thinking about moving on...

[connorlindeman]

@Ceez and @MaloK I’m 69 years old and I totally get what you guys are saying about the work ethic and responsibility and punishment . The last job I had before I retired almost got me fired several times because I would rip those punks a new one (verbally) almost every day . I actually made one kid cry and he was over twenty years old . I couldn’t believe the stuff that employees these days get away with . Any of the things they did would have gotten you canned on the spot when I was starting out . And punishment . . . oh boy let me tell you what . My old man was a retired Navy Boatswain’s Mate and me and my little brother better do EXACTLY what he told us to do , WHEN he told us to do it or there would be immediate and painful consequences and there were . Starting out in printing in 1974 those old guys , all of them WWII and Korea vets , would hound you and shame you mercilessly if you were a slacker and if they couldn’t get through to you they made sure you were gone . They had pride in their work and pride in themselves as craftsmen and you better have too or they didn’t want you around . Why did this stop ? Who dropped the ball ?

Parents dropped the ball.
Gen X grew up with almost no parenting. They failed to teach their children responsibility. The introduction of technology to children at young ages was no help at all. Millennials and Gen Z are bad enough. I shudder to think what Gen Alpha will be like once they get in the real world.

 

[Magnum Man]

I had to learn, if I wanted to keep full shifts, and make adaptations to policies & programs for the gen X'ers... in so doing, my guys respected me, and would do "mostly" what was asked of them... sometimes the old guy would have to stand in and do their jobs, until they felt guilty enough, watching me do their jobs... it took a couple years, to perfect my management style, but I didn't turn over any employee's in 6 years, before they closed this plant...

 

[Magnum Man]

I started calling it the "happy Meal syndrome" 15 years ago, I turned over many 18-19 year olds, that were worn out physically, before they even had a real job... over weight, no muscle mass, joints were all jelly... the couple I'm thinking of, grew up eating no vegetables... bowl of sugar coated, sugar cereal for breakfast, pick what they wanted from school & throw away what they didn't like ( often the only things good for them ) & then get a Happy Meal supper from McDonalds, when that consisted of a burger, fry's, & soda...

 

[Back in the fold]

sometimes the old guy would have to stand in and do their jobs, until they felt guilty enough, watching me do their jobs...

That happened to me . . . . ONCE . Once and only once another guy had to bail me out when I was an apprentice and screwing up . I never did live that down . That was brought up to me years later if I ever got in a tough spot . That’s how hard those old guys were . But you know what ? It wasn’t out of meanness or cruelty . They wanted to man you up .

 

[GaryE]

I don't see these things here. There were a few spoiled rich kids where I taught, but not many. Those families'd threaten you with lawyers if the sons (never daughters) flunked from laziness.

Most of the kids (now in their early 20s) were a fit, hard working bunch. They kind of held to the 'if you work hard you'll get something for it' world view, and may have to adjust when that gets them less than they expect, but other than being a bit naive, they weren't like what's being described. We had a few feral kids raising themselves, often the children of small business owners. Restaurant owners, with the long hours. But they were a minority, even if they were a handful to deal with. Most families were reliable and very hands on.

When I first became a steelworker, I remember the second Tuesday, I pulled a bicep hauling steel plate into the cutter. My partner had been doing it for years, before which he'd been a pro baseball pitcher. He figured out I seemed to be using everything I had, and at the end of the shift asked if I was hurt. I said no. He laughed and hauled harder til the weekend came. By Monday, I was fine, and could hold up my end. If I had said I was injured, he would have been merciless. I would have been seen as looking for sympathy.

I don't know how many kids now would have gotten that, but many would. Maybe it's a cultural difference.

I live by a trades city, with a paper mill, a refinery, a port, a nuclear plant and a scattering of manufacturing. It's an old school, rust belt north kind of town. There's an unfortunate mirror to the seventies when I started working in that there's a bit too much drug use going on in the boring jobs. And the drugs now are a lot more dangerous. We've been spared the kind of opioid nightmare we read about in US and west coast sources here, for now. It'll arrive when a recession hits.

 

[anewbie]

Is it true i have a complex narcissistic ?

Anyway i'm the typical spoiled rotten kid of my generation. When i did something wrong my mom twisted my ears off

 

[GaryE]

Anyway i'm the typical spoiled rotten kid of my generation. When i did something wrong my mom twisted my ears off

See, that's why your generation doesn't listen!

Back to the original thread, I had a visit yesterday from a fellow who was sure I had seen him in aquarium videos on youtube. Everyone in the hobby has, apparently. It's tough being a celebrity.
He stood in front of my 120 and named all the tetra species for me, very authoritatively. I didn't answer - I saw no reason to. He got two species right out of 15.
He left very pleased at his visit.

There are many entertaining people on this planet, but you can't talk fish with all of them.

 

[Ceez]

@Ceez and @MaloK I’m 69 years old and I totally get what you guys are saying about the work ethic and responsibility and punishment . The last job I had before I retired almost got me fired several times because I would rip those punks a new one (verbally) almost every day . I actually made one kid cry and he was over twenty years old . I couldn’t believe the stuff that employees these days get away with . Any of the things they did would have gotten you canned on the spot when I was starting out . And punishment . . . oh boy let me tell you what . My old man was a retired Navy Boatswain’s Mate and me and my little brother better do EXACTLY what he told us to do , WHEN he told us to do it or there would be immediate and painful consequences and there were . Starting out in printing in 1974 those old guys , all of them WWII and Korea vets , would hound you and shame you mercilessly if you were a slacker and if they couldn’t get through to you they made sure you were gone . They had pride in their work and pride in themselves as craftsmen and you better have too or they didn’t want you around . Why did this stop ? Who dropped the ball ?

