What's The Worst Job You Ever Had?

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221

[quote]Chushin wrote:

[quote]WhiteSturgeon wrote:

I wish I had a cool accent like English, Irish, Australian, French, Italian… anything really. People are like 10000x more awesome when they have a cool accent.

I’m feeling totally cheated, not only do I not have a nice accent, I have one of the worst accents in the entire country!!! That’s WICKED unfair!

[/quote]

Come to Japan – You’ll have one hell of an accent! :-)[/quote]

Ahhh yes, but I’m not sure if having a Japanusetts accents would be much of an improvement. :frowning:

222

I had this job in a machine shop in a big company that had multi-facilities. They liked my work so I got transferred to a smaller R&D shop with about 30 guys in it. I was 26, the next guy in age was 35 and up to age 65. Bit by bit, they added younger guys from 19 to around my age and the older guys in the shop resented it.

There was a lot of conflict as the foremen would give the young guys harder work to see if they could do it. And we did by sticking together and helping each other out. We’d pass fixtures we made up to the next guy who ran the job and we weren’t shy about it. Similar jobs, we’d gang up on. One guy cut the stock, another did the rough machining and so on. They put the nix on this fast. And they kept track of time on every job, keeping a database of who and how long it took to do.

What should have been a great place was actually run like a jail most of the time. One of the guys was approached by a rep of the Aerospace and Machinist union. So we sat down with them and gave them a listen… free beer, it was well-attended. We were given intent cards, which we passed to the guys in the other shops, including assembly and sheetmetal. We had the same supervisor that was a real scumbag.

As the weeks went on, management got wind of it and wasn’t happy. We had more meetings from the other shops and the shift workers who started later even showed up. We had quite a few intent cards signed… and blanks stuffed into every information kiosk we could find.

The older guys in the shop were pissed and showed it, as some were close to retirement. Rumor from management was that they would close all the shops before letting a union in. Things got ugly, cars were vandalized in the parking lot including a couple of brand new cars that needed paint jobs and body work. Countless windshields were smashed and vinyl roofs slashed. One guy lost 3 windshields in 2 weeks before he quieted down.

I had a transfer request into another department, which magically happened real fast. All of the machinists got a raise of $2 per hour, sheetmetal workers got $1, assemblers nothing. I learned a couple of years later that we came VERY close to getting the union in.

Rob

223

[quote]beachguy498 wrote:
I had this job in a machine shop in a big company that had multi-facilities. They liked my work so I got transferred to a smaller R&D shop with about 30 guys in it. I was 26, the next guy in age was 35 and up to age 65. Bit by bit, they added younger guys from 19 to around my age and the older guys in the shop resented it.

There was a lot of conflict as the foremen would give the young guys harder work to see if they could do it. And we did by sticking together and helping each other out. We’d pass fixtures we made up to the next guy who ran the job and we weren’t shy about it. Similar jobs, we’d gang up on. One guy cut the stock, another did the rough machining and so on. They put the nix on this fast. And they kept track of time on every job, keeping a database of who and how long it took to do.

What should have been a great place was actually run like a jail most of the time. One of the guys was approached by a rep of the Aerospace and Machinist union. So we sat down with them and gave them a listen… free beer, it was well-attended. We were given intent cards, which we passed to the guys in the other shops, including assembly and sheetmetal. We had the same supervisor that was a real scumbag.

As the weeks went on, management got wind of it and wasn’t happy. We had more meetings from the other shops and the shift workers who started later even showed up. We had quite a few intent cards signed… and blanks stuffed into every information kiosk we could find.

The older guys in the shop were pissed and showed it, as some were close to retirement. Rumor from management was that they would close all the shops before letting a union in. Things got ugly, cars were vandalized in the parking lot including a couple of brand new cars that needed paint jobs and body work. Countless windshields were smashed and vinyl roofs slashed. One guy lost 3 windshields in 2 weeks before he quieted down.

I had a transfer request into another department, which magically happened real fast. All of the machinists got a raise of $2 per hour, sheetmetal workers got $1, assemblers nothing. I learned a couple of years later that we came VERY close to getting the union in.

Rob[/quote]
Nothing like petty business lol.

224

[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:

Yeah. I dont see how studying something important at a high level is a bad gig. No offence or anything, I just don’t get it.[/quote]
He’s just spoiled.

225

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

[quote]beachguy498 wrote:
I had this job in a machine shop in a big company that had multi-facilities. They liked my work so I got transferred to a smaller R&D shop with about 30 guys in it. I was 26, the next guy in age was 35 and up to age 65. Bit by bit, they added younger guys from 19 to around my age and the older guys in the shop resented it.

There was a lot of conflict as the foremen would give the young guys harder work to see if they could do it. And we did by sticking together and helping each other out. We’d pass fixtures we made up to the next guy who ran the job and we weren’t shy about it. Similar jobs, we’d gang up on. One guy cut the stock, another did the rough machining and so on. They put the nix on this fast. And they kept track of time on every job, keeping a database of who and how long it took to do.

