Confession time!

[flyboy2610]

I very nearly lost it with a coworker today.
I operate a 300 ton (pressure capacity, not weight) metal stamping press. I set up the dies, run the parts, and get the dies ready for the forklift to remove from the press. Yesterday (1-24-13) I set one of the most frequently used dies that we run on that machine. During the next two hours, I produced 2,450 parts. Then the second shift operator came in, and I turned the machine over to him. This guy is a legend in his own mind. The rest of us can do no right, he can do no wrong.
When the parts are stamped, there is naturally scrap that is produced. This must be removed from the die. The way we do that on this press is through the use of shaker chutes. A shaker is a wide shallow U shaped piece of steel about 5 feet long with a metal tang on one end. This tang is clamped to a piece of aluminum at the back of the press. This piece is moved toward and away from the die by a pneumatic cylinder. When the scrap falls out of the die, it lands on the shaker, and the movement scoots the scrap out of the die and into a scrap hopper. The shakers are of varying widths depending on slot in the die into which they go.
This die has a very narrow slot, and we have a special shaker made just for that slot. Last night I had the thought "I'll bet I get to work tomorrow and second shift has crashed the die." I got to work this morning, and the die was out of the machine, back on the die rack....... with a red tag from Tool and Die on it.
Second shift had crashed the die. That narrow shaker had bound up in the slot (which has NEVER happened to me), it had stopped working, scrap had built up and backed up into the die, the die came down to stamp out a part, and WHAM!!!
It broke one of the forming blocks in the die, and that shaker was so packed up with scrap it had to be cut both front and back so it wasn't protruding from the die. Tool and Die couldn't get it out of the die. I looked at my team leader and said "I'll bet (nameless) tries to blame me for this somehow." He said "I wouldn't doubt it."
When (nameless) got there this afternoon, I asked what happened to the die. He said the shaker had come loose, and then he looked right at me and said "because somebody didn't get it tightened down right."
Have you ever really wanted to smack someone? I proceeded to tell him in no uncertain terms that I had run that die for 2 hours and had had absolutely no issues with it whatsoever. The shakers had worked flawlessly, and were working fine when I left. I told him I didn't appreciate his insinuation that it was somehow my fault. He got this sheepish look on his face and said "Well, I didn't say it was you."
What is it with some people? They just cannot admit when they screw something up and make a mistake. It's always someone else's fault. When I make a mistake, I am willing to admit it. I may get in some trouble for it, but I have never been accused of trying to cover it up. It has been said "Always tell the truth. It's easier to remember your story."
OK, rants over.

[michael69]

There is always one of them no matter where or what job you do. You could mop floors for a living and someone else will do it better or so they think,and if they screw up its always someone else's fault. I actually did knock the crap out of a guy once. The whole shift hated the guy and told the higher up he started the crap. Some how I kept my job and he was gone. They was already looking for a reason to fire him. So I lucked out and learned to hold my temper after sweating it for two days wondering if I still had a job. I had already starting looking for another and they called and told me to come back to work.

[crazyhorse]

Mr Fly, I agree with you.
Some people can not take responsibility.
I can pick them out very quickly.

Mr Michael , by them calling you back to work,
tells me they knew what kind of worker/man you are/were.

[fireguywtc]

Accountability is a dying trait.

[michael69]

Mr Fly, I agree with you.
Some people can not take responsibility.
I can pick them out very quickly.

Mr Michael , by them calling you back to work,
tells me they knew what kind of worker/man you are/were.

That is exacty what they said was the reason I still had a job with them.I have been there 15 years now. That happened when I was working on my 10 year anniversary. Believe me I know how to hold my temper now. I have never worried about losing my job like I did those two days of waiting.

[68 Ford Stepside]

I worked for a power plant for twelve years. During plant outages I assigned employee teams to varied jobs. The most honest hardest workers I assigned the best jobs. The mouthy, laziest, know it alls, I assigned the nastiest jobs I could find. If a worker has a bad attitude, he deserves the crappiest jobs. The guy who is a legend in his own mind makes the same money as the straight up hard worker. I'm not sure exactly why, but my company rarely fired anyone no matter how sorry he was.

[Ranchero50]

Just post a sign on the machine:

'Oncoming operator is responsible for the machines condition'

I spent part of last night helping the pressmen set up a machine that hadn't run all day because the nip rolls that pull the paper into the folder weren't set up correctly. When I get to work I don't start any projects for the first half hour or so because I usually get a call or two to fix stuff that the prior shift didn't want to seal with.

[Whateverman]

i've been running fabrication and installlation crews for about 12yrs now, and have had to deal with way too much b.s. from the ones i have to babysit all day.....i like to give hotshots enough rope to hang themselves and make sure they have to eat some serious crow when $@!7 goes sideways on em ..its a real treat to kick them in the pride and watch em squirm