Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

[cheesy]

I had brunch with Harold and Jason this morning. Harold was on fire.

Not with Jason or me, but with both the MM and the new guy. The MM is a narcissist with an Engineering degree and thinks only he can fix anything. The new guy has spent the last third of his life in the military and hasn't yet made the adjustment to civilian life. He has managed to piss off everyone in the shop with his attitude. I haven't even done that, there's still one or two people there that like me. He's also managing to get on my nerves.

Harold wants to lock both in a room and see which one walks out.

Al wants Harold to go to Mexico and referee. Harold suggested to Al that he's the CEO and he should go. And to get bent if he tried to force Harold to go.

I told Harold that he'd be smoking and drinking again before the end of the first day.

Jason told me, that on Monday, the new guy walked onto the shop floor in dress shoes because he was flying out that day. Since he's managed to alienate the entire shop, Brad(little dick) and Bill(big dick) told him to get out of the shop if he didn't have safety shoes on. Seth handed each one of them a business card and said those were for HR so they'd spell his name correctly on the write-up, got his crap, and left.(I thought that was kind of a smooth move)

Brad and Bill, even though they are a couple of wieners, would never pull that crap with Jason or I.

[cheesy]

So the great idea of each field guy having only a Visa and no back up credit card went down in glorious flames this week. The freaking Visa cards have been locked for almost two weeks now.
Last time this happened, all but one of the field guys were issued an AMEX card to use as a ‘backup’ should we have the problem again. We were guaranteed it would not happen a second time. Uh-huh. See above. I’m with the guy without an AMEX and now have to cover him this week. Not the first time I’ve had to do it but I thought I was done with it with the single card system.
As of today, “We are going to cut ties with ‘XXXX’ and looking into a different company. In the meantime, use the AMEX cards and again submit a weekly expense form.”
The only benefits I saw with ‘XXXX’ was there were no weekly forms to fill out, take pic of a receipt and submit it. Out of pocket reimbursements were usually within the next pay period. I waited 92 days once for a $27 reimbursement in the olden days and never got an explanation as to why.i

[Sport Rider]

Um....you're a contractor....your answer is that you don't use your personal credit for anything dealing with their company. Please provide alternate solution.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Sport Rider

Um....you're a contractor....your answer is that you don't use your personal credit for anything dealing with their company. Please provide alternate solution.

That has been the answer from all of the field guys. The added response is that if the company card doesn’t work, I’ll be working from home until it does. At my full rate of pay.

[cheesy]

What a week.

Junior gave his two week notice and went into A-hole mode. His actions got him escorted off the property on day two of the two weeks.

New guy managed to get himself banned from a customers' property by being an arrogant prick and not managing to keep his mouth shut. I'm about done with the guy. So are the rest of the service guys.

And, I managed to impale the short end of a 4mm Allen wrench in the palm of my hand.

[TominMO]

^^ Good times!

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by TominMO

^^ Good times!

The best.

[dirtbkr188]

Originally Posted by cheesy

...And, I managed to impale the short end of a 4mm Allen wrench in the palm of my hand.

Sooooooo...does this mean that your Friday Night gig playing karaoke piano at Shorty's Tavern is out the window for a while?...

[cheesy]

I couldn't play karaoke piano before the boo-boo, so nothing will change.

[XLsior]

what is karaoke piano?

does it it have a screen where you play along to the actual song being played played by a professional pianist?

[cheesy]

The shine sure has worn off the new guy. It's become pretty obvious that he's a legend in his own mind.

I was down in Beaufort last week to help remove a height and swing limiter system on a 360 that is going to Mexico. The new guy installed the system on his own with some guidance over the phone from me. The system was installed so it worked but it had been installed so poorly that it had prone to fail written all over it. What should have taken half a day to remove and reconfigure back to stock specs took a day and a half.

The new guy was told to put what he took off in a safe place because the system was only for a demo. He lost all that stuff, so I had to scramble and scrounge to get things back to the way they were supposed to be. The production guys I was working with got to see how I got things done. I was pulling part numbers out of my ass and plumbing electro/hydraulic valves without schematics.

Other than that headache, it was not a bad trip, except for the hotel where we have a corporate rate. It's become a dump and I got an okay to stay somewhere else when I'm down there. I met the new CS hires. They seem to have more than a few functioning brain cells. I also met the new HR person. She's a one eighty from the current HR person, meaning personable and easy to work with. She's still learning the ropes and was lucky enough to see myself and her trainer have an old phart's interaction when I walked into her office.

