The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Hazcat on October 11, 2008, 08:25:44 AM
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Here is a part of the article I don't understand.
While I was being shown through the plant by Customer Service's Matt Riker, it was obvious that none of the folks working at their benches collecting parts, putting together gun kits in trays, hand fitting parts and testing each rifle, pistol or shotgun before it went out the door was enjoying the work.
Why would I want to buy a gun from people that DON'T enjoy their work?
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What company is referenced here? Or where is the article?
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The article is on the front page of DRTV and they are talking about Wison Combat.
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Worker emotions are a hard thing to read and rate. Yesterday you all got a taste of my attitude lately. That attitude is caused by a lot of things in my life I both blew off about and several I did not. I will often admit to people, especially during busy times, that I hate my job. Not totally true, but it is not always easy. However, I will sacrifice many parts of my life to put my responsibility in that job and the families I serve above everything else. Bottom line is that if a person believes in what they are doing they may not be or appear to be happy, but they will be the best whatever (in this case - production gunsmiths) there are.
On the surface of what is written, I would say they are suffering growing pains. They are in very cramped conditions and turning out more and more guns all the time. Hopefully the new facility on the horizon will give them the hope to keep turning out quality, and hopefully the company has found ways to show appreciation - even if it does not show in their faces on the line.
I'd say above all else reputation buys them a little slack to still give them a try.
Now ... dog is calling, the neighbors fields are getting pressured, birds should be moving, so about time to go give our area a try and see what's out there. Still a lot of corn standing, but we have nearly 3/4 mile of productive drainage ditch through our place that should catch a few displaced birds from other's misfortune.
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Here is a part of the article I don't understand.
Why would I want to buy a gun from people that DON'T enjoy their work?
The fastest way to take the fun out of your hobby is to use it to pay the bills If you do something because you want to you enjoy it, If you do it because you have to pay the rent it becomes work and no longer fun, when you are doing it because some one told you "Today you are building pistols" but you WANT to build shotguns, it's no longer fun.
M58 is wrong about one thing, these folks are NOT "production gunsmiths", they are "assemblers" who don't have to know anything more than "parts from bin A go here and parts from bin B go there""Factory work" is factory work, it does not matter if you are building guns, medical devices, or machining assholes in animal crackers, parts are parts, and production rates require X number of units per hour at the lowest cost possible. Assemblers by the way are generally the least skilled, lowest paid workers in a production environment, on top of that the people Jim Shephard saw had probably been getting grief about making their work areas "pretty" until about 2 minutes before he walked through the door. When I worked at T/C the Republican Presidential candidates used to make a point of visiting every election cycle, you would not believe the chicken sh!t we had to put up with for a 3 minute walk through of our department.
Any one who thinks that "his / her" fire arm was made by people who love their job either paid several THOUSAND dollars for a hand crafted custom, or they are living in dream land. Your guns are made by people who need the insurance and have to pay for groceries, while they are making your trigger (1 of thousands, they can do it in their sleep) they are wondering if they have enough gas to get home.
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The fastest way to take the fun out of your hobby is to use it to pay the bills If you do something because you want to you enjoy it, If you do it because you have to pay the rent it becomes work and no longer fun, when you are doing it because some one told you "Today you are building pistols" but you WANT to build shotguns, it's no longer fun.
M58 is wrong about one thing, these folks are NOT "production gunsmiths", they are "assemblers" who don't have to know anything more than "parts from bin A go here and parts from bin B go there""Factory work" is factory work, it does not matter if you are building guns, medical devices, or machining assholes in animal crackers, parts are parts, and production rates require X number of units per hour at the lowest cost possible. Assemblers by the way are generally the least skilled, lowest paid workers in a production environment, on top of that the people Jim Shephard saw had probably been getting grief about making their work areas "pretty" until about 2 minutes before he walked through the door. When I worked at T/C the Republican Presidential candidates used to make a point of visiting every election cycle, you would not believe the chicken sh!t we had to put up with for a 3 minute walk through of our department.
Any one who thinks that "his / her" fire arm was made by people who love their job either paid several THOUSAND dollars for a hand crafted custom, or they are living in dream land. Your guns are made by people who need the insurance and have to pay for groceries, while they are making your trigger (1 of thousands, they can do it in their sleep) they are wondering if they have enough gas to get home.
Tom, you are a genuine 'wordsmith'......that part about the animal crackers cracked me up.
I agree 100% though, for the most part.
The disruption of production work areas for a quick 'tour' by the 'big-wigs' used to nearly grind us to a halt for an entire day.
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Tom, you are a genuine 'wordsmith'......that part about the animal crackers cracked me up.
I agree 100% though, for the most part.
The disruption of production work areas for a quick 'tour' by the 'big-wigs' used to nearly grind us to a halt for an entire day.
A little humor can take the sting out of "real world" facts that many people in other types of work may not have been exposed to.
My Dad always told me that "much truth is said in jest" ;D
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If enjoying your job was a prerequisite, I think most of us would be unemployed for life. I hated nearly ever minute I spent working for GM but there's only one vehicle parked in my driveway and it's a Chevy. Just because I was so miserable I was contemplating suicide doesn't mean my co-workers and I didn't take pride in cranking out world-class quality parts by the millions. I just didn't enjoy it.
How many people can't wait for the weekend to be over so they can get back to the job they love?
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So now that I'm up to speed (just a little slow), I'm wondering if that wasn't a typo? What an odd thing to say. It's one thing to talk about how motivated employees may seem, but I've never seen a negative comment like that one. Unless you just totally dis'ing the whole company, which Jim wasn't. In fact he was holding it up as an example of quality and craftsmanship. If you make a statement like that it would seem to demand some followup comments.
