Kinda looking for some advice from other mechanics/tradespeople. The last month or so work has just gotten me wound right up. Is it common for most mechanic shops to be a complete disorganized mess in terms of communication? It just seems like its a constant battle to get anything done. Everything from wrong parts being ordered to getting half-assed cross shift notes (if any at all) to having to do 4 other people's jobs. What's the best way to stay sane in a circus like this?
A bottle of rum and a good sleep could help.
Incompetence is/has become an epidemic in this country. I've been ordering parts for just shy of 25 years, and anymore I only have a couple of parts guys I truly trust. I realize that equipment is getting more and more complicated, but these guys should have a handle on things after a year in the saddle. Also, I think parts lookup was easier on paper or microfiche, because the people that wrote it were at the top of the food chain, not some wet behind the ears 20-something computer programmer. On second thought, I'm going to stop there. I'm not saying anything new here, in fact, after a while it begins to sound like a broken record. The only thing you can do it just deal with it, and make sure the foreskin knows that the holdups are not your fault without becoming the squeaky wheel. Figure that one out and you'll be a hero.
personally, i stopped giving a rats ass about what anyone else is/was doing. theres NOTHING i can do about it, thats managements problem. to put it simply, i do my job, and do my best to take care of the calls i have scheduled led for the day, i check in with my boss when i need to, ( he knows where i am, we gave GPS on all our trucks). i look up my own parts, (even out in the field), if the part dept screws that up, it's not my fault.... ive been at const eq dealerships for over 30 years, going on 20 at the current (and last) dealer. many years ago i spent time caring about what someone else did, it led to a LOT of drinking, which wasnt good for my heath.... probably the most important is not to bring work issues home, when i get out of my truck at the end of the day, i flip the switch, and not even think about whats been doing on during the day....
I think its just more frustration than anything else. I'm only one guy and I guess if management was concerned with paying me 2 hours a day to do someone else's job they'd have rectified it by now lol. I'm mainly just wondering if this is common in this industry. I've worked at a couple places in my near decade of doing this and so far its about 50/50 in terms of organized shops/chaotic shops.
It should be mandatory that parts people have a service background. Most can't find anything without a part number, and usually they can't find that either.
LOL!!! don't get ME started.. THATS WHY I QUIT after 22 years at the same company.. It got SOOOO BAD I couldn't take it anymore.. & when I "tried" to say something about it, my emotions would take over & I'd start yelling & screaming & cussin'.. & then the boss would start to laugh.. & say, whadda want me to do about it?? How about your f'n job??!! It went down hill from there.. BUT yes.. its gotten more & more common place to deal w/ idiots & morons & people that don't give a rats azz about what their doin & who it effects.. I always said.. the guythat's doin the complaining,IS THE GUY THAT CARES.. but when other people in the same company tell you to let it go, theres nothing you can do about it.. HEED the words & let it go & just do you job the best you can.. I couldn't so I left..
it comes down to accountability and when the boss is in over his head in problems no one gets held accountable and everyone suffers from it. i have also learned most places operate from the top down meaning if the service floor is that way then middle and upper management are to. you wont fix it on the service floor (unless the service manager is really good) until it gets fixed upstairs. you just have to let it go or find somewhere else to work because unless you become the boss you wont fix it
Like I tell everyone {when the job is finished and it goes out the door it has my name on it}. But when you work with Zero's it will bring the shops reputation down. I run our fleet shop and parts salesman that I deal with know not to jack me around and I suppose most think I'm a total jack ***. But I don't care my job is to find problems before they happen and to keep things rolling. Each job that comes in the door I have a plan and work the plan. I have and will argue with corporate morons at the drop of a hat. If I have to make waves so be it, I go home each day feeling OK knowing I did the best I could that day. I think about tomorrow-tomorrow. The boss likes what I do-or at least he seams to. Truck Shop
I think what you are dealing with is everywhere to some extent. Try not to let it get to you. I have always got satisfactions from operators and drivers and pay checks from managers.
Some good advice here for sure. I don't neccessarily hate the job and I certainly don't want to quit (yet). When I'm left alone to organize my own work and handle the job start to finish I actually have a lot of fun.
It is what it is. Not everybody sees things like you do, or like I do. There are times I feel the same way. At the end of the day do the best you can and cover your ***. Rasing kids really helps you with that stuff lol. They always want to pass the buck or kick the can down the road to the next one in line. I can't count the number of times I've told them "You just worry about you". So I've learned to practice what I preach. It's frustrating as hell sometimes I know. Part of growing up a reckon. We never quit that!