Political correctness is why it stopped. Once they gave people the ability to sue because "feelings", that was the beginning of the end. A dressing down was normal when all of us were green and that was a right of passage for everyone moving up the ranks of the working ladder. Those with thick skin thrived and those who couldn't hack it were weeded out. The strongest most qualified sifted to the top.

recently I decided to go back in the field after years of being management. All the complaining, crying and feminine attitudes on a man's jobsite was taking a toll on my mental health. I talked to the owner of the company I work for and told him to put me back in the field. He thought I was joking initially but after we talked he knew I was gonna walk if he didnt put me back in an excavator/backhoe. Now I'm much happier, all I have to worry about is myself. Ive been doing underground for 30+ years so they just tell me what needs to be done and leave me to my own devices. It's true what they say, ignorance is bliss.

We are a dying breed @Back in the fold. I feel sorry for my kids knowing they're gonna have to deal with this new generation of softness.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

Is it true i have a complex narcissistic ?

Anyway i'm the typical spoiled rotten kid of my generation. When i did something wrong my mom twisted my ears off

No not you.

I'm roughly in the same age group as you guys, I'm 55. I believe I have discovered the root cause of the issues with the younger generations. They did not walk to school up hill both ways in the snow. Also when they didn't want to eat their dinner they didn't care there were starving children in Africa.
Sound familiar?

 

[GaryE]

I'm 10 or so years older than you, @Rusty_Shackleford . We used to have to start the trip to school on the beach, waist deep in jellyfish filled icewater while crusty old sailors in slickers beat us with oars and threw live lobsters at us. When we got to the breakwater, they would pour buckets of glass onto it while we climbed, before we ran through the rubbing alcohol sprayers. The townspeople would call us all sorts of names while they were throwing duckweed and mulm at us. It was the names that hurt.

All this was with the Monkees playing on tinny radios. All we had to look forward to after school was bad TV sitcoms and cigarette ads.

Kids nowadays do their coding and solve video games. We had good clean fun, fighting with broken bottles and persecuting witches. No, wait. That was just Sunday school. The trip to regular school was rougher.

 

[Oldspartan]

Political correctness is why it stopped. Once they gave people the ability to sue because "feelings", that was the beginning of the end. A dressing down was normal when all of us were green and that was a right of passage for everyone moving up the ranks of the working ladder. Those with thick skin thrived and those who couldn't hack it were weeded out. The strongest most qualified sifted to the top.

recently I decided to go back in the field after years of being management. All the complaining, crying and feminine attitudes on a man's jobsite was taking a toll on my mental health. I talked to the owner of the company I work for and told him to put me back in the field. He thought I was joking initially but after we talked he knew I was gonna walk if he didnt put me back in an excavator/backhoe. Now I'm much happier, all I have to worry about is myself. Ive been doing underground for 30+ years so they just tell me what needs to be done and leave me to my own devices. It's true what they say, ignorance is bliss.

We are a dying breed @Back in the fold. I feel sorry for my kids knowing they're gonna have to deal with this new generation of softness.



View attachment 364829View attachment 364830View attachment 364831View attachment 364832

I liked those pictures till I noticed the Banjoes. Square ended Banjoes are the worst.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

You old fogeys again jabbering on about back in your day...you lot sound like this...

 

[Ceez]

I liked those pictures till I noticed the Banjoes. Square ended Banjoes are the worst.

See the linker rod with the grade laser? It had to be exact grade so the flathead shovel was just to brush the dirt around a tiny bit. I set a 9'x12' Edison Vault in that rocked hole. The crane comes out to set it and if you're not on grade and have to adjust it those guys get $730 an hour. My crane operators are always in and out within the 1st or 2nd try. Owner loves me for that. Than the spilt trench had to be exact grade because there's knockouts on the vault where the 4" schedule 40 pipe slides into on both sides.

Funny thing is the super who took over for me didn't block the windows on the vault and when they slurried around the vault it filled up the box with about 30" of mud and they couldn't figure out why they didn't have enough and why they had to order more....owner was fairly upset with me at first until I told him to shove it where the sun don't shine. His new super did that all on his own....he bought me lunch the following Monday and we ate it while the new super and a laborer used a jackhammer to break out the now rock hard concrete

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

See the linker rod with the grade laser? It had to be exact grade so the flathead shovel was just to brush the dirt around a tiny bit. I set a 9'x12' Edison Vault in that rocked hole. The crane comes out to set it and if you're not on grade and have to adjust it those guys get $730 an hour. My crane operators are always in and out within the 1st or 2nd try. Owner loves me for that. Than the spilt trench had to be exact grade because there's knockouts on the vault where the 4" schedule 40 pipe slides into on both sides.

Funny thing is the super who took over for me didn't block the windows on the vault and when they slurried around the vault it filled up the box with about 30" of mud and they couldn't figure out why they didn't have enough and why they had to order more....owner was fairly upset with me at first until I told him to shove it where the sun don't shine. His new super did that all on his own....he bought me lunch the following Monday and we ate it while the new super and a laborer used a jackhammer to break out the now rock hard concrete

Wow someone else knows what a lenker rod is. I wasted 15 years of my youth as a land surveyor.

 

[Ceez]

Wow someone else knows what a lenker rod is. I wasted 15 years of my youth as a land surveyor.

Surveyors make great money out here. You didn't enjoy the job? Most of those guys are fairly smart as well, I usually always enjoy speaking with them.