Conversations At Work

So, I was at work this morning, not bothering anyone. Happily doing my job, which today was sub assembly brazing for line 4. Around 9 o'clock, the group leader for that line came up to me and asked, "Are you doing order # (whatever it was)?"

"Yes," I reply.

Group Leader says, "You need to pull off of that order. They are going to skip it because they don't have [shipping] boxes."

So I pull off the order I was working on, put all my components back into their bins, return my jig to its proper place and move on to the next order. Who should run up but Group Leader.

"Run [that order] anyway," he says. "Supervisor says the boxes will be here. "

So I pull off the order I was working on, put all the components back into their bins, return the jig to its proper place, and set back up on the first order. I braze just a few header assemblies, when who should run up but Group Leader. "Pull off it again," he says. "Supervisor said the boxes are just leaving [the box company warehouse half a state away].

So I pull off the order, put all my components back into their bins, return my jig to its proper place, and move on to the next order. All is well, for a while. About 1 PM, who should run up but Group Leader.

"I need you to pull off what you are doing and go back and finish that order we skipped this morning, " he says.

So I pull off the order, put all my components back into their bins, return my jig to its proper place, and begin setting back up on the skipped order.

Who should run up but Group Leader. "Cancel that," he says. "Supervisor is giving that order to [another line] because they don't have anything."

"Group Leader!" says I, pointing emphatically to the top of my head. "Do you see all those gray hairs? They weren't there yesterday!"

"That's Supervisor's fault, not mine," Group Leader responds.

Off I go to find Supervisor. "You're the one giving me all these gray hairs!" I say.

"Well, look on the bright side," Supervisor replies. "At least they're not falling out."

True story.

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm off to buy some industrial strength hair dye.

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