So... Once Upon a Time...

[Poppy]

I learned so much from my dad without even realizing for a long time. My ex-wife used to say "I hate the way you are so much like that man". My current says "I love the way you are so much like your dad".
I think she's a keeper. lol (but I wouldn't give a nickel for another one).

All smiles... another great story!

Back in the day, before cell phones and WAZE or other traffic apps, I was driving my daughter back from voice lessons on a highway, in an area of the state that I wasn't particularly familiar with. We ran into bumper to bumper traffic. Further back in time, my Dad used to listen to the news on 1010 WINs AM radio when we were in the car. The first thing that I would do was change the station to music. He'd complain, but let me do it.

So... we are stuck in traffic, and it was a limited access highway. I switched the radio to 1010 WINs to try to get a traffic report. Maybe I should get off at the next exit and try to make my way North using back roads. Before I got a report, the traffic broke up, and we were on our way.

Three days later, I realized I still had the news on! OMG... I'm getting more like my dad everyday!

 

[bykfixer]

My pop always had the radio turned on but all the way down. One day as a 30 something year old adult I rode with him to see his grand daughter graduate high school. Actually I think I drove.

Anyway he had a George Jones cassette in the player (sticking out). I asked why he never listened to music while we were growing up. He stated my mom always wanted to hear boogie woogie or symphony and we wanted to hear hippies shouting out lyrics you can't understand. I popped in the cassette and listened to his George Jones until he popped it back out. He said "I can't hear the road".

In my 40's I understood that. I drove a stick shift truck and relied on the sound of the motor to determine when to change gears.

When I restored a Honda Prelude I went all in on a stereo system that used the factory set up with an added small woofer inside the console similar to what Bose did in Chevy pickups around 2010. The late 90's Prelude stereo had a pretty good sound for jazz and accoustic music but lacked a bit of low end thump for faithfully reproducing a bass guitar, especially the stand up kind.
Yet while driving the car I keep the radio turned way down in order to hear the engine and the road sounds, just like my pop did.

For commuting, the radio is dialed to a station with "traffic and weather on the tens". Trouble is the other 20 minutes are filled with adds for alternatives for that little blue pill, some jingle trying to sell me a new roof or some talk show type DJ railing on and on about the government or shouting about how smart they are.

My boss uses satellite radio but I refuse to pay a monthly subscription to hear the music I have on my MP3 player. Plus when at a red light his sattelite radio signal gets drowned out by the guy next to him whose sattelite radio broadcaster is more powerful than his. I chuckle when we're in traffic and his Willie Nelson is being drowned out by Snoop Dawg or some other nonsense. I noticed in the last year when we travel on main roads with traffic signals he's tuned into AM radio now.

Years ago I used to work for an engineer who when riding with was like being a passenger in Mr. Magoos car. He liked NPR for the symphony, which kept me feeling a lot calmer while he paid attention to everything around him but the road. I cannot count the number of times the car in front had stopped completely while his head was turned backwards at something he noticed, only to look forwards in just enough time to stop without rear ending said stopped automobile.

One day we had a meeting on a project at the end of a pavement where a dirt road was cut in but not paved yet. There was a cable stretching across the dirt road a few feet past the pavement. A few of us were standing at the end of the asphalt and here comes Bob the engineer looking away from the road. We're all waving and hollering at Bob to stop before he runs into the cable. At the last possible second Bob looks up and realizes he needs to stop and fast. He slams on brakes, which causes the car to nose dive, which causes the nose to slide under the cable that had enough slack to slide across the roof. We're all in shock at first then busted out laughing because none of us had a key to the lock on the cable and Bob was now stuck on the wrong side of it.

Our meeting involved walking down the dirt road to talk about how to repair some soft places before applying the rest of the pavement structure. At this point Bob the engineer has yet to realize he's stuck on the wrong side of a cable with a lock none of us has a key to. We had walked down the dirt road and were returning when Bob realized he was late for another meeting. "Somebody unlock that cable, I have another meeting" he says. "But sir none of us has a key to the lock". This was before cel phones and pagers. We had two way radios instead. Trouble was it was after 3:30 and the folks with the key had gone home.

One of the people with us was a contractor superintendent who had a key to a nearby front end loader. He drives the loader to one of the poles holding the cable and pulls it out of the ground. Amazingly the cable sliding across Bobs hood and roof had not even scratched the car at all.