Here is my (worthless) opinion based on running electrical work in the construction industry for 35 years: First of all, 95% if not more will work their hearts out for you given adequate leadership, a decent supply of material along with enough tools and information to do the job. After that, it is a management issue. When you look at a job that lost money, the first thing everyone looks at is the labor cost. The labor cost will always be over budget on a looser. As management come down to slap people around, I like to point out the “little things;” the bid had 4,000 feet of 3” pipe, we actually installed 40,000 feet. Estimator could not multiply. You can only do what you can do. I worked with people who kept minute diaries of what they did over the years. And what people did working for them. One person when sent to a job, with the budget for the job called back within 12 hours and told the boss the job was in the hole 1.26 million. The boss called him every flavor of liar, he quit right then and when the job was done, they were in the hole almost 2 million. He knew his true labor rates. In mechanic work, I can only guess that the book rate is wildly uneven compared to actual rates. If management is honest, they will listen, if they are not, nothing you say will convince them that people are not goofing off on the job. The nice thing about being an electrician, when I quit, all I need is my overalls, my lunch bucket and my bag of hand tools. As a mechanic, you have a lot more tools to load out. I went to work one morning thinking I was going to quit at the end of the month about two weeks away and give them the notice. By starting time (7 AM) I had shortened it up to the end of the day by 7:10 AM, I was headed down the road to a new job. Most are not as fortunate as I was to have that ability. As I retired, what I observed and part of the cause of my retirement was the unreasonable expectations by management of it’s workforce. That becomes a recipe for disaster and the closure of the company. Moral of the story; keep you lunch close and your tools packed up tight.
My shortest time on a job {20 some minutes}. I was unloading my tools and the shop mgr started laying out more regulations. As soon as he said no swearing in shop I knew it was time to move on. Truck Shop
LOL.. I came from a small shop where it was ALL guys, we were young AND white.. if you know what I mean?? it was nothing to start a sentence w/ hey a-hole.. & end it w/ you mfer.. the f bombs & the N word were common place.. THEN after 16 years of that crap, I went to a corporate environment, where white was the minority & the work force was 50% women.. I had a difficult time my 1st week & was told by an elderly gentleman> we don't talk like THAT here.. I learned to bit my tongue & ended up fitting in quite nicely.. THEN after 3 years I went back to the sh*t hole & the language slapped me in the face my 1st day back.. ..Especially coming from the managers.. I thought> did I really sound like that?? WOW.. I'm no prude by any stretch of the imagination & can layum down w/ the best of'm.. but after 3 years of not having to talk like THAT, you learn to pick your words "alittle" better..
I cuss a fair amount. Funny thing is the moment a woman is within earshot, I stop cussing without any trouble. I've actually gone out with women that thought I was a prude or a churchboy or something like that lol.
Sometimes people just don't get it though until you lay a few choice words on them. Years ago I worked at a shop that had a strange/oddball fellow working there. He wouldn't say **** if he had a mouth full, he wouldn't talk to anybody stayed off by himself. One Monday morning the shop boss came out and huddled everyone but the strange ranger wasn't there. We were told he went home on Friday evening and proceeded to beat his wife til he damn near killed her. The boss told everyone{ if you have an issue blow it off at work don't take it home with you and that's an order} Truck Shop
As a lurker on this forum, a retired GI (army), and a long-time officer worker who's certainly not a prude, I do appreciate that cussing on this forum tends to be reserved for when it's really needed. IMHO, cussing just to cuss is a sign of immaturity. As my SC neighbor says, "learn to pick you words alittle better!"
My gut feeling is that if you have to ask a question about your sanity at a workplace, the answer is already pretty clear.
Is has been said that, " a persons vocabulary says ALOT about THE PERSON".. I say, "***K THAT".. LOL.!!!
My point about regulations in a shop including swearing and that I left the job- with regulations like that what else is there lurking that will come up later. There is no point in swearing just to swear but when someone wants to censor what I can say-Screw that. The only thing I don't allow in the shop is laziness. And if people don't like what I say-they don't have to listen. Truck Shop
I reserve some words for when they are really necessary for shock value. Then I go home to a wife who believes they should NEVER be used. Oh well! I can't please all of the people all of the time. Having two adult sons, and several extras tends to bring those words on. I once called Andy three weeks in a row with the same question: "Where is my come along?" A: "Uh........I borrowed it." At 29, he gets married this summer. I believe that brings me more daughter in laws to rescue from car problems.
