But she pretty much nails it.
She either has a boyfriend or a relative that turns wrenches is my best guess.
In my 45+ years of wrenching, I can assure you that Mechanics and Maintenance Technicians are the Red Headed Step Children of every organization out there.
Until they need your services…
That part about assholes who call me and tell me that the machine is down to get me there faster only for me to have to wait because they are actually still using it hit the nail on the head.
I couldn’t count how many times I have seen that. Inevitably, they then have the gall to stand and look over your shoulder asking when it’s going to be done every ten minutes.
After all these years I have learned to either ignore them or turn around and tell them that I’ll let them know when I’m done.
Fuck You and your pressure tactics.
I didn’t break the motherfucker and you knew damn good and well it was fucked up LONG before you called me in most cases.
My absolute favorite part is when I get to inform them that the part they need has a six month lead time and if they had called me when they first knew about the problem that the part could have probably been here by now.
The look of panic on their faces is priceless.
Here’s a piece of advice you need to pass down to your children.
Never piss off your mechanic.
We have ways to fuck up your life.
Urgent trip to the tower site, transmitter is down hard. GM calls about 10 minutes after I arrive, “when will this be up?” “Still troubleshooting, will advise.” 10 minutes later, “we’re losing ad revenue, WHEN WILL THIS BE UP?!” “Every minute I’m on the phone is a minute I can’t find the problem…..” No more calls. I couldn’t believe that worked so well.
Boy that sounds awfully familiar. Been there done that multiple times. Don’t miss it.
Shit Hole Inc, was exactly like that.
Got pissed that I kept parts on the shelf. Their rationale was that we could get parts overnight and they were wasting money by “keeping inventory” they didn’t have to. So, once I used the parts on hand, I didn’t order replacements. Then the anticipated happened – a machine went down, during the summer time. Anyone that has ever dealt with European CNC manufactures knows that almost ALL of Europe goes on vacation in the summer. So, now there is a million dollar piece of equipment down for weeks because the US site has no parts and the parent company doesn’t have anyone working.
Then they have the audacity to bitch at me for not anticipating the machine breaking down and having parts on hand. When I explain that I was simply doing what they ordered me to do, I was accused of deflecting the blame of not doing my job.
Pretty much SOP for that place. They talked about being on top of PM’s and predictive maintenance, but wouldn’t shut a machine down to schedule down time or approve overtime to work on it until it. Run until failure was how they operated, then blame everyone else for the down time.
I am so glad I have been out of there for five years now. I kind of wish that the place had burnt down before they went under, so I could piss in the ashes.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Libertarian theory says that a corporation’s goal is to produce net value, to create outputs more valuable than the inputs. But I don’t believe this theory, and the richer in lifestyle everyone gets, the wronger it gets. Instead, I believe corporations exist for two reasons: 1) to produce more valuable outputs, and 2) to construct a pecking order that managers can sit on top of. That’s why today, when the middle class has a richer lifestyle than any king in the past, and nobody misses meals, efficiency and output no longer matter. The corporation exists mostly to satisfy urges for dominance. Investment in the corporation is determined by how well managers can sell the lies, and most of everything is fake.
But, the coming dollar hyperinflation is going to correct all this.
…or housekeeping or custodial staff..
Maintenance mechanics generally fall in to two categories. The ones that routinely save the day…or the useless oxygen thieves that wander around wasting time and resources.
Regretfully, more of the latter than the former.
DIE makes it worse.
Raaaaaacism makes it worser.
It’s even better when you’re fresh on the job, fixed all the shitters, urinals, changed out most of the ballasts and blown lights, got the Reznors working, shovelled out all the aggregate lost from the belts and bins, cleaned all the rollers past the pallet-wrapper so they roll, and then they fire the fat guy that had parts on the shelf for more than 5 years instead of fixing things.
Then you’re the only maintenance guy in a 100K sqft facility making stone siding with a grizzly pit that only takes 2/3rds trailer agg, portland, white and fly ash silos, German mixers with flying buckets, Swedish steam generators, Italian pallet wrapper, underfloor conveyor for scraps in boxing area, pneumatic rollers with laser scanners and making $22/hour because the boss died and his idiot son took over and fired all the older employees because his dad liked them.
Burned out describes that situation.
Soooo glad I’m retired. I still help a couple of friends out. The ones that respect and appreciate the skills and tool investment. But I laugh when everybody else gets fucked raw by the failure of management. When they give me an ugly look I just tell them “well you could buy a bunch of tools and fix it yourself.” It’s hilarious when they try!
But I’ve got a couple of friends that are willing to bleed and learn so I invest in them. The coming collapse is going to level the playing field. Gonna be awesome watching short sighted managers with an MBA getting blisters from the mean end of a shovel while the working man gets all their respect and barter goodies.
I’ve been doing welding and repair both mobile and in the shop and I’ve seen most of these she mentioned. People who want a mobile repair NOW and when I have to take it back to the shop they call repeatedly asking when will it be done. I told one guy that if he’d quit wasting my time to answer the phone I would get done a lot faster. He showed up at the shop with a red face and left shortly after with a bug in his ear. The other type want it done NOW and want to wait a month or two to pay. Those specifically no longer customers and some of the other slow pay types are told to bring their checkbook when they come to pick up the repaired parts. Now at 75 I’m mostly retired and only take jobs that I want to take though at times I’m still stupid and say yes when I should say no.
It’s a curse, isn’t it – the urge to fix broker things. It makes it who you are.
Most of us here are in the same boat, we cringe when we know we can fix the freaking problem if others will let us, but The Marching Morons just keep getting stupider and stupider and ignore problems until they get smacked in the face. Or wallet.
“You can pay me now, or pay me later”… great advertising jingle…
I have long maintained that mechanics, maintenance workers, anyone in construction, anyone who works manual labor should make more pay than say a lawyer or anybody who sits on their ass working in an office or government or wherever. Without people who can make and fix things the whole world stops.
We can shoot all the lawyers and things would work better We can shoot all the people that build or fix, and Civilization falls over dead immediately.
Having worked in industrial maintenance, she gets it. An acquaintance of mine is a A&P technician and is of the same mind. He’ll also confirm that they’re the first ones that gets blamed should a plane go down.