 

[Monocrom]

Would love to hear about the further adventures of Bob.

 

[bykfixer]

Once upon a time people would show up at the office with a tiny segment of toilet paper stuck to their face from a shaving cut. Oops, forgot to remove it.

Bob showed up at times looking like he was on the losing end of a fight with his razor. If there were only two pieces stuck to his face that was a good day. lol. My current boss shaves the evening before for that very reaon.

To me he was a real life version of the character from the tv show Benson. Gov Gene Gatling. We had two ways radios back then. He was unit 212. I was unit 203. It was not uncommon to hear him call "203 to 212", um, uh, 212 to 203...203 call 212 I mean 212 call 203" and in the background his assistant engineer who was a real life Mr Spock (to me) saying "Bob, you are unit 212". lol.

His assistant John was the most dedicated government employee I've ever met and always, always, always made decisions with logic. Never emotion. John was featured in engineering publications numerous times and was voted Americas best small town engineer 3 times.

I learned diplomacy from Bob and effiency in descision making from John. Bob taught me the art of getting others to use your ideas by making them think it was their idea. John taught me to always double check specs and drawings before telling the contractor deal or no deal.

Bob was big on trying new things and sent me to a whole bunch of seminars and conferences that to this day play a role in my ability to perform practically any duty required in my job. John's consistancy taught me how to make deals that are iron clad in court cases and legal claims. They both taught me the art of how to avoid them and still get the best value for the client who hired me.

Bob retired and ran for public office without success. About two years ago the Lord called him home when he succumed to cancer. John plays a role in historical preservation of a nearby town where grew up and leads a photography club of local pros.

Our biggest accomplishment may have been when the federal government decided a small dam in our town was about to have a catastrophic failure and we were tasked with rehabilitating the structure.

We were tasked with designing an earthquake proof structure on a shoe string budget. We also oversaw the project without hiring outside experts. At the end of the project the local residents who lived along the edge of the lake were satisfied their lake front properties had been preserved, the down stream residents were thankful their boat docks were intact and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision used our ideas for future projects in similar situations.

The FERC rep was an over weight fellow with an affinity for apple pie. Each time he visited from Atlanta he was treated to some mighty fine apple pie thanks to Bob's diplomacy skill. It came from a local barbeque joint that was closed on Monday.

If the FERC dude visited on a Monday we had hell to pay a few days later. When dude went back to Atlanta without an apple pie from Kings Barbeque we were visited by dozens of Japanese government employees with cameras and clipboards.

John's teachings had us running an iron clad oversight of the project so the nasty gram we received from FERC a few days later indicated issues that were easily solved. Upon revisit by FERC they found their concerns had been addressed and solved. In the end we were featured on the front page of the newspaper. Me testing concrete with Bob in the background playing tic tac toe with the project superintendent while appearing to be going over contract documents.

 

[bykfixer]

Bob and John were a sight to behold. Oil and water but the combination was more like the dynamic duo when the dust settled.

Bob was always trying to do 6 things at once. Bob would go to sign a document but never had his own pen. He'd say "somebody give me a pen". John would hand him a pen he knew wrote glitchy. "GD it John" he'd shout out when it would skip. Me? I'd scribble a pen on scratch paper before handing it to Bob. He liked that.

Bob typically took off his shoes in the office. He often times would spin around in his chair and prop his feet up on a desk without looking. It was not uncommon for John to strategically place a stapler, hole puncher or other office tool so that when Bob spun around and quickly propped his feet up "GD it John why do you insist on leaving your stapler there?!"

Now Bob was big on what college a colleague had attended. One day he asked a fellow who had attended a rival North Carolina school from his college "what color should we paint the water tower?" Colleague says "the same color it is now". Bob's face turns red and he begins to shout a string of profanity as he tells the colleague "you've said some stupid things before but that really takes the cake!". He turns to me "what do you think?" My reply is "well, it's a nice color now, sorta tarheel blue". He smiles and says "we're going to keep the color like it is, I like that color" (which is the official color of the college he attended).

But my favorite was the time Bob and John were looking at the underside of a bridge for deciding if it needs maintenance. Bob decided to answer the call of nature under the bridge.

