My Horrible Boss

[karzrus]

After finishing technical school with a 2yr chemical engineering diploma in 1982 I was fortunate enough to land a job at a large chemical company in my home town.

My new boss Mr. A.S. the plant manager was an Engineer and had been with the company just under 2 years. Our location was a 24/7 processing plant that had been built over the last 2yrs(operating for almost a year) and was ramping up production. They would end up hiring 7 guys form my graduating class to work as process operators on rotating shifts.

My first odd experience with Mr. A.S. or AS was at a crew breakfast. These were held monthly right after your last 12 hr. nightshift of a 4 night set. AS and the production supervisor (Mr. S.M). took the 4 man crew out for breakfast to talk about plant equipment issues and safety issues(very progressive for 1982 I thought)

As we sat there waiting for our food and over breakfast we covered the issues with SM taking notes. SM was a tall black 30yr old engineer from Jamaica who had also been with the company about 2 yrs. AS was just a few years older and white.

We(the crew) were in a good mood, eating steak and eggs while looking forward to 4 days off. One of the crew was describing a safety issue when out of the blue AS interrupts and says that his piece of charred steak looks kind of like SM. I and another new guy who had not been to a breakfast meeting before were shocked, I looked around and the other two crew members looked embarrassed, SM was rolling his eyes and AS was looking really proud with a goofy smirk on his face.

And so began a 34yr and counting career

 

[karzrus]

Now I can't tell a story like Jimway can, but for nearly 20years AS would find ever more interesting ways to surprise me.

We had a maintenance guy at the plant "BG"
When BG was being hired a few months before me, AS and SM interviewed a few candidates, one candidate had two trade tickets "Electrician" and "Mechanic" as well as 5-7 years of experience in a manufacturing facility.

BG had the same first name as that guy.

AS told SM to hire BG because AS mixed up the two.

BG was qualified for the job too. He had a Mechanics ticket and a temper. After seeing both on the first day of work, neither AS nor SM had the courage to tell BG they made a mistake and hired the wrong guy.

 

[karzrus]

Now those two small incidents happened over 30 yrs ago and in truth I did not witness the one, I only heard about the BG one from SM after we got to know each other better, and after BG had managed to "impress" me with his temper a few times.

Also AS made both of those mistakes while he was sober.
Back then, Fridays took on a whole different feel when AS went out for "lunch"

 

[karzrus]

During my first year of employment, one Friday afternoon at around 4:30pm AS walked or should I say strolled into my control room. I might have heard about Fridays at that point, but I had not experienced them.

AS slurs as he says "Hi RoBERT", only my mother calls me Robert, so when I hear it roll out of his mouth it sounds about as creepy as you can imagine.
"Howsss proDUCTion going?' he continues as he wanders close. "OK, how about you" I respond. AS is glassy eyed, breath reeks of alcohol and he has a that funny grin I mentioned earlier. He proceeds to grab some packaging cardboard off the set up table beside me and knocks a few pieces onto the floor. While I pick up the cardboard off the floor, AS reaches into his front pant pocket for a good ball scratch, blurts out "LEtMEee sho you HOW ITsss done" then he farts, chuckles in embarrassment and wanders over to the control panel.
The controls are a series of dials with indicators used to control and tune the process equipment. AS squints to read the indicators, mumbles something like "fuugggin idddiottss don't know notthhin" gives 3 of the dials a hard crank to the right, proudly pronounces "THERE that shouuu be GOOD" farts again and walks out as the equipment crashes and grinds to a halt.
At shift change, after restarting the process and lining it out, I relay the events that lead up to this afternoon's fun to my incoming shift relief on the next crew. My relief operator is Stan, a friend who I went to school with for the past two years and was hired a whole week before me. He says "Oh, you too".
A few weeks earlier Stan had his first Friday experience and he proceeds to tell me. AS had come into the plant and stopped Stan as he was driving a fork lift moving a pallet of product. AS says "GETOFFFFff that FUGGGGIN FFFORKLIFFFT" As he hops on he yells "LEtMEee sho you HOW ITsss done"
grabbing the controls, he raises the now empty forks up about 7 ft. With the top of the forklift mast raised about 10 ft in the air, he proceeds to back through a 8ft opening in a cinderblock wall between the process and warehouse. As the raised mast hits the header of the opening, the back of the forklift comes off the ground walking the forklift up onto the front tires. By the time AS figures out what is happening and responds by hitting the brakes, the back tires are almost 3 ft off the ground, the mast is almost at a 45% angle and the forklift is inches from tipping over onto its front side. AS "chuckles" smirks and managed to put it into forward gear and let off the brake and drive out of the danger. As he hops off the forklift he flashes Stan that goofy smirk a second time, mumbles something, gives his balls a good scratch and wanders off.

 

[karzrus]

AS had some interesting habits, when he was "thinking" he would pull out a pocket comb, lean back in his chair and comb his hair from back to front, repeatedly.

