Supervisor Threatens Machinists… Regrets It Immediately

[@jimbo141]

Whenever a “Manager” suggested to me that a certain operation is underproducing, and I knew for certain he’d never been on the shop floor to audit it, I’ve told them to stand in front of the operation and audit it for four hours and I’d implement every viable improvement he or she could find. None of them ever took me up on my offer. All of them quit or got fired.

[@taylorchasesteele]

This!!!

[@Ironninja84]

You good sir got balls of steel

[@StolenPw]

"and everyone clapped"

[@santosmadrigal3702]

The new problem is a highly educated , overpaid person strait out of college that think a computer can design .

[@StolenPw]

@@santosmadrigal3702 Implying anyone fresh out of college is overpaid

[@jeddediajohnson9179]

I quit over a threat of being fired. The boss picked me up half way home asking where I was going. I said you told me you where going to fire me so I saved you the trouble. He then tried to tell me my job wasnt in danger and that he was just trying to motivate us. I told him he motivated me right back to my house.

[@Raintu]

Done this atleast 6 times, kitchen managers think it's okay to talk to you like you're scum while they make 2$ more than you 😂

[@Wifibee]

Oh fuck that guy, you did right.

[@PsychedelicStorm]

Fuck yeah dude! I’d do the same thing. Fortunately for them, they never threatened us. The only thing my place has been doing is lowering moral and making empty promises to try and keep people. So this year I finally told myself I’ve had enough of their empty promises and used some of my PTO to look for a job. I start in mid April and don’t care that I took a $7 pay cut. The new place has a much better atmosphere that encourages people to try their best, a 90 day performance review that is apparently decent enough to start making up for my loss, and they don’t have a revolving door.

[@demonsluger]

wish i had the courage im still at my first job after being threatened almost every year everyday i started over 10 years ago.

[@jeddediajohnson9179]

@@demonsluger It is scary looking for work. I'll tell you I wont work somewhere if the person isn't greatful I am there. How could you ever ask for a raise or request flexibility when needed in your schedule? If you feel you are fighting to stay there instead of them fighting to keep you. I would say its not worth it. You need to know your a valuable employee and act accordingly to think this way. Even if you need to save up to move on I would. Be valuable and expect to be valued is my approach.

[@almaguapa-sailboatliveaboa440]

Threats at work are the most incompetent management style you can have. They have so much counter effects that it turns out being destructive rather than constructive.

[@jaredking380]

yep...... thats why i walked .......... the boss hired an absolute tool who often caused more mistakes and often cost the boss tens of thousands in stuff ups...... at that point the he would then proceed to talk shit to the boss making it out like the other person messed it up..................... everyone there had had that idiot up against the wall by his throat........... and i was the last one to do so but was the first to leave.

[@RetroPlus]

Managers should always work with their workers not against

[@faxanidu3070]

So 90% of all jobs in America. Not surprised

[@10Sethg]

Surprised he wasn’t promoted honestly.

[@R0tK4t]

It's also a great way for a manager to show 1) they don't know crap about what their department does and 2) how much of a douche they really are.

[@raybaker8726]

In 2009 the company I worked for let me know I was being laid off, Then asked me to write down each and every step I made to make the parts I made. I told them no I wont. All the shop said the same thing. They moved the jobs to Mexico but ended having to move them back to USA because the plant in Mexico couldnt make the parts.

[@TheNewRobotMaster]

They probably should've asked you how to make the parts before telling you that you were laid off.

[@Orange-Jumpsuit-Time]

I once worked for a sleezy company that would have tied that request to a severance package, and a document that required your signature that you wouldn't sue them for letting you go. They'd state, document that job process and we'll give you a weeks salary for every year you worked for us, otherwise, no severance package. Of course it was such an underhanded type of company, that after you turned in the required doc, would say, what you summited is unsatisfactory, regardless, and refuse to pay up.😅🤣😂

[@neveroffended45]

Any company thats in business with Mexico is one failure after another. Nobody is buying the cars from there . Automatic boycott

[@Addictedtoyoutube9]

Never tell secrets I hate I said it but it's true. Sometime some workers have just these skills that are protecting their jobs in this time of social media and power handshakes.

[@highjix]

yea, never train your replacement, those are words I learned a long time ago.

[@112doc]

I have been surgeon 35 years, started out as a Bioengineer. I was recently told by an attorney that a bunch of medical case reviews could be done by summer interns in college. He suggested I didn’t need to hire trained analysts and contract physicians. Machinists have my respect. I could take a design to them and they could make the part. I get tired of individuals who think their degree automatically makes them the smartest in the room. There is creativity in working with your hands and that can’t be book learned.

[@rubberbandman2540]

thank you for your service doc keep doing the good stuff :_-)

[@Paputsza]

Laughs in biology student. Maybe it depends on the medical case. Like, with the cases where a doctor chops off the wrong leg or something and then dies from the other leg a college student can go, "yeah, this is incorrect."

[@GigachadAKM]

For the sake of medical legal analysis on damages, the attorney is right. Medical records reviews are not diagnostic, they are for purposes of reporting on damages. If damages are disputed, a medical expert may be required, but for purposes of distilling damages into a status report to the client, the attorney is correct.

[@DAndyLord]

Cardiac surgery is easy. Learning to become a cardiac surgeon is difficult. I am in a high proficiency career. It's easy to do, if you've spent years doing it. I'ma take the time to thank you for being in a skillful care position. I'm glad I'm not an MD, most of my work can be disassembled and unplugged. I'd imagine an MD would get in trouble for following my diagnostic procedure.

[@Thoringer]

The smartest in the room recognizes potential how far you can go with a team, not how far you can downsize a team.

[@Raugharr]

I was working at an RnD company for a few years. We needed to have a tricky part manufactured, anbd we took the design to a cnc workshop. They said it was physically impossible to manufacture it. And then we took it to our in-house machinist who was working on a traditional lathe, usually producing parts that didn't have special tolerances. He was a veteran, working with lathes for more than two decades, just a few years before retiring. He took a look at it and asked: Is it okay if I do it after lunch? That is one of my favourite stories from that place.

[@pyrotechnicalbirdman5356]

What a badass

[@valveod6671]

So true

[@sovannv]

Cnc are usually for mass produced parts...

[@mrlovely77777]

It is about the quantity...IF it 's small, the company maybe dont want to do it although you give them a good price.

[@toddpick8007]

They probably said that because they didnt want to do a one off part they arent really going to make money off of. CNC is about production mostly doing 1 part on a CNC isnt often cost effective and its alot of times quicker for my to throw parts on a manual lathe than to draft it, program it, set up the machine, get all the tooling together, program the part, calibrate the tools than run the fucking thing.

[@miketrissel5494]

I'm an electrician. I started working at a can making plant in 2011. The plant manager addressed our craft and said, "There isn't any electrical job that can't be done in 5 minutes", in a plant sprawled over 5 acres and a storeroom with no attendant. I repeated that back to him every time a 100 HP motor blew up, or similar major 'inconveniences' He didn't like me very much.

[@AverageAmerican144]

Hahaha that's the way to go, karma is a bitch 😂

[@cerealkiller4248]

I worked in a similar environment, our management respected what we did, we were responsible for so many pieces of kit over a huge area.

[@leifhietala8074]

I'm a pro handyman so I only dabble in electrical, but the idea of getting ANYTHING done in just 5 minutes when I have three buildings and five floors is, frankly, a pleasant fantasy. Five acres? Forget it. It takes five minutes just to get to it.

[@1glopz]

priceless my friend

[@lunalove2259]

I would have made him prove it to me. Next time that motor blew, Hey PM, I would REALLY love to be more effecient, can you show me how to get this rewired in 5minutes? And not explained to him even what 3phase is.

[@larrypoole3906]

I worked 25 years as a maintenance technician. The most badass machinist I ever worked with was named Rodney Cooper. We called him Super Duper. When someone thought he was going slow because, like you mentioned, they had no idea how to do his job, his response was always the same. "You want it done fast or you want it done right?"

[@michaelsong5555]

I call BS on your story. Because the real manager would say, "Do the job right, but faster. And if you can't do it, then figure it out, for that is your damn job." In addition, they usually hire other workers to learn your skills, and then replace you, because those workers are cheaper. And if the production quality/speed doesn't match the intended goal, they simply outsource. This is especially true in big factories.

[@trendel13]

You get two out of three with everything. Fast Cheap Good

[@loolfactorie]

Machinists with qualifications in engineering and years of experience aren't going to be replaced by operators.

[@ungeschaut]

@@trendel13 then make it Chast and Food

[@terrorhuhn9192]

@@trendel13 nope.. cheap + good is not possible because it's slow and slow isn't cheap.

[@Grimmlocked]

I'm an engineer and I am constantly amazed at what my machine department can actually make. I'll be like "man it would be really helpful if we could have a part like this." throw together a quick mockup and run down to the machine center and be like "can you guys do this". they'll point out the issues and what they can and can't do. I would not be able to do their job, and they constantly joke that they would not want to do my job.

[@SkyboxMonster]

Oh how I wish my customer's would ask that question to me first before sending their orders in. The stuff I produce may have relatively large tolerances, but I had to modify my machines in order for them to handle the material the customers send me. The pricing is partly to blame. the final product comes in two shapes. the one that costs the customers less overall is the one that takes much more time and effort to produce. I am looking for a job where I wont have to get extremely creative with cardboard, tape, expanded foam, spare pipes, and empty rolls to build my own modifications to the production equipment. And before anyone asks. Not only did the manager give permission for me to make the modifications they were very impressed at how well they worked at helping move the material through the machines.

[@FalloutUrMum]

@@SkyboxMonster maybe the job you're looking for is improving the machines

[@SkyboxMonster]

@@FalloutUrMum as much as id love to its a design issue. And the company is not taking suggestions.

[@jensen_2261]

Few months ago I was trying to come up with a fixture and I thought, "There's no way they can do this..." I brought it to the machinist and with hardly any tweaks he cooked it up. These guys are indeed a different breed altogether.

[@RES1978]

That’s awesome. Sounds like you show appreciation and get some in return. You sound like a good engineer.

[@oakwoods55]

I had an old boss, who loved to use the word “sacked” all the time. In his head, it motivated people to work harder. Done it to me too many times, until one day. Told him to sack me, walked out his office and cleared my locker and started walking out to go home. That was the first time I ever heard him apologise. He never done that shit with me again.

[@tayro7265]

I did go home. The next day he called wanting to know why I wasn't at work. I said I was waiting to see which one of his competitors was going to pay me the most to stab him in the back.

[@cwebs1000]

@@tayro7265 I like that!

[@gearhead682010]

I’ve told many bosses do me a favor please and fire me, but they knew damn good and well that it would have been damn hard to replace me

[@RealButcher]

Tayro Thinkingoutloud Damn, well said.

[@keithsj10]

Nicely done 👍

[@MrEmiriv]

Even if the printers DO end up replacing machinning completely, someone has to program them, set them up, take the parts, inspect them, and deal with all the things that can go wrong

[@nodak81]

Until they make a robot for that.

[@stevewright8312]

I'm pretty sure that additive manufacturing will take off but there will always be product that needs machining. Machined parts will always be stronger, laser welded parts will always tend to be porous. Who is going to design and program all these parts that need to be right first time? The machinists and engineers who understand engineering

[@babydriver8134]

lol QC and QA are a bitch!

[@spinyjustspiny3289]

@@nodak81 And then someone has to program THAT robot. There will never not be a human component to this, no matter how many iterations and layers of computers there are, and the more layers you add, the easier it is for it to go wrong compared to just hiring a guy to do it manually. There's a reason that most automation of physical labor boils down to just "Put a thing in this thing." It's the quickest, and cheapest, thing to replace compared to the advanced algorithmic computing of physical space a machine would need to fully replicate and exceed a human using a computer as an assistant. By the time we get to that level, the computer's gonna be smart enough to realize it should get paid too.

[@toddkes5890]

I see the printers as augmenting the existing machining. Manager should have said that he wanted some of the people to volunteer to work with the 3D machines, to see what they could and could not do to help out. This would require the volunteers to sit down and learn to program, so for workers who are getting into worse shape and can't stand up for a long time this would be perfect for them. The business gets to use its experienced people to see how the 3D printing could work, and compare that to their existing experience to know how to use the two setups together. I.e. 3D machining can handle complex shapes easily and repeatedly, while existing machining can be done faster.

[@BradGreer]

My engineering degree required a course where you had to machine things to tolerance. It was almost universally dreaded because of how hard it was, and it really instilled a deep respect for quality fabrication, and a strong reservation about making a tolerance tight as a default just because you can. I know it's probably not common for engineers to go through a course like that, but dang I'm glad I did.

[@richardgadoury8452]

You did the right thing. I put in over 4000 hours as a millwright, especially with installations and commissioning. Good luck...

[@THEREALTICKLEMYELMO]

yup dad was a machinist, did trig in his head, tolerances came second nature to him.. made it seem almost like childs play , used that in his home life as well.. his expectations of quality were something all right haha

[@mitchshelton2995]

I worked with an engineer who had the same schooling. He was the best engineer I worked with for the entirety of my 30 years of machining.

[@marklgarcia]

I took the same class in school. Engineers can learn a lot by listening to machinists. Early in my career I spent a lot of time working with machinists. They seemed to appreciate when I would bring new "in-work" drawings to the shop floor to get advice.

[@mitchshelton2995]

@@marklgarcia That’s so true. My father had a full machine shop in our backyard. I was running a no.3 Warner- Swazey turret lathe when I was 13. lol I ended up at Valmet Paper Machine running large CNC mills. Machinist always appreciated a good engineer.

