Braying mules

Monday. oh yeah. Go in this morning, and I am being trained on a new station. Requiring the use of a machine I have never used before, but I think it is pretty straight-forward. Get training, show the supervisor that I can safely operate it without crushing or cutting off any fingers, and away he goes. I do very well, picking up speed as I go along, haha, look at Gail, this is a piece of CAKE!! Supervisor returns. Gail is done, Very good! Before you start your next job, Gail,would you mind knocking out these bins of wires for another employee, she needs them? Sure, no Prob ! Wire one...doesn't look right. Set aside.Wire two.....no, not right, something is up. Call on the floor to another supervisor, hey this does not look right to me. Well, that's because it AIN'T right. There is no room for error on these parts. In the job I was given first, a part slides down over your crimp, and then you test, so you do not see that it is loose. On the "please and thank you job" I was just gonna "knock out", the wires are bare, and you can see exactly what you are doing. And it ain't pretty. Now, when I called to the other supervisor, asking for a check,

[remember......this is ME, it is Monday, and this is my first time at this machine]

ONE GUESS who was right behind me? Yup.The owner. Who likes to yell. He came at me like a land shark. I quickly and succinctly told him, first time at this machine, first job was covered at the end [I went back and checked,...it has to be redone] so I couldn't feel the looseness, second job, caught it on the first wire. Evidently,THAT was the wrong answer, but He didn't let loose at me,-

[Steve and I talked about this...if ANYONE ever yells at me,....and by yell, I mean casting aspersions on your lineage, and a few choice swears about bulls defecating, at a high decibel level..... I will pick up my toys and go home for the day. If I am fired, they can call me and tell me to come get my stuff, if not I'll see 'em the next day. I'm not taking any shit. If you are in a position of power, then you TELL me what the deal is, you don't bray at me like a donkey.]

He did one of those "Slowly I turn" moves on my supervisor....and I knew he was gonna blow ...so I said real quick, "I was taught to make sure they were tight, the first few were, I was concentrating on seating the secondary, the-machine-must-have-broken-mid-job." And just like that, the great winds didn't blow. And it turns out the machine did break,- it was not operator error, or training error. Lucky Lucky Gail, with a lucky lucky guess.
I don't like this. I don't like waiting for some buffoon to start yelling because of human error, or machine breakage, it's like constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is the third man I have worked with over the years, who has this Napoleon complex, or an overblown feeling of superiority. I can't IMAGINE yelling at a subordinate for an honest mistake, or a machine going down. And the kick is, most of the time he's an ok guy. I really feel for my supervisor, cause you never know when owner is gonna blow...if I feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, my supervisor must feel like the moving strap holding the grand piano over his head is about to rupture.

My favorite station is at a 90 degree angle to the station I started on, so I got to see and hear all the diagnosing, very interesting stuff. I was never so happy to be back at "my place"....until I heard the music........ [I had been concentrating hard enough on job one not to have heard it] it was the dreaded country western again. And, if you are a fan I mean you no disrespect. But Good Lord above me, WHY? WHY is everyone always getting' drunk, trying unsuccessfully to get laid, laying the neighbors wife, laying someone who didn't look so good before 12 beers and last call, laying his horse, wishing he could lay his horse 'cause his woman is meaner than a braying mule, getting d-i-v-o-r-c-e-d, or forgetting their anniversary? Listening to that all day is enough to drive me around the BEND !!!!! I am going to have to go on a burning spree today, and go in tomorrow armed to the teeth with music. I guess this means I won't have time to iron today, Whoopsie!

February 24th:

-International Pancake Day
-Mardi Gras!

~I try to go the extra mile at work, but my boss always finds me and brings me back~