They arrived in separate vehicles (as John refused to ride with Bob due incidents like the cable story). John stops by another office and tells the secretary there he wants to play a joke on Bob. Please call him on the radio and advise him call you by phone asap. When he calls on the phone tell him a local resident was very concerned to see a gray haired man in a government car relieve himself under a bridge. Bob truely thought he was going to jail for being a flasher in a rain coat.

I wonder if he ever found out it was a practical joke.


John at one point had bought a few red display Texas Instruments desk calculators at a surplus sale. That thing drove Bob crazy. "Why do you insist on keeping that dinasaur?" "It's the 1990's John and that hunka junk went out with the Pinto wagon" (which is what John still drove an olive green version of btw). On the rare occasion John took off from work Bob would remove the TI and place a modern one on John's desk. Next day another vintage red display machine would appear. "The day it says 2+2=5 I'll buy a new one Bob".

John would always have the latest computer, but it would be set up to run DOS with Windows being over ridden. To him the computer was a math tool and Windows was for children. So until it was no longer viable his computer would prompt in DOS. I think it was Windows 95 that was the last version you could over ride because I left in '98 and when I visited in 2000 John was using Windows. Perhaps it was because John was doing digital photography by then. When asked what kind of computer Bob preferred he'd respond "I have a secretary for that."

John had been a photographer while in Vietnam. None of us knew some of his photos were in Life Magazine. He never talked about it. Later when I was a consultant a Nam vet showed me some magazines and asked "didn't you used to work with this guy?" and pointing to the name of the photographer who was given credit for the photo of a soldier wiping a sweaty brow while sitting on an unexploded bomb. I also learned the art of photo journalism from John's photos, to which this day he does not know I saw some of his Nam photos.

Bob was a tobacco engineer who knew little about building roads beyond designing some landing strips while in the Air Force. But his diplomacy skills more than made up for his inexperience. He understood rich people and how to either **** them off in order to become the "good cop" in the good cop/bad cop role of he and John, or how to convince them to spend a little more money to achieve a greater goal.

Example was the city wanted to build a school on the property of a very wealthy woman who refused to part with the land at any cost. He proposed to pay her 10¢ on the dollar value of the land wise and name the school after her. A year later the school opened and she donated another parcel for a park thanks to Bob's diplomacy skills.

That park has a craft show each year to which John shows off his latest poster sized photos for historical events or locations. The best part of John's photos are the stories of how he ended up taking the particular photo.

My wife sets up a display of her crafts at the show so I spend a time with John each year. We talk fondly of days gone by as he marvels at the things my wife makes with plastic bags, drink can pop tops or fishing lures. Either that or I marvel at his latest photos while his wife makes my annual custom length trouser belt for $10. His zeal for life is still intact as father time begins to cause him to hunch slightly.

So in the 1980's and about half of the 90's those two fellows probably played a much larger role in my life than either realized (or me back then for that matter).

Oh, then there was the time Bob had bought a $3000 bird dog. He was big on quail hunting. Well the former owner of the dog had trained it to ride in the trunk of his car. He'd open the trunk and the dog would jump in. Bob had a 1970's station wagon for his bird dogs.
One day he had just finished changing the oil in the engine of his station wagon the day after buying the dog. He kept the dog in a pen and decided to let the dog stretch it's legs. The engine was idling on the station wagon and the hood was up.

He said when he opened the pen gate the dog goes running for the station wagon thinking it was time to jump in the trunk. Bob was pretty upset about how badly the poor dog had been injured. Now thinking back, on the surface there's no humor in that. But as he's telling the story that Monday morning with about 22 little blood soaked pieces of tissue stuck to his face John pipes in and says "your face looks like you dove in after him" lol. "GD it John, that aint the least bit funny, and you know that". Then he pauses and says "that was pretty funny John".

One day Bob agreed with John on a matter. John shouts out "Hellelujuah, boy you were by far the hardest engineer to train. 8 years, but finally..." To my recollection they never agreed on anything after that.

 

[Monocrom]

Wow! All of these true tales were fantastic. Thank you for sharing them.

 

[bykfixer]

My pleasure Mono.
Stirred up some old Caspers (friendly ghosts) writing them down here. Kinda put some things in perspective as well some 20+ years later.

I wore a lot of hats back then working for the government of a small town I lived in. It was nearly impossible to go anywhere without someone recognizing me and saying there's a pothole on their street or some other complaint. Now whenever I visit the town hall to pay a water bill or walk through a grocery store etc, nobody recognizes me anymore. If they think they do 99.9% of the time they think I am my identical twin brother. I completely disappeared one day.

