D and loved it, but over time my job morphed into 90% QA and paperwork for NSF.   It is what it is.   Still beats my old job, and I'm too old to go switching careers again, so like it or not, I'm stuck.   So for me, fueling the passion isn't a thing.   I do it, and I do the best job I can.    Dad always told me 'I don't care what you do for a living, you do the absolute best job you can.'    So that's what I do in all things.