Mechanics probably deal with more variables and possibilities than any other profession. Accountability yes, but adding political correctness and unnecessary rules and regulations is just over the top.
I found that drinking helped a lot.. but now that I don't have to go into that insane asylum anymore.. I don't drink.. it would be just a normal nite to kill a 12pk after work, 5 days aweek.. NOW>> lets just say, I've had a case of beer in the frig since BEFORE Christmas.. & IF I do have a beer, 3 is my limit.. NO MORE DEMONS TO BURY.. & I love it.. I do have to go there today tho.. I need some parts TODAY & they have them.. I'd rather get kicked in the nuts than cross that threshold .. I'm gonna go early in the morning.. that way, the bars wont be open when I get outta there.. Lol
Around here, most of the competent parts guys are retired or retiring. The replacements aren't qualified to carry their predecessors lunch box. I was about a gypsy whore in the beginning of my career. Hell, for 20 years, never stayed anywhere long enough to get a vacation. My last job was an eye-opener. In my 10 years there, we had many service "managers" I learned that that one position could change everything. First guy, got along with great. We still talk from time to time. Upper mgmnt got a hold of my driving record 3 months after hire. I had already proven myself. They wanted me gone, fire him, they said. He persuaded them to allow him to put me in the shop til the ugliness dropped off. Next guy, "sonny boy" the owners son in law. What a GD joke! He tells the parts kid on a friday night in a snow storm that he needs"me" to go out. I says ok &, question the urgency and timing. Sonny boy gets wind that i questioned his decision making and runs to cry to the HR lady. Next thing I know, Im getting a call from our unions BA asking why are you refusing a job? I told him Monday, if you were any kind of man at all, you'd have spoken to me face to face. He jumped back and threatened to call the police saying i was taking a threatening tone. Well , he ruined a division dedicated to mobile lube service, he was gone. Next guy, in and oit like a flash in the pan. But not before writing me up for some chicken$h!t reason or another. Last guy, gold. Believe it or not, came to us from a hyundai dealer. First couple months, struggled to learn everybodys name and customers. Biggest transition, going from a thousand little tickets to 10-12 BIG tickets. He got it, he knew that he had a symbiotic relationship with us. He needed us and we needed him. He asked us to help him understand what he was selling, its importance. He was working hard to undo all the ugly of his predecesdors, but they pulled the rug out from all of us. Where was i going , oh yeah. People. People make the difference. Take care of the ones who look out for you in hopes they'll continue to have you back.
All this makes me dam happy I decided to go self-employed in 1990. LOL
The last couple days have been better. When I control the jobs from dispatch to completion things flow much smoother. The more management leaves me alone, the more I get done lol.
Same thing w/ me 92.. when the foreskin was sick & I handled things from start to finish it moved like clockwork.. I always said, "to many spoons in the soup.. & one of the cooks is a fkn idiot".. I got back from my trip to the shop.. the BOSS, A salesman & the parts mngr were standing at the front counter.. literally 2ft away from me.. I could have reached out & slapped'm across the face, that's how close they were.. NOT 1 of them said a word to me !!!! I already had my part # so I asked the parts guy to get it for me.. all the while the 3 of the a-holes stood there.. I paid for my part & walked out.. not 1 word was exchanged.. what a bunch of fkn a-holes.!!!! I guess they were waiting FOR ME to acknowledge THEM..??? Totally ruined my 1 hr drive home.. & a helluva way to treat a paying customer.. Wheres my shot glass?? Lol
I kinda feel I need to stick it out here for a while yet. On average I stay at a place about 3 years. I don't really want to get labeled as a job hopper though. Then again I have worked with a guy who averages about 6 months at a job and he still finds companies to hire him.
These days I would think 3 years qualifies you as an old timer. I have said before, so long as you show up on time every morning not drunk you are bound to have a job somewhere. Remember, too, you will have some kind of job if you have a truck and a shingle to paint your name on. You can make a living running around fixing electronic problems that other monkeys are too dense to figure out, at the very least. I know everybody loves rebuilding engines and hydraulics and whatnot but it is not necessary to do the heavy work to make a living, at least at first.