It's funny how life works. From the early 80's to late 90's my community did not know I had a twin brother. Here in 2019 they do not know he has a twin brother.

 

[Monocrom]

Yes, life can be funny sometimes in very interesting ways.

 

[Rexlion]

I remember the time I hit a highway construction worker. In fact, I will never be able to forget!

DW and I were on the way home from a camping trip, towing a popup trailer with the Windstar. On I-70 in west Kansas. We were approaching a construction zone, I'd just taken my foot off the gas, when my wife said, "What's that guy doing?" I realized that ahead of me, where the barrels were midway across my righthand lane, a worker in his orange fest was squatted down on the busy side of the barrels, back turned to traffic, picking at something on the asphalt. Well, I started my move into the left lane, when suddenly he stood up (still facing away from me), turned to his left, took 2 steps into my path, looked up and saw me. He stopped... hesitated... I'm pulling the wheel to the left... and he panicked and ran into the left lane right in front of me! I hit the brakes as hard as I dared without jackknifing the trailer, still pulling the wheel more to the left, but there was no avoiding him. It all was happening so fast! We were probably still going about 30 MPH, when at the last second he jumped straight up (like that would help, ha!), and my bumper hit his left leg. As his body spun from the impact to his leg, his head cratered the windshield right in front of me, leaving bits of hair and blood stuck in the impacted glass (which held together somehow) and then he was thrown up and over the roof, tumbling in the air until he landed in a heap on the hard, dry earth of the grassy median.

As I got the van all the way the way to the shoulder and stopped, images of a dead man and prison ran through my head. I prayed, "Oh God, I need you to do something!" I told my wife to call 911 as I bailed out the door and ran back to where the construction worker lay, moaning at the top of his lungs, "UUUUUUUUUHHHH!!" over and over. I laid my hands on him and said, "In Jesus' name, be well! Be whole!" Then I stepped back and looked to see if I could tell any change, but I couldn't; so I asked him where it hurt, and he let out another of those ghastly moans! Uh-oh. At that point I was wondering how my wife was doing at getting through to emergency services on her cell phone, because it sure looked like he was going to need it! But then.... less than a half minute later.... wow! The guy stopped moaning and got to his feet! By then my wife and some other motorist were there too, telling him to lie back down. The guy looked surprised and said something like, "How did I get here?" The others told him, "You got hit by a car! Lie back down!" But the man was getting steadier and said he was all right except his leg hurt a little.

Well, the cops came, and so did the ambulance. They took everybody's statements including mine, and looked the accident scene over and measured everything. The paramedics got him inside and took him to the hospital, where (I later learned) they relieved him of a bag of marijuana, gave him some Tylenol for his leg, and sent him home! No concussion or broken bones or anything after ramming his skull into my windshield hard enough to make an impact crater; all he had was a sore leg. Thank God! I know who healed him.

 

[LeanBurn]

for real, this happened to you Rexlion?

PM sent

 

[Rexlion]

Yes, for sure. We had to drive home (about 7 hours of drive time) with the windshield like that. About the time we got to Wichita we ran into a heavy thunderstorm, and the windshield wiper on my side flew completely off! He must have hit it and loosened it off the pivot, but I didn't know until I needed to use the wipers.

I called the police post a couple days after we got home to find out how the guy was doing; that's how I learned of the eventual outcome at the hospital. No idea if they charged him with possession later on.

It wasn't the first time I've seen God heal someone, and I certainly hope it won't be the last. But that was probably the most spectacular instance so far.

 

[bykfixer]

Utterly unforgettable story Rex.


Crazy how it turns out sometimes.

Sometimes fate causes you to be a feather floating on a river with no more control than that. I looked up and saw what was about to happen but could do nothing to stop it.

One Saturday at work, an ordinary Saturday, I started a project where a giant concrete eating machine called a miller was being run by a seasoned veteran of some 20 years. My first thought when I saw the guy was there was something special about him but no concious reason why.

A couple hours later he stepped backwards away from the miller to see his work but into the path of an oncoming truck backing up. The story did not end with him being ok but...

