Too old to be hired?

Gunner Asch fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Interesting, and that's been my experience with Ace Hardware (they got a '10'). You've got to have "verve" to work there, but age has nothing to do with it; and in fact, the older employees are better-able to serve the customer's requests than the younger ones (who mostly appear brain-dead).

LLoyd

A friend who works at Home Depot around the holidays (he's around 70) says that HD likes older guys because we know what the hell those things on the shelves are.

Ed Huntress fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Yeah... Had an experience at Lowes DBY that startled me. I went to buy some Melamine shelving. Of course the ends are bare particle board, and if you cut it, you get bare ends.

So I asked for the "Edge-banding tape" for it. NOT A CLUE! NOBODY! Four different people, same reaction.

Finally, I grabbed an 'associate' and asked if he could look up any stock item. "Why sure." So I explained it to him, and he had no luck. Then I said, "Just enter the keywords "Edge banding tape". BINGO! Isle 47. Nowhere NEAR the shelving! In fact, over in lumber, by the 14' 2x4s. "Four in stock". NOT! ONE! But I got what I needed.

Lloyd

So that's its real name. I learned about it as "liquid oak" from a kitchen installer.

-jsw

Many years ago, I had a design that required a transformer with very high voltage insulation from the output to everything else. Not a HV transformer, more like a filament transformer, but it had to float on

I called a local custom shop and the kid assured me nothing like that was remotely possible at any price. BS, I remember when such things were used in tube equipment. Standard products from major brands at one time.

I waited a day and called back. I asked the receptionist to speak to their oldest engineer. He says, yeah, sure, no problem, how many do you want. Got them. Twenty years later the equipment was retired with zero failure in all that time.

We have an old GE diesel-electric switching engine at the Boulder Valley Railroad Historical Society that had served for 27 years at the Valmont Power Plant that serves Boulder. On its last day of service, some ass tried to push it beyond its limits pushing coal cars and the solder melted in one of the electric motors in the propulsion system, destroying the ability of the engine to run over walking speed. The few technicians that were still alive who could repair the motors were slowly dying off. We're trying to donate the locomotive to a Fast Tracks museum in Lakewood, where they might have the funds and talent to restore it.

D-FENS fired this volley in news:md5fsh$9cs$1@dont- email.me:

Find another "old guy". Ship him in, if necessary.

It can't cost as much as the loss.

LLoyd

I mine google books rather regularly. They will give you the basics of obsolete technology.

But besides the fundamental knowledge there are other things missing. What to do and HOW to do it are not the same thing. The how is what's often not recorded in historical sources. You can often find out what to produce, but how it was made at the time remains a mystery. That "how" is a head scratcher when the methodology has been lost.

Making it work is the first thing. How do you troubleshoot problems is another skill that's being lost.

Finally, specialized tools and equipment. My guy designed and built the transformers but it fell to me to stress test it to make sure it could take the punishment. They had nothing over a few hundred volts.

Multiply this by every darn piece of technology and equipment anyone cares to preserve. The world has lost a heck of a lot of knowledge and is losing more every day.

Sadly, I've seen cases where some individual gets a bug and really documents some obsolete technology but the usual outlet today is a web page. Fast forward five or ten years and the page is gone.

Heck, I once provided a grateful equipment manufacturer with a copy of the user and service manuals for rather expensive, upscale piece of test equipment. A piece of equipment THEY designed and built a couple decades before.

Winston_Smith fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Yeah...there's that, and the simple issue of "what questions should you ask" to make a quick path to a solution.

"True" trouble-shooting is a rapidly-dying art. The person who can still see clearly from symptom to solution is as valuable today as ever, no matter his/her age.

I make my living trouble-shooting production problems (and designing equipment) for pyrotechnics manufacturers -- because there are only three of us doing it professionally in the US today. I know that seems 'scarce', but it's a fact. Nobody wants to SOLVE problems today, unless they can buy a pre-packaged solution to it.

LLoyd

Must be, I'm one of them old toads. In the various work I do, a lot of it is troubleshooting. Understand the system, look it over, see what it's doing. Much of my work is small refrigeration. Such as the refrig I worked on last week. The new electronic stuff often leaves me in the dust, but a lot of what's out there can still be fixed by us old guys.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

It's the same thing everywhere , no diagnostics unless they can hook it to a computer , and even then it's a "throw parts at it until it's fixed" solution more often than not . Remember Gus , the mechanic in Popular Mechanics magazine ? I learned a LOT from reading that "column" .

The list is interesting but the concept sure as hell isn't. Use them up and kick them out; there's more where they came from. If you run out of citizens, hell, there's a waiting line at the border.

I wish they were waiting at the border. If there are 15 million here illegaly and just 1/3 have jobs, that's 5 million jobs not available to Americans. That's 5 million Americans that are living on the taxes paid by hardworking taxpayers. Yes Americans will take those jobs, especially if you don't coddle them with a public service announcement about what the government can do for you, in the way of benefits. Also wages might rise if we didn't keep allowing cheaper labor to invade. Mikek

Perhaps 30 years ago I read an article by a high muckie at Hewlett-Packard (when they were still a real company).

He distinguished between growing or farming employees and mining them.

Find someone that's bright enough and ambitious and teach them the ropes as they progress vs. head hunting just what you need ready to go from another company.

First produces an employee that is loyal to the company and knows it inside out, meaning they can be flexible in what their job at the moment is. The second gets you a guy that hits the ground running but they are usually looking for the best buck de jour and often a one trick pony. When they have done the initial task, do you can them or try to put square pegs in round holes?

Sadly, as technology moves faster, buying a ready made expert is attractive and being quick to can them takes care of what do you do with them in the long run.

I see no change likely in the future. The kid today almost has to view whatever job they have as temporary. That's one of the reasons I've read for Millennials not buying homes or starting families. They want to be free to jump at another job with no ties to hold them where they are. Maybe they will not all be temporaries - most of them will be short term contract workers.

Model Garage

Yep, lot's of shotgun repairs out there. They seem to think that you don't need to understand the fundamentals of operation for a given system. Just plug in and bingo, there's the bad part. Doesn't usually work that way. New automotive technicians like to think they have it all covered. Until you toss a 70's-80's vehicle at them....

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" on Tue, 03 Mar

Is called "experience". Or "oh yeah, I remember when I did that ..."

Or "No Shiite, this really happened ..."

-- pyotr filipivich The fears of one class of men are not the measure of the rights of another.

-- George Bancroft

I wonder how long it would have taken them to find he partially-stripped camshaft sprocket in my '86 GMC's 305 V8 ... couldn't locate it with a stethoscope because the camshaft telegraphed the sound throughout the motor . Gave me a great opportunity to change out the valve guide seals too - with the heads still on the motor .

How long did the whole job take you to complete?