What should have been a great place was actually run like a jail most of the time. One of the guys was approached by a rep of the Aerospace and Machinist union. So we sat down with them and gave them a listen… free beer, it was well-attended. We were given intent cards, which we passed to the guys in the other shops, including assembly and sheetmetal. We had the same supervisor that was a real scumbag.

As the weeks went on, management got wind of it and wasn’t happy. We had more meetings from the other shops and the shift workers who started later even showed up. We had quite a few intent cards signed… and blanks stuffed into every information kiosk we could find.

The older guys in the shop were pissed and showed it, as some were close to retirement. Rumor from management was that they would close all the shops before letting a union in. Things got ugly, cars were vandalized in the parking lot including a couple of brand new cars that needed paint jobs and body work. Countless windshields were smashed and vinyl roofs slashed. One guy lost 3 windshields in 2 weeks before he quieted down.

I had a transfer request into another department, which magically happened real fast. All of the machinists got a raise of $2 per hour, sheetmetal workers got $1, assemblers nothing. I learned a couple of years later that we came VERY close to getting the union in.

Rob[/quote]
Nothing like petty business lol.[/quote]

This was a highly-regarded shop in the area. Lots of close tolerance machining in difficult materials, high alloy exotic steels, ceramics, etc. And when a job was given out, it was YOURS through every process, nobody else touched it.

It was a shithole due to the way the local management treated everybody.

Rob

226

[quote]beachguy498 wrote:

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

[quote]beachguy498 wrote:
I had this job in a machine shop in a big company that had multi-facilities. They liked my work so I got transferred to a smaller R&D shop with about 30 guys in it. I was 26, the next guy in age was 35 and up to age 65. Bit by bit, they added younger guys from 19 to around my age and the older guys in the shop resented it.

There was a lot of conflict as the foremen would give the young guys harder work to see if they could do it. And we did by sticking together and helping each other out. We’d pass fixtures we made up to the next guy who ran the job and we weren’t shy about it. Similar jobs, we’d gang up on. One guy cut the stock, another did the rough machining and so on. They put the nix on this fast. And they kept track of time on every job, keeping a database of who and how long it took to do.

What should have been a great place was actually run like a jail most of the time. One of the guys was approached by a rep of the Aerospace and Machinist union. So we sat down with them and gave them a listen… free beer, it was well-attended. We were given intent cards, which we passed to the guys in the other shops, including assembly and sheetmetal. We had the same supervisor that was a real scumbag.

As the weeks went on, management got wind of it and wasn’t happy. We had more meetings from the other shops and the shift workers who started later even showed up. We had quite a few intent cards signed… and blanks stuffed into every information kiosk we could find.

The older guys in the shop were pissed and showed it, as some were close to retirement. Rumor from management was that they would close all the shops before letting a union in. Things got ugly, cars were vandalized in the parking lot including a couple of brand new cars that needed paint jobs and body work. Countless windshields were smashed and vinyl roofs slashed. One guy lost 3 windshields in 2 weeks before he quieted down.

I had a transfer request into another department, which magically happened real fast. All of the machinists got a raise of $2 per hour, sheetmetal workers got $1, assemblers nothing. I learned a couple of years later that we came VERY close to getting the union in.

Rob[/quote]
Nothing like petty business lol.[/quote]

This was a highly-regarded shop in the area. Lots of close tolerance machining in difficult materials, high alloy exotic steels, ceramics, etc. And when a job was given out, it was YOURS through every process, nobody else touched it.

It was a shithole due to the way the local management treated everybody.

Rob[/quote]
Yeah that’s part of what I was getting at.

227

Whew, sounds like a good machine shop. I’d show you pictures of mine, but I’d be too embarassed. It’s a bit… antediluvian. We still use shapers for god’s sake.

228

[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:
Whew, sounds like a good machine shop. I’d show you pictures of mine, but I’d be too embarassed. It’s a bit… antediluvian. We still use shapers for god’s sake.[/quote]

You can remove a lot of material with a shaper and do it unattended.

229

Yup. That’s why I keep using them. Probably the oldest machine we have is 19th century. You can tell from the ‘internals’ that are external. The old man’s old man converted it to run off an electric motor, a process which I am reversing. I wish to sell it to somebody who has a waterwheel, traction engine, or other period contrivance

230

[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:
Whew, sounds like a good machine shop. I’d show you pictures of mine, but I’d be too embarassed. It’s a bit… antediluvian. We still use shapers for god’s sake.[/quote]

This was an unbelievably nice shop. All new equipment, if you needed anything, it was ordered. We had a full-time machine maintenance guy, someone came in at night and cleaned the machines. The floor was linoleum tile and they waxed it now and then. We all had our personal Bridgeport mill.

A shaper? Man that’s archaic, but I can set one up still I bet. Those took a monster cut with the right tool bit geometry.

Rob

231

Another fucked up job I had. I was 18, just out of high school. I applied to a local sheet metal shop (they always had a help wanted sign out) for a summer job and to work when I had time off from college. This was an old established shop with tons of work.