Being the initial person to check on the guy because I was the only one to see it happen, my shock was replaced with relief as the guy was pretty well blemish free. He only lived a few seconds after the incident, yet there was no mess. As I ran towards the front of the truck that had run him over I expected there to be a real grousome scene. Not at all. He had a bit of blood coming from his ear as he tried putting his hard hat back on while laying on the ground. He let out a groan and that was that. But I felt a presence that explained that "something special" I had noted earlier that day. It was if an invisible angel put him to sleep and whispered "well done Tyruss, now come on home".

Turns out he was a deacon and well thought of in his community. There was no doubt in my mind as time passed that the Holy Spirit was telling me Tyruss was going to meet the Lord today I just didn't recognize it at the time I first saw him. Why would anyone think that?

It was ten years or more before I could be around a miller without being haunted by that memory of being powerless to stop the guy from being killed. But one night after pulling an all day, my coworker who'd done same was standing under a bridge near a miller. I advised him that the echos from the machine will mess with his peripheral hearing (which is very important to highway workers) and he should never stand with his back to the machine. A few hours later the miller was backing up with alarms all screaming and metal cleats pounding the asphalt...but my coworker was frozen. As the machine got closer it was obvious he was not going to move in time. I grab him by the shirt and tug him out of danger. He's all swinging violently not realizing why he was suddenly being dragged backwards by his shirt collar. When safe I let him go and he instinctively socked me in the jaw. I did not take it personal.

A few days later we were working at separate locations and he called me on the phone to say thanks and applogize. I told him the story of that time I could not thwart an incident. He recited a similar incident he was haunted by and stated relief that I would no longer be saddled with not being able to stop an incident. Unfortuneatly he succumbed to cancer before his burden was relieved.

His name was Ron and he was my friend.

 

[orbital]

+

Across the street from me is a forest with a steep downhill just a few feet off the road.
For years someone's been dumping yard waste and bagged grass right along the side of the road.

So last week, I was working in my driveway/talking to my neighbor when some guy with a bag of grass clippings is walking to that spot.
I say, 'finally I know who's dumping right at the side of the road'
The guy stops and gives me the most incredible, absolutely postal look I'v ever seen & says, you don't know sXXit!!
..without going on about all that was said (which I can't write anyway) him calling me a host of expletives, I just finished by saying 'dump down the hill'.

Again this guy was had the most postal look on his face

Finishing what I was doing, I had a cup of coffee & thought about this guy
,, was he coming back at night & key my entire car
,, unload an entire clip into whatever was in front of him
,, who knows what this dudes frequency was..??

Now:: do I go into detail on 4th grade science class & benefits of mulching
or
go into detail on the laziness of dumping right at the side of the road, when two more steps be dumped down the hill
or
go into the total disrespect/prick move, dumping right at the side of the road.


So this is what I did::
I walked over to where he was, took off my glasses and explained how my wording may have been taken wrong & didn't mean to put him on the defensive.
So a long story short,, he apologized & shook my hand 3 times in total.
Hell, it turns out he lived across the street from my Mom years back & knew my family in the area..

I could have very easily sat down and cracked a beer, not gone over to talk to him.

 

[bykfixer]

Good Joe. Damn good Joe.



Today at my work (not once upon a time) there was a madatory safety stand down meeting. What that means is you receive an email with instruction to enter a conference call via Skype, in about 2 hours, and it's required you attend. No matter you're busy. No matter their internet service crashes during these things, you must attend.

Ok, I'll play. Afterall it's required.

Log in, nope Windows wants to update. Wait, wait, wait, now Windows wants to reboot. Plan B was mobile Skype. Plan C is dial a number, enter a code and be there in audio format. Plan B was a fail because the company phone with proprietary operating system doesn't allow mobile Skype. Plan C was a fail...well not really but the presentation was muted but those of us on the phone were not. Someone pushed the wrong button somewhere in corparate never-land and had it backwards.

Computer rebooted and I'm reading about a coworker who was working near the road when a car broke and swirved, which resulted in it running over poor "Frank" on his last day at work. Not his real name, but Frank was retiring that day. This past Tuesday. He was going to work until noon as a roadway inspector and visited a project to bid farewell to some workers.