This by no means is pointed at anyone on this sight, but I'm reminded of a story an elderly client of mine told me about someone that bought the farm next to him years before. He said that the neighbor was rather a difficult gentleman and was always complaining about everything. He asked my client what the neighbors where like, so my client quickly asked him what his neighbors where like where he came from and he replied oh there just a bunch of A-holes !! My client quietly replied well they'll likely be A-holes here too. I've always kept that in mind when I catch myself bitching about someone, over they years my Dad often took me to task for the same thing asking me if maybe I shared some of the responsibility for a bad situation ( only he didn't put it so smoothly) he and the client I'm talking about where two of a kind,both hard working gentlemen.
I have worked with many mechanics who had more knowledge than I and worked as hard as I did, but the results were a disorganized mess because they couldn't plan or prioritize worth a damn. In reality we all have our weaknesses that we can't or won't overcome. A smart boss (rare animal) recognizes the strengths and weaknesses of his crew and compensates accordingly. "Charming" and "good mechanic" rarely go hand in hand. I have learned to be much more tolerant of ugly dispositions than poor character and learned to distinguish between the two long ago. I have met quite a few people who agree with me all the time. I like them at first until I realize they agree all the time no matter what, then I don't trust them.
Would not have liked being around me when in a bind or following some derelicts attempts at a patch job where I had to fix the first problem and repair the garbage patchwork. F-bombs GD's MFKR, a slew of others would fly. Boss set me up with the bay furthest from the customer lounge in my first week at the small independent shop. Hated RVs, ended up getting most of the Mack camel back and old BS Reyco or Dayton four spring re leaf or spring swap jobs under custom dump pups or the moronic dump trucks built off old road tractors or clutches under trash wagons and ALWAYS loaded. Then all hell would fly!! Hated the dripping bastards.
Have to add, on the old taper dowel axles trying to pop an axle and mashing a stud like a rivet or getting a spring saddle off with a four pound "Machinists" hammer and hitting your hand rather too often or as the last two days when a really stubborn tire is NOT coming off and you then prove to be in control of that little situation!!
As a general contractor I have to hire and work with many different trades and suppliers including mechanics and I have zero tolerance for miserable people, over the years I have developed a list of top tradesmen and suppliers that I enjoy working with and don't leave me apologizing to my clients for there work or manners. We work in a small area and my employees are encouraged to be cordial and helpful, even to the neighbours where we're working and it pays dividends I have built and renovated multiple houses on the same street. I've always felt if you don't enjoy your job go do something else. Find a job you like and you'll never work a day in your life. Now having said that after 12 hours of setting concrete forms I feel like I was working.
As an additional note I could not be a mechanic, the little bit I have to do has shown me I don't have the patience for it. I take my hat off to those that do.
... I guessed that. Most mechanics are miserable people. It's pretty hard to do that kind of work and not be. I figured out long ago, anything I did for a living would become a drag by the time I was proficient at it, so I decided to stick with wrenches and be miserable with a decent paycheck rather that switch occupations every couple of years after finding out what was wrong with it. Work is defined as results in my book. It matters little whether a man whistles or cusses while he works, unless marketing is part of his job. I have seen people who make a grand effort to pretend to love their jobs, knowing it would make their lives easier at someone else's expense. Sorry for the cynicism.
I'm sure you're a fine person and loved by everyone around you. I'm sorry but I wake up 9 days out of 10 excited for the day, I'm just like a 56 year old kid.
That's why they made Barley Soda .
Good point Tradesman ! Every day is another adventure . Just got to keep an eye on those " Nail Benders " on job sites . Never know what them fellers will try next. On edit I meant to say Carpenter .
Well here's one people overlook-Mechanics work on someones lively hood if people don't have their car or their truck or equipment they get uptight and when something isn't running just as they thought it should they get wound up even tighter. There are very few atta boy's and you did a great job for mechanics, but if something goes awry the mechanic will hear about. Mechanics live in a cave all day for the most part rolling around in filth, the job has allot of negativity built into it. He is expected to know all about hydraulics of some sort, electrical, brakes-air and juice, power plants, transmissions, suspension, steering, A/C, drive axles, cooling systems and emissions plus some body work. Oh I left out being an expert welder fabricator and just possibly a truck driver also. And while your at it can you scrub the toilet too. And your expected to own all tools necessary. You get to fold yourself under a dash, reach into places to loosen bolts that takes a five foot arm, freeze your *** laying in snow or ice working out side, you get to work on a truck that just came off they highway to change oil and do a service plus brakes and it's 105* degrees outside, pull the drain plug and out comes 200* oil while your laying next to a scorching hot catalytic converter-sweat running every where.---It's the job but sometimes it can wear on ones mind. I remember changing a air relay valve on a trailer hauling blood meal. The goo was oozing out dripping all over me, maggots falling down from the frame. The stench well you just ate it. Had to throw my overalls away and street clothes, it took two day's to get the stench off my hide. Do you think I got paid anything extra, not only no-hell no. Not even a thank you. Truck Shop
I drank lots and lots of that stuff when I turned wrenches. A couple months after I retired, funny coincidence, I just decided I didn't need alcohol anymore.
