Hi Guys,
recently thought about some positive story I experienced back in the days when I worked as a welder in time-work at a customer that was near were I´ve grown up, one old class mate worked there as a sheet metal welder. Been there to compensate on vacation season.
As you travel from company to company, it´s not that anyone welcomes you wherever you go, it´s usually an invidious job.
You´re just there to do the work of someone else and that good and 2 or 3 weeks later you usually leave and do your next job, whatever suits your skills.
It was summertime and I had to build emulsion tanks for industrial grinding machines. The tanks where 4 ½ ft by 2 ¼ ft in 2 mm strenght steel, had to literally sit halfway on the welding table and my other half was in the tanks to properly weld them, a hot job literally, with temperatures around 115F° in that shop and hotter in the tanks.
When I finished one I handed over the tanks to a grinder, who in the beginning always found something to complain about my welding and showed me where I did wrong. It was my first day and it was the longest seams I did up to that date.
He came over a little hard in the beginning with his critics and I was still too young to deal with criticism that easily, I had to learn.
The first three tanks (I made a about 4 a day) he was showing me where I went wrong, he was a Turkish guy and pretty tight lipped. Had to take the tanks back, they were pretty heavy, everytime I had to cart them back to my table, and redo the seams. The fourth tank of the day he had nothing to complain about anymore.
So the the next day went smoothly, I put the tanks in his corner and he cleans my seams with the grinder.
We said Hi and Bye or Hello when fetching a drink, that was about it. We did like 2 gal. of liquid each day water/hot tea.
In his breaks he was either reading the Bild-Zeitung (tabloid) or hanging with the rest of his buddies in their corner.
I spent the breaks asides the local guys, since I knew this one guy from school, every break was a bitter sweet , back country farce, with co-workers slightly short of a „MAD“ magazine character.
Young guys that travel to Mallorca to lose their virginity and then make up obvious lies about it, when asked, and everyone pretends to believe them……,
..imagine a conversation/situation like this:
Q : Un hoste gehockelt in Mallorca? (Local Lingo my classmate)
And have ye banged in Mallorca?
A: So a Nutte om Strond fer dreisisch Mack! (Chubby Alfred E. Neumann)
Some hooker on the beach for 30 Bucks!
Aknowledgement from the bystanders follows and pats on the shoulder of Alfred.
Now he´s finally a man!
The time there and the amusing breaks flew by and two weeks were over, on my last day the Turkish guy calls me over, standing there with one or the tanks I made, waving with his hand „Come over here!“. I follow.
He starts: „I´ve been working here for 19 years, in that time I never seen a better welder than you. All those other assholes here could learn from you, they are miles away from the quality you deliver. It´s sad you´re leaving“
I thanked him and told him that I never heard such a compliment ever about my work.
Never ever again was I more impressed about the appreciation of my work.
What is your story, is there anything related to work that got stuck in your head and is worth to remember or may even paved your way workwise?
Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent. Friedrich Nietzsche
Killmandrill 3 years, 2 months ago.
