(blah blah blah)
didnt have such a good ending to my shift the other night at work. in fact the middle wasnt so hot either. i was responsible for 3 of the big presses, which meant that i also had to keep an eye on all the final product going out, to make sure that it was ok. there were a few problems there. it seems that swing shift had a problem earlier in the night on a different part of the line, but they never purged all the bad product before it got up to the presses. so, our shift ended up running a bunch of bad product and 4 skids had to be held so that quality control could go through them to see how bad they were…and that looks bad on me. add on to that, the fact that i had to have one of the presses down for about 2 hours while i was pulling tooling out of it so that adjustments could be made and then spend an extra 45 minutes having trouble threading it up with the next coil strip, and i end up having a pretty bad shift.
then, just to top it off, near the end of the shift, at about 615, one of the presses jams really bad, a "running strip jam." that means i have to go into the press, pull out 3 different plates to gain access to the ends, and clean out all of the scrap aluminum that was thrown on the tooling and inside of the press. fine. done. thread up the press, fire it up, and let it run. looks good. until five minutes later it goes down again for the same thing. now its 645, just 15 minutes before im supposed to go home, and the clean-up process usually takes me at least that long. i still need to do my paperwork for the night…shit. ok, someone else decides to help me out and do my paperwork for me, so i resign myself to the fact that i just have to bear down and clean it up before day shift comes in. so, in i go. pull out the plates, clear out all the scrap, double check it just to make sure that i dont leave anything inside. look at the clock, 655. alright, they should be showing up by now and getting me outta here.
most people try to show up about 10 minutes before their shift starts to get the other person out on time. now, not every person actually does come in early, but every person sure does complain when their relief doesnt…especially day shift.
i look around, and theres randy, the day shift guy who is supposed to take over for me, standing over at his toolbox watching me while he puts lotion on his hands. dick. how long has he been here? i make eye contact with him to make sure he knows, i know hes here and cant avoid doing some work. he saunters over and leans close so i can yell to him (its REALLY loud here) the details of my shift and what needs to be done with this press. so, i tell him about the jams and that the press is all cleaned up, and all he has to do is thread it up and fire it up. now, i already know, that at the beginning of his shift every day, hes got to do some extra work on this press, so leaving it down for him shouldnt be any big deal (in fact it is saving him a little bit of extra work). he responds by looking at his watch, which says 656, and then pats me on the back while saying, "youve got just enough time to thread it up for me." asshole. what the fuck? i look up at him, expecting to see him smiling at his stupid, snide joke. but no, hes not smiling. hes serious. im pissed. really pissed. then he goes on to explain how he had a really rough shift yesterday and then tells me the specifics of what he had done, some of which are a flat out lie, because the shift after him did what he claimed. oh, and of course i should know all this, if i actually read the log books. asshole. of course i read the log books, and thats how i know that youre lying to me about some of this. why the hell should i give you sympathy for your shift YESTERDAY and thread up your press for you when i, JUST NOW, am trying to leave a pretty tough shift myself???!!! i know that right now i have to walk away from him or theres going to be trouble. so, i turn around the press to make it look like im going to thread it up, and while my back is turned to him i yell as loud as possible, "FUCK YOU!"
the good thing is that im pretty sure no one heard what i said (its REALLY loud in here), but im pretty sure that he heard me yell. i turn around and see him walking up to me. he tells me to go ahead and leave it down because hes got to clean the lower tooling anyway. no shit, dumbfuck. i should have fired it up so that you would have to shut it down and do more work. asshole. i turn away from him and walk over to my toolbox, put away my tools, lock it up, and wheel it away without turning around.
now, i know that wasnt the best way to handle the situation. i shouldnt have yelled, and next time i wont. but the next time he decides to make some stupid demand im going to throw it right back in his face and make him feel just as stupid as he is.
after asking around, everyone already hates this guy. hes got a reputation of trying to use his little bit of power to run over people. well, if he thinks he can try to run over me just cause im the new kid on the shift, hes got another thing coming.
-b