25 September, 2001 - 21:48 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

It Was

I wish that my workplace had stayed somewhat the same, rather than being caught up in the quick buck, bottom dollar line. A place that builds products designed to last only five years now rather than products that, for years were noted to be almost indestructible.

I don't miss the top dog in the plant nor any of his "henchmen," I don't miss any of the superior, sneering, cynical attitude of the guys in the middle. I don't really miss most of the floor supervisors, but some I really do, they played fair and square and their guys outdid all others.

I also can live forever without all these seminars tuned to stir up we the peons into turning into Speedy Gonzales' and keep up the fantasy. Management also attended to keep up appearances. We all knew that some of the ideas offered were good, sound ideas and would have worked quite well if middle management had followed along . . . . but they didn't.

When time came near to conract negotiation we trash on the floor were no longer called members of the company family, team players, yadda, yadda, etc., etc. The closer to the time the more implied threats were made against our security, wages, working conditions and all things related. Oh, nothing that could be proven in a court of law . . . naturally . . . . the wording was such that we got the drift - - right in the pit of our stomach - but impossible to prove.

What I miss are the savvy folks I worked on the floor with, from the lowest paid employee to the highest paid on the floor. I loved them all, from the kids fresh out of high school and tech school, who came in with stars in their eyes feeling that their education would enable them to do something productive. Those lambs led to the shafting spot. I watched the fire die in their eyes as they saw what they had really fallen into. I loved the folks who had worked there or in the system 40 or more years and had managed to survive, raise families and still have human kindness in their heart. Some of the engineers treated us like humans too and were treasured among us.

But our group were the journeyman type, mostly at the same salary, there was a humorous fellowship, a process of helping each other in times when help was needed and not interfering and not gossiping or holding grudges and petty jealousies.

We could observe and appreciate funny things as they occurred.

I remember seeing a pair of supervisors meeting in the aisle, one asking the other how he was doing tonight. The questioned one replied, "I been workin' my buns off all night." The other supervisor leaned around him looked, returned to his stance and said, "Well, ya missed."

Stuff like that would be fodder for many a cackle session.

Smartass me, I scribbled on a page in a little notepad of mine at lunch time one night, and then passing around the following, "Corp-finitons" "What things mean around here."

Preventative Maintenance = Maintenance which is done to prevent production.

Routine Maintenance = That which is done after a machine totally self destructs.

Attendance Program = They gave it but couldn't gather a crowd. (wasn't included in the incentives)

Incentive Program = A complex formula by which the company entices employees to hasten their own layoff."

That kind of stuff circulated amid snickers as people saw the humor in the truth. That is about how the whole damn thing was misrun.

But, in spite of management, we got the work done and done on time, as long as they didn't meddle and come up with some "pie in the sky" scheme. And we enjoyed working together.

Being an older guy who had worked different places for years, (like horse apples, I been on the road) some of the ploys were quite obvious to me. Remarkable how people can fool themselves into believing their crazy attempts to make an impossibility come true just won't work out in real life.

It was pleasurable and fun to work with such a great group, It Was . . . . . . .

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