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What a week.

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  • What a week.

    Yea, this week was 7 flavors of interesting. Some good, Some bad.

    Dish 1: Promotions?
    I am applying for 2 different internal job postings. Both would be promotions.

    The first on is for CNC Programmer. Requires really good math and geometry skills, subjects I excel at . But there is almost no chance of me getting that position because I know the others who applied. One has his associates degree (or a Masters, I forget) in machining and programming (90% chance). The other two applicants (that I know of) are both senior set-up techs who are both skilled at "conversational" programming on the machines (a newer concept that allows more control at the set-up tech and operator levels. 4.9999999% chance for both). Not impossible, just absurdly unlikely. Still, they said it looks good and shows I am interested in advancing.

    The second job opening is a new position for a Night Shift Manager. It looks like they might finally be expanding our shift (I am on nights) and giving our current supervisor a better chain of command (and experience pool to draw from, no one can know every machine super well). I have heard between 8 to 16 (depending on my sources) people applied. I figure that I am in the top 3 because of my years of service and willingness to learn. Honestly, I would almost rather have this job than the Programmer (even though that position is a "higher level" and "high paid" slot).

    Dish 2 and 3: Sick supervisor and why we need a second Night Shift Manager
    Monday, came in to find out Night Super (NS) was out sick. He almost never calls out sick. Unless he is in the hospital.

    I talk to the Lathe Foreman about keys to the tool crib in-case we needed to change tools on a machine (LF, only day-shift foreman there, the rest were out of town looking at new toy. Eehh, I love new toys. ). He told me not to worry about them and just move on if a tool breaks. That was a poor plan, my machine needed a new tool (I barely made it through with heavy polishing, but it was close). A couple other times we could have done easy changes too if we had access to the tool crib. Brings us too....

    Dish 4: I am now acting Night Shift Supervisor
    Tuesday, NS is still out sick? Wierd, that guy almost never even takes a vacation. Let alone being sick.

    Yea, Monday was unexpected and not pleasant as there was no one actually "in charge". So they decided to give me "access" to the tool crib (leaving the door unlocked) and "authority" to make minor decisions. Since another guy on nights is officially a set-up tech (I am not 'officially' one, but I know how) I had him check and sign everyone's in-process-check sheets, but mostly he helped with a part that was being difficult, one that he was more familiar with. We run decently well though.

    I got a bit of footing on learning how to manage the shift. Nice way to ease into it.

    Dish 5: Quiet, too Quiet
    Look behind you right now, quickly before it sees you... That was Wednesday, I do not know what it was up too, but it was no good.

    Thursday, So that was what Wednesday was plotting!!! Found out that my set-up tech made some "bad adjustment" on his machine (easy stuff to do really, I made similar mistakes my first time on those parts). He was on vacation, so they can deal with him next week.

    After lunch, I checked my operators inspections sheets and noticed that one tolerance was at the very, very top. It was an odd one, because you had to adjust the tolerance zone for plating (which was stated on the inspection sheet, actually gave you the Run@X.XXX-X.XXX). The Newish Guy (NG) thought that since the set-up tech ran it during day-shift, and he had the same numbers as him, that it was suppose to run there. Yea, he is still a bit naive, firsties (first year) operators are always so adorable.

    But, I have never made an offset adjustment to a machine that I was not running, so I was uneasy at the thought of messing with a machine I am not intimately familiar with. Luckily, the Day-shift Mill Foreman (MF) stopped by to pick something up, and NG asked him about my concerns.

    MF was not pleased........(insert ominous music here).....(mommy)..... at his set-up tech for not catching that (and happy we caught it). Plating is critical and it was marked on the inspection sheet. He went ahead and made the adjustments, faster then I would have been able to. It was 2 tools doing the walls that were blended together, I know only 5 of you out there understand what I just said so. If I made the adjustment, I would have had a step form, and I would have had to find that tool to correct it. MF 3 min., Me 10-15 min. And it made things easier to explain in my note, as he would have been one of the people to get my "end of night" notes anyway.

    Dish 6: What happened to NS?
    I did not find out what happened to NS until Thursday (I told you Wed-nes-day, plotting ). Coworker called him up to ask what was wrong out of concern. That comment I made about him only calling in sick if he was in the hospital, yep, that is 100% accurate still. He had been there since Saturday with a really bad infection in his leg. No one told us a darn thing. I can almost understand the guys on the floor, but not telling the Foremen either? Literally, no one except the VP, head of HR, and the Head Foreman (HF) knew (HF was on vacation, or he would have told us). NS is hoping to come back on Monday, but....... he does not know, depends if they can kill the bactiria in is leg; and they have him on some of the most powerful Antibiotics there are, 10 bags in total over 4 different kinds. They are making headway though, and they kept him in the local hospital (good sign, small town hospital so if it was more serious they would have shipped him out to Hays, KS or Kearney, NE).