[@Javelina_Poppers]

I'm retired now, but some years back during a major aerospace boom our general supervisor expected us to work our regular week and then 12 hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday. When people balked at that he made the mistake of telling us we were lazy and he could get monkeys to do our jobs. Next day, 45 machinists failed to show up for work, all calling in with a sickness. There was a large scale investigation and we were all called in by upper management for interviews and everyone repeated the same story. The general manager wasn't fired, but he was removed to another building and busted back to running a manual drill press. From then on, all supervisors were afraid to be assigned to our department and we picked up the nickname of The Shark Tank.

[@FiltyIncognito]

Shit, I wish I had one of you guys for a father. When I ran into problems at school or at work, his advice was to just keep my head down. As a teen, a job I worked at had a full-timer promoted as assistant department manager and on his first day as highest ranked he spent it all hanging off everyone's shoulder and micromanaging the shit out of everyone. Unlike the majority of people there at the time, I always performed at 100% and apparently everyone but him knew it. He spent like an hour hanging off my back, patronizing and doubting me, and after wasting both our time he just walked away. No apologies, no nothing. When it was time to close, he assigned more busy work. When I got done with my section, he told me to go do other people's work too. We were all teens in high-school, and it was already passed clock-out, on a school night. We wouldn't be done till it was almost midnight. I walked out with another hard-worker who also finished his work. We were labeled bad employees and our annual raise was hammered. I was just a kid facing middle-aged authorities. I had no idea how to fight for myself, and no role-model to ask for guidance. This has been a theme throughout my life.

[@DeathSithe92]

I currently work in the Aerospace field as well, NDT for quality assurance and let me tell you what, I wish we had your guy's like you right now, I wanna say the aerospace field as a whole as gone down in quality dramatically. I've worked about 5 different places now all of which want 11 hours weekday and then 12-14 hours weekend. and anytime someone says to them that that is ridiculous they say the same thing as you said your bosses did "Oh your just lazy, I can hop down to the local home depot and hire a dozen of your replacements for half the cost I pay you guys." and unlike your generation aside from me and 2 other guys I've met in different places, everyone immediately starts quaking in their boots, start looking around frantically and dropping to their knees "Oh right away sir! what ever you want sir! you got it sir!" ontop of that the general vibe at these companies too is to stomp on the neck of every coworker around you and stab them in the back because if you don't get dirt on them, then they'll do the same to you to get you fired and ensure the security of their position as a "needed" individual.....I have family who all are retired from the field and when I talk to them about the stuff these companies pull they just shake their head and say "Oh man it wasn't like that at all when I worked at these companies!" heck 3 of the companies I worked at had a LARGE work force of illegal aliens working on I.T.A.R. contract work, meant for certain levels of security clearance.......it just makes me feel so useless when trying to stand up for my rights and skill set and my fellow coworkers who are all petrified of pissing their manager off and getting replaced by some guy they found in the back of a Lowe's......

[@MrTheHillfolk]

Damn man that was a feel-good story right there.

[@keithsj10]

I see you're retired, but you can pass on your wisdom and experience to the newbies out there. What do you wish you would've done instead? I would recommend getting debt free with a large savings/investment portfolio. Sacrifice today for tomorrow. That gives them options to walk away from A-holes and never look back. Unless they grovel at your feet and give you a fat bonus AND a handsome raise. Never underestimate your worth, especially if you're worth a sh¡t. 👍

[@wolphin732]

Personally, I'd love to be a manager of a group that could do their own work with minimal supervision. I would show the respect for the skills that each have, and would not expect everyone to work without a break, and if it was something exceptional, would be there too to show that if they had to work, I would be there too.

[@TheDavemarz]

One of the most valuable lessons I learned as a young engineer was to take my first drawings down to the machinists and talk with them. I was very fortunate that all of these men were thrilled to take the time and teach me about their profession and help me improve the quality and machinability of my parts. Even now, over 20 years, later I still remember and implement the valuable lessons those men taught me. If engineers are complaining about how long it takes to make a part then maybe what they need is to better understand what it takes to machine a part and what methods they can use during initial design to make their parts more machinable.

[@svenjorgensenn8418]

After 10 years at Ford 80% of engineers are complete idiots who get paid because Ford needs something "new"

[@rgloria40]

It is not like a tool guy getting a PHD or master degree...There are greeks like that...

[@quillmaurer6563]

I once worked as an engineer at a company that did some of their machining in house, on several occasions I went down to the shop to talk to the lead machinist about the design of a difficult-to-manufacture part, we'd brainstorm about how it might be accomplished. In the end the part in question actually was 3D printed from laser-sintered stainless steel, though with some machining post-processing done in house, the machinist concluded that was our best option. But being able to talk with them was very helpful for both sides. This is also why I'm glad we had a (rather rudimentary) machining course as part of my mechanical engineering degree. Some engineers will do machining work as part of their job (I have a few times), others will never touch a machine, perhaps never even see the part they are designing in person, but will still benefit from that understanding.

[@hardcoreclassicenjoyer]

Why do I hear Chad music?

[@adrianrust3229]

I cannot Like this enough times! Show your design to the person that has to fabricate it, put it together, or take it apart. They will be happy to tell you what you should do differently to make it better.

[@whatsstefon]

When I was young I began working in a machine shop (actually a huge factory) and was told to run some mills to deck some cylinder heads. I noticed that measuring the thickness of the engine head before and after, the mill which was programmed for that specific head was taking too much metal off. Sure it saved time with one or two passes instead of three or four, but it was shaving too much off. This would cause an engine to have too high a compression for what it was designed for. I tried explaining this to them. They told me to shut up and do what I’m told. A few months later these engines were coming back with issues caused by detonation. Pinging, from too high a compression using regular pump petrol and likely the lowest octane. These engines were not going into a performance car no matter how hard you squinted at them. I got blamed. They were my batch of heads. Standing in the office with my supervisor who told me to shut up, and the CEO, whom asked me why this happened? I said “my supervisor ignored my discovery that the program was incorrectly coded and was milling too much meat off the heads. He told me to shut up and get back to work or he will fire me. So I did what I was told because I needed this job more than I need to prove myself” Supervisor is looking at me like he’s going to kill me. They say nothing and ask me to leave now. So I said “sure. I’ll pack my things and go elsewhere that actually listens to their dumb employees.” They closed down a year later. Quality control wasn’t their priority, and as for a machine shop, if you don’t have that, you might as well deck those cylinder heads with a flipping angle grinder.

[@kaitan4160]

Many many Moons ago after i finished my apprenticeship i started working in Industrial Deconstruction. Bad Job Market at the time. One day my Boss came along and asked me build a Tool. Sorry in advance im not an english speaker. Basically i shall build teh tool with which you get an Ball Bearing of its Shaft. But we arent talking small ones, im talking the Big Industrial sized ones. I shall build this tool and get the bearing of the Shaft without a scratch. Because the Machine was already sold to someone else. But they had just needed the Machine itself and the Shaft, not the bearing (idk why). I told him thats impossible on Site. That he has to spent the Money. I cant just go around and take some old Screws from 1930´s (yes thats how old the Machine was) and some Pipes and some steel beams and build such a precision tool. I was kicked off the Site. "Degraded" to the Asbestos Sites. Bossman did bring the "yes man" of the Company on site to do it. He didnt just scratch the shaft. No, he tore of Metal, several inches deep. And to top it off, when the Bearing finally came off, it dropped onto the "tube" of the Machine. The enamel coated Tube. Replacing the Enamel did cost more than the Customer was willing to pay, but the Contract for it was already signed. I couldnt stopp laughing when i heard that and saw the pictures. Late ron my Boss fired me (weird story for itself) and came 3 Months later asking if i come back. He realized that it wasnt the smartest move to fire the only Worker (128 employees at the time) that had a Background in Metal Works. And yes my Supervisors (foreman? which would be the right one here?) were learned cooks, bricklayers, painters. Our Machine Operator was a learned Baker with specialization on Confectioner. But a Genius with the Excavator. Great Sites with him. Always fresh baked goodies to keep the moral up.

[@hairylarry6167]

Proud of you. You moved on to a place without those kind of know it alls.

[@trillrifaxegrindor4411]

this is highly suspect..if you were a newb "machine operator" no one would fathom allowing you to determine,MEASURE and or adjust finish machining on a cylinder head.......also ,no machine shop would ship out cylinder heads machined incorrectly by a rookie operator unless it was in india.....every part has specifications,if what you are doing doesn't meet the specifications YOU DONT RUN THE PARTS

[@jeli3953]

@@trillrifaxegrindor4411 In the 70s I worked for a company (Deutsch ECD, Banning, California) that made electrical connectors for military and civilian aircraft, as well as other demanding applications such as satellites. That's where I first heard a supervisor say, "Fuck it, run 'em!" So I did. They hired in people off the street to be inspectors who knew nothing about manufacturing. I and other machinists had to show them how to properly inspect the parts. Since my experience there (I quit after a year and a half) I've said, "Never say FIRE in a crowded factory." FIRE meaning Fuck It Run 'Em.

[@whatsstefon]

@@trillrifaxegrindor4411 it was a pretty bad company. They originally started me in a parts washer. Then a few weeks later I was on the line bore grinder for camshaft journals. A few months later they threw me on a Bridport. Then finally a CNC machine. Sorry I didn’t recount my entire history over a period of twelve months working at the place for you. The engines “passed” because they worked when you started them. They didn’t care about quality there. Not in their rebuilds or their staff.

[@BitwiseMobile]

My dad was an old school machinist. They had one CNC lathe in his shop when he first opened. He had a few traditional lathes, and a bunch of mills. He worked on the mill mostly. Anyway, I remember him going into his office there - he had a big window so he could see the rest of the shop. I would see him bent down over a new blueprint, making notes and calculations. Then he would come back and design a jig for it. All of that work was to design the jig and get the starting and ending points for the operation. Then he would come out, put it on the jig, tell me what to do, and I would be making parts. I was 14 and with very little knowledge of machining, but with his setup and guidance I was making parts with very tight tolerances. Most of his work was aerospace and military, which requires very tight tolerances. He was a master. All old school, and without computers. This was circa 1984. He encouraged me to learn programming, so I could help him with the lathes. He had one guy, but he was a pain in the ass, and my dad couldn't really fire him, because g-code and CNC was all new back then and finding a replacement was going to be hard. My dad eventually replaced all his machines with CNC and learned g-code himself, but his influence has been felt my entire life. Machinists rule!

[@demonsluger]

I hope he and you decided to not forget how to do it without computers and pass that valuable knowledge on. There is to much knowledge lost to tech for my liking nowadays. Makes me wanna go around the world and try and compile all old knowledge because the computer can never teach us the little tricks and knows that arent straightforward.

[@DS-th7wn]

Punch cards a cassette tape days!

[@mitchshelton2995]

I learned everything I needed from my father. We had a full manual machine shop in our backyard when I was growing up. He had me running a Warner-Swazey no.3 turret lathe when I was 13. lol I’m retired now but I still remember everything he taught me. He was a little hard on me but I know why now. Machinist are a different breed.

[@demonsluger]

@@mitchshelton2995 well if you aint hard on your kid with machines that could take of a limb or even kill and something happens you will never forgive yourself. But man that sounds awesome wish i had someone that cared and wanted to teach me stuff like that as a kid instead of having to teach myself at 30+

[@tomlee432]

I am a maintenance tech, level 1. It only took me 4 years to get that. Also a master tech with over 32 years experience. At the last plant i was at we had no union. We crossed all lines. Same with die repair. We welded, fabricated, repaired, designed, and purchased everything we needed to keep our plant running. we would use the cnc's, bridgeports, lathes, surface grinders, etc to make parts or fab lines from the engineering dept. I'm talking about a talented bunch of guys. The people in the front office came up with an idea to get us to try to do even more. The meeting in the cafeteria was a joke. Now they did not get approval from the old man. ( rather young guy really ) this guy was a very good and cool leader that knew the value of our department. These morrons did not like the fact that we had downtime and nobody dared fu-k with us because we knew how to do everything and got on it like bluebonnet. So as we listen to this chick that had no manufacturing experience other than being a bosses secretary tell us we at all times need to be doing something and tried to tell us that from now on we are going to be doing some production going forward. When just about the entire shift of guys from our department started laughing, we get this if looks could kill stares and the threat of termination if we did not comply. Her exact words. When we told her thats our job she starting acting like a child whose candy had been taken. So she sends 2 guys home at random with the threat of job loss. We had heard enough at that point and we all stood up to walk out. She thought we were walking out of her meeting going back to the plant like we were ignoring her. This brought on her yelling. Our lead then yelled back we were not going back to the plant, we were " ALL " going home. You could only hear the humm of the vending machines after he told her that. We were all there way before she ever darkened our doors and gave blood to that plant and our CEO. Needless to say they barely made any parts that night shift as we did way too much on each shift for them to even approach quotas. So now the next day only a couple guys are showing up in our department and they are blowing shipments left and right. Did she try any sort of damage control, only if you count more threats on the phone. We knew she did not report what had taken place and also knew she was going to have some splaining to do Lucy. It was about 3 days and she finally has no other option but to tell the old man. We knew when all of our phones went off at the same time informing us of a meeting of the entire department , all 3 shifts at once and an apology from Mr. You know who. Well at the meeting the very first thing he did was tell mrs. So and so to apologise and then he said he was proud of us and we were all still his employees and we would all be paid for the better part of a week off. He said we were to do as we had always done and went so far as to give out his number to each and every one of us so that if anyone ever tried that again he wanted to know right away. We were served a very good lunch and given the weekend off as by now the plant was shut down and he was going to be meeting with department heads to find out what was going on. Sure he asked people to keep important lines going tp make shipments but that was only 25 people each shift out of 155. The maintenance department did lose a few guys to this as they had lined up new jobs in under 24 hours and it sucked because they were good guys. I could go on and on with this as it turned into a shitshow not long after because the old man started buying up companies world wide and was gone for long periods of time and we all know when the cats away the mice will play. But thats another story. Bottom line is like so many of us know , our jobs are very labor intensive and highly skilled. So when idiots like these threatens to fire us, we respond the only way we know how. We just move on so quickly they don't know what hit them. Just like they don't know shit.