Way back, i worked a small mom n pop shop just outside Chicagos stock yards. We had an account with the local rendering company. Gut wagons and scrap carcasses first thing in the morning. I loved welding on those things. No matter how bad it looked and stunk when it arrived, as soon as you struck an arc, it all smelled like bbq. Those were the days. At least you knew it was animal. Transfer stations and landfills, thats a whole other ball of yuck. Best/worse was climbing out from underneath a loader i had just put shift solenoids in. Out the corner of my eye, i thought i saw a mouses tail going up my shoulder. It wasnt a mouse, it was a used hoo-ha plug. Nastiest moment ever. Id have rather been elbow deep in guts. At least food dont carry disease.
Fortunately I've avoided those nasty jobs. When I worked on trucks it was pretty much just logging trucks, lowbeds and vac trucks. I actually miss working on logging trucks. They usually smelled like fresh cut timber.
I could only have wished for a sweet smell of timber. Loggers would roll in from time to time but usually fresh out of a pasture where the cows had been 'Active' and manure scattered all over. Trash wagons have to be the absolute worst, all you smell is dump, you smell LIKE dump when done, strike an arc to weld and smells of burning dump. Told Junkyard my worst day story, local trash hauler was being towed in, broken axle was what we were told. On arrival was busted axle, third member self destructed, axle tube end was flared and spindle ruined, worst was when the axle let go he was pulling a hill. IHC S1800 DT466 5&2 air brake. Engine went to the moon spun three rod bearings and one main head slapped by all the pisscans and cracked to beat hell. Best point of all was FULL, middle of summer and absolutely can crusher blade all the way back Leach Body tight FULL. Maggots everywhere, dripping and filthy. He actually brought his roll off in, hoisted the rear gate, HAND SHOVELED the crap out into a roll off box so I could work on it. I lost money on that job never to recover as he went Chapter 11 just after got the truck back. Production rate was never enough for trash trucks, cannot work fast enough!
Yuck! When I was looking to leave the vac truck company I was at, I applied at another, larger vac truck company. Did the interview and found out that they had a few trucks that serviced the washroom trailers at worksites. Really glad I didn't go to work for them lol.
I've had the pleasure of working on my fairshare of Mack garbage trucks.. not fun. & have gone out to the landfill to work on the big steel wheeled Bomags too.. also NOT FUN. I asked the boss about getting a tetnus shot before going to the landfill.. I was serious.. he just laughed & said, don't cut yourself.. & "I'm" the a-hole?? lol
I got My OWN tetanus shots just to be on the safe side. Doc put my name on a list as required every five year boosters while I worked in those environments. ICK!!
Each of us have our own definition of offensive. Cow manure I don't mind. Dead animal remains don't bother me unless they have been ignored long enough to support maggots. What I find offensive is anything they might find DNA in. Bathrooms, if unclean, laundry from other people, porta potties, and public toilets, I avoid. I explained to one lady, "I don't mind your 240 year old cellar. Spiders won't give me Hepatitis. Bats won't do any harm, it's people who carry disease." That of course isn't absolutely true, but nobody this century has died of Black plague, or Bubonic plague. I will point out that no hermits ever died of either.
Now I can't remember which, but I have been tested, and found to be recovered from Hepatitis A or B. I asked when. He said "You would have been very sick for a couple weeks, vomit, unable to eat, in bed". The only time I have been that bad was after a weekend visit to a college when I was 21. No, not an STD I married the only person in question 36 years ago, She didn't have it. Hospitals, schools, malls, and other places where thousands of people share space are to be avoided.
Yeah, landfill equipment is the worst! Back when I was young, I got sent out on a Bomag K351 at a landfill for an engine problem. The stench when I got out of my service truck was enough to make me gag. When I climbed up on the rear drum next to the engine I noticed a what remained of a dog that had been squished into the drum bosses, I immediately start gag which led to throwing up......a lot. I went back to the truck and after I collected myself, called my boss and told him there was no way in hell I was going to work on that machine until it was cleaned......I didn't give a dam if he fired me at that point. They cleaned it and I went back the next day and did the job. To this day I have had many opportunities to tie in with landfill work, but I'm always too busy to do it.
