Don't be these guys.

[mowens]

Sorry, I want to vent.

The guys in our AFP room had a little down time today and somehow the subject got around to two particular guys; one is an engineer, call him B, and the other is a technical analyst (L).

B has convinced a lot of people who are unfamiliar with our AFP process that he is a subject matter expert in it. The only thing he's good at is self promotion. Everything he knows he learned from one of the two programmers who have developed our production processes and programming software from the ground up. B's main goal at work is to look good for the camara, so to speak. There was a project he was tasked with concerning some of the limitations of the machine. He got it to do what they wanted  but the material was scorched and completely unfit for production use. But it looked good in the picture.  He's slipping a bit now, though, because, inevitably probably, he made some major mistakes having to do with travel expenses.

L is a lot like B but he is more of a mystery. He just kind of showed up one day and has talked himself into being in charge of scheduling work on our robotic AFP. This machine is booked solid because my gantry machine has been dedicated to a single program for about a year.

There was a little kerfuffle this afternoon about some work orders that were closed before they were ran across the machine. This aggravated the engineer who wrote the work requests. He wanted his parts.
L's first reply was "We needed some changes after the first run and we haven't gotten anything back from Mike yet.
I looked. The programs had been had been in the receiving folder since May 15.

I emailed him back and told him the programs were there. He wrote me back and said great job!

I then emailed him back and said they've been there since May 15.

He said "I wasn't trying to throw you under the bus"

The fuck you weren't. I've been in this industry for 46 years. That's pretty much the definition of the term "throw you under the bus". I didn't say that out loud but I sure thought it. I saw him in the hallway later. I recognize sucking up pretty well, too.

Don't be these guys.

[Newbeeee™]

I hated working in big companies. Although that was 2.
And big was 85>100 people.
Of which if you got rid of 30% you'd have still got the same out the door - probably more.
Larger company = more of an employment agency.

[mowens]

My feeling is that these are guys who are either too lazy or don't have the ability to actually do the job so this is how they compensate for it.

[CNCAppsJames]

My feeling is that these are guys who are either too lazy or don't have the ability to actually do the job so this is how they compensate for it.

Been seeing a lot of that lately in the AE world. A LOT!

Ran into a situation last week. The was allegedly an AE for a large Machine Tool Dealer. I say allegedly because he most definitely wasn't approaching the desired solution the way an AE would.

This dealer he claimed to work for is NOTORIOUS for not training it's AE's and has an absurd turnover rate of it's technical staff. So guy thinks because he "was an AE" (for about a cup of coffee),  that he KNOWS about machines. 

Anyway, he's going down the list of machines he's considering. Half of them are COMPLETELY different pieces of equipment for the type of work he's going to be doing... like he's looking at the wrong type of machine. 4 machines from 4 builders in consideration. And the machine he ultimately chose was in the wrong choice category. I've worked that problem before and at least have been able to steer 90+% of them down a path where they can succeed.  We don't always get the sale but we at least earned some trust so we get a chance next time. This guy... he's gonna get fired and his company will be mis-spending real money.

I hope it doesn't turn out to be the train wreck it is shaping up to be. 🤞

Obviously I want our salesman to make the sale, but at the very least we don't want the end user to make a decision that could negatively impact their organization.  Bad machine decisions can be VERY costly. 

[YoDoug]

It's tough to get ahead as an honest person in capitalism.

[CNCAppsJames]

It's tough to get ahead as an honest person in capitalism.

I don't think so. More often than not, this business is built on relationships. Is a relationship the be all and end all? No. Of course not, but it wins the day more often than not. 

Capitalism is still the best economic system that offers people the ability to move up in their economic status. You and your fellow vegans may bash it... while posting via your iPhone, but I'll take it over every other system on the planet. 

 

[YoDoug]

Capitalism is still the best economic system.......... 

Blah, Blah, Blah. Capitalism is perfect and we should never ever talk negatively about it or admit that it doesn't always work.

I remember back when I was young and idealistic, the libertarian kool-aid sure did taste nice after busting my ass in a hot shop all day.

[Jeff]

If Capitalism was so terrible, then why do people flood our borders wanting to come in?
How many people are flooding the borders of socialist or communist countries?

[YoDoug]

If Capitalism was so terrible, then why do people flood our borders wanting to come in?
How many people are flooding the borders of socialist or communist countries?

They flood our borders because liberal cities and states give them all kinds of free social services. That's not capitalism.

[CNCAppsJames]

Blah, Blah, Blah. Capitalism is perfect and we should never ever talk negatively about it or admit that it doesn't always work. 

You're just bitter for whatever reason. NOBODY ANYWHERE said Capitalism was perfect. You just hate it and can't admit by and large it works. 

Eat a steak man, you're uptight AF. 

 

[Zoffen]

Haha this is partially the reason i started my own shop. So many people (co-workers, customers, vendors) will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat instead of admitting ones own faults and just growing as a person should.

Atleast in my shop i get to to control the customer and vendors i work with. One inkling of that type of mentality and its Cssee U Next Tuesday buddy! Life is too short for this kinda bs!

[YoDoug]

You're just bitter for whatever reason. NOBODY ANYWHERE said Capitalism was perfect. You just hate it and can't admit by and large it works.

Eat a steak man, you're uptight AF.

I'm not bitter, I'm a realist. Capitalism has been good for me, not as good as it was for my parents generation, but better than it will be for my kids generation.

[Brian]

I believe it was Winston Churchill who said something like "democracy is the worst form of government ever devised, except for all of the other forms that have been tried" (I will have to see if I can find the actual quote), and on occasion I've wondered the same about our current incarnation of what we call "capitalism."

Found it!

https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/the-worst-form-of-government/

After brief reflection, I think I can put a finer point on it: the problem isn't really about "capitalism" or "democracy" per se, it has more to do with the corruption of either by the undue influence of $$$ (especially with regards to "democracy").

Citizens United, anyone?

[Brian]

More good Churchill quotes here:

https://www.historyhit.com/key-quotes-by-winston-churchill-in-world-war-two/

[Newbeeee™]

It's funny - talk to my parents (87) about Churchill - "nasty man, total warmonger"....