Ah, the joys of working with lots of 'different' people. I think I'll start a string of stories on factory life. Just to let ya'll know what I 'put up with'. LOL Or if your not old enough to work, what to look forward to.
OK to start someplace I'll start last night. But I could start 10 years ago but if you tried to read this you'd be here for hours. Then buy a shot gun and get a job in a factory. LOL
We have a boss who's constantly yells at, screams and threatening his crew. Young guy, might be 25 (or less). Never been in management before and has had no training. Has no people skills. And will more than likely, before he's 28, have high blood pressure and be on mood altering drugs. But that's his life. This blog is about mine.LOL So we'll call him 'Spaz'.
some background....
There are three of us that work the night shift in my department. Call us putrid, heavy and drill. ( guess which one I am..) Anyway heavy's machine went down. There are things we as machine operators fix and things we need maintenance for. He had to fix this. It was about break time so he took the part that needed tooling to break with him.
Heave was sitting at the smokers table outside the break room talking to folks. Spaz came by and road heavy up one side and down the other. Told him that he didn't have any reason to 'try' to fix his machine. "That's what maintenance is for". Then preceded to tell heavy that HE was heavy's boss.Heavy's response?
"Go get ------"
Needless to say Spaz wasn't expecting that. I don't know what he was expecting, but it wasn't that. When my departments boss came in that morning Spaz was right there. What did my boss do. Road Spaz up one side and down the other. Spaz wasn't expecting that either. What did my boss tell heavy? "Your right, he's not your boss. But please don't tell him to...."
Spaz has been threatening everyone on 3rd shift, everyone but me. To be honest, I don't have a very good reputation for being a 'nice guy'. Please don't get the wrong idea. It's more of a perception and rumor thing. Or it might be because I'm quiet and look like I've crawled out of a cave somewhere. or it might have something to do with my habit of 'talking' like a drunk sailor on a bad Sunday morning when things aren't going well. or it might be because I punch metal beams or it might be my size, or......you get the picture. I've never gotten in anyone's face. Never threatened anyone. Never 'throw my weight around' or act tough. You'll have to be the judge. If I keep this up it'll sound more like "to know me is to love me".LOL
Sitting in the break room we're all joking around about Spaz and his threats. It hits everyone that I'm the only one in the room that hasn't gotten treated to Spaz's special style of management. So I say,
"I don't know folks. I'm beginning to feel left out."
Well it happened last night. Wile on break I was told the offal truth by someone who overheard Spaz's ranting. I found out that Spaz was threatening to dock a days pay because I "deliberately" got in his way. I have to go to his department to get stuff to work on in my department. Honestly I had no idea what happened. I did have trouble maneuvering through his department so it's possible that it did happen. But nothing was said to me at the time. So I went to talk to him. I walked right up to him and apologised. (really, that is what I did) Spaz turns white as a sheet! Starts telling me this rather incoherent story of what happened and how this person or...I really had no idea of what he was getting at. Then he gets overly nice. Follows me around his department while I'm looking for things that I have to get done before 1rst shift comes in. Starts asking me questions and being as sweat as he could be. I let it go. When my boss came in I told him I was no longer feeling left out he asked me why. So I told him what was told me by a third party and that because I didn't hear it myself from Spaz I really can't say if it was all true. Told my boss that I wasn't upset over it. He knows me to well. Any time a supervisor mentions my name and a punishment in the same sentence I get a little concerned. So my boss goes and talks to Spaz. Rides him up one side and down the other. Could Spaz dock a day's pay form me or anyone else? No.
Now I don't feel so left out. I feel I'm a part of all the wondriful things that happen in our little subculture known as a factory. Life is good.