    Side note: Our company pays $300 of our insurance policy each month. Last year when Premiums went insanely high, they increased it by $100 (even then premiums still went up, but only slightly). 80 employees times $100 times 12 months equals $96,000 they chose to spend. No one, no law, made them do this. CEO did this because it was the right thing to do.

    Back to the main course with
    Dessert: Dish 7: Night Shift Manager interviews

    Guess what I am doing next week.
    I am interviewing for the Night Shift Manager position. Gee, I wonder if I am going to be bringing this last week up.

    I do still need to finish my set-up tech training. I started last year, it was 2 months day-shift for me, rotate 2 month for another person, rotate back to me, ect until we were done. But that plan was tanked by the previous night shift supervisor needing to go back to days because of family issues, then day-shift training took a major hit when we lost our best trainer.

    Even with that though, assuming I do well in the interview, I should be near the head of the pack.

    They have mentioned that they like my willingness to work with the situation. Also, Head Foreman likes my "Needs of the Army" attitude. Where I do what they need to have done without complaint.
    side note 2: Is it brown-nosing to do what you are asked/suppose to now? When did that happen?


    If it be the Lord's Will,
    In blessing me with the Skill,
    Soon I might get to make a thread for
    The View from the back room
    I might be crazy, but I'm not Insane.

    What? You don't play with flamethrowers on the weekends? You are strange.

  • #2
    I may not have totally understood, but I get the drift, and I sympathise. I haven't operated our point-to-point machine in years, and we work in wood in any case.

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    • #3
      Good luck with the interview. It sounds like you'd be a good fit for the position.
      Question authority, but raise your hand first. -Alan M. Bershowitz

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      • #4
        Quoth Gilhelmi View Post
        I did not find out what happened to NS until Thursday...That comment I made about him only calling in sick if he was in the hospital, yep, that is 100% accurate still. He had been there since Saturday with a really bad infection in his leg....NS is hoping to come back on Monday, but....... he does not know, depends if they can kill the bactiria in is leg; and they have him on some of the most powerful Antibiotics there are, 10 bags in total over 4 different kinds.
        Ooh. That's really bad. Is he diabetic?

        I hope he recovers fully, and without losing his leg (or worse).
        I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.
        My LiveJournal
        A page we can all agree with!

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        • #5
          Quoth XCashier View Post
          Ooh. That's really bad. Is he diabetic?

          I hope he recovers fully, and without losing his leg (or worse).
          No, but he had the same thing happen in the past. While he is one to keep working with the sniffles. He knows enough to go to the hospital when things do get bad. So they caught it early on. So we are not too worried.
          I might be crazy, but I'm not Insane.

          What? You don't play with flamethrowers on the weekends? You are strange.

          Comment


          • #6
            Well, NS is doing better. I visited him on Friday, he is not expecting to come back to work this week, but he really wants too. (methinks he is a bit board of hospitals)
            I might be crazy, but I'm not Insane.

            What? You don't play with flamethrowers on the weekends? You are strange.

            Comment


            • #7
              UPDATE-A-THONE

              So, NS got better finally. He had been out for 2 weeks, and went home early every night for another week (because of massive swelling). But he is doing well. After reading a Cracked.com article, I suspect it was flesh eating bacteria. (the doctors still do not know what it was, so mine is as good of guess as their's ).

              The interview went very well. Unfortunately, I did not get the position. NS did? Even though he was already the supervisor.

              I think this is what was going on. About 8 months ago we got a new HR admin person. She has been busy getting things more up-to-speed and such. Example: This year was the first time anyone in my company had ever gone through Sexual Harassment training. For most of the people, it was their first time for any job.

              [bad side joke] why do we need sexual harassment training? 'X' is a master of sexual harassment. [/bad side joke]

              Night Shift has always been a Fly-by-Night operation (pun intended). Whenever a shift supervisor was needed they would go "Who wants it" and pick someone who volunteered (if no one did, someone was "asked"). Never an interview, never a formal job posting.

              I think what was going on was the new HR person was getting things "legal".

              Oh well, I still scored major brownie points and made sure they knew I was interested in more training and advancing in this company.
              I might be crazy, but I'm not Insane.

              What? You don't play with flamethrowers on the weekends? You are strange.

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