[@JohnSmith-wx5bh]

This same thing happens everywhere. Why does the world economic forum not take notice??

[@r4a2g0]

Long but it was a good read.

[@7kudos]

Been doing machinist and maintenance work with my pops since I was 10. Began learning even earlier. Let me tell you, that doesn't sound too far off at all. I can go into detail but two years ago I was giving a leadership role hire than most 30 years of experience workers. Didn't set too well with most but just getting to start a month of showing my skills. Shows that no matter the experince. Skill is skill. Can't replace it with words. A younger hire was supposed to take over for me, no experience only school blueprint and maintenance experience. Didn't get nuances of jokes from older people than him. Serious jokes with no real intent just playful banter. One day, he had enough of it, all the confusion from talking to the general skill gap of people he was supposed to "manage." Placed there as a bosses friends new hire. One week from my vacation I come back to see if he had done okay and is progressing through the labor. Checked for three hours how his blueprint and mockup plan for the guys had been going. Shit you not, the whole labor department of 20 plus people had been giving me praise over his lack of skill while I was gone. He hadn't moved the plans forward into the post production stage where, we have to go through clean up and minor inspection of the product planning stage. Behind my back I was attacked and close to being hit with an axe from this Little Punk. He thought he could get the jump on me but didn't failed at that too. His own ego blown up by his father's skill with words. That got him the chance of hire, changed to fired and jail time. Incompetency even in other skill sets is one thing I now have to look for and have an even closer eyeball on but with open arms. Whichever "new hires' that are out there. This is a good view on life. Any job setting no matter. Has this view at some degree. Shit.... :/

[@1953beetle]

Greed is the new God?

[@Furzkampfbomber]

Nice story, but for the love of god, next time make use of paragraphs. I am not a native english speaker and this was... difficult to read to say the least.

[@jakek6728]

I had a boss that would "motivate" employees by telling them they can be replaced if not enough work is done. He had been doing this for a long time apparently and I had bee working there for a month when I heard that for the first time. I stood up in the meeting and said " consider the last two weeks by two week notice, I quit and will be packing up my tools now" he begged me to stay in front of everyone and lost all respect. I unknowingly called his bluff and he looked like a complete fool. It was very satisfying

[@svenjorgensenn8418]

Managers make lots of money because of the people underthem, not themselves

[@gunfisher4661]

I saw in one large shop that was owned over seas the management ordered all chairs and stools removed from the grounds except for the office. Said it was impeding production.

[@silverfoxx18]

I wish I could do something like that.

[@jaysdood]

I hope you kept walking

[@jakek6728]

@@jaysdood yeah I followed through and packed up my tools while he was begging me to stay

[@jman0870]

This can be said for most tradesmen. We don’t grow on trees and we certainly aren’t a dime a dozen anymore. Skilled tradesmen take decades to master their crafts and less and less competent individuals are entering the trades every day. There are still factories in my area trying to hire production mechanics and electricians for $22 an hour. It’s laughable.

[@teknicron1080]

it gets worse when you realize how much trade work was outsourced, and now the trade jobs in the US are about to have a problem as people who have been machinists for 30+ years are about to retire, and they make up the bulk of trade labor right now. I only just got into Machining back in 2015, and have only recently started to get some decent shop experience (company issue). the US is going to be hurting for tradesmen in the next few decades.

[@jman0870]

@@teknicron1080 not all trades work in factories dude. If you think machinists are hard headed I have a few HVAC techs for you to meet 🤣

[@teknicron1080]

@@jman0870 i dont think you read my post correctly.

[@jman0870]

@@teknicron1080 oops. That too. Stay out of factories. Get your experience in machine shops. This Russian bullshit is finally waking up the politicians a little bit and we, as a country, are dealing that globalism sucks.

[@babydriver8134]

I was in management for 7 years before I retired. I got bored and looked for work. Everybody wanted a college degree to do the same work I had done for 7 years in a field I had spent 25 years in. (I was a mustang) Go figure.

[@MysteriousSlip]

I'm an engineer and still face palmed at what that engineer said. In my experience, most engineers have a lot of respect for the machinists, those guys are wizards!

[@yottaforce]

Engineer here too. 100% agree. Don't be an d*** to other people. You never know when you need them. Actually, don't be one under any circumstances, it just makes it a bad place to work.

[@sam805236]

True machinists are wizards, 9/10 can't program shit and just know how to replace the stock and press a button all the while there's a 50% chance they're not checking the coolant levels or cleaning out filters and leave the machine at risk of running dry or catching fire. True machinists are pretty much engineers, their mind works in 3D when trying to solve a problem or program a part.

[@langdalepaul]

Agreed. Before I became an engineer, I spent a year doing a kind of abbreviated apprenticeship in the machine shop, getting some experience with many different machine tools. It taught me respect for the people that use them every day and produce high tolerance, complex parts with them. It also taught me not to have stupid expectations of what can be machined.

[@firebeardlongfellow5295]

As an engineer myself in quality assurance. LEAVE THE MACHINISTS ALONE AND CONSULT THEM DURING PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS!!! Granted you need to check part quality, and access what did it to cause a quality failure. But 9/10 it's the machine itself being on the fritz, not the machinist themself, and we both wind up troubleshooting why something happened. Also if someone is new/learning it is a teaching moment not a haha gotcha you fucked up moment. Failures will occur due to someone learning, and their pace will be slower. So what? That's the short term of it. Nothing more. There is no benefit in squabbling over who has power over what. Everyone is working to make good quality products and money. There is 0 reason to bring hierarchy into anything unless needed for quarantining parts, and doing the paperwork in the background. Otherwise treat your workers right and guess what? They make good parts, everyone is happy, AND WE ALL MAKE MORE MONEY!!!

[@yoobro9579]

Question here.? Isn’t it the norm to study basic machining in engineering because I’m an engineer to but when i was still studying we were required to operate machines like lathe machines, shapers, milling and etc.. So engineers should know how difficult it is to finish a work piece in the amount of time needed with precision..

[@snes09]

Imagine if the boss just phrased it like this, "Guys the engineering team is breathing down my neck. They're complaining the parts aren't being made fast enough. I know you guys have years of experience in this department. I'm open to suggestions for how we can speed up this process."

[@americanoligarchy8825]

Pay the ceo less and hire more people that actually produce for the company and not just drain it.

[@ThatCamel104]

@@americanoligarchy8825 that makes too much sense, never gonna happen unless you twist some arms lel

[@hoguemr]

@@americanoligarchy8825 it's just hard to find that skill set. We have been trying to hire machinists giving increased wages and big signing bonuses and just can't get really good machinists. We have hired a lot of operator level people and are trying to train them through an apprenticeship program

[@NickolaySheitanov]

No guarantee the team would care

[@DogshitArgument]

@@americanoligarchy8825 So brave, how do you do it? Such a brave “pay CEO less money” take. Truly thought provoking stuff.

[@AntalopeAUT]

3 years ago I´ve been asked by a guy from workprepping (arbeitsvorbereitung) taking a look into my CTX Beta 2000: "What takes so long here ? A low-level trained ape could do this ." Mind you, that guy just came up to my machine, didn´t even introduce himself to me ( a new guy with about 2 months in this company) and spews bollocks as if he was a machine-tooling worldchampion . I turned, went to my supervisor´s office and asked him : "Hey Boss, I´ve got a scrawny, grey-haired guy that I dont even know out there asking me why things take time . I suggest you go and give him a bit of a talking to, I´m going home because I´ve got better things to do than get insulted by unknown office-buffoons. Have a nice day, I´m going to change and then I´m out for today, you can take one of my holiday-days ." Proceeded to walk upstairs to our changing rooms and started to get out of my working clothes . Before I was fully changed my boss came up to me and told me that he went and told that guy that instead of pissing off his machinists he first should be doing his own job properly . Funnily enough, the next day, our CTO came and asked me what all the difficulties in machine-tooling even were and I looked at him and just said :Do you have a week´s time ? I have early shift next week and if you really want to know what I´m doing firsthand then come and watch me work next week . Our CTO stayed with me on the machine for a full 10 days (2 whole workweeks, from monday to friday), noting down everything I did and what I explained to him . Nobody asked why things took "so long" ever since .

[@thefirehawk1495]

But that's what good leadership does, they ask questions, they get feedback, they watch what is being done to try to optimize the process, it's much better than the alternative which is cracking the whip on good employees and then people get emotionally hurt and productivity declines.

[@MaxCruise73]

@AntalopeAUT, Very impressed with the amount of time your CTO spent with you. Very rare occurrence in the Machining/Manufacturing world. If I may ask, what was the outcome of all the time the CTO spent with you?

[@bilbo_gamers6417]

Wow. That CTO sounds amazing.

[@Myr3390]

Good for you and from what I read, it sounds like the actual management did the right thing and came to actually see what you do in detail. Imagine if all management took the time to actually see what their employees do to actually meet those levels the company needs.

[@minnesotamarine9861]

That's a good boss

[@mcvet57103]

I once worked as a CNC operator for a company that made their own parts. After being there a year I was given a .5 cent an hour raise and found out everyone else got at least $1 an hour. When I complained they said I needed to double my production if I expected a good raise. Well I put in my 2 week notice on the spot. It took a week for them to hire my replacement who I was told to train. In a week when I knew it could not be done. So I began training. After a week the new guy couldn't even read a blue print let alone set the machine up without me canstantly reminding him how to. My last day, they asked me to stay on another two weeks and get the guy at least to where he could produce a useable product. I said, sorry I gave you two weeks, maybe next time you'll not insult the help with a crappy raise. Never looked back, and the business closed a little over a year later because their product lacked quality. IMO because everyone was cutting corners to get their numbers up.

[@dakotahart7645]

lol i worked at a shop and once i put my 2 weeks in they wanted me to train a new operator and my reponce to new guy infront of boss is you aint doing shit im on my 2 weeks boss got mad and i looked at him and said fire my ill got to my new job tomorrow and get paid more his face went red and he stomped away so i had to go for a smoke break XD

[@jestershyper]

@@dakotahart7645 Just bear in mind that manager doesnt make as much as you think. And it is very likely he fears being terminated every single day because of threats from above. Those managers are given a goal to hit, except its not a goal its a requirement. They put nice bonus's on the goals so if you hit them, the manager gets a bonus cool But if you dont, its not as simple as no bonus like many of you think. Your pulled into meetings, told your replaceable like a sock, told that your reference from them would be horrible if you can even hit simple goals (often not simple or easy at all) and so when your manager comes down and seems upset that everything is going perfect just stop, breath, and remember his job is both harder to get hired onto, harder to keep for more than 3 months, and harder to get a reference from, because upper management only care about money. And it trickles down to the floor managers, who live the most stressful lives in the entire business. They have to deal with threats daily of termination with a bad reference over things they cannot control, and then when going to the floors to explain to the workers the goal for the day, and half the employees act like they dont give a damn. Sure you can get a job in a day (unlikely) but everyone likes to point fingers at the floor managers, when they get shit from the top, and bottom. There is no plus sides to it. Meh benefits, meh pay, no stability because your constantly on thin ice.

[@DamienDarkside]

@@jestershyper As a previous manager for a restaurant that has more stress and bullshit than whatever this guy's manager had, who cares about all that you wrote? You're a manager, manage your bullshit. That is your job, if you don't like being in a position of power or can't handle the responsibility, get out of the position of power. You APPLY to become a manager, or are ASKED. You said YES and if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen and make way for the chef who can.

[@SweatyFatGuy]

I was working well below my skill level making piston rings, button pushing CNC when I could program them and make just about whatever I wanted. I saved the company $120k a month on one part number alone, a 10" diesel oil ring for Electromotive train engines. $90k a month on a compression ring for the same engine. The engineers said I was wrong, and they'd have to rework all the efficiencies, so I proved it to the GM and my boss. They made the changes and scrap dropped to less than 5% on those and other rings. Did I get a thank you or a bonus? nope. The engineers who said I was wrong got raises though. What I got was people telling me my breaks were too long when I wasn't taking them, and more work was heaped on me. Then they gave a maintenance position to a guy with zero experience that paid $2 more an hour instead of me, I had been working there five years, he was there about 8 months. Partly politics, partly they were relying on me to make the parts and train people. I trained the 2nd shift guy and his numbers compared to mine as long as I had everything set up for him when I left for the day. They would complain about me taking OT on weekends, so I would take a vacation day on Friday and on Monday, which would result in a massive backlog of parts. Then for six months there would be no complaints about me putting in 60 to 70 hour weeks. Was getting carpal tunnel pretty bad, they were essentially using me since piston ring tolerances are .01 to .001 which I can do on a freakin bench grinder, and people would still screw it up. So I got a job working on cars at a shop, because I do that too, and didn't give them a two week notice. I just told the boss that because of what I outlined above, I was not coming to work on Monday... That was in 1998 when I was 29 years old. Ended up going back to the military in 2000 because all the factories packed up and went to Mexico in 98-00. I got to enjoy my second war, came back from my 2004 deployment kinda screwed up, and I have been retired since 2005. I build muscle cars that I drive and enjoy. GTOs and Firebirds mostly. The military does some of the same things.. like when you are competent and capable, they heap more work on you. The less competent and capable complain about you and try to tear you down. I have zero interest in working jobs for other people to pay my way. I'd much rather work for myself.

