The Curse

Upon returning to work we found posted on the bulletin board the daily minimum footage for 2006 per machine. The numbers made me laugh. When I ran those machines and constantly outperformed all of the other grinder operators, I would have made their new MINIMUM footage requirements 15-20% of the time. I considered those my good days.

Under the new minimums the management scrawled the words, "No Exceptions!" What tact. What grace. A management model that has proven effective and desirable throughout history, especially in cultures that approved of slavery. I kept picturing Veruca Salt in that menacing pre-tantrum tension.

The result of such efforts around the plant seem so predictable. Production nose-dived. Machines broke good and hard instead of the more usual quick fix problems. On top of that the leads, under heavy 'threats' from management, try to run all the machines through breaks using maintenance to cover machines. Hmm, ten hour day, an hour worth of breaks, and an hour covering someone else's breaks. So if we always have enough problems to keep us busy when we normally spend 9 hours fixing machines, how much compounding of problems occurs when we can only spend 8 hours doing our job?

All of this only really hits the new folks at work. Anyone who has been around that place for at least a year knows the skinny. Just smile and do your job the way you always have. No pony for the princess.