Hey, Rosie, work problem solved!!

timberbeast

Bless those quality engineers!! All it took was a stroke of a pen to cross the control frame for true position off of the print. I thinks I wuz wastin' my time. (doesn't feel right, though.)

Rosie

That was toooooo easy! Careful it don't come back and bite you in the butt! BTW, I just set in a new Okuma and it seems to be doing fine so far. Not my choice of brands but it works.

timberbeast

I don't like that Nlap programming on Okumas, it confuses me, and the ones that I've run won't plow through hunnered grand rough cuts and throw a decent chip, they seem to make lotsa tangles instead, you know, "stitches chips." It couldn't have been the programmer's fault, cuz it was me! The 'lil disposable Mazaks were more robust and capable, in my experience, despite the weak slideways. Gimme a Mori!! (Actually, gimmee a Stihl and I'll smile a lot more!!)
It won't bite me, Rosie, I've learned to keep paperwork by now! Is that a bad thing? Way I figure, if you're going to tell me to run parts not to print, then change the print, I want your signature on it, or I'm not running it. As a boss yourself, am I wrong? Or am I setting myself up for another trip to "we don't need you" land? I might have convoluted logic here, but I never really figured that my job was to make the boss happy, I always figured that it was to give the customer the best and prettiest parts that I can make, and give them to them as fast as I can. Here I go again, dammit! I'm growing disenchanted with quality compromises and disenchanted with having to be THE guy who has to teach other people how to run new machines, including my own boss, whose salary probably doubles mine. How do I get past this? The plant manager tells me to "be aggressive" and get noticed. Can't you get noticed just because you know stuff? I'm not aggressive. I can't change who I am.

Rosie

Timber
Keeping records is always a good thing and I mean what, when, where, how and most of all who. Most companys have a rule that anyone who changes a print must initial and date the change. If you want to move up you MUST help make your boss happy. He will never recommend you for a promotion if he is unhappy with You whether it be attitude or, chronic bitching, lateness Etc. Teaching others? How would you ever move up if you don't teach someone to take your place? One more thing on changing prints. Sometimes a company will find they have a lot of parts out of print or are having a hard time holding same and will ask customer for a one time variance, sometimes at a lower cost. They are not obligated to tell you this. To step upward you must be agressive and when you get on top you must be more so to stay there. You must be high profile. Day shift is almost a must. It is sad but just knowing "stuff" is not going to get you very far. You must be fair and treat people over and under you with respect untill they don't deserve it and then you must be ready to pounce. I have been sitting here trying to think of a nice way to tell you these things and the words I want are not coming easy. Remember I'm talking about someone starting at the bottom and some people are not willing to stab a back that just stabbed theirs last week. That's not a bad thing. Sometime I will send you an e-mail when I can think of better words to use. I think your wife and my sweetie is smart enough to know that I can be as gentle as a soft breeze but I can when I have to be one helluva sob. I can walk out in the shop and pick any man at random from the floor sweeper on up and guarantee you he thinks he can do a better job than me. Know something? A couple may be right! Some day I will tell you the price some of us have to pay to be a boss.

timberbeast

Rosie, you can take the gloves off, it won't hurt that much! You gotta remember, before I went back to the machine shop, I was the boss, the salesman, the trucker, the janitor, and everything else. I had jobbers working for me, and I paid them by how many sticks they laid down, not by how many hours they put in or how they comported themselves, because I had lumber to sell, or else starve. I just couldn't afford the health insurance anymore. Now I have to do this stuff again, and I'm very good at it. But I don't need the boss telling me to "be agressive", aka, stab the smaller boss in the back as a test of my mettle. Where is there any loyalty or integrity in that? I can see none. And I DO teach, to anyone willing to listen to the "new guy", and I'll teach them everything that I know. It makes my job easier, and it provides some satisfaction. And if somebody stabs me in the back, I'll pull it out and stab them back. But I ain't going to play corporate politics. I'll never be Machievellian enough to engage in that kind of battle. So, I guess that I'll just have to resign myself to being another face in the crowd. So be it.