Well, the company CFO went over Franks story for oh, 49 seconds and commenced to telling the rest of us the do's and don'ts of working outdoors. Things like "remember don't get over heated". "If you get over heated be sure to fill out report 43-9/OH".... For the next 30+ minutes we were lectured on how to safely climb a ladder at your home while cleaning gutters, and "remember folks, when it rains the floors can be slippery when you enter your office".... Aaaaaand if you do slip guess what? There's the proper form to fill out with 24 hours of the incident. Turns out if you get bit by a tick or stung by a bee they have proper forms. Not insect incident report, but the 43-9/B or 43-9/T. No kidding.

When I'm in a situation that requires crossing a busy road I wait until the gap is large enough to walk. The young people scoot across, look back and say "c'mon old man". I say "there's too much paperwork to get injured". We had a guy get bit by a tick and because he hadn't filled out a proper tick bite form within the guideline period they gave him all kinds of grief when he got sick from a disease the tick gave him.

Anyway, to Frank we at the corparation who do what you did until that fateful day salute you and may you be where the fish bite all day and the skeeters don't bite at all. And may there be no more forms to fill out for eternity.

 

[scout24]

Oh, man! Terrible for Frank and his family... Sad to hear. You'd think they'd spend more than 49 seconds on what happened.

 

[Monocrom]

Oh, man! Terrible for Frank and his family... Sad to hear. You'd think they'd spend more than 49 seconds on what happened.

Sadly, I'm not surprised. I wish I could say I am. I want to say I am. But I can't. Just the way the world is.

 

[bykfixer]

I work for a large outfit with over 20k employees. So one of the little guys gets killed on the job and 2 days later the CEO kinda glosses over the deal and drills us with rules, rules, rules. Rubbed a few the wrong way, including me.

I did some networking and learned the July edition of the company magazine will be dedicated to Frank. It gives folks a chance to share what they knew, tell some stories and celebrate the life of an unknown in the virtual world.

With a bit of time I came to understand the higher ups are like a mayor in a town of 20,000 people. Impossible to know everybodys name. So they put together a knee-jerk presentation in a way that left many saying "bad form guys". And then I contemplate if it were me that was killed, I'd rather them spend the 20 minutes on safety instruction to keep others safer than talk about me. Mention my name, my role, my tenure, say it all in a 100 words or less and move on. When discussing it with some coworkers today they said "hmmm, hadn't thought of it like that".

I mean afterall, we're all stuck here on the flat rock dodging space junk and watching out for crazy drivers day after day. So due to an unfortunate situation the 20k+ employess were reminded to take our time and watch out for each other as best as we can.

Frank probably wouldn't mind that.

 

[Poppy]

People are stupid!

A couple of years ago the New Jersey legislators passed a law that motorists are to stop for pedestrians at an intersection, or designated cross-walk. The pedestrian has a responsibility to make sure that the driver has sufficient time to stop.

Signs, similar to traffic cones are now seen in parking lots of super-markets and malls. Sometimes at cross-walks in city streets. More and more I see people, just stepping in front of on-coming traffic. The problem has gotten so bad that NYC passed an ordinance that one can not be looking at his cell-phone, while crossing a street.



Last week, on my way home from the office at night, I came upon an intersection, where there was an incline in the road approaching me from the other direction. The headlights of the approaching vehicle were shining right into my eyes. To my right there were a line of parked cars, that led right up to a designated cross-walk. Designated only by painted hash-marks on the ground. Fortunately I go through that area of town slowly, watching for stupid people. Sure enough out steps this stupid woman, dressed in dark clothing, not looking in either direction, except downward, into her cell phone. Her companion, dressed in lighter colored clothing, grabbed her by the shoulder, as I came to a full stop.

Yesterday, while driving through the parking lot of a mall, I watched some guy walking towards the two lane "roadway" I was driving in. He proceeded to enter the path of my vehicle, never looking to the left, but only to the right. He made it to the center line before I passed behind him. He then stopped, and turned to "glare at me." He decided it was better to move on when I rolled down my window as I came to a stop. I told him to "look where you are going before you step in front of a moving car!"

How stupid can people be? Ever hear the message... "He was right... Dead right!"?

The designated cross-walk was about 100 feet away. If the traffic laws in that parking lot are enforceable, he was guilty of jay-walking.

There should be a sign on the curb.... Danger!!! Don't step in front of a moving vehicle!!! They Kill!

or...
"If you don't look before you attempt to cross, you might be deleted from the gene pool." Nah... they'd be too stupid to understand.

