Sometime being a "manager" isn't all it's cracked up to be!

S has been increasing frustrated with the work environment at his company over the last several months. Although he hasn't been doing anything different, he has been under increased pressure from the company owners to make more, more, more money. The problem here is, he has had 60% turnover this year with the technicians he supervises and it has taken time to hire and train new people. They don't produce right away. They also said they needed him working 60 plus hours a week in order to have enough office time for staff oversight along with working as a salesman and technician himself to help the guys stay caught up. S had a major problem with this. "We need to hire two more technicians. Their $20000 a month in service and sales easily justifies their wages and benefits" The owners disagreed. With this struggling economy, many small companies like this one are just closing their doors. This company is a strong company, however, they are feeling the pinch too. That being said, S finally went to the owners and said, "I don't want to manage the division anymore." This caught the owners by surprise. They are used to having the upper hand, and having their employees bow down to their demands. Not this time. Over the last several weeks, S has been in a holding pattern while they hire a new division manager. The owners and he agreed that he really wants and needs to be a dedicated salesman and reserve technician as well as the division trainer. The certification certificates on the office wall in S's name not to mention the 11 years of experience make him perfect for this new position. That started this week. The best part, he is now on hourly instead of salary, ie., slavery, and he gets to keep all of the management benefits and most of the perks. This means time and a half overtime as well as commssion! This will mean he will be making quite a bit more money and the stresses of management are gone! This new division manager is going to be more of a desk jockey. S would hate that. He loves to go out and talk to people and work with them to determine and sell the necessary equipment to meet their fire protection needs. In essence, they are taking everthing they were expecting out of him, letting him now do the fun stuff, and the new guy gets the office and all the headaches. Hopefully the new guy will be suited for it. I guess only time will tell.