As I was a first responder in my retired from job I got the Hep C globulin booster regimen. Was tested every year for any odd anti-bodies when had to clean up from blood/bodily fluids releases with no positives. Maintained tetanus boosters all these years as Always and Forever around rusty, dirty, poop covered farm machinery/fence/potential of old fasteners impalements, etc. Have not worked on any dump machinery since 1994.
I know a young guy that's a truck mechanic north of Edmonton, he has told me that a certain ethnic group of truckers cut a hole in the floor of thier trucks and crap onto the road while driving, leaving crap and paper all over the frame and drive train. When they find one of these trucks they just park it in the yard and refuse to work on it.
you have to be sh*tting me!
In the most literal way possible.
Not just once but a regular occurrence
Lol I've heard that from more then one truck tech. Coworker was said at a previous shop one of the poor saps got a hand full working on a transmission. Said it took a little to calm the tech down. Guess he was wanting to have a little talk with the driver.
I haven't seen it personally but those rumours have been flying around for 20 years. Apparently used to happen around the lower mainland in BC too. One of my instructors was a shop foreman for a truck dealer and he said they actually refused a few trucks due to having a hole in the floor. And everyone wonders why rates are in the toilet (or not lol) when you've got guys running so cheap that they can't spare 5 minutes to use the washroom.
I know what you guys mean.. Down here in South Carolina around the area of the new Volvo plant, there are "wiz bottles" lined-up at the exit & entrance ramps off the interstate.. There are honestly thousands of dump trucks running in & out of this site daily.. I guess it doesn't help that the state closed the only "rest areas" in a 100 mile stretch of hiway.
In the late 80's when worked for a repair and towing shop the one thing I learned to hate was motor homes aka rolling **** house. Try cleaning up a wrecked motor home that came from down south 2000 miles of road heat cooking the waste in the holding tank and the tank broke open during the wreck. Truck Shop
ROFL.. we never think about that.. that's some funny sh*t right there..
Glad the worst I had to deal with at the quarry was guys who stuffed left over lunch under the seat of the equipment! And they had to walk past the dumpster to get to the parking area for their car from where the equipment was parked. Can not believe how lazy some people can be! We are a nickle deposit state and just in the short road frontage we have I probably make a dollor or more a year out of cans tossed out of cars going by. There is a nickle down by the mailbox right now!
My first service truck was the 2nd oldest in the fleet where I used to work. The guy who had it for the years prior to me was a packrat. Apparently when he quit they put 2 guys on cleaning out the cab and they got 2 garbage cans full of crap out of it. They even saved a newspaper they found from 2008 (it was 2013 lol). I spent another day cleaning out the back as well as detailing the cab. Found rotten food under the seats and everything lol. She was sparkling when I was done though.
Again with the nail bender
We had a "crack-head" at work.. use to find all sorts of pipes in the service truck.. The sh*t hit the fan when someone else drove the truck & a beer can came rollin out from under the seat & got stuck behind the brake pedal.. it HEAVY city traffic.. The poor kid about crapped his pants tryin to stop that big crane truck.. * AS USUAL, nothing happened to Ol' Crackie..* But the kid ended up quittin over it.. said he couldn't work for a company that put up w/ that BS.. Its just business as usual there..
We're a sensitive group. I heard the babes like sensitive guys.
The politically correct term is Wood Butcher
We had crane operators who would leave food and sunflower seeds in the cab( food wrappers, candy wrappers, uneaten, or half eaten sandwiches) . Some of it would not smell good. I told the supervisor I would NOT work on anything in the cab until it was cleaned out. Also, some of the operators would slide open the right side cab window and spit their tobacco juice on the rotary joint area. I told the contracting supervisor if I had to work in that area, I'd report it to the company safety guy as a bodily fluids issue (which in essence, it was) . Never seen any more tobacco spit, or sunflower seeds after that.
As I read thru these.. it seems like alot of the answers end w/ "I told my supervisor".. I think what the poster is getting at is, and I FULLY UNDERSTAND is> TRY "telling your supervisor" over & over & over again & STILL NOTHING gets done.!!!! Its frustrating ass hell.. & you start to go crazy!!! After the last go-round w/ surgery & being out for 8 months..I ended up quitting.. I came back for 6 months & JUST COULDNT TAKE IT ANYMORE.. between the pain, the hours & the nonsense.. the nonsense was the only thing I could control.. so I eliminated it..
