Grease Monkey
Aug. 14th, 2021 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scrubjayspeaksI've been quiet this week because I've been particularly worn out from the day job. Now that it's the weekend, it's probably time to explain what's been going on. I'm taking a new position at my work, starting, uh, sometime soonish?
I've been saying for the last, eh, year or so that I would be interested in taking the position of setup tech at some point in my lifetime. Speculation on this subject began when setup tech #2 started talking about wanting to leave for a job elsewhere. That ended up happening much faster than expected.
That was a problem, because I had decided that I wanted to get my level three signoffs done as an operator before making any lateral moves. Because it would mean more money for me and it was reasonably within reach (whereas hitting level four and maxing out would probably take several more years). The details of the pay/advancement structure are not worth recapping here in all their minutiae; suffice to say, I had built myself a target, if not necessarily a timeline, for career advancement. And so I passed on applying for the position when tech #2 left.
They hired two people to fill the position so each shift could have a dedicated tech, #3 and #3.5. Setup tech #1, who had since moved on to a higher position in the tooling department, returned to train them. Daytime tech #3 was lovely to work with and also, apparently, lightly dying of something. Which is to say, #3 left for a week due to health problems (no, this wasn't any sort of covid thing, no, I don't know the exact nature of it), which turned into a month, which turned very suddenly into never coming back at all.
Cue tech #1 having to cover us whilst still doing the tooling work, tech #3.5 trying to bridge the gap while still inexperienced, one of the inspectors coming in early to clean machines before we start for the day, and the developmental tech having to do for themself despite being tiny-tiny and the molds and machines being...not. Uh. Yeah. It's been a bad time for everyone.
Meanwhile, I keep telling them I want to get those signoffs done because, hint hint, maybe then I would be in a position to switch over to doing setup. I am not given time to train for the signoffs, because that would cut into my time producing things and training other operators. I shrug and watch the world burn.
In a one-on-one meeting with my supervisor about a month ago, I mention, hint hint nudge kick, that I have long-term aspirations that involve at least knowing the setup tech position. And I need those signoffs done before I move onto anything else. Much noise is made about just waiving two of the sections of signoffs because they're foolish and excessive for the position. I smile and nod and watch as exactly fuck all gets done toward that end. I shrug again and continue to get unofficial training on individual tasks and troubleshooting for machines as it comes up. (I am nothing if not persistent. And/or sneaky.)
Two weeks ago, my supervisor pulls me in for another meeting while I'm at work for Friday overtime--a deeply insane time to have a meeting with me--and asks if I'm really, truly serious about wanting to be setup tech.
I resist the urge to point out that I forego breaks in favor of getting to learn from tech #1 when a machine is down. I have a reputation for staring longingly at anyone lucky enough to be setting up, fixing, or breaking down a machine within my line of sight. My team lead periodically takes pity on me and dismisses me from my official work to gostudy the blade learn something about a machine. People have been coming to me to troubleshoot their machines for the last year, and I've only been there for less than two years. I have a binder full of notes on how to make the machines work.
Yes. Yes, I am really, R E A L L Y sure I want this position. I reiterate, hint hint nudge kick stab, that I want the pay bump that comes from getting my level three signoffs, on which I have exactly two, possibly irrelevant, tasks left and have been stuck on for the last year. Because this is a job I do for money and I have developed the first evolutionary hints of a spine when it comes to prioritizing my needs at a job.
Things start moving very fast all of a sudden. I'm going to get those two sections waived. No, they're not waived, but I'm going to train on them. Now. No, seriously, stop what you're doing, go train with the inspectors now. Also, train with the material department at the same time. You're getting signed off at the end of the week. No, you're getting signed off the following Monday so HR doesn't think we rushed you. We'll figure out a transition period later. No, go train with tech #1 right now, a machine is down. Well, okay, go back to what you were doing. No, never mind, another mold is busted, go learn to submit it for repairs.
By Tuesday, I had just surrendered myself to the whirlwind. The whirlwind mostly consists of incomplete paperwork, broken thermocouples, and heatproof gloves, for reference.
So currently, I'll demonstrate my new, possibly irrelevant skills on Monday and submit my signoff for processing. HR will then take an unspecified amount of time to issue me my new level three title. [Possibly, they will take so long, they instead change my title to tech, process my level three as being outside my major (as it were) and give me a fraction of the pay bump, at which point I will froth and rage because that was literally the only reason I held off on taking the tech position as long as I did and they know it.] There will also be an unspecified amount of transition time as they figure out how to function with one fewer operator when we were already short on them. Allegedly, operators are much easier to find outside replacements for than setup techs (or material mixers, the other support position we've been lacking for months)--to which I say haughtily, yeah, but you aren't normally replacing me.
At some point between five minutes into the shift Monday morning and the heat death of the universe, I'm going to actually, officially get trained to be a setup tech, dayshift flavor. Team mechanic. Professional therapist to a stable of thirty-year-old machines. Grease monkey.