Old HR person-"What the hell are you doing here, you old grouch?"

Me-"Nice to see you too, ya old bat."

The new HR person's eyes about popped out of her head when she heard the exchange. We both told her that you can't treat everybody the same. If one or both of us had been very polite or business like to each other, both of our bullshit detectors would have pegged.

Another thing is the machine I have been connected with since 1997 is ending production by year's end. I got to see one of the replacement machines that was in Beaufort. I was asked a lot of questions about it but all I could say was that this was the first time I'm seeing it. In our infinite wisdom, only one person, Junior, was trained on it. And now he's flown the coop.

[Sport Rider]

good to see the soap opera is still alive and well.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Sport Rider

good to see the soap opera is still alive and well.

That it is.

There are some power plays going on up at the top. Mostly to stroke some egos. The Production Coordinator, used to be the Production Manager, and is also the Chief Ego Stroker, came right out and told me, kind of as a threat. He even named his team. Told him he was an idiot leading a ship of fools. And good luck.

On a lighter note, I've been on LinkedIn for years. I mostly ignore it because...well, just because. Last month, I got a connection request from a woman in Australia, who is also in the rail business. The name was somewhat familiar, but I couldn't place it. I said what the hell and accepted.
I was driving back to Charleston Saturday when the Search Function dinger went off in my brain. So, last night I messaged her and asked if she was the same person whose toddler walked up to me and said "Uppies" while we were docked on Jim Ireland's boat, at a Fish n' Chips joint in Fremantle Harbor.

Her reply was, "Yes, I am." Her husband, Ross, and I about killed ourselves to get a project done in Australia in three weeks. We had a nice chat, though she told me the Ross died suddenly last April. That came as a shock. The toddler, Emily, and her twin brother, Brendan, are both 22 years old now and both serve in the Aussie military.

It was a surprise to everyone on that boat 20 years ago when Emily walked up to me with he arms raised and wanted to be picked up. Anne said she'd never done that to anyone. I said something like "Once a Dad, always a Dad."

[cheesy]

It's been about two months since I posted on this. Soooo.....

I had three airplane rides this week with three 1st class upgrades.

I had a decent few days at corpulent, training a guy on bolt machine transmissions. Met with another new CS person. Then Al wants me to change plans and meet with the new guy, who has had the come to Jesus talk and has had a change of attitude. He's in NJ and having issues with another new 360 that was supposed to have been fully inspected. I'm just supposed to advise.

Because of the fires in Canuckistan, flying into Newark wasn't going to happen, so I flew into Philly and drove to NJ.

I saw the new 360. What a POS! The customer is pissed.

First off is the paint job. Earl Scheib would be embarrassed by it. Apparently, masking was extra.


I was told that much of the height and swing limiting equipment was being installed in Beaufort and just the wiring and hydraulics needed to be done. Uh-huh. What they did do, they did so half-assed that we had to remove it and do it over. That cost us several hours.

The electrical system on the 360 is 24V. The mental midgets used 12v 1157 bulbs instead of 24v 1662 bulbs in the taillights, then asked me why they worked and then didn't. I brought up with corpulent that it is 2023 and the rest of the world uses LEDs. So did we, the last five years in Elgin.

A-holes did not secure the batteries in the battery box and one got damaged.

That was a grand on my company Visa to replace both.

They were supposed to install a failsafe trailer braking system when the 360 was being built. They didn't. I gave them a list of parts to send us at the customers' location. Pretty easy install. They got two parts right. All the rest were wrong or not there. That was a 90 minute round trip to Mcmaster-Carr and another $250 on my Visa.

I know the customer pretty well and they are good at busting balls. Seth hasn't learned yet to not take it personal. Anyway, the owner was shouting at us and threatening that he was going to send it back. I volunteered to drive it up on the trailer for him.

One more picture.

That switch and plate hanging by the wire. Yeah, that's supposed to be welded to the frame on the right. I saw it was bent. I touched it and it fell off.

So, with this cluster, I called Harold and gave my two week notice this morning. He said he's not going to try to stop me but wants me to hold off on making it official until a conference call he and I are having with Al's boss on Monday.

[TominMO]

"So, with this cluster, I called Harold and gave my two week notice this morning. He said he's not going to try to stop me but wants me to hold off on making it official until a conference call he and I are having with Al's boss on Monday."

This is a company that fully deserves to be burned to the ground. Zero excuse for chronic horrible builds. Management is not doing its part by firing everyone culpable for letting junk go out the factory door. Another company will pick up the orders when this one finally implodes.