 

[bykfixer]

Well Poppy, these days signs have to have a government sanctioned cartoon figure too. So I suppose a stick figure-esque cartoon of a body flying in the air with the front end of a cartoon and an expletive punctuation from the flying stick figure would be required...assuming people even notice said sign.

This reminds me of once upon a time my law-abiding son who has some rainman in him was half way across an intersection when the walk symbol changed to don't walk symbol. The thing changed as we crossed the two way street so his little brother and I quickened our pace and assumed he would too.

Nope. He froze right there on the double yellow line. He did not know whether to poop or go blind as cars went past him at 4mph on the bumper to bumper tourist thoroughfare. But he knew the law said he was not allowed proceed. Somebody stopped and let him cross.

Now days they have count down clocks.

 

[Monocrom]

I work for a large outfit with over 20k employees. So one of the little guys gets killed on the job and 2 days later the CEO kinda glosses over the deal and drills us with rules, rules, rules. Rubbed a few the wrong way, including me.

I did some networking and learned the July edition of the company magazine will be dedicated to Frank. It gives folks a chance to share what they knew, tell some stories and celebrate the life of an unknown in the virtual world.

With a bit of time I came to understand the higher ups are like a mayor in a town of 20,000 people. Impossible to know everybodys name. So they put together a knee-jerk presentation in a way that left many saying "bad form guys". And then I contemplate if it were me that was killed, I'd rather them spend the 20 minutes on safety instruction to keep others safer than talk about me. Mention my name, my role, my tenure, say it all in a 100 words or less and move on. When discussing it with some coworkers today they said "hmmm, hadn't thought of it like that".

I mean afterall, we're all stuck here on the flat rock dodging space junk and watching out for crazy drivers day after day. So due to an unfortunate situation the 20k+ employess were reminded to take our time and watch out for each other as best as we can.

Frank probably wouldn't mind that.

An excellent point. Thing is, at the very least, you expect management to at least put in some effort to pretend to care. At least just a bit of effort. Otherwise, it causes what you just described above.... around 20,000 workers getting seriously ticked off at the coldness and callousness shown by the Higher-Ups. A great way to kill morale (which is bad for business). And an excellent way to foster an "us vs. them" mentality. Also not good! (To put it mildly.)

I used to work for a guy who made it seemed as though he cared about everybody who worked for him. Even if he didn't know your name, he'd greet you like an old friend. He had a few tricks up his sleeve that made people genuinely believe he cared about them. Both as a group, and as individuals. In reality, he was horribly racist. And even worse when it came to dealing with women! Oh, soooo much worse. I knew the real him. And if I told anyone, no one would believe me! How good was he? NO ONE found out. He sold the company. Folks were sorry to see him gone! Especially the women! Who again.... NO clue!

Thing is, he knew how to get results! I mean at the very least, pretend you give a crap about an employee's unfortunate passing. Honestly, two years ago I gave my then boss absolute Hell and nearly quit my job on the spot (one of those situations where they definitely need me a lot more than I need them) because the client had pulled a request (demand) for a meeting with the employees. Client has a reputation for doing this, and the meetings are absolute nonsense! Well, I found out a few days ago back then that my father had passed away. Needless to say, I was not even remotely in the mood to attend another worthless, meaningless, nonsense of a meeting that would take place during my off-time.

I started out polite. But after asking, then prodding, and finally demanding to know what the meeting was about; he refused to tell me! Then he copped an attitude with me! Hey, when you bend over for the client's every ridiculous and silly whim. And you do that in front of the guys you're in charge of.... they're not going to respect you. He wanted to bend over for the client each and every single time, he could bend over in front of me this particular time too. That was my outlook. I told him I wasn't in the mood for the usual nonsense, and I told him why.

He then understood. And backed off completely. He understood that my father had died and that I had no problem walking off the job in the middle of my shift in an isolated client's site with myself as the only Security Officer/Fire Guard on duty. In fact, had I decided to call the FDNY and told them there was no Fire Guard on duty now because I was walking off the job, the client would have gotten hit with a HUGE fine. And until my boss completely backed off, that's just what I was about to do.

The next day I calmed down. Called my boss and apologized. However, things could have ended very differently. Good managers who know how to get the best out of their employees either care about their employees.... or they can fake it to a point that gets just as good results as those who actually care.