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Paging Jon
- Thread starter ChiXJeff
- Start date
redneckboarder
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- cumberland RI
oh wow i love that comic ever since jon turned me onto it a few months ago...weird part is ive bought parts for my autococker from the docs website before.
5-90
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Hammerspace
Doc Nickel is one of the first things I check MWF (on those days, I also make sure to check Girl Genius - www.girlgeniusonline.com - and check BOFH at The Register - www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh - on alternate Fridays.)
I'd always wondered what would happen when you mixed LocTite and never-seez - but I expected something more at a quantum level, not a binary explosive (I was thinking more like a quantum singularity - no explosion, just a lot of "suck.")
The guiding principle of that comic can be stated in a recent line: "Son, you use high explosives just making breakfast. We're amazed you made it past puberty."
I'd always wondered what would happen when you mixed LocTite and never-seez - but I expected something more at a quantum level, not a binary explosive (I was thinking more like a quantum singularity - no explosion, just a lot of "suck.")
The guiding principle of that comic can be stated in a recent line: "Son, you use high explosives just making breakfast. We're amazed you made it past puberty."
5-90
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Hammerspace
Yeah - but I've been his associate, the BBEfH (Bastard Building Engineer from Hell)...
97XJ2
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Wisconsin & the U.P.
Never really thought about it but now that you brought it up there is a technical similarity (the level of detail) between Jon and Doc.
5-90
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Hammerspace
You know, it was funny. Back when I was doing building management and maintenance (before I got tired of dealing with the idiot I was reporting to...) it was literally amazing just how many people would look down on me because I worked with my hands and got dirty - instead of wearing a suit to work like their bosses did.
1) I happen to enjoy working with my hands, and do it rather well. There's a reason I have so many calluses, you know. And scars.
2) I don't want to wear a suit - and in maintenance, it's a bad idea. Yeah, I run the team. I lead from the front - if you want me to wear a suit so damned bad, I figure the company can pony up for ten (minimum,) and carry the drycleaning bill. Besides, dress shoes with safety toes are spendy - and I'll need at least two pair. 11-1/2EEE, please.
3) You work for a corporate Director? Bully for you - I work maintenance. Who does your precious Director call when something doesn't work? I'll give you a hint - it's the very same person that the CEO calls when something doesn't work. And I put him at the top of the list not because he's the CEO, but because he is good to me and respect my position and work! A little "nice" can go a long way - people in maintenance have long memories...
4) I have a God Key for the building, and my prox badge works on any of the readers. Security doesn't even have that. I can go anywhere in this building, at will, at any time of day or night. Considering I'm the poor schmuck who gets called out at 0130 (usually five minutes after I've gotten home for the day...) to fix some emergency, that only makes sense.
5) Just because I work with my hands doesn't mean I'm stupid. Far from it. One cannot be an idiot and work in maintenance, unlike working in corporate management. I have to know how to fix damned near anything - usuallly by myself, and invariably with what I can carry up a ladder (or through a crawlspace. Or up the backbone of the building.) Chances are, I'm a good deal smarter than your boss - the fact that he has an MBA and I don't simply means that he was wasting time in school while I was out working for a living.
I find that the wrong people usually get overlooked. There were some people at Adobe who would get jobs done before they would put the work orders in - simply because they were nice to us, respected us, and treated us like actual human beings. Funny how an AA could get something done long before a Director or an EVP could (as I said, we have long memories. It wasn't any trouble to shuffle work orders around. Since I did the shuffling and decided who got what done when, I was the very last person you wanted to annoy even slightly...)
Consider the people who are perceived to be "at the bottom" - sysadmins, telecomms, network administrators, maintenance, janitors. Without these people, the rest of the company would not get a single farking thing done - but they can't figure out why we think we're overworked and underpaid (I had to know Life Safety Code chapter and verse - while the Director I answered to only knew it was a book that I kept on my shelf for reference. I did the OSHA pre-inspections, I did the ADA Compliance inspections, I caught the Fire Code and NEC violations and fixed them - all for a pittance. Frankly, I should have been paid more than him - plus overtime!)
It was rewarding, tho, to know that some people knew to start at the top when trying to get something done. Probably a half-dozen people out of the 2500 there knew that - I ended up marrying one of them ten years ago.
