Work Woes

I got into it with a co-worker today.  Now, just for the record, I've been biting my tongue for a long time with this guy, because he's clearly not right in the head.  And I'm not saying that to be facetious.  There is seriously something wrong with this guy.

I first noticed it a long time ago, when I was still working on line 1.  We'd had some people out sick and they sent him over to help out on that line.  Well, first thing he does is to take his jacket off and toss it over my brazing stand.  I mean, seriously dude!  That is my work area!  He didn't even ask.  He just threw it over there. 

I was nice and moved it, but in retrospect, I wish I hadn't.  I should have just dumped some filthy, greasy headers on it. 

Next thing he does is to borrow someone else's brazing tip and bend it all out of shape.  Now, for those of you who don't braze, you might not understand this, but a brazing tip is very personal thing.  You conform it to your hands and brazing style. Every brazer likes his tip the way he likes it, and every brazer is different.

My friend Lou might think of it this way:  someone comes over and borrows your favorite paint brush.  You get it back and they've cut half of the bristles and bent the handle into a circle.  You just don't do that to someone else's property. 

Before that day is out, he leaves a styrofoam cup and a half empty soft drink bottle on my stand.  I mean, he leaves for the day and goes off and leaves them.  I had to call him over there the next day and make him throw them away. 

This supposedly is a grown man, mind you.

Well, I got moved over to line 2 last November; that is the line he works on.  It's the same old thing.  He is always putting his drink bottles or cups on my table.  Doesn't ask.  He just does it.  I've told him and told him that they are in my way.  That that is my work area, not his personal storage shelf.  And the worst part is that at the end of the day, he doesn't throw them away.  He just goes off and leaves them there.  Earlier this week, I finally made him throw away a barely drank Dr Pepper that had been sitting on my brazing stand for two weeks.  TWO weeks. 

One day last week, he brought some ribs and stuff he'd grilled.  At the end of the day, he just left them there on the table.  I mean  LEFT THE PLANT and left this meat on the table.  He has done the same thing with chicken bones from a fast food place, and other various bits of food and dirty dishes.  He just leaves them.  Goes home for the day and leaves them.

In the mornings, he line brazes, but in the afternoons, he works on the test tank.  That's where we dunk the coils under water and pressurize them to see if they have any leaks.  He'll often pull his nasty, wet gloves off and drop them onto my table--onto my paperwork.  My schedule, my pick tickets, my work orders, whatever. Suddenly have these wet gloves on them. 

Yesterday, I had gotten my bin off the table and took them over to my buggy to get some more headers.  He pulled his nasty, wet gloves off and just tossed them onto my table, right where I set my bin of work.  Now, he's got to know that that is where I put my work.  He's GOT to know.  Nobody could be that stupid.

Or could they? 

Nah, it's not about being stupid.  It's about being selfish, arrogant, and extremely inconsiderate of those around him.  Then he's going to wonder why nobody seems to like him.  He's always cussing out our supervisors, claiming that they gang up on him and try to write him up and stuff.  I so badly want to ask him if it never occurred to him that maybe he deserves it.

Well, today, I'd had enough.  He came back from lunch and put a styrofoam cup AND a Dr Pepper bottle on my already too small work table, where it was in my way.  I called him out on it.  I said, "Come on, this is my work area!"  He said, "Well, I didn't know it was in the way." 

I've told him several times in the past that him putting his stuff there was in my way, but he doesn't care.  He's going to do what he wants to do and doesn't care flip if it inconveniences or hurts anyone else. 

So, he moved the styrofoam cup, but left the Dr. Pepper bottle.  Duh...

I accidentally knocked it off of my table trying to find room for my work (fancy that, putting MY work on MY table) and what does he do?  He picks it up an puts it BACK on my table.  Seriously, he did. 

That was just too much.  I went off on him.  And I mean, I went off.  I told him that was my work area, not his garbage can, called him a nasty pig and said I was tired of him leaving his garbage everywhere.  And he has the nerve to get mad at me. 

My group leader Greg witnessed the whole thing and told this guy not to be putting his stuff in my work area any more.  Then he leans across to the other sub brazer and said, "Watch,  Jeff is mad at Becky now.  He's going to write about 4 leaks down on her this afternoon." 

That just tells me that Greg knows what is going on.

Sure enough, the guy writes down 4 leaks on me.  The thing about that is, he ONLY wrote down my leaks.   Didn't write down any of the leaks from the other brazers.  Just mine. 

The other test tank operators will do that to me, too.  They'll get mad at me and write down a bunch of leaks, but won't write down the leaks of their buddies.  Of course, they are mad at me for a different reason.  They are mad because I won't have sex with them.* 

What they don't know is that I'm documenting all of this.  I'm writing it all down, and trying to sneak photos with my cell phone camera.  (We aren't supposed to have cameras in the plant.)  If I can get photos of them repairing line braze leaks, then a photo of the chart showing that none of them were written down, then I can back up my story. 

Then one day, soon, all hell is going to break loose in that plant. 

*Yes, I know that is harassment, but what can I do about it?   Our human resources department is pretty darn worthless when it comes to things like that.  The last time I turned a guy in, the HR guy's "investigation" consisted of asking the man if he was doing this to me.  Of course, the guy denied it, so HR closed the case, called me a liar, and sent me back out to just put up with it. You learn pretty quick that you're on your own out there.