Sept. 07, 2002 - 14:31 PDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Oaf

There is a phrase in the Bible I think, that says, "Judge not lest ye be judged." Msybe I can say, "There but for the grace of God go I." I guess the only difference is one of degree.

I once worked with a man who would do things like take a one by two piece of wood, string his steel tape out along it, spot where he wanted to cut it and then run tape and all through the saw. Another time he jumped up into a freight trailer to measure the length of plywood that would be required to replace one that was too short. Seems that he measured the plywood instead, jumped down and cut one the same length, snd when he climbed back up found out it was also too short.

Whatever activity was required he would mess it up somehow. Even if he had the right idea he would manage by sheer awkwardness to drop something, bend something, tear something, use the wrong material or the right material in the wrong application. Whatever corollary of Murphy's Law you ever read, he was the epitome of it. Most actions of his would require more material, effort, and/or time delay as well as increasing the overhead.

Yet every week he would draw the same pay as the rest of us did. To look at it one way, he put in the same hours we did, and if anything exerted more effort than the rest of us. So in that respect he deserved his pay. Butlooking at it another way, he wasted material, man-hours his effort as well as the effort of the crew and unsettled all of us.

Bumbling like that gave a blow to the bottom line of the company - net profit. Net profit in the long run had much to do with our wages. Also esnough of that sort of thing would put the company opertating at a loss, which would eventually cause a layoff of personnel. A consequent layoff would come like an unexpected strike of lightening.

This man I am writing about did not deliberately make mistakes, even hurt himself a time or two while trying to do his job. He caused hurt to others of us as well. He was using the same amount of energy but his muscles and brain just didn't seem to track. His private life suffered too.

It is probably unkind of me to say this, but I think he was a feckless Oaf. . . . . . . . . .

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