[@dukereguardless1720]

This is relatable. Worked for an international laboratory company very recently. Only finished a month ago by now. And you could only do the job I was doing for 6 months before it started to wear you down. Especially if you're a short person. And 1 month into the job I found out that they don't set up their pay systems like the fair work ombudsman. So no pay rides what so ever. Then a few months later I found out that the regional manager/director cheated everybody's contract just so workers on the same role and similar can get low pay, his region could get a higher profit margin and more bonuses for himself that he didn't need. Needless to say I'm glad to have left that shit show. I was getting paid 25/hr where other companies/differnet branches were paying 29-32/hr. I was getting 1700 paychecks for 70 hrs work every fortnight and it wasn't enough let alone it didn't compensate for the pain you'd get. Even my boss pointed out that the same job can never ever maintain any worker for at least a year.

[@larryjanson4011]

i am not a machinist in any way shape or form. but i do admire everything you can do with just a block of metal. you guys are true artists.

[@howardborchardt5528]

It's our art to make a very valuable part from a solid piece of metal that will cost us sweat and hardship knowledge plus skill for a very under appreciating employer who knows nothing about our skill set

[@Orange-Jumpsuit-Time]

@@howardborchardt5528 The only true skilled machinist nowadays, is the one who makes the fixturing, and, or special tooling that supports the CNC production. Even the person who operates a Bridgeport to do secondary operations on production parts, that for whatever reason, weren't done by CNC, shouldn't consider himself a skilled machinist.

[@Orange-Jumpsuit-Time]

It only requires knowledge of yesteryear, to know that most of the required skill of a true machinist (machine handle turning, and accurate locating) has been removed from the human being, and transferred to the CNC equipment. Setting down a fixture, or a vise on a table, and setting tooling in holders, button pushing, can be done with limited skills. The machinist of old had to become one with his machine, and physically manipulate the machine for eight hours, which meant no sitting down on the job, although many CNC shops incorporate a silly rule where their operators can't sit down.

[@howardborchardt5528]

Hey the only jumper suit I got I use for working on my vintage bikes but I have both manual and CNC in my personal garage..can't manually lap parts on the machining center

[@chipblue7342]

Before I switched to machining I worked in an industry where over the course of 20 years I supervised 2-3000 employees. Every time I personally fired someone, I felt a personal sense of failure because it was my job to help them to succeed. Bosses who don't realize this don't run good businesses. Most people want to do a good job. The boss's job is to remove obstacles, and give feedback on performance, usually good. IMO.

[@marcblanchet678]

figure out their strength and feed it. Bulk that skill up giving them a sense of self worth and make certain they understand you value them and their abilities.

[@paulmanson253]

Good for you. However I am sorry you felt a sense of failure. My own experience is that problem employees refuse to improve their game. There are some who break stuff just because they can. Or cause early failure. Long time ago,a writer said"You would think what a man does for a living would be powerful motivation for him to learn it well ". I found giving a guy another chance just reinforced what he did most poorly,that got him fired or disciplined in the first place. Human personality is never straightforward. Some people just end up out of their depth. Others just cannot or will not listen. And getting a stubborn one to change their operation is practically impossible. And the people with attitude or psychological problems are perhaps the most difficult of all. They want the world to conform to them. Doesn't work that way. At any rate,nice to know of someone who really tried to behave responsibly with authority. I bet the price was high.

[@jamesdavis8021]

I only had to fire one person.Even though he needed to be fired,It bothered me a lot

[@johnmcginnis5201]

I rose to the ranks of being a supervisor and I quickly learned the one thing I absolutely hated, hiring. Not on the front end, but the back end if I had to let someone go for whatever reason.

[@tehscope9422]

I worked for 25 years for a courier co. you could go months even years doing a great job never ever heard anything but fuck up once they are all over you , messed up , it's important to tell people they are doing good and that you notice.

[@tcwaterdrill]

40 years ago I worked for a tool and die shop for 1 hour, the new boss had a college degree and had taken a 2 year coarse in maching shop and was hired to takeover to run the shop. About half of the tool and die workers had went elsewhere in 3 weeks so they needed tool and die machinist. I hired on and the first thing the boss told me was not to talk to any of the other workers, if I had any question I was to come to him. I was to come to him for any tool bits or end mills, he would provide them as he saw fit. The first job I had was using a 1/8" end mill cutting a keyway in a 4140 shaft. I started the cut and the power went out in the whole shop, and of course the 1/8" end mill snapped because the mill went down with the power. As we were waiting for the power to come back on, I went back to the boss to ask for another 1/8" end mill and he threw a fit because the 1/8" end mill had snapped. I asked him what I needed to do to get my tool box and I was not going to work for someone like him and he told me I could not leave. He got the company Engineer to come and talk to me about not leaving. I left and told them I would be back in 2 week to pick up my pay for the one hour. That afternoon I was working for another company on their 3rd shift. The company went out of business in less than 8 months after I worked there. The company had been open for more than 50 years. Thinking someone with a college degree can run a maching shop does not always work out. Never let someone that does not know your trade or your worth put you down.

[@zlcoolboy]

A good boss knows that his is likely ignorant to how to do his subordinate's jobs and should try to refer to them for explanations.

[@one7decimal2eight]

I know this is fiction by anytime in the show star trek the next generation the captain had a serious decision to make he always got opinions from his officers. Then decided. I ran my business in advertising the same way. Got input from all as my decision would impact everyone. Listened to all then made a decision. Only foolish people think they have the answer to everything and ignore input from those with more experience or those who might see something that you are missing at that moment.

[@sudilos1172]

It’s almost as if. Hiring people straight out of College is worthless and actually devastating to your business. As if as an Owner, you have to personally invest time with presence to ensure the new management is working out.

[@rhinox0110]

Luckily I had a few relatives, friends, and associates that were/are actual Machinists that I was able to learn not just the trade but how to conduct myself and what this trade and all related trades actually means to the world as a whole. A decent Machinist can figure, layout, and design almost anything and are worth their weight in platinum. "You can hire fresh engineers all day, but unless they have practical knowledge and work experience they won't be worth the shit you scrape off your boot" that is a direct quote from an old Engineer friend of mine who had almost 50 years of experience, I miss you man everyday.

[@jimimmler9110]

This story brings back many memories for me. In a different industry a boss I had held a staff meeting and made similar threats. ‘I’ll fire every one of you! Don’t think I won’t do it! I’m a bastard that way!’ He repeated several times. Great motivational talk. I immediately began the formation of my own company and all the staff came to work for me.

[@goodgoyim9459]

keep in mind how much this story says about the company and owner itself when someone this delusional and incompetent yet having spent 8+ years in university to get a math degree could somehow walk through the hiring process and be selected and no one knew just how retarded he was. Gaurantee you they hired him solely on paper credentials and didnt have the competence to read a person, let alone a book.

[@B_Ahmed1234]

For some reason some bosses don't seem to understand that their job should be to help their employees do be the best they can be, but instead want to be their adversary

[@FiltyIncognito]

Honestly, the culture of referring to human-resource personnel as 'boss' needs to die. So many of them are just barely a step up from the office delivery boy, and could easily fall into the title of secretary. Their necessary level of training and education is so low that it should be a crime for proper hardworking professionals to call them 'boss'. Props to ACTUAL bosses whose leadership helps everyone involved do their job better and improve as a person.

[@josephj6521]

Great work Jim! 😉

[@GoingtoHecq]

@@B_Ahmed1234 if your boss is your adversary, it's because they're taking more from you than you should give, and they know it. You can't be friends with someone you exploit.

[@boomtothesooner7426]

I once worked with a guy that was an elite machinist that had been around a while and started getting a lot of flack from the boss. Don't know if it was legal or not, but he took every memory stick with the programs on them and said, "these are mine," because he did create them. He then walked out mad. The boss had to bring in outside guys to write programs and come up with setups, which was super expensive. The rest of us were pretty much kids that just ran parts and did offsets with no knowledge of programming, tooling, setups, etc. It took the company years to recover because they tried to figure it out without outside help for a while. It was a fail.

[@jg45631]

Ah yes, the classic Bus Factor of 1, management loves swinging around their verbal hammer, and love to threaten the only guy who knows how to swing a digital one. Don't mess with the guy who can tell you your part and tolerance is 5 hours of aerospace grade draft work for a simple automotive use at a glance of the specs!

[@Paal2005]

That is definitely not legal, and you should never do such thing. It might financially ruin you. When you work for a company and create something relevant to your work, it's owned by that company and not you. Taking a work product I theft, and the value of said product is often way higher than you might expect. Being the creator of a product only gives you credit as such (the creator), but not necessarily ownership.

[@Wifibee]

@@Paal2005 Except if the guy in question did this on his own time or from a previous position and used them at the workplace and also if he wasn't paid for that part of the job. If it's clearly his and the boss didn't pay for that sort of work, he has no right to claim these back.

[@Paal2005]

@@Wifibee This might differ between laws in different countries. I am by no means an expert, just have some first hand experience. In my country, if the work was made while you were employed and it was in the same field of work as you are employed to do, it doesn't matter whether it's during work hours or not. The only exception I know of is if you have multiple employers (which have to be cleared with your main employer), then it can belong to them instead. It rarely happens that the main employer will allow you to work for another company within the same field of work though.

[@notbob555]

@@Paal2005 That should fall under the specific contract that you have with your employer, and not a law. If the company didnt do anything to him, they likely didnt have ownership due to the terms if the contract

[@trevcam6892]

I am almost 81 having spent all of my working life in Engineering. I started off as an apprentice and finished up as a Senior Design Engineer with an Engineering degree. I've embraced and used advances in equipment and techniques but always with a degree of initial cynicism born of experience. CAD for instance is a wonderful tool as is CNC but the latter still requires a level of skill and precision that sadly I doubt that I could ever achieve. However, starting as an apprentice means that I got my hands dirty, so to speak, and have always looked upon precision machinists, and all production workers, with a mixture of envy and respect. I loved design and was better at it, I think, because I was exposed to the whole gamut of the industry. I always tried to persuade my superiors and managers to provide the best production equipment that they could afford, pointing out that although the money comes in the front door, what we sold left by the back door via the workshop. I've tried time and time again since my retirement to emulate qualified machinists in my ham-fisted clumsy way to make stuff in my garage/workshop but it's never very pretty. My welding is particularly ugly. It keeps me out of trouble and is a darn sight better than watching daytime TV. Some of it actually works, which always gives me a buzz of excitement and satisfaction. Not all managers and degree-qualified Engineers are unappreciative of their employees although it seems to be an increasing trend. The trend is now towards task-oriented working where a person doesn't need to think because he or she only deals with a limited number of tasks with a formulaic set of instructions assigned to them and can therefore be paid less. The real rot set in many years ago when the "Personnel Department" stealthily changed to the "Human Resources Department" because "personnel" sounds to much like "persons" whereas "resources" sound more like machines that have no feelings and can be thrown away when no longer required. The best Engineering (and other professions) education is best when the training is a combination of academic studies and hands-on workshop experience. My wife was a Nurse and was trained in the same way. All hard-working people deserve the same respect, from the garbage collector to the President, although I'm not so sure about some of the latter in recent years. Perhaps I should just exclude all politicians of all parties from my respect list.

[@pcs5852]

"Perhaps I should just exclude all politicians of all parties from my respect list." With age comes wisdom.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

no politicians are perfect but even they are still normal people, mostly, they can be real scumbags and are always doing things to get votes rather than because they are the right things to do though

[@PerrynBecky]

I am 20 years your junior, so I have to say that you've gained a lot of wisdom over time. Well said.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

@Jesus Gonzalez they allready print entire guns out of plastic dude, and threading a piece of metal pipe is not particularly difficult I think

[@babydriver8134]

Bottom Line: a good machinist is an artist.

[@gregoryfranklin5108]

In the (OLD) days - when my father was in the tool manufacturing business, the company required its supervisory staff to actually work in each department for a period of time as part of their training . Kind of a "shuffle your papers when you can actually do it" approach . Then , just like everybody else , they started hiring fresh (cheap) college boys . It was down hill from then on .

[@whitneydylan1]

i 100% support promoting from within, and taking a 5 year employee to manager over a fresh college grad. we need more managers/supervisors in the workplace that have hands on experience.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

That sounds rather like how the military cross-trains its junior officers. When done right, and properly supervised, it results in much better officers or managers than could ever be done with a bunch of classes

[@whitneydylan1]

@@MonkeyJedi99 the best manager I've ever had was one from walmart of all places. He was only about 25 as an assistant manager, the second highest on store level. He started in the same department i was working but i was at that specific store first he transfered from another. He would give me pointers when we were slow and congratulate me on doing a good job, even help out when i wasnt able to keep up. The WORST managers ive seen are college grads that only got the job because of a degree.

[@PerrynBecky]

As an auto mechanic for over 40 years before having to leave the workforce early because of becoming disabled, I can't tell you how many incompetent bosses that had no idea what auto repair involves, that would make threats just like this to their employees. Idiots like that kill moral, productivity, and eventually end up with people just as incompetent as them, because those who know their worth, go to work for a company that is thriving because they understand the value of a good employee which is the backbone of any company. Just go to any typical McDonalds and you will see mediocrity every day, and the quality of the food there shows it. If the management is good management, the whole atmosphere there is pleasant, and everyone strives to do their best, and the food there tastes better even though they use the same preprepped food as the "gulag" down the street.

