Industrial camouflage

Ha ha. Where *have* you been? An old-school tech once told me, when you are doing the rounds talking to your buddies, always carry a pair of dial calipers with you when you go about the building.

That way, it looks like you are going someplace to perform a *precision* *measurement*.

Jim

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With an old boss I had, you HAD to make sure that something was slightly screwed up. Bossman would keep digging until he found something to complain about and "fix" himself. By making sure something obvious and in easy sight was slightly goofed, he would fix it, give his lecture, and then leave. Took a lot less time to leave something easy for him to fix than waiting around for him to find something that didn't actually need fixing (as he got madder and madder because things were right)

Koz

If i talk to someone i point like i am talking about a part or look at a process sheet and point as i talk about something else !

Another thing I learned years ago is to always have a businesslike question ready. If the boss catches you in mid-goof, wait until he/she has stormed up to you and given you "the look" and then immediately ask your question before anything can be said. It works every time.

Vaughn

To make it look like you've been studying at home bring in shop manuals stuffed with drawings and stuff. Make's it look like you've been working at home on your on time.(Just make sure the boss sees it.) Always carry something around.

Highlight the "good parts" and add tabs.

And label it "ISO 9000 Goals"

I used a clipboard too. Especially if someone called me to come and "take a look" at a computer problem. The person with the problem was apologetic, not wanting to waste my time, and nobody looked twice when I walked through the shop.

Six sheets of blank paper in a used file folder should be good for several days wandering in most government offices. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Oh - clipboards. I've told my daughter that one can wander into nearly any industrial site unchallenged, if one has a clipboard (with important-looking papers) and a hard hat.

Just wander around, make 'hmmmm' noises, and make 'notes' on the pages in the clipboard.

Jim

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This might be funny if it weren't so tragic.

Hell, it's no wonder our productivity sucks and our jobs are going overseas.

Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

--Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

But our productivity doesn't suck. jobs go overseas because they pay

I have to agree with both Ron & Eric.

As for Ron, I too am disappointed at energy devoted to not working, the glee and sense of satisfaction at finding creative ways to not contribute? Not for me. I had no formal training, all OJT, and realized soon on that if you work hard and pay attention to the business, you will be left alone, promoted and respected.

As for Eric. It has been my life experience that in any company with more than about 8 employees, that 10% know what they are doing, 20% are a waste of time and payroll, and somewhere in the middle things don't get things more damaged than they already are. That's just the way it is. That does not stop me, or the rest of the world from griping about it.

I read a very interesting study on competence a while back. It goes a long way to explain why such a large percentage of people think they are doing an excellent job.

It is also my experience that credentials have very little to do with an individuals contributions. Having a degree, license, or certification means nothing to me. In fact, if an individual starts touting his/her academic accomplishments, the robot from "Lost in Space" starts appearing in my mind, "Warning! Danger!".

I am not perfect, not by any stretch. One difference is that I _know_ I am not.

Right. If you want to see low productivity, just look at the workforce in any European country--talk about creating a leisure society. All comes down to costs, and the American worker will lose out every time unless oil gets so pricey that it's cheaper to make something here than ship it. As an example, I saw a plant hook in the local home depot. It was a simple S-shaped piece of metal with some white paint on it. Something so simple would have to be made here in the USA, right? Wrong. With US labor costs being what they are it's cheaper to send the metal to Korea, have it cut, bent, and painted, and then sent back here and sold for $2.18 Kind of pathetic...

If our productivity doesn't suck, what is the root cause of high cost labor in the US?

Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

--Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

people want to get paid more than the jobs are worth to the people buying the final product. High cost has to be in relation to some other cost.

If someone wants to get paid big bucks to make widget A, then refuses to buy Widget B because the guy who made it wants to get paid big bucks, then the whole system breaks down.

Brian

In one place I worked in the shop staff did their job reasonably, even in suboptimal conditions. Yet when they got wind of the top brass coming downstairs they hurriedly cleaned up the benches and sweeped the floor. They would not heed the advise that a clean shop can be interpreted as people not doing anything useful, and lo and behold they always got tagged as lazy bums.

This is probably true in a perfect world. It is far from being true in many, many workplaces.