After I had been put on notice, which I took seriously, we were close to running rejects consistently. I quietly pointed this out to the operator on shift. She ignored me, as usual, like I was a flake to be ignored. She was the ring leader of the department and just ornery.
I thought for a few minutes and decided to make the adjustment myself. I couldn't afford to allow them to run rejects. If she wanted to file a grievance, she could. The adjustment got them in a much better spot.
Later that evening, they began running rejects due to a completely separate issue on that machine. That's the problem with fully depreciated equipment, i.e., it has a lot of slop and takes tons of TLC to maintain specifications. But, I digress. Again no one called me that evening.
The next morning I learned of the rejects. The same operator was still on shift. My Engr. Mgr. asked if I'd made an adjustment on the machine the previous day. I had and told him why. He asked me to demonstrate to him what I had done. We walked to the production area.
When we got into the area, the ornery operator blurted out, "She did it! I saw her! She made an adjustment here!" She pointed to an area on the equipment. I suppose it was a good thing she said all of that. She was wrong. I demonstrated what I had done and repeated why. The EM knew the operator was wrong immediately and said I was OK for now. That told me the Production Manager was after me.
The EM and I continued to discuss the rejects and the reasoning behind my actions. He understood I made the right adjustment and told the operator. She had already confessed to making an adjustment in the area to which she pointed to correct my adjustment. Since she was the one that told the Production Mgr. that I had made an adjustment, it began to appear she was trying to sabotage me.
She never did that again and I continued to try to work with her. She wasn't having any part of my efforts. She has missed out on so much good in life because she is stubborn about
Thankfully, my boss, who is a good, Christian man was trying to protect and help me. It was good to have him on my side.
RSS Feed