[@richardturk7162]

I was a professional truck driver for over 40 years and when a manager told me how to do my job I would just smile and say I'm going to do my job my way and you do yours your way. My bosses knew I wouldn't take any BS from my transportation manager so they suggested he rode with me and evaluate my performance and see how I could do my job more efficiently. The main bosses made me aware of the plan and said work the shit of of him which I did. He never got in my truck again and he left me alone.

[@cookiemonster2299]

Haha, I was chatting to a trucker a few years ago, he was explaining how he had an assessor with him one day and the assessor said, I want you to change into fourth gear sooner next time, so the trucker stopped at the next bus stop and kicked the assessor out of his cab, he rang his boss and told him what happened, his boss angrily asked 'why did you kick him out' the trucker shouted back at his boss 'im driving a fxxxng automatic!' He kept his job too 😂🤣👍❤️🇬🇧

[@Wuschi2001]

What is there to improve on a trucker who has been doing his job for more than 10 years. The job is quite simple (not easy), then there come those people right out the university who have never had to work real hard and think they can treat you like a tool.

[@user-dx6jt4cd9w]

Self driving trucks are near.

[@moabman6803]

Self driving trucks are many years away if ever.

[@Qilue]

@@user-dx6jt4cd9w So you're happy to drive down a highway with your family with oncoming trucks driven by AI?

[@zachfox5969]

Im in HVAC. I heard every day how much better my boss is at everything. The way he proved it was by staffing 5 guys to help him, when the days he was complaining about it there were only 1 or 2 employees, neither of which had been in the field longer than a year. We all put in our notices at the same time. We all cited his claim to be able to do it better "alone" as our reason for quitting. He closed down within a month.

[@-0-0-79]

My former manager didn't know the difference between an impact and a screwgun. This guy had an advanced degree but no respect for the trade. I don't know how someone can be so stupid and arrogant simultaneously.

[@bombasticcat]

well he is a good chef, because he knows, that he doesnt know. Thats already a big +

[@danielstonebraker656]

I had a similar experience while working in retail. The store manager would constantly tell me/my department that we were too slow and he could our jobs faster. But when it actually came to it, he would pull 2-3 people from other departments to help him do a one person job. Of course he still thought that proved him right. Happy ending, he got fired for having an affair with HR

[@stejer211]

Today, in Things That Never Happened...

[@joehighsmith2951]

I had a boss tell us the entire crew could be replaced with a box of "C" clamps. When he finished his rant, one of the guys slugged a C clamp at him and 3 or 4 others guys told him to shut the f$%# up and get out of the way. Never listen to a person who pushes harder than they pull

[@walterbrown8694]

Almost 70 years ago, I received a scholarship from a company in Harvey Illinois to study engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology. I became a "Co-op student" - starting on the manufacturing floor the 1st semester, then alternating with semesters in the classroom at school. It was a great program, and I still remember some of the very capable machinists, welders, and supervisors - and many of their names. I have thought of them often over the years and would have liked the opportunity to thank them for so much of what I learned in their company that isn't taught in engineering (or maybe any) textbook.

[@ralkia]

Good health to you sir!

[@saintfrancis412]

Having your employees wanting the best for your company and wanting it to succeed is invaluable. This is a good example of how you push your employees in the other direction.

[@billrose2083]

I've been a manual machinist for just under 50 years. Just retired. Whether manual or CNC, there is nobody that can legitimately say what we do is not an artform. My trade is dieing out but CNC is going strong. Obviously, anyone who says they can replace the machinist with another type of technology really has no clue. Technology has come a long way since I started and it is complex, mind bending, mind BLOWING to some, and very exciting.

[@babydriver8134]

It IS art!

[@tonysheerness2427]

Very skilled and good workers make the job look easy. I was a computer engineer and went around changing boards in computers. I used to go this Japanese Bank where the computer was run by this man and one day I went he was gone. I asked where was he, they said he was let go because he was no longer needed, within a week the bank fell to pieces, computer issues everywhere and no one knew what to do. A well run ship does not look as industrious as one where they do not know what they are doing and panicking.

[@sillykicker0877]

I've dealt with people like this almost my whole IT career. They were accountants, Ex military... At the end of the day I still do what I do best and they were all at some point let go. Your nice new shinny degree doesn't compare to my 35 years experience!

[@vanillaicecream2385]

this video is a good idea of how management works kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXvHiZ2qiNONiqs

[@Petesworkshop2225]

Being good at what you do is all you need.

[@DruLeeParsec]

OMG, IT employers. Yes. How many times has a project been offshored to save the cost of expensive, experienced developers and then utterly failed?

[@Jonathan.D]

This is the problem at almost every big company in every sector. They put a college degree above all else. When I went to apply at one of America's big ten companies they had a hiring spree that hired 1400 people in 6 months. After three months of training, a third of the new hires were gone. More than half of those let go were college grads. By the end of the first year, only a quarter of those hired remained. Only a few of us left were college grads. The funny thing is that most of the college grads who were not let go were the biggest suck-ups I've ever seen. Those of us who kept our jobs and moved up were all people with real-world experience. Those with the expensive piece of paper acted as if they deserved more than the rest of us because of that paper. It's sad.

[@sillykicker0877]

@@Jonathan.D So damn true it makes me laugh every time I hear "this degree says I'm smart"

[@littlehuey5679]

That happened at our shop and the6 of us machinist call HR and said we were leaving at lunch and not coming back . Needless to say that mangers were gone before we had our tools loaded up to leave and each got a nice bonus for not leaving !!

[@christianmagana329]

I spent my first 3 years out of high school pursuing a math/mechanical engineering degree. Already had a pretty good amount of mechanical knowledge and skill from working on cars and fixing sprinkler systems with my pops, so I decided to apply for a job at a machine shop while going to school instead of the typical food service/retail jobs I had worked previously. Instantly fell in love with the trade and quickly worked my way up to doing setup work and had convinced our lead engineer to start training me on programming our machines. When the engineer brought this up to our GM, instead of giving him the green light to start training me the GM took this request as the engineer saying he needed help with doing his job, so he goes and hires two fresh out of university mechanical engineers. During their first couple weeks the new engineers' job was to shadow the operators on the production floor to learn our processes and procedures. When it came my turn for them to shadow I was working on a setup for a new part that we just got contracted for. I had to run to our warehouse to grab a fixture that I needed for the setup, so I asked the two brand new engineers to do me a favor and clamp a piece of sheet metal to a fixture that was already inside the machine with a couple vise grips. Come back from the warehouse no more than 5 minutes later and instead of securing the sheet like I had asked them to, they had completely taken apart both pairs of vise grips and said they were defective because they couldn't figure out how to use them. These two had even taken the springs out of them trying to get them to work LOL. After this experience I stopped pursuing the degrees I had been working towards and decided I'd rather put my time and effort into becoming the best machinist that I could try and be. This was my eye-opening moment when I realized that experience trumps a degree when it comes to being useful in a manufacturing environment. Ended up leaving that shop due to the GM's never ending bad decision making and the fact that he threw a chair at me in the breakroom in front of everybody for not having a setup done quick enough. Maybe one day I'll finish up with my college credits and get my degree, but I'd rather be an engineer with 10+ years of real experience, than an "engineer" who can't figure out a set of vise grips. I doubt anybody is going to read this, but figured I'd share my story with all of you guys. If you read all of this, you're awesome!

[@poncethegayboi]

I read it

[@granoonis2080]

...They...took apart... vice grips... because they couldn't figure out how to USE THEM!? HOW!? Those are some of the easiest tools to use!

[@cheezmonta]

We call those people, "educated idiots".

[@billbhein2949]

Big brains and no common sense..

[@fakshen1973]

I got my first pro job in a recording studio. I took 2 classes in college and found my calling. I learned almost everything hands on (1994). I spent a few years there and we hired a straight A student from a notorious trade school, Full Flail or something close. I asked her to use the standard patch bay and route a piece of gear. She just stood there frozen. She didn't know how to do it. I gave her a cheat sheet to make the simple two cable patch (connection). She still sat there. Tens of thousands of 1990's money invested in a career and can't do the day-one level of work.

[@jamesblount4916]

I went to school to be a machinest and after I graduate I found the pay rate to be severely lacking. So I went back to drive an 18 wheeler. True craftsmen are a dieing breed in the USA

[@GR-uc1gq]

Was the pay rate secretive? I wouldn't go to school and not know what I'd get payed

[@mimicl9811]

@@GR-uc1gq it’s not bad pay. You can go to school to get your certificate to become a machinist but, they really care about the amount of experience you have. It’s not bad pay and it also open a lot of different jobs for you

[@TazHall]

Because we import cheap labor materials from China.

[@wpc317]

@@GR-uc1gq No payrate is secret. There are many great sources to research wages for any particular field. Yet people still choose trades and degrees that pay pennies. The wages are low because the labor is abundant. Plenty of other people who didn't do their research before going to school

[@svenjorgensenn8418]

@@wpc317 not true. The pay is low because your dipshit government keeps screwing over the economy. How can anyone pay labor taxes when the cost of living keeps increasing. Try again fool

[@spendymcspendy]

LOL. I used to work in aerospace and ran into leadership and engineers with that mindset. It was absurd. A machine shop is a team effort. All parts, Machinists, QC, shipping/receiving, technicians, Deburr…everyone is critical to the success of a machine shop.

[@BF-I-II-V-V-III-VII]

We got a similar threat at my job. It took less than 6 months for everyone competent to find a new job. The shop closed the year after...

[@davidfarmer]

Lol i hear this all the time. funny thing is I started my journey by building a 3d printer, then designed one from scratch, then learned manual machining and how to inspect parts and then cnc machining, and now I'm an engineer. trust me, 3d printing has its place, but it will never replace machining. as of right now, 3d printing can provide you parts with similar finishing to sand casting, it in no way competes with machined surfaces, let alone ground or honed surfaces. sure it has its advantages geometrically, but a real engineer will design for manufacturability, also that's difference between a designer and an engineer, engineers work with real world constraints. The other disadvantage is you cant just 3d print any material, and billet, forged and injection molded, fiber filled parts will always outperform 3d prints that are inherently welded compositions. You can write off anyone who says 3d printing and machining do the same thing. You do see some machines that do both 3d printing, and machining and grinding, the reason is obvious if you know anything, the surface of 3d printed parts is not precise. Its probably a great interview question for engineers to ask them how 3d printing will replace machining.

[@Krmpfpks]

While you’re right in everything you say the capabilities of 3D printing will improve in the future and so will part design. Theres a company that prints an entire rocket engine, that’s hundreds or thousands of parts that are usually machined gone. Or to put it another way: Most surfaces that need to be machined are surfaces connecting to other machined parts. If you you can do it in one part that means less machined surfaces and less work for machinists. Don’t get me wrong: machining will always be needed, but 3d printing might replace or enhance part of the job. This won’t reduce the need for skilled machinists, though, it’ll just change the kind of work a bit. Automation and CNC had a far bigger impact on the way machine shops work. The 3D printer will just be another machine in the shop.

[@Glenrok]

@@Krmpfpks exactly right. The 3D printer is, after all, just another cnc machine......

[@Krmpfpks]

@@Glenrok yes and a printer needs skilled personnel for setup, calibration, maintenance, programming and running. Also most parts need post processing which often includes machining. Exciting times for any machinist that is willing to learn new skills, and I bet anyone who can run a CNC can learn to run a 3d printer in a weekend or two.

[@NC-oy8hq]

You should try a Lumex from Matsuura.

[@Glenrok]

@@Krmpfpks lol. You’d win that bet. I picked up 3D printing in about that amount of time, though of course, you continually learn as you become more familiar with it. I now have two of my own, plus my employers were so impressed with my success with them they provided one at work for me to prototype- even manufacture- some light to medium duty components. Exciting times indeed.....

[@ThZuao]

One of my favorite teachers during college, Dr. Jorge Almeida, is a guy with extensive knowledge in practical processes. All these awesome stories of just plain geniality were told to my by a friend of his, also a teahcer, Dr. Luciano Biehl. At the company Jorge worked as a senior enginerd, they needed an oxygen free atmosphere to ship something for some reason. Jorge just told them to buy a container, airtight it, add a can of gasoline inside and light it up, fire would consume the oxygen quite quickly. Such a simple but brilliant idea. Anyway, he was the head of Heat Treatment on Forjasul a metalworking company that builds Taurus firearms and offers general metalworking services. He supervised about 100 workers. Company is in trouble, new management comes in and orders Jorge to fire half his staff. He argues that his sector, who also provides services to other companies on demand, is still profitable and that he needed all his workers. New manager gives him an ultimatum "it's either them or you, and them soon after". Jorge quit. Started his Master's. Six months later they fired the manager that gave him the ultimatum and ask him to come back. He refuses. Completes his master's, Doctorate and is now teaching in university. He's one of the top 3 metalurgists in Brazil. Also, I mentioned Taurus firearms because they suddenly started pumping out terrible quality firearms. I wonder if it's related to him lefting the company LOL.

[@manamana7712]

I think you're onto something here

[@angrylittlespider4593]

From my machining experience there was one engineer -- only one -- who had a genuine appreciation for what we were up against. He had never been a machinist himself but had seen the processes and understood that precision machining of a part takes time, and the more complicated parts required more steps, each step needing it's own set up time. I greatly appreciated and respected that man. I knew that respect was mutual. We all did. Unfortunately this case stands out because he was the only one of dozens of engineers who showed that respect to the highly skilled people who were tasked with producing his designs.

[@jacobbumgardner9361]

I worked as a mechanical engineer about 5 years. Huge respect for machining. I've learned about 100x more from machinists than I ever learned from any of my idiot professors.

