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


Like everything else in my life I had to put in some effort to learn .
When first made a shop foreman at 18 I thought I had all the skills I
needed for the job . Yea right . Took me a while and a few not so kind
pointed comments from my Dad to see the facts . On the other hand once I
knew I needed to learn I put in the extra effort . Found out what made a
good supervisor , fine tuned that to fit me and more or less got it right .
Ken Cutt