Quality and Craftmaship - Jim Shepherd ??

[Hazcat]

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?

[alfsauve]

What company is referenced here?   Or where is the article?   

[Hazcat]

The article is on the front page of DRTV and they are talking about Wison Combat.

[MikeBjerum]

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.

[tombogan03884]

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.

[Sponsor]

[PegLeg45]

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.

[tombogan03884]

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" 

[Big Frank]

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?

[alfsauve]

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.

[tombogan03884]

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.