[@Roo-tz4xt]

A boss disrespecting and threatening workers? Reminds me of a job I had for nearly 10 years with incompetent leaders who didn’t know shit about nothin. Finally got fed up and walked away. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

[@DunderHead.5000]

I haven't had a job where they don't treat people like shit.

[@artcurious807]

its a shame that America is so hostile to its workers. Japan and Germany know how to treat their blue collar workforce and their educational systems are much more focused.

[@elihughes9317]

​@@DunderHead.5000 I have. They exist. I can't imagine living like that anymore either. No reason to waste time making money for people who suck

[@MrMSBranham]

Before I became a physicist, part of my training was to learn how to make things with machine tools like a mill and a lathe. That training from a world class machinist served me well because I one, didn't ask for impossible parts, and two, it helped me translate R&D needs into things that a real machinist could make.

[@troyduncan1969]

Terrific video and analogy. I was a finance guy but my first job out of college was with Honeywell and back in the day (1992) we had many manufacturing plants in Minnesota that were staffed with mostly union member machinists and toolmakers - all mechanical fabrication. We had electrical fabrication too but I found the mechanical fabrication more interesting. Unlike my peers, I spent a lot of time on the plant floor every day to learn and understand how our products were made and developed a huge appreciation for the skills of these men and women - especially the toolmakers who could make any part from scratch using old school lathes, punch presses, extruders, etc. CNC programming was there but most parts were not made using CNC. We used a lot of Acme Gridley screw machines and the setup on those old machines was true art - a lost art now. In short, I retired as an executive and strongly believe my understanding of how the products are actually made, respecting the hourly work force and willing to get the soles of my wing tips full of metal shavings and cutting oil made a huge difference. Since I retired, I actually restore antique mechanical music pieces and clocks now as I think it is a lot of fun. I wish I had the skills to be a true toolmaker but I do not.

[@EchosYT]

This reminds me of a job I worked at right after high school (like 3 years ago). Warehouse job blowing my back out for $14/hr and was the 2nd fastest picker in the place. Boss holds an emergency meeting, another employee just quit without notice. Job was high turn around so nothing new. Boss goes on to say leaving without notice doesn’t hurt the company and we’re all easily replaceable. Then says we’re only hurting ourselves because we won’t be able to use them on our resumé. Same week I left without notice and started a job making $20/hr in a field I liked. Honestly happy I had such a shitty boss because it made me realize my own value. Now, few years later, I’m making $80k/yr doing something I enjoy, isn’t killing my body and still working towards making more in my future.

[@CorvusCorone68]

@Jesus Gonzalez not really; guns are basically tubes to control bombs so it goes out the end you want and not in your face; if the metal the gun is made from can't handle that kind of pressure, you can get seriously injured or killed; not all metal is created equally; 3d printing can make metal so you know what a part would look like, but it can't handle the pressure like a solid piece of steel created under intense pressure can; it's like the difference between a brownie and spongecake

[@CorvusCorone68]

nevermind, i thought about what you said; the lower receiver wouldn't even need to be made out of metal for it to function properly; however, the 2nd Amendment allows each citizen to make their own guns; in fact, you can make an open-bolt submachine gun, one that uses pistol caliber bullets, with just parts from a hardware store and access to the ability to bend and cut metal; there was a British guy that did it, with no prior gunsmithing experience, and wrote a book about it, that got him locked up by the UK govment; his last name is Luty, and the gun is called the Luty; the gun has very little accuracy and has problems with jamming, but it works

[@lucideuphoria7092]

Wages there must suck. McDonald's workers get far more than $20 an hour here. I'm a 2nd class machinist in Aus and I get $40 an hour with a cert ii in engineering production as my only qualification in the field (a six month trianeeship). The 1st class machinist and welders on the shop floor are on $65 an hour, and the shutdown fitters get close to $100 an hour with allowances. But then again, a two bedroom apartment costs me $400 a week.

[@EchosYT]

@@lucideuphoria7092 I was talking USD. I’m not a machinist so I can’t compare wages directly but I make around $80k (around $110k AUS) yearly in a transportation job. In my town you can get a pretty nice apartment for $800/ month USD and a shitty ghetto one for $400/month. My guess is wages are pretty similar after exchange rates but living costs are what really matters anyway

[@Lafly84]

Machinists and toolmakers can be very protective when it comes to their work and reputations. I had a friend growing up whose father was a toolmaker at the IBM plant where I lived. Worked there for 30 years, absolute master at his craft. One day my buddy broke one of his old man's wrenches, and we drove to the local Sears to trade it out, which they did without question. When we got back, his dad was waiting, wondering where his wrench had gone. We gave him the replacement, telling him what had happened. He sent us back to Sears to recover the broken wrench - he had made all of his tools himself and he didn't want anything to do with Craftsman lol.

[@arribaficationwineho32]

Funny!

[@jim.h]

So, did your friend's father engrave "CRAFTSMAN" onto the side of the wrench??

[@Orange-Jumpsuit-Time]

So, did your friend's father have a 100 ton plus forging machine, with the required sunken, closed die, impressions just for that size wrench? Anyone can hack out a wrench, but if it's not forged, like Craftsman wrenches are, than it's like comparing apples to oranges when it comes to strength and durability. By the way, in the 1970's when the wrenches were made in the good old USA, I was 19 years old and worked in a small Machine Shop, (Riverdale Tool & Die), that sunk the dies for Craftsman wrenches, for a company that used to stamp out the wrenches, (Moore Drop Forge). Sadly, neither company has existed for decades, and the wrenches, like everything else, are now made in China.

[@michaelcoslo6497]

I've worked with Machinists my whole professional life. Some of the most professional and competent people I've ever worked with. Just because you wear "work clothes" seems to confuse people who equate worth with wearing a suit. What's more, you respect them you usually find they go above and beyond.

[@D9xAbstract]

Iv been around those same men and they are all disgusting and racist pieces of shit, I have zero respect for most trades men because they are all very unprofessional and treat each other like 1st graders. Absolutely dumb founded anyone still supports men like that. Machines and computers will be putting those men out of the job anyway. Waste of your time to invest in a skill that is 100% useless when a machine can do it 100 times over in a fraction of the time lmfaoooo

[@jeroenruitenberg1359]

@@D9xAbstract you are just a snowflake lmfaoooo

[@jamessmith84240]

You're 100% correct. I used to work in jobs that required me to wear a suit / "smart" clothes. I was never happy in any of them. Two and a half years ago I had enough and went self employed. Since then I teamed up with a buddy in his workshop where his business has become our business. When I call into the shop on my way home from work, I wear my "work clotes" with more pride and happiness than I ever felt wearing a suit.

[@matthisboehme]

I know a similar story. Im from germany so i had 4 years of aprenticeship to learn my craft. After that i startet to work for a small company. They had bought a "new" cnc machine with 5 axis and no one in the shop could program it or set ut up so my job was to programm all this parts i have never seen before. Everything was going great for the first few weeks, until i got called to the boss. They where unhappy about how much time i took to get parts done. At the end of our "conversation" more screeming on his part and more idk nodding on my part, he gave me 20 minutes to programm and set up the next parts and stood there next to me to stop my times. After a week or so he finaly undestood that his times where simply not possible. I quit a week after that.

[@watchm4ker]

Ouch. While I imagine the process has only improved, I do not envy someone trying to work out a CNC toolpath. Even something as simple as a slicer has its quirks and pitfalls.

[@ronsullivan132]

I worked for a company that had part router sheets that specified the job standards for the part. These standards were nowhere close to being realistic to real life. I found out they were determined by a project manager many years ago, who was not a machinist. When I asked why they were not accurate, I was told that was the way they always were and no need to change them. I then asked how they could properly do a job analysis of production costs if they did not have a realistic estimate. Crickets!! Then one day the district manager was in the building, and he came to talk and get to know the people that do the work. So I brought up the faulty process times, and I had a theory that they wanted to show a loss on every part, as manufacturing losses are tax deductible, so they really wanted it that way. To my surprise he said that was correct and agreed with me. He seemed surprised that a lowly machinist would ask such a business question. Then I asked why are our performance bonuses/annual raises tied to our production times that they compare to the inaccurate part cycle times? GOTCHA!! No answer for that question. Having bad part data gave them the tax write offs, along with justification to deny raises. A few years later I retired, so all a distance memory/nightmare now.

[@marcblanchet678]

​@@ronsullivan132 fuckin pricks. "save" money on one spot in tax to "save" money not paying employees what they earned. Practically theft...

[@GoingtoHecq]

@@marcblanchet678 "legal" theft too. Stealing from the govt means basically making everyone in the country pay to keep them in the green. Stealing from their employees absolutely. The phrase eat the rich is meant to encapsulate the rage about how the rich are effectively consuming us by the theft of our labor as workers and the theft of what we produce societally. Imagine if instead of going into some business man's pockets that money fixed potholes or updated the aging electrical grids those companies also rely on but do so little to provide for. We're basically all paying rich people to let us work for them.

[@pcs5852]

@@GoingtoHecq: The good news is that you don't have to put up with being exploited. You can start your own business and pay your employees the wages that they deserve. Be a shining example for others.

[@CZ350tuner]

The morale of the story is, "Never piss off the golden geese that lay the golden eggs" / "never piss of the horses that are actually pulling the wagon". A friend is the only "Golden Goose" at his company, being the only 40+ years time served machinist that can do every job on every machine and his favourite theme is to point out just how incredibly stupid certain people are in his company. Having such a unique unsackable position, he also points this out to said people, in person. He mentioned early retirement, a few months ago, and they started shitting bricks. He ended up being bribed to stay with a pay rise.

[@Pizzagulper]

Honestly, If I were there, My biggest challenge would to not burst out laughing when the manager made such an absurd threat.

[@blademan4043]

The most dangerous are the fresh engineers that have 0 experience in real work yet believe that they know it all.

[@JBigjake]

My father-in-law would say to people like that, “l’m not young enough to know everything.”

[@cryangallegos]

Best yet most annoying feeling in the world is sending a green engineer back their 'expertly' laid out plans explaining why they won't work.

[@hairylarry6167]

Finding this video has opened the door for so many machinists that had a bad experience working at the machine shop. So, here's my contribution. I'm retired now. I worked 2 years in a machine shop that was run by idiots. One day, the one boss wanted me to run 2 CNC machines at once. Only they were as far apart as 2 city blocks. I told him, ' NO" not until I sign a paper in the office that I am not responsible for one of the machines crashing." Because the one machine had to be stopped to clear out spider wrapped shavings. This prick boss told me to run them both or be fired. I went up to the office, and found the BIG DUDE that ran the place and told him I was asked to do the near impossible and I explained the entire situation to him. Here we go, out in the shop we went. The BIG DUDE walked right up to Ron the boss and asked him why he wanted me to do such a ridicule's thing. Then the unthinkable happened. Ron lost his temper so bad he was pounding his fist on a table. it got nuts after that. Other machinists joined in and voiced their opinions to the BIG DUDE and off went Ron and the Big DUDE into the office. Ron got shit canned on the spot. 9 years later the place folded up. They are trying to restart now in another location south of town. Shortly after Ron was let go, I got the best job I ever had traveling the country. I retired with it. Moral of the story is, "Stand up for yourself and don't take crap from a boss just because he says so." P..S. what kind of a knuckled head wants a person to run two CNC machines that are 200 yards apart?" Answer, the one I got stuck with. BYE RON!

[@robertlee8400]

My dad was a machinist for as long as was on this earth & i,m 48 , he retired a machinist . Back in the late 80s early 90s the company he worked for purchased a state of the art CNC Machine & the company who sold it to my dads work was setting it up in house , they were there for 2 weeks watching my dad take it through its paces when they noticed my dad was running it Beyond it’s capabilities with flawless execution . My dad taped into its full capabilities that even the company who sold it to my dads work couldn’t do & was asking my dad for advice on how he did such a thing , it surprised the hell out of them . They asked my dads work company if they could bring in their engineers for a week so my dad could show them how he was doing it & it was surprising all of them . My dad could push out parts 3 times faster than average machinist on this CNC Machine & I think that’s because my dad had the experience of doing it & he was one hell of a mathematician & programmer .

[@NightsMuse]

I quit a machining job and told the company I was sick of making incompetent managers look efficient. Cutting down set up times were always a high point with the management.

[@rosselnator]

I had a boss that was an electrical engineer that was pissed, after spending $250k on some CNC's, to find out that his engineers couldn't stick a floppy into the side of the machine and have a part come out. I sat there and laughed while I explained tooling, offsets, job setup etc.....He wasn't really pleased.......

[@mathiaspierce9204]

But that can be done all digitally tho

[@robertchagnon9063]

I had a boss in the1980 whom thought that a computer could replace the secratary and the accountant, so he bought the computer and they came to install it in an office. But it was doing nothing because there was nobody to make it work.

[@akoww1000]

I love when a person sitting in an office all day behind a computer thinks they know more about a job they have never done before thinks they know how others people's jobs can be done better by using spreadsheets or some PowerPoint crap.

[@AndyU96]

Shouldn't you make use of commas once in a while?

[@JohnnyYeTaecanUktena]

@@AndyU96 when was the last time you seen someone on the internet use proper punctuation in English? even if they know it they prefer to be lazy

[@zarthemad8386]

@@JohnnyYeTaecanUktena Andy is obviously one of the asshats in HR that fall under your original statement.

[@Aereto]

And then there's me, who use the printer and the office computer that I can organize a fair bit of data with the spreadsheets into something that should be relevant. I also use Word in ways that I can make modified replicas of any forms they gave me so long as I have a good word processor that can recreate it and a printer that doesn't misbehave. To that extension, I hate Chrome OS and its inferior word processors.

