Sometimes it just takes standing up to whomever is in charge out in Personel. Oh exuse me, human resourses.
From 1980 untill 1997, when they shipped our jobs to Mexico, I worked for a large corporate type place that made most of what went into thier high tech communications gear they made for the U.S military. A defense contractor. I was a machinist in the fabrication shop.
Around 1984 or 5 ish, they came down with a strict no weapon policy that included knives. Zero knives, period. Thank God we had a boss with some cajones.
Our round stock, brass, aluminum, stainless steel, came off the truck in 10 or 12 foot bundles taped together with that fiber strand re-enfored tape. Banded together at each end and the middle. Being from a mill, the stock was greasy, dirty, and the tape was greasy and impregnated with dirt and grit. The only way to get a length of, say 3/4 round stock to go to the lathe section, was slide a knife blade under the tape and cut. It was wrapped in several thinknesses of tape.
Our boss, Gene, said enough of this bull hocky. He told us to stop work, and he got the head of human resourses to come back to the shop. A very modern yuppy lady named Ms. Gorham.
Well Ms. comes back and Gene askes her how we are supposed to get the stock free without a knife. The Ms. looks around and says use sissors. Gene hands her a pair of sissors and says to show him how. Well, like I said, the several wraps of tape are right down on the metal, so the modern Ms. can't get a sissors under it, and after a few moments of her fumbling around, Gene takes out his Buck 301 stockman and slices right through the tape. He has the cajones to tells Ms. that without a sharp knife, work is going to be very slow coming out of the machine shop because the guys use a knife two dozen times a day. . Like not getting done. Modern Ms. goes and rewrites the rules on knives to allow fabrication personel to have a pocket knife.
Then the Ms. has a heads together with the jerk that was the head of plant security, and they re-write the re-written regulations so the fabrication personel can only have a knife with a 2 inch blade or less, and no lock on the blade.
We had to settle for a partial victory, some knife was better than no knife.
From 1980 untill 1997, when they shipped our jobs to Mexico, I worked for a large corporate type place that made most of what went into thier high tech communications gear they made for the U.S military. A defense contractor. I was a machinist in the fabrication shop.
Around 1984 or 5 ish, they came down with a strict no weapon policy that included knives. Zero knives, period. Thank God we had a boss with some cajones.
Our round stock, brass, aluminum, stainless steel, came off the truck in 10 or 12 foot bundles taped together with that fiber strand re-enfored tape. Banded together at each end and the middle. Being from a mill, the stock was greasy, dirty, and the tape was greasy and impregnated with dirt and grit. The only way to get a length of, say 3/4 round stock to go to the lathe section, was slide a knife blade under the tape and cut. It was wrapped in several thinknesses of tape.
Our boss, Gene, said enough of this bull hocky. He told us to stop work, and he got the head of human resourses to come back to the shop. A very modern yuppy lady named Ms. Gorham.
Well Ms. comes back and Gene askes her how we are supposed to get the stock free without a knife. The Ms. looks around and says use sissors. Gene hands her a pair of sissors and says to show him how. Well, like I said, the several wraps of tape are right down on the metal, so the modern Ms. can't get a sissors under it, and after a few moments of her fumbling around, Gene takes out his Buck 301 stockman and slices right through the tape. He has the cajones to tells Ms. that without a sharp knife, work is going to be very slow coming out of the machine shop because the guys use a knife two dozen times a day. . Like not getting done. Modern Ms. goes and rewrites the rules on knives to allow fabrication personel to have a pocket knife.
Then the Ms. has a heads together with the jerk that was the head of plant security, and they re-write the re-written regulations so the fabrication personel can only have a knife with a 2 inch blade or less, and no lock on the blade.
We had to settle for a partial victory, some knife was better than no knife.
