Slackness Defined
So my boss got a new truck a couple of weeks ago. He doesn't trust me enough not to wreck his new truck, but I've been too loyal to fire. My new job description now basically entails following a real electrician around, and handing him things. This takes up about ten minutes of each hour. The rest is spent standing around. In air conditioning this isn't so bad, out in 100+ degree temperatures it's another story. But that's beside the point, to summarize, I'm now getting paid to do absolutely nothing useful and keep the Parker's 69 cent any size fountain drink promotion in business. It fits in quite well with the general work ethic of the company. Take today.
The scene: the future home of Thunderbolt's Department of Public Works, nearly finished but about four days behind schedule. The electrician and I are walking around fixing everything the last slack-ass electrician on the job screwed up before he left to pursue a career in taxi driving. So far today, I have held some lightbulbs, flipped a light switch when asked, carried a ladder from a room into the hallway, and wiped some dust off of a panel cover, for which work I've been paid about forty dollars. Now the real electrician is walking through the building with the head supervisor for the general contractor, going over everything listed on the architect's list of things that needed to be fixed.
The supervisor pointed out an outlet outside in a weatherproof housing that needed to be secured better. THe electrician told me to get his screwdriver and put the screws in some more. He then walked inside with the supervisor. I tried to fix the screws, but they were just spinning loose in the holes drilled for them, not tightening anymore. I walk inside to ask the electrician what I should do. He's talking with the supervisor, and ignores me. The supervisor walks off to look at something for a second, and we have the following conversation (note with what ease I can change English dialect to suit my work environment):
me: "Hey, them screws ain't - "
electrician (hissed under breath): "Shut up!" (normal tone) "Alright, nice, lemme show ya somethin' ya can work on out here." (once outside) "Won't turn, huh?"
me: "Nope."
him: "Yeah, I saw that this mornin'. They ain't ever gonna use that outlet, an' if they do, they ain't gonna bother callin' to complain about it. Go get my level an' you can walk around inside an' look like you're checkin' the switch covers."
I believe this nicely sums up how my company does business.
The scene: the future home of Thunderbolt's Department of Public Works, nearly finished but about four days behind schedule. The electrician and I are walking around fixing everything the last slack-ass electrician on the job screwed up before he left to pursue a career in taxi driving. So far today, I have held some lightbulbs, flipped a light switch when asked, carried a ladder from a room into the hallway, and wiped some dust off of a panel cover, for which work I've been paid about forty dollars. Now the real electrician is walking through the building with the head supervisor for the general contractor, going over everything listed on the architect's list of things that needed to be fixed.
The supervisor pointed out an outlet outside in a weatherproof housing that needed to be secured better. THe electrician told me to get his screwdriver and put the screws in some more. He then walked inside with the supervisor. I tried to fix the screws, but they were just spinning loose in the holes drilled for them, not tightening anymore. I walk inside to ask the electrician what I should do. He's talking with the supervisor, and ignores me. The supervisor walks off to look at something for a second, and we have the following conversation (note with what ease I can change English dialect to suit my work environment):
me: "Hey, them screws ain't - "
electrician (hissed under breath): "Shut up!" (normal tone) "Alright, nice, lemme show ya somethin' ya can work on out here." (once outside) "Won't turn, huh?"
me: "Nope."
him: "Yeah, I saw that this mornin'. They ain't ever gonna use that outlet, an' if they do, they ain't gonna bother callin' to complain about it. Go get my level an' you can walk around inside an' look like you're checkin' the switch covers."
I believe this nicely sums up how my company does business.