[@biosaber585]

automation in any industry is great but at the end of the day often times no matter what it is, you can't replace the human element and while that DOES slow things down it also ensures a better end product. I wish companies and more importantly paper pushers would understand that

[@paullennon7995]

This hits so close to home! I had a new manager who used to be a production supervisor and he was given a maintenance managers position. I was a planner/ scheduler with 9 supervisors, 155 trades people covering 3 buildings and 8 shifts. I scheduled preventive maintenance on cranes, equipment and shift schedules including vacation coverage. Because I did not work enough overtime he told me that he was putting me on an off shift to run a crew as well as doing the job that I was presently doing. He did not take into account that I was the only supervisor with a provincial gas License and the records I kept on maintenance where what kept him out of prison! He was one that was promoted beyond his ability. I left the department and felt bad for the poor sap that they put in there as I offered to train him but was told it wasn’t necessary. Cannot believe the stupidity of this “manager” as he was a total incompetent.

[@LadyNikitaShark]

This reminds me of a story from my dad. My dad works big constructions, from tunnels to bridges, railroads and anything in between and he can drive all times of machines and trucks but from time to time works in smaller projects. One day he arrived at a new site to build a small bridge, the new chief engineer arrived with the plan, my dad looked at the plan, looked at the place and told him that that plan wasn't for that project. The engineer berated my dad and told him that he knew nothing about projects plans. My dad said nothing but refused to work the project and went to the base to repair some machines and asked to go to another team. The other workers started the project. Some time later after they started working, it came to light that that plan, was in fact, not for that bridge but for a similar one. The company lost a lot of money because of that. Don't know the technical terms, but that's the gist of the story. My dad is a very smart men that never had the chance to do formal studies but is always studying his craft by other means and at that time had already almost 30 years of experience.

[@luclin92]

Oh I hate when "leaders" forget or straight up refuse to use their team members experience. Like at least double check if someone tells you something is wrong

[@damarc9682]

You guys rock. I worked in R and D years ago and would have never been able to create the devices we did without the skill, knowledge, and craftsmanship that our Machinists worked so hard at to master. It required a TEAM of men and women to develop what we did, and it was the Machinists that made it all possible!

[@damarc9682]

@Jesus Gonzalez Is 2022 a threat? What are you talking about?

[@damarc9682]

@Jesus Gonzalez Maybe you should re-READ my comment, and you will see that I support machinists and admire their skill set.

[@ericclemens5240]

Very well put my friend. I’ve been a Mechanic for thirty years heavy equipment and no one respects the labor industry anymore. Craftsmen are just going away. To bad for everyone.

[@braddouglas7839]

That's starting in early education. A lot of my boy's teachers had the attitude that if you had to work with your hands for a living you were a failure. They tried to instill that into his head. I was a field service technician, learned something new pretty much every day. I loved it. And, I was making pretty good money.

[@turboimport95]

@@braddouglas7839 Yeah and what's everybody gonna do when the field tech's and craftsman's all retire. They are not gonna be any one to replace them. that's when the shit really hits the fan. I would say after this generation retires and maybe the next, they are not gonna be many tradesmen left.. All the new generation are going to do is computer type jobs not hands on...

[@braddouglas7839]

@@turboimport95 You're correct. But, if you are in that field you can charge pretty much what you want. It's actually already happening. People don't realize that some professions you can't do without.

[@turboimport95]

@@braddouglas7839 they will figure it out the hard way. When they need jobs filled but no applicants..

[@AndrewBlucher]

I have the opposite story. Been in IT 40 years and teaching at University for 20. Started running a little bicycle shop and doing repairs a few years back. I tell customers I don't work fast, I make sure it's done right. Some people want fast and go elsewhere, but most want it done right. Very satisfying work.

[@kennethryesky417]

Dear Old Dad was a electrical engineer, but he had taken the industrial arts track in high school instead of going to the academic high school (to which he easily could have been accepted) because he knew that he would not have money for college, and his plan was to work for a few years to save up for his higher education. As things actually occurred, his plan was fast-tracked because the GI Bill provided tuition on account of Dad's US Army service during World War II. So, with a bachelor's in Electrical Engineering and a Master's in Mechanical Engineering, he advanced in his profession; when I was working for the US Department of Defense as a Contracting Officer and an Analyst while going for my MBA and Law degrees in the evenings I encountered many people who had seen Dad's name (and some of them actually knew him). Anyway, my upbringing no less than my pre-DoD stint as an assistant production manager in a factory has caused me to appreciate what machinists and technicians do. Paper education does not necessarily confer common sense!

[@antonhoward9027]

I'm a Toolmaker/development engineer, started straight from school 38 years ago. Anyone spoke to me like that I'd have walked on the spot. People need me more than I need them. If you can do the do, don't ever be afraid to walk.....I've done it a few times and it's always panned out ok 🙂

[@cwebs1000]

As a retired machinist, He had to go. We also have a saying, "NEVER tell a machinist it can't be done"! Now get out of the way.

[@ronsullivan132]

Many times I heard the "You can't do it that way." My thoughts were always "Watch me". And I too had a zero experience shop foreman. One time after listening to him tell me how I should have done something and that I took too long to make the part, I told him to get anybody else in the shop to make that part, and they will not do any better. He walked away and never did take up my challenge. Now I have the best job. . . . . RETIRED!!

[@cwebs1000]

@@ronsullivan132 Some jobs I was sent on I was told "Do it fast". I replied with, "you want it done fast or right? Pick one."

[@scottbc31h22]

My grandfather was one of the best mold and die makers in the area (in his day). One day his boss asked him how long it would take to make a particular mold. Grandpa told him to bid the job at 120 hours. The boss said grandpa would not be able to do the job in less than 180 hours. Grandpa built the mold in 72 hours. Grandpa went in to ask for a raise, the boss said he couldn't afford it. Grandpa said "Ok, the shop down the street will pay me that much." Grandpa got the raise.

[@cwebs1000]

@@scottbc31h22 Good one!. Every Time I went into the office I asked where is my raise? I was just kidding around but, got top money in 6 months. Foreman hated to see me come in. He would just shake his head.

[@luviskol]

A good boss just asks them - how would you do that - can you show me?

[@MiniaturePlayer]

At my job we get punished by upper management if they don't like you and just to mess with the work force. No respect by management is always horrible. They will keep you and promote if you are their friend. or kiss up.

[@dominic6634]

Had a job like that. I finally got into an argument with them and quite. Heard later that they went under.

[@DodgyBrothersEngineering]

@@dominic6634 had one of those jobs. The suck ups got promoted and anyone that brought up a problem was a trouble maker. The funny thing was after years of beating my head against a rock trying to improve the system I decided to quit and just say to hell with it, do things your way and see them fail. Then I was the greatest thing since sliced bread when I couldn't care less about the business.

[@johnnyrico6513]

I'm a Carpenter and have seen almost every kind of cost-cutting, time-saving and bodge jobbing trick in the book. One of THE most infuriating things you can experience is somebody (either a customer or a boss) trying to whittle away at your self-esteem, especially when you know delivering a punch in the mouth would be enormously satisfying.

[@jamesdavis8021]

I had a boss like that.He would snidely refer to everything I made as,”signature work”.Like I just wanted to make pretty parts and, I took too much time making them.He had no idea what was involved in making those parts,how long it took or,what order to use.Good luck duplicating my results.Especially since I put the patterns and fixtures in the trash bin. I will be damned if I allow him to benefit from my work.

[@sajuente8235]

Haha sound like my story

[@ronsullivan132]

Reminds me of a situation many years ago with a new plant supervisor. He was a clean freak and could not stand drawers of "junk", which was fixturing for various repeat jobs we did. He hauled a cart of this "junk" back to me one day and asked what it was. A few things were true junk, but others were fixturing and tooling for specialized jobs. He said it was all junk and threw it in the scrap barrel. About six months after that, he brings a really weird looking part back to me and asked how are we going to do this, as the customer says he has had them done here before. Savoring every word, I said "With that fixture you threw out as scrap six months ago." Took about five seconds of complete silence, and he turned around and stomped away. We never did that job again, as the customer did not want to pay for design and fabrication of a new fixture, and shop supervisor did not want to eat the costs.

[@rosselnator]

I learned a long time ago don't f with toolmakers/machinist's they are not stupid and they don't have a problem finding a new job.

[@jamesdavis8021]

We had dies that folded aluminum foil,made of silicon bronze….for a reason.when cold,you can almost tie it in a knot without fracturing . I saw that bozo heat up a plate with a acetylene torch and,bend it.Of course,it fractured in several places.Then,he had to silver braze it.On top of that,he adjusted the tip to a oxidizing flame that introduced porosity into the silver.A soft,carbonizing flame would have made the silver flow like water.Well….that plate was screwed.

[@RAWPAPRSxLONG1s]

I used to make parts out of fiberglass and we had some engineers that thought they could do it so easy. After only a year of working there I gained a ton of knowledge from all the guys who had been doing it for years and I was even offered production supervisor when I put in my 2 weeks notice. Anyways, my supervisor told one of the cocky engineers that he could work with me for a week and try to do what I did. I made 6 parts in an 8 hour shift(injection molding). I figured out how to get perfect parts every time while most of the other molders were getting 5 made and only 3 were not scrap. The 3 that were good enough had to have repairs to make them hold vacuum. When the engineer worked with me, he only got 3 parts a day out and none of them were good enough to even get repairs from the assembly team. He didn’t even come back to me on Thursday. Guess real life didn’t meet his theoreticals🤣🤣

[@trueriver1950]

Which is more relevant, theory or practice? In theory: theory is better In practice: practice

[@TheOldgeezah]

I'm a Chemical Engineer by trade and I soon learned after starting my first job that the average graduate was basically no damned use until about a year and a half in the job. Until then they could only spout what their lecturers had told them and nothing from personal experience.

[@watermelonhelmet6854]

It's the same in any profession. I work in IT and graduates straight off their degree don't understand the difference between an exercise in a classroom and working for an actual, functioning company. It's like "Great, good talk, now go tell the company CEO how you want to take the entire IT infrastructure offline and cease trading for the next three months while you implement your amazing idea."

[@dallasdominguez2224]

Exactly why I chose Electrical Engineering

[@TheOldgeezah]

@@dallasdominguez2224 Is the situation different for electrical engineers? Do they really graduate with full competence for work?

[@dallasdominguez2224]

@@TheOldgeezah i think full competence would be an extreme term, but at my school theyve at least made an effort to teach us some tools of the trade (programming (c++, python), cad, opencv, full stack webdev). Ive learned a lot of applicable skills within the past year alone.

[@dallasdominguez2224]

@@TheOldgeezah im just saying that I hope these skills make me somewhat useful when I get into industry 😂

[@lamebubblesflysohigh]

I am not a machinist but a mechanic but I deal with shit like this every day. Everyone in the company other than other mechanics knows my job better than me... until they don't and I have to do overtimes because they think rushing or half-assing stuff is a viable busyness strategy but our customers disagreed :)

[@akumpi]

Yeah I was an industrial maintenance mechanic for a couple of years, and I had to learn how to half-ass my welds.

[@pungarehu]

So my experience of poor management was in retail. As a senior manager I had at that point overseen most operations in our business (of around 300 staff) and we had some of the best KPI’s in our group. Along comes the group manager and on the walk round happens to meet me first - proceeds to tear me apart for every small thing she could find, and not once does she look at (or comment) on either my team or the numbers we were delivering. Then she gathers everyone into the bosses office and asks us all do we want to keep our jobs - not motivational that’s for sure. Fast forward six months, I’d quit, gone back to university, retrained and now work in a role I absolutely love. Her “wee chat” was the best thing that ever happened to me and taught me the value of making sure my people are always protected from that kind of b**********t.

[@babydriver8134]

I was recruited to return to a precision optical company I had worked at before. I went to see my old boss and the manager. I spoke of my experience and told them I wanted $10 an hour (1980). They said they could not do that (citing discontent in the shop) and offered $8.50. I knew then the old hands weren't being paid enough. I said I would prove my worth and that I wanted $10 at the three month review. Three months later they gave me .38 cents increase. I quit that day.

[@pungarehu]

@@babydriver8134 i doubled my wage for similar reasons in the late 80’s. Company eventually went out of business because they just wouldn’t invest in their staff, equipment or infrastructure. Absolutely no sympathy for that kind of operation at all.

[@keithalaird]

I am glad that when I was in engineering school, the university made at least a token effort to teach us the fundamentals of actually running machine tools and making parts both one off and production. Not a skilled machinist or welder by any stretch of the imagination, but you learned to respect the talent of the people who were.

[@PhilG999]

I have both an ASMET and a BSMET (from different schools). I always made straight "A"s in the hands-on classes, which included welding, machine shop, etc. I also did very well in the theoretical classes. I worked full time and took night classes for years because I had to pay my own way. I found out pretty quickly that I knew more about actually designing AND making parts than my bosses did! Fortunately, most of them realized that and just left me alone to do my job! The others that tried to micromanage us didn't last very long. One job as an Engineer was 8 years. In that time, we had many bosses come and go, the company was bought out 3 or 4 times by our biggest competitors. Same building, same people doing the actual work. I'm 63 now and retired and glad of it! ;)

[@PhilG999]

@Jesus Gonzalez Metal 3D printing is done in the US. Not many people own them privately, but they ARE expensive! Parts are already available (80% lowers for ex) in spite of the efforts of the anti-2A crowd. Thugs just steal their guns or buy stolen ones. The rest of us just buy ours legally. (Yes, I carry daily).

[@Xenoyer]

I worked as an aviation structures technician for 40 years. Once at a plant in Washington, we got a new supervisor. He called a shop meeting to introduce himself. He assured us all that if we have any problems on the floor to come to him because he knew everything there is to know about aircraft. We laughed a lot. At first, we tried to hold it in, but later at break time, we laughed and laughed at Mr. Know-it-All. He didn't last very long.