I had an operator in a rental machine leave a half full quart of milk in an awkward area behind the seat of an excavator. Machine had sat on the jobsite for a week before pickup and then in our yard for a week before it was assigned to me I had twisted in to grab it and when I got ahold of it the press on cap popped off and it went everywhere. I damn near reflexively projectile vomited from the smell Oh I could have killed that SOB...
Worst guy I ever saw as a truck driver we called Pig Pen. Ran for IML Eagle Spec Commodities Div in the 70's/80's. Cab over frtlnr short wb with the narrow bunk. He NEVER stopped to shower or throw stuff out. Buddy had to work on the old Cummins in it and PP drove it into the shop. Kid was jacking the cab when the shifter plate finally popped free we all heard Tink Tink CRASH of the GLASS bottle full of **** that hit the floor, Kid yelled for the foreman where he scattered, we all ran too. Kid cleaned it up, washed the bay floor then went back to work, when done went to get in the truck and stopped, backed out quick and jumped down. Wide eyed he looked at us and said the inside was crawling, we all looked thru the windows and saw the maggots and whatever else looking for something to chew on. Foreman bought a bug bomb we grenaded it into the cab and went home for the night, next day took the truck with our wrecker to the wash bay, tilted the cab full over and pressure washed the INSIDE. Pig Pen got fired on Monday the next week.
Dam JD & Miller.. I'm dry heav'in as I read this.. Its not truck related but I figured I'd "share".. .. I fish.. I fished ALOT.. catfish.. The best bait is chicken livers & or shrimp.. "I HAD" a bait refrigerator out in the old shop..FULL of said bait.. the motor went out unknown to me.. It had been unhook, not running for a week!!!! The pressure build-up was so great, it blew the door open on the frig.. you wanna talk about STINK?? I duck taped the doors shut & drove it down to the dump.. {gag} The dump worker told me "all doors MUST BE REMOVED".. I tried to explain the situation but "she" didn't wanna hear it.. I said, OK & opened the door.. ALL HELL broke loose.. she started screaming & yelling.. told everyone to exit the entire complex.. locked the gates coming in & out of the place.. put on a mask & gloves & gave me a set.. Told me to close the doors, seal them up as tightly as I could & put it in the back of the dump w/ the doors jammed up against the fence.. I CLOSED DOWN the county trash site for 45 minutes.!!! Now that my friends is, STINK..
Almost the same here with a small chest-type freezer, half full of shrimp. Not bait shrimp , cleaned & de-headed eating shrimp. My daughter mentioned a couple time that something smelled funky in the(outside) utility room. I thought nothing of it at first(her's always complaining about something). On the second, or third complaint, I told her to check the freezer. She opened it and almost past out. We allowed the smell to subside a while, then my SIL and I taped the lid with two rolls of duct-tape. We loaded it in his truck and he took it to his friend's recycle yard to get rid of it. When he arrive, the tape had shifted and a unpleasant aroma filled the air. His friend ask what was in the freezer. My SIL is a good jokester, with a serious face. He told his friend, "You don't want to know"....."It's for my FIL"......."Don't ask anymore questions"......"You might be the next one in a freezer." SIL's friend used to visit once in a while, but I haven't seen him since.
