Colchester gear: $800!!!!!!

One of Guy Lautard's Bedside Readers has a short paragraph about one of his guys that would outright fire any of his employees that wouldn't answer an apprentice's questions on how to do something.

RCM has always seemed to be populated with people of that caliber, at least in the few years I've lurked.

Pete (in St. Paul, MN)

Pete -

I don't go for the Guy Lautard paragraph - I don't think it was him...

Sounds like you would fire the Senior man who forgot how that student tool worked 40 years ago...

No not me. I bet you didn't know what day it was from time to time - seems normal. I really don't trust perfect people - they can't adjust and operate in real time. Buy the book guys can only do the book. How many jobs are in the book !

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Pete Bergstrom wrote:

Sorry :) Machinist's Third Bedside Reader, page 139, part of "That Last Half Thou" Quote This brings to mind something Bob Haralson once told me. "When I find a man in a shop I'm runnin' who won't show an apprentice boy anything he wants to know, I fire him". Knowing Bob as I do, I probably needn't have asked him if he ment that he soon found some pretext for firing the guy. "no. I _fire_ him! " said Bob emphatically. Ive chuckled over that many a time since. Close Quote

Lots of good stuff in the Bedside Readers. Bob rgentry_at_oz_dot_net _AT_ = @, _dot_ = . to eMail

That brings to mind one of the supervisors at Sperry Utah. The company was founded in '56 expressly to build the Sergeant missile. Location was chosen where there was a 'right to work' in an effort to get away from the horrible union problems of the '50's, particularly on the right hand side of the US.

The machine shop was initially staffed almost entirely with locals, some of whom were, at best, questionable as machinists. Once so staffed, company policy was to load the shop with trainees as they went from the R&D stage into production, so they could groom them to work to gov't requirements. Thus, a huge number of young people were quickly hired after a 6 month crash course at the local community college.

Imagine the need for supervision of all these young people.

The older guys that were hired in were promoted to leadman, or supervisor. One of them, who was promoted to supervisor, and shall remain nameless, was overseeing the drill press section, and for a brief time, the grinding department, where I worked.

One fine day I had to engage him in conversation regards a job I was running. I found him in the drill press section, lapping a hole with a Deltronic pin (I told you some of them were questionable as machinists). I don't recall how the conversation went, but along the way he told me "do you think I'm going to teach these guys everything I know? If they knew as much as I did, they'd have my job".

Moron!

Truth be known, for the most part, the trainees already knew as much as he did. The lucky ones are the ones that forgot it and learned proper procedures.

Very unlike this fool, my favorite supervisor would go far out of his way to teach and help the young guys. He was wise enough to know that the better we were, the better he looked.

It never ceased to amaze me how people with no skills became leaders in that facility, although, for the most part, leaders were well qualified. Some individuals just slipped through he cracks. The moron was one of them.

Harold

I read it as meaning fire the senior person who *wouldn't* help the new guy (as opposed to a "couldn't remember" situation).

Pete

That means the man that won't answer questions or helps train is and should be in trouble. Not a team player and doesn't work for the shop.

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Bob Gentry wrote:

Some of my darkest regrets are people I fired while learning how to be a supervisor . All with just cause but still looking back now with experience I know could have been handled without taking some ones job away . So often while young I let ego and pride make calls that I would not down the road . Experience later helped me get right . I made a point of helping people working for me get it right as they were promoted . Maybe some people are born with the knowledge a task takes , I sure was not one of them . The biggest thing that burns all these years later was the people that paid a price while I learned how to be a boss . Ken Cutt

Interesting comments, Ken.

The gentleman mentioned above, the one to whom I referred as my favorite supervisor (Jay), seemed to just know what to do and say at every turn. He went to bat for me (his decision, not mine) when the manufacturing superintendent wanted to fire me after my probationary period was up. I had been behaving like I was still in high school and screwing up routinely. Not a pretty sight in retrospect.

Later, when I finally got my feet on the ground and was a productive machinist, I recall seeing the manufacturing superintendent standing off in the distance, watching me as I trepanned inch thick aluminum plates, one after the other, in rapid succession. Only later did I learn that Jay had called him to come out to the shop and see the fruits of his labor.

Jay was a prince amongst men. He showed no favoritism, was even handed and totally fair in his dealings with the guys in the shop. He was easily the best supervisor they had, and was liked by all, yet he was pretty much all business as far as his job was concerned. Strangely, he was promoted from the ranks, just as the others were. Where he got his incredible skills at handling people I don't know. Prior to his promotion to lead man, he was a jig borer operator. I guess some people have a gift!

Harold

Like everything else in my life I had to put in some effort to learn . When first made a shop foreman at 18 I thought I had all the skills I needed for the job . Yea right . Took me a while and a few not so kind pointed comments from my Dad to see the facts . On the other hand once I knew I needed to learn I put in the extra effort . Found out what made a good supervisor , fine tuned that to fit me and more or less got it right . Ken Cutt

All I can say is congrats on your success. There's no doubt in my mind I'd be a bastard to work for. I expect way too much from people, particularly where quality is concerned, and I have about as much tact as a BFH. It's taken me a long time to learn how to communicate online, for that matter, which is, really, a work in progress.

Harold