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

Damn... The first half of his statement was fantastic, but that second half is atrocious. If he'd instead said 'come to me if you have any problems, and I'll do my best to help find a reasonable solution', he might've survived. Ego is a killer, for sure.

[@AronFigaro]

This is why machine shop courses were MANDATORY for mechanical engineering when I went to school! A lot of the guys end up doing welding or machining as summer jobs, and they get some really valuable shop experience. It really helps to understand every step of your development process as an engineer. I have no practical machining experience, since I'm in controls, I've just done a bit of CNC programming. That's why I let our machinists handle the machining decisions.

[@jonisaacs5176]

I was a research engineer in a materials science group. I worked closely with a research machine shop. They had machinists that could do both manual and CNC machining. I considered their input critical in my designs. I talked over the design initially and when it was finished we went over it together and I made any changes needed. At times, their ideas were important is resolving difficult scientific challenges.. The efforts were acknowledged. The ability to talk directly with the machinists was probably atypical but a huge advantage.

[@jeremywhitesell2688]

A scenario i learned 22 years ago was a man started a job as a teen and learned everything about machine in the shop. He ran it for decades and noone else knew anything about it. A kid fresh out of school who only saw the machine in a book became the new boss. He told the guy to run the machine a certain way. The guy said it cant run that way. They sent him home. Started running the machine their way. It blew up. They called him at home and adked him back to repair it. He retired that day. The machine never ran again.

[@firebug3256]

And that machine was Albert Einstein

[@howlinwulf]

Nice story I loved it

[@br549junior]

BS storey

[@nickkohlmann]

​@@firebug3256 and then everybody clapped

[@Theyralltakenfu]

Heartfelt comment.

[@mobius972]

Also, your old bosses statement was partially motivated by the fact that he is intimidated by people that can actually do, instead of just talk. This problem is present in almost all levels of American Society. I have a feeling that this will change in the coming years as people are able to open their own shops on a smaller level and make parts. They can run the small shop and make viable parts without bean counters, human resource people and Mechanical engineers, but they have to have machinists.

[@James-gb9ns]

I took machine shop training for two years. I actually ended up in the surgical field, but I have alot of respect for you guys and what you do!

[@NgJackal1990]

You’re a surgical tech too?

[@Orange-Jumpsuit-Time]

I once worked for a machine shop the only made parts for the surgical field, hip stem implants, knee implants, arthroscopic- endoscopic instrumentation, etc.

[@KathrynLiz1]

As an old time manual machinist I can appreciate how you feel..... People come to me for a "one off" part for some obsolete machine and are surprised at what it costs to make it. When spares were available, the part might cost just a few dollars from the factory, but making just one can take a whole day, or more. I watched the advent of CNC machines and 3D printers will great interest. These machines are wonderful additions to the engineers toolbox, although very expensive. 3D is in its infancy and what can be achieved with this technology remains to be seen, but it looks very promising as more durable materials are able to be used by these clever machines.

[@michaelevans5603]

Economy of scale, how does it work?

[@digitalconsciousness]

I've had two previous bosses use the "you're replaceable" line on people. It always puts a bad taste in peoples' mouth. It was a seed planted in my mind that eventually led me to quitting both jobs. I think if I ever hear it again, I might just immediately put in my 2 weeks and leave. Management idiots don't realize they lose good people when they try to strong-arm everyone like that.

[@almostfm]

They're not all idiots. The best boss I ever had was a "people manager" and not a "process manager". She readily admitted that she couldn't write code like the developers or do project implementations like those of us in the implementation group did. But she'd say her job wasn't to do our jobs-her job was to clear any roadblocks so _we_ could do our jobs.

[@mattdixon6396]

This happens in every field. I was a Chef of 38yrs experience. It was a place that was owned by a stock broker and his wife that did it for me. No experience in anything other than plastic surgery and threatening to fire us at a whim. They both did that on a fully booked Saturday with full resets. All the chefs and bar staff walked on the spot. Three months later the place shut down.

[@Heopful]

And i bet they still blame all the employees to this day

[@quietdignityandgrace]

Once had a boss that said "If you guys can't hit these numbers, I'll find people that will"... in a Union shop no less. I got hurt rushing my job, he got fired due to my injury and from what he said. Too much college, not enough calluses.

[@leonvinson1028]

Its been my experience that the least qualified employee is ALWAYS promoted to boss. I've retired now and can honestly say I never worked for a supervisor that could pour piss out of a boot even if the instructions were written on the sole.

[@absoluteai41]

Thank you for a new saying.

[@consimable]

I love this one! I'm crying!🤣🤣

[@wpc317]

In my experience, the least qualified employees always feel they are more qualified than everyone else. You can show them on paper that they are completing less work and having more errors. Instead of acknowledging that they have room for improvement, they blame their boss and call them unqualified.

[@pudmina]

Peter Principal.

[@robertcohen1888]

Many years ago, I worked for the Sears department store in the automotive department. We were opening up a new store and the store manager came down to the automotive area, called everybody together, stopped everybody from setting up and specifically spoke to the mechanics that worked in the shop. He then told them I could replace all of you with monkeys. One of the service writers stood up, looked him square in the eye, and said “you couldn’t find monkeys dumb enough to do our jobs, Frick you!” He then walked out, and all the mechanics followed him. The store manager then looked at the department manager, and said get them back in here they have work to do. The department manager said to the store manager, you insulted them you do it, and he walked away too. It was epic, the store manager had no clue how to run a service organization. I have 1000 more stories I could tell about that idiot and how he interfered with my department.

[@oswaldconjugation3647]

I wanna hear them!

[@tenebre911]

The fact that people like that still have jobs is baffling

[@r.c.salyer3652]

While at TRW as an IT Network Engineer we lost our very beloved manager. They then tried to just substitute in, just a long time, older Aerospace Engineer. We told the top Management NO! They got really pissed - then they called a meeting with us and another top manager, that we'd never seen before. He was very Diplomatic, and gracious, but told us we had to take the new manager. We told him he'd better go back to the Division Manager and tell him - how would he like to loose the $35 Million Contract with the Air Force if we mid-way walk out and all 5 of us quit? Answer came back from Division Manager within an hour. We'll give you a couple of candidate managers for your Dept. and you tell us who and why you would accept them to be your manager!

[@robertcohen1888]

@@r.c.salyer3652 if you have Netflix please watch "The IT crowd" I think you will find it very cathartic. PS I worked in IT for 30 years and I get it. We constantly had non-technical people put in over us as management and they had no clue what we were doing. It took us longer to explain to them our jobs than it took for us to do our jobs. And they had to have the final say in every single thing that was done.

[@davidmoser3535]

Thats why Sears is GONE

[@ubcts]

Old machinist here. I remember the first NC machines. I remember punch tapes. I was a machinist when hand grinding tools was the norm. I can still hand grind a drill to cut steel or brass or aluminum. No one but machinists understand what machinist do.

[@Richard-bt3oy]

You could not be more right. Rock on brother. I own a 3D printer am a tool & Die specialist with mold repair skills. Yep it should make you laugh at there lack of knowledge.

[@johncichon9499]

Love the story! A skilled hands on machinist is worth their weight in gold👍😁

[@minnesotamarine9861]

That is how you get gold in the bank! - For everyone involved.

[@russhall1414]

Incredible respect for the knowledge, skill, and experience it takes.

[@oculusangelicus8978]

I had an old boss that was like this, he threatened everyone in the department with being fired at least once, some of the older guys had it done to them half a dozen times until one of them told him to stop threatening us with our jobs like a impotent jerk and either do it, or STFU! and stood there waiting for him to say something. the only thing he said was "get back to work." we all had a good laugh at his expense, but finally I had had enough of his BS and left the company for greener pastures, after I left the Parent COmpany came in and did a Forensic level investigation into the company to see if they were worthy of being a franchise, as there were MANY complaints lodged against this company, Turns out that the Manager of My department and a few of the managers from the other departments plus the franchise owner were all committing a very complex but stupid amount of Fraud, and were not only prosecuted but also permanently banned from ever working in the industry ever again through a plea deal. They were now going to be managers of their own hot dog stands but not likely to manage anything else larger than that. They got off very easy considering the amounts of money we were seeing them guilty of taking. The owner is still unaccounted for, suspicions of him currently being in prison in the Philippines for have sexual relations with underaged girls might be true after all. either way I got out of there before all of this happened but a close friend of mine stayed through it all until the franchise was confiscated by the parent company and sold off to another person who was willing to buy the franchise but relocated it to another town close by. A bunch of scumbags, that had no idea how to motivate their employers because they weren't capable of being a good manager, being, rather, thieves with their hands caught in the wrong cookie jar. Since then I have worked more or less for myself, excluding others from my future. Other people are not invested in your future and will actively sabotage your efforts if it means more for them in the meantime!

[@countk1]

I once had a (micro) manager that was constantly telling me how to make stuff (conventional machining of unique pieces) and one day i got sick of it. I gave him my gloves, said he could do it on his own since he so well knew how to do it and left the work shop. He thought I was going home, but I went for a coffee to cool down and afterwards to the plant manager. Little did he know what I already did for the company. He worked there for another two weeks and complaints kept pouring in from other colleagues.

[@ItsAsparageese]

Stories like this are so satisfying. Several years back I was hanging around a lot at this glass workshop, the space for which was owned by some wealthy cannabis industry startup types from out of town, but the shop floor was staffed and directly run by established local boro lampworkers who all knew each other. One day Boss Man and Marketing Guy came to the shop floor and brought along some New Investor, to talk to the artists about ramping up production of more big lathe work pieces, because big bongs and dab rigs are high dollar. (This had already been a point of tension IIRC because the artists had explained that if the boss wanted more lathework he needed to buy more lathes and pay the resident lathework expert to teach the other guys some stuff for a short time first.) I just remember that was an issue, idk for sure if that was the immediate subject that day between the above parties and Glass Leader Guy -- but at some point in the short discussion, Glass Leader Guy called New Investor an asshole or something (presumably justifiedly so, as Glass Leader Guy was a levelheaded smart dude). Shop people tend to say what they think, and you can't expect a lifelong tradesman to talk pretty just because some jerk wrote a million dollar check the previous weekend to a company that the tradesman happens to contract with. So anyway, the honchos leave, and a few minutes later Marketing Guy (who at least was real enough to know this wouldn't go well) came back into the shop and quietly reported to Glass Leader Guy, "Hey, Boss Man says you're fired". Since Glass Leader Guy was/is a well established independent glassblower in town with his own shop at home, who owned most or all of the equipment onsite and who had already long been collaborating with most of the other workers he brought in, he told everyone what was up, and the whole glass team all cheerily packed up their stuff and peaced out, taking their fancy torches and lathes and big fuel tanks and flow regulators and kilns and tube stock and everything, prob at _least_ $100k-200k worth of equipment and supplies (I imagine Boss Man assumed he wouldn't have to buy much new stuff after firing the leader because he assumed most of the workers and their things would stay) and went back to Glass Leader Guy's home shop to carry on with their lives. Those workers were already plenty well-acquainted with the idea that pay-per-piece commission gigs come and go, and they didn't need Boss Man or his yuppie BS; he needed them. I think Boss Man really didn't realize that his pile of money didn't actually make him more special than any other commission client, and had no idea that he was effectively firing the entire team, since on paper they were all individual contractors but socially they were very much a unit, and he didn't recognize or respect that. The startup was left with thousands of dollars in branded glass pieces that they ultimately would never get full price on because they didn't really know what they were doing, and they had basically no chance of ever recruiting a team of good lampworkers again because they'd alienated most of the state's glass community, certainly the most professional core of it, in that one move. Screw them and the brand name they stole from a smaller business in the first place. Last I knew they'd gone under 🤷‍♂️😊 Don't bring fancypants moneybags with fragile egos onto shop floors, and especially don't act like they somehow deserve special respect that's any different from that deserved by the actual knowledgeable and skilled shop team themselves.

[@davismontana9307]

You must live in Vineland, NJ. We need more glassblowers out west. Move to TX.

[@ItsAsparageese]

@@davismontana9307 Haha Colorado actually, but the Boss Guy was from New York so the dynamic was about the same ;P And I'm not a glassblower unfortunately, my then-fiance worked among those glassblowers and had been friends with Lead Glassblower Guy for ages already, so I was just around sometimes and got to learn about the happenings. But hey I'll spread around the news that Texas could use more glass culture lol!

[@joshua43214]

I was a mechanic in a prior life, and I worked for many years in a shop that paid hourly instead of flat rate. We all were happy with the system because we could take our time to do the job right, and we always made the same paycheck. Every once in a while, the owner would decide we were all slacking and threaten to put us all on flat rate. Considering this would have been a 25% raise for me, I was like "sure, please do"

[@larrygarland3728]

A company can have all the best equipment there is, but you have nothing without good employees.

[@EvilFookaire]

Equipment: Doesn't have eyes to see when shit goes wrong, doesn't have a mind to understand what's going wrong and how to fix it (or going right and how to keep it going right), no ability to gain experiences/understandings that might make it more efficient at the job. Good employee: Doesn't have the time to have to deal with shitty managers who couldn't even find their dicks if their index-fingers were glued to them, because the employee is the one on the floor making sure that the equipment is making the company some money without setting the place on fire.

[@timgiraud7591]

I remember many years ago when I was a draftsman starting out maybe 2-3 years and the owner had a pen plotter installed for our standard products… the guys from the shop looked in awe with the speed the pen moved laughing that we were going to be replaced by this machine. I realized then that such machine do not replace men, they replace other machines.