"Ken Cutt" wrote in message
...
Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:
"Bob Gentry" rgentry_AT_oz_dot_net@ wrote in message
...
snip--

Machinist's Third Bedside Reader, page 139, part of "That Last Half
Thou"
Quote
This brings to mind something Bob Haralson once told me. "When I find
a man in a shop I'm runnin' who won't show an apprentice boy anything
he wants to know, I fire him".
Knowing Bob as I do, I probably needn't have asked him if he ment that
he soon found some pretext for firing the guy.
"no. I _fire_ him! " said Bob emphatically. Ive chuckled over that
many a time since.
Close Quote


That brings to mind one of the supervisors at Sperry Utah. The company
was
founded in '56 expressly to build the Sergeant missile. Location was
chosen
where there was a 'right to work' in an effort to get away from the
horrible
union problems of the '50's, particularly on the right hand side of the
US.

The machine shop was initially staffed almost entirely with locals, some
of
whom were, at best, questionable as machinists. Once so staffed,
company
policy was to load the shop with trainees as they went from the R&D
stage
into production, so they could groom them to work to gov't requirements.
Thus, a huge number of young people were quickly hired after a 6 month
crash
course at the local community college.

Imagine the need for supervision of all these young people.

The older guys that were hired in were promoted to leadman, or
supervisor.
One of them, who was promoted to supervisor, and shall remain nameless,
was
overseeing the drill press section, and for a brief time, the grinding
department, where I worked.

One fine day I had to engage him in conversation regards a job I was
running. I found him in the drill press section, lapping a hole with a
Deltronic pin (I told you some of them were questionable as machinists).
I
don't recall how the conversation went, but along the way he told me "do
you
think I'm going to teach these guys everything I know? If they knew as
much
as I did, they'd have my job".

Moron!

Truth be known, for the most part, the trainees already knew as much as
he
did. The lucky ones are the ones that forgot it and learned proper
procedures.

Very unlike this fool, my favorite supervisor would go far out of his
way to
teach and help the young guys. He was wise enough to know that the
better we
were, the better he looked.

It never ceased to amaze me how people with no skills became leaders in
that
facility, although, for the most part, leaders were well qualified.
Some
individuals just slipped through he cracks. The moron was one of them.

Harold


Some of my darkest regrets are people I fired while learning how to be a
supervisor . All with just cause but still looking back now with
experience I know could have been handled without taking some ones job
away . So often while young I let ego and pride make calls that I would
not down the road . Experience later helped me get right . I made a
point of helping people working for me get it right as they were
promoted . Maybe some people are born with the knowledge a task takes ,
I sure was not one of them . The biggest thing that burns all these
years later was the people that paid a price while I learned how to be a
boss .
Ken Cutt

Interesting comments, Ken.

The gentleman mentioned above, the one to whom I referred as my favorite
supervisor (Jay), seemed to just know what to do and say at every turn. He
went to bat for me (his decision, not mine) when the manufacturing
superintendent wanted to fire me after my probationary period was up. I had
been behaving like I was still in high school and screwing up routinely.
Not a pretty sight in retrospect.

Later, when I finally got my feet on the ground and was a productive
machinist, I recall seeing the manufacturing superintendent standing off in
the distance, watching me as I trepanned inch thick aluminum plates, one
after the other, in rapid succession. Only later did I learn that Jay had
called him to come out to the shop and see the fruits of his labor.

Jay was a prince amongst men. He showed no favoritism, was even handed and
totally fair in his dealings with the guys in the shop. He was easily the
best supervisor they had, and was liked by all, yet he was pretty much all
business as far as his job was concerned. Strangely, he was promoted
from the ranks, just as the others were. Where he got his incredible skills
at handling people I don't know. Prior to his promotion to lead man, he
was a jig borer operator. I guess some people have a gift!

Harold