The Saga Continues

Remember back about two weeks ago when I said that Supervisor had told Group Leader Shark to tell Scrap Man to pick up our scrap and if Scrap Witch had a problem with it to refer her to him?  Yeah, turns out that was all a lie. 

And the way I found that out is as follows.

A couple of days ago, I had an adapter tube that had been smashed in the machine.  As is typical of tubing, instead of scrapping it and cutting a replacement, they just sent it on to the brazers anyway.   So, I took the bad part over to Group Leader Shark to get a scrap ticket, and she went off on me.  Started spouting a bunch of gibberish that I couldn't make heads nor tails of.  

I just stood there going, "What are you talking about?"  "What?"  "WHAT??"

In the midst of her inane babbling, I heard her say, "You know Scrap Man doesn't take the scrap out any more!"  No, I didn't know that.  Last I heard, he was supposed to start picking up our scrap again.  She said, "I know Pet Brazer told you that!  I saw her call you over there!"

I said, "Yeah, she told me that Scrap Man was going to start taking our scrap out again."  

Anyway, somewhere in all of that, I got the message that we were all supposed to be filling out our own scrap tickets all this time, only nobody but Pet Brazer knew anything about that. Group Leader Shark said, "I know you saw Scrap Witch over there sorting through the scrap!" and somehow I was supposed to get "fill out your own scrap tickets" from that.  From seeing Scrap Witch sorting the scrap, I mean.  She -- meaning Group Leader Shark -- said that Pet Brazer had been putting all her scrap into a little baggie and getting Dispatcher to print her out a scrap ticket every day, and she'd told us during the meeting she'd -- meaning Pet Brazer-- had with us that we were to do the same.  

Only Pet Brazer had never had any meeting with us.  "But I saw her call you over there!" insisted Group Leader Shark.  "Yeah," I said.  "That was when she told me Scrap Man was going to start taking our scrap out again!" 

We went round and round like that for a bit with GLS insisting we knew we were supposed to write our own scrap tickets -- but we didn't. 

Which brings us to today.  

I had a few extra parts from a couple of orders I'd done, so I kept them -- along with the parts tickets-- until the end of the day, when I took them to Dispatcher and asked how to do it.   "Do I have to write a separate scrap ticket for each one, or can I put them all in the same bag and just do one." 

He looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about, scratched his head, then took the parts, set them to the side, and said, "We'll figure it out."   That was my first clue.  If Pet Brazer had been doing this every day the way Group Leader Shark said, wouldn't Dispatcher know how to do it already?  

Before the shift ended, I managed to catch Supervisor and tell him, "It can wait until Monday, but we have got to have a conversation about this scrap!" He said, "About who is picking it up?"  

"Nobody is picking it up!"  I replied.  Then I gave him the general rundown of what I just told you about, and said, "We need some clarification.  We need to know what to do and how to do it."  

So hopefully, we'll eventually get that sorted out, because something needs to be done.  

In other work news, we had a big meeting yesterday, mostly about a new product line we're coming out with later this year and about changes to the handbook.  It's no big deal, just the same stuff we go over every year, but you know how people are.  As soon as the rumors of a meeting started going around, the rumors of another shutdown over spring break started as well.  I tried to tell them it's way too early to even know that, because spring break is still a month away.  Someone did ask about that in the meeting, and TBMOF said there won't be any shutdowns any time soon, because we have too much work.  In fact, he's talking about opening another line back up next month, and the possibility of us getting some overtime in the near future. 

I'm not ready to go back to working Saturdays, but my paycheck sure will be!  

And finally, today was our favorite Crank Pot's last day of work.  We had a retirement party for her with a huge cake.

I'm not sure what we will do without her.

Well, we still have Greedy Bess at least. Who didn't even seem to notice the knitting kit I'd put together for my coworker.  Bummer.  I wanted to tell her off so badly.  

Oh, and one last thing before I go.  I've got daffodils coming up!  Spring is on the way1