Another Manufacturing Term Your Humble Scribe Was Unfamiliar With
I forgot to attribute my last Intro to 'Ripe', and allow me to explain that this torrid tale is from 'rSlash' over on Youtube, where Conrad has already identified several holes in the narrative, which I'll point out, with possible explanations. Art!
The narrator, REliable eXemplar, hereafter REX, doesn't describe what the manufacturing plant where he works is making. From a comment about a '20-hour' long industrial process, Conrad is guesstimating a steel or other metal plant, one of a number of such plants in a very large organisation. Also, this site is a 'union shop', which comes into play at the end.
REX sets the scene by bigging-up his boss, Joe, who appreciates that REX is a quick learner, has a sound work ethic and appreciates people's values. Joe is no slouch himself and gets promoted to Plant Manager, i.e. Top Dog on that site. He also takes REX along with him and gets him promoted off the factory floor and into a Supervisor position - with a caveat. Art!
The only Supervisor position open is under Karen LGTBQ Evil Petty Offender, hereafter KLEPTO, whom has only recently been promoted to Manager, as the poster child for diversity hire, being female, racial minority and LGBTQ. This is not mere hyperbole, she was the face on the company's posters promoting inclusivity.
When REX started he had a colleague, Chris, who was a lot more experienced in the role, but after a couple of weeks needed to take paternity leave. REX got a flavour of KLEPTO's true nature when he asked for help and was chastised 'because if I have to do your job then I don't need you'. Conrad's response would have been 'If you can't Manage what do we need you for?'. Art!
A few weeks into his new role, REX noticed, with puzzlement, that a certain quality gate was not being followed. If you, too, are unfamiliar with a 'Quality Gate' then allow me -
"a predefined checkpoint at the end of a production phase, requiring strict, measurable criteria to be met before a product moves to the next stage"
He queried this with the Quality engineers, who howled with appalled anguish and dug deeper. It seems that KLEPTO had decided to skip the 4-hour quality check in the whole 20-hour process, speeding up production and thus garnering her that promotion.
The QA process was immediately resumed, and the parts that had gone out without inspection had to have warranty extensions issued, to be applied if they failed before expected end date.
This raises a couple of questions, as doing so would incur substantial costs, which REX never mentions, nor of any disciplinary action against KLEPTO, which one would expect to end her career. She may have tried to argue cost-benefit analysis, but we don't get any details. O well. Art!
Ignore the third arm!
Being made to look bad resulted in KLEPTO getting increasingly vindictive, openly boasting that she couldn't be fired and could do anything she liked to the Supervisors, who started leaving in numbers. When Chris returned both he and REX were called into her office for a chewing-out, when she hypocritically condemned REX for not asking for help. See above for her response when he did.
REX instantly saw this for what it was: she was getting ready to fire him in retaliation. He went to Joe, who had him immediately moved to a different team - but not before KLEPTO rang up his new manager and tried to get him fired. She wouldn't let it lie! Art?
Not only that, Joe was completely clueless about KLEPTO's attitude and behaviour, which seems to be a serious deficiency if it's affecting your senior staff and you simply didn't notice. It's his JOB to notice things like this.
REX also informed Joe that KLEPTO was writing people up to force them to quit, then binning their notice letters or letters of resignation, then informing HR that they had simply quit on the spot. Once again, how had the Plant Manager not noticed this going on? Why, when it was uncovered, did KLEPTO not get either punished or fired? Joe partially explains this by saying that, given who and what KLEPTO was, they needed an air-tight case against her. You already had two cases against her, matey.
ANYWAY REX takes this as a challenge and discreetly gets evidence from the Supervisors. He takes this to Joe, who now has enough proof to have a HR executive from their Kansas HQ fly in and interview all the Supervisors. Without KLEPTO being informed. Art!
She was called into a meeting, where the company offered her a very generous severance package, in return for keeping quiet about her sacking.
KLEPTO reacted with venom, threatening to sue for discrimination, and tried contacting a lawyer -
Bafune move. The HR executive pulled out all the evidence, an absolute mountain of it, and immediately revoked the severance and fired her on the spot.
You might be thinking HA! The story does not end there, - and here comes that word again - however. REX discovered that she had got a management position at another industrial plant. One that also was a 'union shop'. He casually suggested to his union chaps that they might want to consult with their union chaps.
KLEPTO was fired 3 months later for 'Employee harassment'. Once again, she couldn't let it lie or learn a lesson. Art!
REX recounted how she had to sell her house and move out of state to find a job. Yes, getting fired from two jobs within six months will do that to your employment prospects.
Wow, that was a bit of an epic. I did contract it quite a bit, just to keep the narrative flowing. Time for pictures, I suppose.
More Of The Saggy Senile Sepia Sackbut!
Earlier this year, various Youtube pundits were giving The Nodfather no more than five months to live, given how obviously ill he was at the time, what with his balloon ankles, decomposing hands and neck scrofula. To which has been added, of late, an extra level of stress about events in the Persian Gulf, so one wonders what extra strain this has put on his usual schedule of not bothering to start work until the afternoon, falling asleep in a meeting and cheating at golf. Art!
Ooooh, he looks scowly and jowly, doesn't he? I wonder if he'll make it to his 80th birthday. Which is in June, FYI.
Norwegian Gastronome Weighs In
Conrad follows the Nork '#NAFOViking' on Twitter, who is always gallivanting about Europe delivering various supplies to Ukraine, sampling cuisine along the way. When he comes across anything unusual, he posts a photo. Art!
Posted from Scotland with the question 'Eat or retreat?'.
Most definitely eat. Conrad is looking at this and wondering if he could make it into a project of his own - a Full English Breakfast on a pizza base. I'd leave off the fried tomatoes, not keen on them.
More Of Delicious Food
Well, 'food' in name only, and most definitely not as we here in Europe know it. 'Daractenus', the Romanian with an excellent English vocab, posted some exampled of South Canadian - er - food, that is not allowed for retail in Europe. Art!
Good Lord aloft, it looks like one of the cheap and nasty monsters from Seventies 'Doctor Who'. No, it's not Photoshopped, I checked teh Interwebz and they are still up for sale across The Pond. If you want 50 ounces of gelatinous pre-cooked boneless chicken, or a cheap alien for your student film, knock yourself out.
Finally -
Going out with another Biercism.
"Litigation,n: A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage."
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