In the world of menial labor performed by the common man, management and other related personnel are not alway looked on with great appreciation and admiration. Us salt-of-the-earth do-the-real-work types have seen too much production hindered, stupid mistakes made, and totally nonsensical decisions passed down from management to be enamored with the ridiculous notion that our higher-ups are going to protect and look out for us.

And the engineers. Oh my, sometimes it seems like their job is to just make our job difficult and mess up the units. And we wonder, what do all these engineers DO all day, week after week? Yes, they design new travel trailers and whatnot, but that can’t take forever! We don’t churn out that many new models.

One day we had complete production disaster. It was bad, it cost a bunch of production and lost time and who knows what all. Turned out the engineers changed the floor design then forget to give the mill room new cut sheets, so all the wood for floor build was cut wrong.

Smooth.

The very next morning we had a plant meeting. The plant manager finished up, then asked if any of the foremen had anything to add. One said yes, there’s been a problem with some people parking in the premium parkings spots designated for the engineers.

Ha ha! What poor timing! The snickers going around indicated a less-than-positive vibe towards the engineering department.

They do a ton of loitering and walking around on the factory floor holding papers and appearing important. Maybe they actually are doing something important, but either way they make easy targets.

One time a while ago we were having a really slow day. Marty comes over to me and says, “Tom, I’m not doing a (single) thing!”

A pause, then he continued, “Don’t mistake me for an engineer!”