I had long hair, wore rock 'n roll t-shirts which got me off to a crappy start. Everyone that worked there was older except someone I knew that dropped out of HS. I ran the spot welder, punch presses, did sanding, etc. The lead was always on my ass. I never had more cuts on my hands before or since.

One day I walked by the time clock and my card wasn’t there. I asked the lady in the office, (my neighbor) she told me I was being let go that day, but keep it quiet. This was before lunch… which is the segue into the best part of the tale.

There was this one guy that liked to park his car by the loading dock on payday. There were signs all over, no parking, not responsible for damages… blah, blah, blah. The idea was to get a jump on cashing the check, hitting the bar down the street that had a good lunch special.

Comes 11 or so… we all hear a big crash from outside, by the loading dock. We go outside, there was a huge punch press either coming or going onto a truck. Well, it topples off the truck, right onto his car. I don’t know what kind of car it was, it resembled a squashed bug. It was about 2’ tall. The owner of the shop comes out, refusing to be responsible for any damage since there were signs all over. I later learn that the guy who owned the car quit, the press sat on top of the car for about a week until they came up with a crane to remove it.

After lunch I go to my punch press job, putting holes into a metal chassis. All I had to do was follow the color-coded sample hanging over the press. Well, I fucked one up. Call over the lead, he says put it on the side and keep going. I fucked up another one… figured I had a few hours to go, may as well have fun with it. A few, I put in all small holes, some all big holes, going for an artistic pattern on some more.

The lead comes over about 2 PM to check on me, he goes through the “done” pile…" looks good… looks good, what the fuck… what the fuck…". Then he tells me to stop right there, don’t move or touch anything. He comes back with a pay envelope… cash and says, “you don’t work here any more.”.

Rob

232

[quote]WhiteSturgeon wrote:

[quote]The Other Titan wrote:

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

[quote]Chushin wrote:

[quote]WhiteSturgeon wrote:

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

[quote]The Other Titan wrote:

[quote]dmaddox wrote:
This page is getting a little creepy.[/quote]

Good interception, Maddox.

There’s only room for one guy on here to have creepy conversations with Sturg. [/quote]
Their conversation was not creepy at all.[/quote]

I completely concur. [/quote]

Yeah.

You seem like a genuinely nice person WS. I hope that clown doesn’t make things too uncomfortable for you here.[/quote]
There’s always the ignore feature.[/quote]

I’m always getting flamed around here and for no good reason. I haven’t said anything more crass, rude or lewd than anyone else but somehow I end up being the focus around here. For some reason I’m being held to a different standard then everyone else. So being the bigger man that I am I’m willing to issue everyone a sincere, public apology.

White Sturgeon - I’m sorry for teasing you. I do it because I like you and want your attention but there are certainly better ways of going about getting that.

Emily - I’m sorry for the rude comment I made on the thread you started. The one about you needing to buy MY drinks. I don’t really think I’m better than you or anything, I was just joking.

Vanqueer - I’m sorry I said you have a small penis in Swahili. I actually have no idea how big or small it is. According to you, it is quite large so I’m going to take your word for it by well endowed friend.

Print - I’m sorry I said that naked guy on the can was actually a selfie.

And to everyone else that I have offended directly or indirectly, I do apologize for my bad manners.

Can we all move on now?

I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m going to behave myself. You will see. [/quote]

Well, if you are being sincere, it would probably be a good idea to change “Vanqueer” to “Varqanir”. [/quote]

Shit. my bad!

233

[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:

Yeah. I dont see how studying something important at a high level is a bad gig. No offence or anything, I just don’t get it.[/quote]

It’s bitch work for shit pay.

Its really easy to lose your passion once you start doing research, especially you spend months to years working on a project or paper then at most 5 people in the world give a shit about it… and 4-5 of them have aspergers.

The key word that’s off in your statement is “important.” The stuff I was working on was quite the opposite.

234

[quote]jskrabac wrote:

[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:

Yeah. I dont see how studying something important at a high level is a bad gig. No offence or anything, I just don’t get it.[/quote]

It’s bitch work for shit pay.

Its really easy to lose your passion once you start doing research, especially you spend months to years working on a project or paper then at most 5 people in the world give a shit about it… and 4-5 of them have aspergers.

The key word that’s off in your statement is “important.” The stuff I was working on was quite the opposite. [/quote]

LOL, that sucks man. I enjoyed grad school, but some professors treat their grad students like slave labor. It’s ridiculous what some of them get aways with.

Don’t get me started on professors banging their female grad students.

235

[quote]jskrabac wrote:

[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:

Yeah. I dont see how studying something important at a high level is a bad gig. No offence or anything, I just don’t get it.[/quote]

It’s bitch work for shit pay.

Its really easy to lose your passion once you start doing research, especially you spend months to years working on a project or paper then at most 5 people in the world give a shit about it… and 4-5 of them have aspergers.

The key word that’s off in your statement is “important.” The stuff I was working on was quite the opposite. [/quote]
LOL yes.