He also liked to carry his keys in his front pant pocket, he would walk around with his hand in his pocket to "jingle the keys" as it were.

When he was trying to get under some ones skin, he would insult a family member and chuckle. "he,he"...pause..."he,he"...pause..."he,he"

If he was not getting his way in a conversation or discussion, he would do all three of the above in order. Then when you did not take the bait, he would launch into a tirade of four letter filled insults and demand that it be done his way.

 

[karzrus]

On BG's first day of work, AS figured he would give BG an easy job to start off with.

He asked BG to repair one of the burnt out high pressure sodium lights in the process area of the plant. Those lights are 40' up on the inside of the roof of the process area, so he would require help. SM was to lift BG up to the ceiling using a man basket attached to the forks of the forklift. BG did not complain and just accepted the task. With SM operating the forklift, up went BG with an assortment of tools, a new bulb, a ballast, maybe a transformer even. SM did not remain on the forklift while BG was up there but did remain in the area and in site of BG. While SM was talking to another employee they looked up and noticed BG was doing a 208/230volt jig. SM hopped back on the forklift and lowered BG down breaking the connection and stopping the jig. Once down and still vibrating BG launched into his first tantrum... about how they should be hiring an electrician to electrical work.
And that's when SM and AS realized they had hired the wrong guy, but of course they couldn't let him go now.

 

[Jimway]

Obviously, mr fancy pants is AS's kid?

 

[karzrus]

Jim I know that is exactly what I was thinking reading your posts, but AS's wife is a nurse and a very nice lady, they have three daughters who all worked at one time or another as Summer students or in Reception at the plant. They were truly lovely young ladies at the time, hard working, polite girls that any guy would be proud to call their own.
We all marveled at how it was even possible for AS to have such nice girls. We gave all the credit to Mom and if we did not think she was an honorable woman, would have though they were the mail mans kids.

 

[karzrus]

In fairness to BG he sort of earned the right to his first tantrum, so I'll skip ahead some months.
I was working a day shift when the trim grinder on my line went down, I informed BG of the issue and asked if he could take a look at it. Familiar with the unit he grabbed a few tools and came right over, this was just a first inspection prior to me shutting the unit completely down. BG thought he could get it going again, so on his instruction I kept the line running while he started working on the issue. It would turn out not to be the best idea as the added time pressure was not something BG was particularly good at dealing with. As the trim started piling up beside him and the un-co-operative grinder resisted his efforts BG started losing his cool. I thought it best to shut down at that point and told BG I was going to do so. He barked back at me "to leave him the F alone" I started shutting down and was busy, but still had a front row seat to a series of four letter words and then tools flying in every direction. When the 11/4" combination wrench went past the control room window followed by a 24" pipe wrench, both bouncing along the floor and hitting the wall 100 ft. away I'd seen way more then I wanted too. But I was kind of stuck there to finish the shut down process. You can't make that much noise in that process area and not attract some attention, given that some of the tools flew past SM's office window, he had no choice but to investigate.

 

[karzrus]

Now Sam(SM) was Jamaican and had been in Canada for a few years and was about as easy going and laid-back as any guy could get. Even on his best day being a jerk, AS could not get under Sam's skin. So once Brian(BG) ran out of tools, Sam came over to see what was up.
Brian was inconsolable at that point and also illegible with unfinished swear words bubbling out of his mouth as he paced around the broken equipment. Sam's own version of English is sprinkled with Jamaican terms, phrasing and accent. When you meet him for the first time the most common response is to turn to someone else who was part of the conversation and ask "What did he just say?" or politely wait till he walks away and tell someone "I don't know WTF he said" It didn't matter that they could not communicate, Sam easily diffused the situation, Brian went home for the afternoon, and the parts were ordered for the next day.

And that's when I found out how they hired the wrong Brian.

Sam was a great guy to work for, and a ideal buffer from AS's stupidity, but Sam got an opportunity in Toronto and moved on after about 5yrs. Sam's replacement was not nearly as sharp so when the chance came I switched departments.

 

[karzrus]

The production supervisor in my new department was Hal, he was a pretty decent guy, sadly that meant AS could get under his skin. It also meant that Hal would come back after various meetings either very wound up and needing to vent or completely amazed and laughing at how stupid AS was. Either way I heard all kinds of stuff you never should about your management team.

One day I hear yelling through cinderblock walls and steel doors, in the warehouse next my control room. I can tell it's Hal, and AS who has followed Hal back our department from some meeting. When it ends, Hal comes in and tells me that as the argument digressed and since he was loosing the argument to common sense, AS retorted "I'm going to send you out of town on business, then I'm going to show up at your house, knock on you door and bang Della(Hal's wife)." Hal responded "Go ahead, she hates your guts, she'll kick the sh-- out of you" Della was about 5'11" and very athletic, she would likely make short work of AS, so I thought Hal had really handled that one well.

 

[Jimway]

This is beginning to sound like a job for Super Mr. Attitude Adjuster...