Last year I was in the hospital getting antibiotics and on a liquid diet. I tended to go to the washroom more often. I got moved to a different room with different room mates. Got up about 2 am to use the washroom. It was a very small washroom in the old part of the hospital. Something smelled really funky. There was a metal can (about a litre/quart) sitting on a shelf beside the toilet about 5' high with a patient sticker on it. I went closer to the can and almost threw up instantly. I went and told them at the nurses station and one nurse mentioned what she thought it might be... The smell was etched in my brain but later in the day I put 2 and 2 together. The guy beside me was bed ridden and very sick couldn't get up to use the washroom. He had family come to visit him just before noon the previous day. They had him on his feet and the nurses were going to look after him but a family member said he could to do it as he was used to it... It became very clear what had happened. The guy in the hospital had a colostomy bag that they emptied into the can. The idiot family member emptied the can in the toilet but never bothered to rinse the can out and just left it on the shelf without telling anybody. It had been sitting in that little bathroom for about 8 hours before I went in. I played dumb and asked another nurse what the smell was and she said, "you don't want to know". One of the people looking after me even said it was gross. That's an understatement!!! Suddenly the other room mate didn't seem so bad. He was just in there recovering from a gun shot wound... He couldn't understand why he kept getting shot and stabbed. http://edmontonsun.com/2017/04/26/m...rmed/wcm/7effdb74-b8a6-4e34-89a8-0e08701f6ed9
I started feeling stuff wiggling all over me as I read that...good lord
Well if you folks are ready to up chuck from those stories here's a dandy. Five years ago dispatch calls and wants Gayle the other shop mechanic and I to drive to an interchange on the edge of town and meet up with the sheriffs deputies. We get there and there is a semi truck and refer trailer setting and the coroner wagon there with people suited up. The call was made to the sheriffs department by an employee of Martin Archery, the truck was parked next to their property for 4 days. We get up to the truck and the aroma had it's usual ripe smell of, dead ripe. The fellow had been dead for 4 days in 100 degree heat. He weighed about 425 had diabetes and a heart condition of all things-he was from Winnipeg driving for a company owned by a certain ethnic group which really doesn't mater except for the fact they hired him in that condition. Anyway on to the rest of the story. The coroner and his help had a fun time trying to remove him from the sleeper not just because of his size but because of the pile of garbage, half eaten chickens, sandwiches plus jugs of urine and a five gallon bucket half full of human waste. Remember I said Ripe. Then came the story from the sheriff that they wanted us to move it to our yard for investigation. At that time I had no tow truck like I have now to move it. So Gayle took off in a trot towards the pickup and said back to me she's all yours Mike! So I rolled the windows down cut some small pieces of shop rag and shoved it in my nostrils fired it up put my gloves on and drove the big infection to our yard. Not much bothers me in conditions like that. When I was towing years ago I dealt with situations believe it or not worse than that. Truck Shop
This thread has gone to shet.
Actually it hasn't some jobs are worse than others by far. You have to learn to deal with what's at hand at any moment and some times you have to do nasty work. It's not going away to hide and someones going to have to get it done so everyone pull up your little boy pants and get with it. You will find out what your made of which is good to know in life. Truck Shop
Truckshop: You got the topper. No way anyone can beat that. TPG and JD955SC reminded me of a high school escapade. My best friend in high school just despised the pep rallies on Friday's before the Friday night basketball games. This is mid 60's. No football in our school, basketball was huge. Me: let us out of class, hang out in the gym, so what? So we are in study hall after lunch one day. Left over pints of milk, substitute teacher isn't in the room yet so he unscrews the bookshelf system and puts a few pints behind the shelves and puts the system back together. The pints are still sealed at this point. A few weeks or more, we are having the grande pep rally for a District championship game or some such game. We are on the way to the gym and he disappears. He tells me he had to go to the bathroom. Pep rally is over and we are walking down the hall past the study hall room and and the stench is there, Rotten milk. The administration evacuates that wing of the school. Teachers and janitors are looking everywhere but the pints are open and behind the shelving system. They finally isolate the room and bring in fans. The janitor finally disassembles the shelving system and finds the milk. My buddy lived a charmed life. Never got caught for any of his escapades. Stole and burned a teachers record book in his folks burning barrel etc, etc.
Well truth is I wasn't trying to top anyone or anything. I found it really pathetic that this happened to that man, he obviously had major health and more than likely mental issues and the people who owned that trucking company should have had their a$$es kicked for hiring him. He probably ran out or hadn't taken his medicine. He was suffering and crawled up in the sleeper and passed away, alone with no help miles from home. truck shop
Sad day for all involved, would not want to drop anything over that as death is a sacred cow to me, a guy or gal dies story ends. Would not wish that duty on anyone TS, no way no how. I too ran our shop wrecker in 1976/77, lots of bad juju in that.
"Truck Shop, post: 733482, member: 52801"]Well truth is I wasn't trying to top anyone or anything. I found it really pathetic that this happened to that man, he obviously had major health and more than likely mental issues and the people who owned that trucking company should have had their a$$es kicked for hiring him. He probably ran out or hadn't taken his medicine. He was suffering and crawled up in the sleeper and passed away, alone with no help miles from home. truck shop Bad choice of words by me. I was meaning to say no one could have been come up with a more gross situation than having to drive the truck in that condition. There are many, many folks in sad situations and I thank God every day that I am not one of them.
It's ok Truck Shop
My Dr. asked me how work was going.. I told her I quit.. I told her, between the BS & the pain I just couldn't take it anymore.. & that I couldn't do anything about the pain.. so I did something about the BS & quit.. She looked at me & said, How are you feeling?? I said, My head is MUCH, MUCH clearer.. She said.. Well good.. see you next month.. LOL