Compare that article with the recent video segment on Legacy Sports. You'd think their employees put money in a pool to see who gets to go shooting with the visiting reporters.
Nah, I'm thinking it was a typo.
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Tom, you are a genuine 'wordsmith'......that part about the animal crackers cracked me up.
I agree 100% though, for the most part.
The disruption of production work areas for a quick 'tour' by the 'big-wigs' used to nearly grind us to a halt for an entire day.
One place I worked in Ca. they would come around and hand out Company shirts to all employees before a customer came through. When the customer left they came around and collected the shirts.
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Tom, you are a genuine 'wordsmith'......that part about the animal crackers cracked me up.
I agree 100% though, for the most part.
The disruption of production work areas for a quick 'tour' by the 'big-wigs' used to nearly grind us to a halt for an entire day.
Oddly, it happens in the white collar world too. Used to work for a bank. At Christmas, they all but beat us to clean up our cubicles, nothing on top, no papers, had to have our suit coats on (it was a while ago, no business casual in those days), etc. etc. Shut down almost 200 people's productivity for half a day waiting for the three "Wise Men" to make their annual Christmas-time visit to the IT Dept.
They spent all of 45 seconds in our area.
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TYPO TYPO TYPO.
I got it straight from Jim Shepherd. The sentence should have read:
"It's obvious that EACH of the folks working at their bench...."
Jim also said: "Unedited version ran in place in the Shooting Wire.
They LOVE their work. And I don't blame 'em."
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Thanks Alf. I had an idea it was a typo. That was why I posted it. I thought Jim might see it and fix it.
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TYPO TYPO TYPO.
I got it straight from Jim Shepherd. The sentence should have read:
"It's obvious that EACH of the folks working at their bench...."
Jim also said: "Unedited version ran in place in the Shooting Wire.
They LOVE their work. And I don't blame 'em."
That may be what they tell the "Gun Writer", Truth is they are glad to be employed. My post was based on six years in that industry.
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I'm glad it was a 'typo' and I'm glad those fine folks like what they do.
I liked my last job and loved the type of work I did...but I hated the corporate BS that went with it that took away from the job itself.
I still agree with Tom.
If you think a person 'really loves' their job, offer substantially more money to do another job.
I know, some would stay, but most would go to the higher paying job.
I did it. I left a job that I really loved doing (really) for a job (with the same company) that I hated, for double the money.
I hated the job, but I did it for 5 years because the money was good.
8)
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That may be what they tell the "Gun Writer", Truth is they are glad to be employed. My post was based on six years in that industry.
I've got to agree with Tom in most respects.
I've worked in manufacturing and engineering since my discharge from the miltary back in 1979. First was with GM because my father worked there. He did it for the money, though I'm sure he had pride in what he did, he NEVER drove a GM product. In my short stint in "Mundane" manufacturing, I was bored, overpaid and simply puting in the time to collect a pension. Thankfully they laid me off and forced me to do something else.
Since then, I've done what I had to do to feed and house the family because it was the right thing to do. To list everything I've done to make a living would be boring but suffice it to say, manufacturing in the USA is a dying industry and extremely unfullfilling unless your on the creative side of the business. The 1000 pound gorilla that is my main customer does 50 million dollars out of our facility and 240 million of the same machinery in China! That Gorrilla is General Electric and we are but a small part of their billions in sales annually.
It's great that those people in AR are working but I would bet the annual income in that state isn't anywhere near the national average! On that note, I would take a pay cut to actually be able to make money at the things I love to do......
Update, Arkansas is at the bottom of income ladder at #49, only Mississippi is lower! It's probably due to the Clinton Library >:(
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How many people can't wait for the weekend to be over so they can get back to the job they love?
ME! ME! ME!!! I love my job!! ;D I work for three months and slack for three and then go back to work for three.. gotta love a job that pays good, takes you around the world and gives you more vacation time in one year than most folks get working for the same company for 20 years. Sorry, don't mean to rub it in, just had to put that out there. yes I do love my job, but I also bust my a$$ to get this job and wouldn't change it for anything. for one, I do get to see different countries and cultures, two, although I have a daily routine, everyday presents a new challenge. it's not 'production line' stuff and I honestly don't think I could handle repeating the same thing over and over every day for more than a week. :-\
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ME! ME! ME!!! I love my job!! ;D I work for three months and slack for three and then go back to work for three.. gotta love a job that pays good, takes you around the world and gives you more vacation time in one year than most folks get working for the same company for 20 years. Sorry, don't mean to rub it in, just had to put that out there. yes I do love my job, but I also bust my a$$ to get this job and wouldn't change it for anything. for one, I do get to see different countries and cultures, two, although I have a daily routine, everyday presents a new challenge. it's not 'production line' stuff and I honestly don't think I could handle repeating the same thing over and over every day for more than a week. :-\
It's the same in machine shops, I used to work in a shop that had a couple of high production parts, thousands per month, and all the rest of the work was small runs, The guys I worked with could not understand how I could do that. It seems that my "special ability" is to simplify the job to the point where I can just run the hell out of it while day dreaming about something completely different. I've been at my current job 15 months and have made about 45,000 basically identical parts, I can, and sometimes do, make them in my sleep ;D My body is doing the job, my mind doesn't need to get involved so it's free to keep me amused. ;D
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The 1000 pound gorilla that is my main customer............
Timothy, there's a term I haven't heard used since the last time I was in a production meeting as an engineering 'advisor' years ago.
The operations manager loved to use that term a lot.
:D :D