It's possible this is the most excited I have ever been about anything in my life, and I used to attend fan conventions every summer--I'm very liberal with my excitement. At some point, I'm going to write an even longer post about how this relates to my chronic case of the gender weirds, which it does. But for now, we'll leave it at "almost injuriously happy."
I've been saying for the last, eh, year or so that I would be interested in taking the position of setup tech at some point in my lifetime. Speculation on this subject began when setup tech #2 started talking about wanting to leave for a job elsewhere. That ended up happening much faster than expected.
That was a problem, because I had decided that I wanted to get my level three signoffs done as an operator before making any lateral moves. Because it would mean more money for me and it was reasonably within reach (whereas hitting level four and maxing out would probably take several more years). The details of the pay/advancement structure are not worth recapping here in all their minutiae; suffice to say, I had built myself a target, if not necessarily a timeline, for career advancement. And so I passed on applying for the position when tech #2 left.
They hired two people to fill the position so each shift could have a dedicated tech, #3 and #3.5. Setup tech #1, who had since moved on to a higher position in the tooling department, returned to train them. Daytime tech #3 was lovely to work with and also, apparently, lightly dying of something. Which is to say, #3 left for a week due to health problems (no, this wasn't any sort of covid thing, no, I don't know the exact nature of it), which turned into a month, which turned very suddenly into never coming back at all.
Cue tech #1 having to cover us whilst still doing the tooling work, tech #3.5 trying to bridge the gap while still inexperienced, one of the inspectors coming in early to clean machines before we start for the day, and the developmental tech having to do for themself despite being tiny-tiny and the molds and machines being...not. Uh. Yeah. It's been a bad time for everyone.
Meanwhile, I keep telling them I want to get those signoffs done because, hint hint, maybe then I would be in a position to switch over to doing setup. I am not given time to train for the signoffs, because that would cut into my time producing things and training other operators. I shrug and watch the world burn.
In a one-on-one meeting with my supervisor about a month ago, I mention, hint hint nudge kick, that I have long-term aspirations that involve at least knowing the setup tech position. And I need those signoffs done before I move onto anything else. Much noise is made about just waiving two of the sections of signoffs because they're foolish and excessive for the position. I smile and nod and watch as exactly fuck all gets done toward that end. I shrug again and continue to get unofficial training on individual tasks and troubleshooting for machines as it comes up. (I am nothing if not persistent. And/or sneaky.)
Two weeks ago, my supervisor pulls me in for another meeting while I'm at work for Friday overtime--a deeply insane time to have a meeting with me--and asks if I'm really, truly serious about wanting to be setup tech.
I resist the urge to point out that I forego breaks in favor of getting to learn from tech #1 when a machine is down. I have a reputation for staring longingly at anyone lucky enough to be setting up, fixing, or breaking down a machine within my line of sight. My team lead periodically takes pity on me and dismisses me from my official work to go
Yes. Yes, I am really, R E A L L Y sure I want this position. I reiterate, hint hint nudge kick stab, that I want the pay bump that comes from getting my level three signoffs, on which I have exactly two, possibly irrelevant, tasks left and have been stuck on for the last year. Because this is a job I do for money and I have developed the first evolutionary hints of a spine when it comes to prioritizing my needs at a job.
Things start moving very fast all of a sudden. I'm going to get those two sections waived. No, they're not waived, but I'm going to train on them. Now. No, seriously, stop what you're doing, go train with the inspectors now. Also, train with the material department at the same time. You're getting signed off at the end of the week. No, you're getting signed off the following Monday so HR doesn't think we rushed you. We'll figure out a transition period later. No, go train with tech #1 right now, a machine is down. Well, okay, go back to what you were doing. No, never mind, another mold is busted, go learn to submit it for repairs.
By Tuesday, I had just surrendered myself to the whirlwind. The whirlwind mostly consists of incomplete paperwork, broken thermocouples, and heatproof gloves, for reference.
So currently, I'll demonstrate my new, possibly irrelevant skills on Monday and submit my signoff for processing. HR will then take an unspecified amount of time to issue me my new level three title. [Possibly, they will take so long, they instead change my title to tech, process my level three as being outside my major (as it were) and give me a fraction of the pay bump, at which point I will froth and rage because that was literally the only reason I held off on taking the tech position as long as I did and they know it.] There will also be an unspecified amount of transition time as they figure out how to function with one fewer operator when we were already short on them. Allegedly, operators are much easier to find outside replacements for than setup techs (or material mixers, the other support position we've been lacking for months)--to which I say haughtily, yeah, but you aren't normally replacing me.
At some point between five minutes into the shift Monday morning and the heat death of the universe, I'm going to actually, officially get trained to be a setup tech, dayshift flavor. Team mechanic. Professional therapist to a stable of thirty-year-old machines. Grease monkey.
It's possible this is the most excited I have ever been about anything in my life, and I used to attend fan conventions every summer--I'm very liberal with my excitement. At some point, I'm going to write an even longer post about how this relates to my chronic case of the gender weirds, which it does. But for now, we'll leave it at "almost injuriously happy."
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Date: 2021-08-15 03:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
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