The general decline in standards today

[Gregg Axley]

Well, at least you got out of there before they go broke.....:doh:

Sounds like my agency.
We waste dollars, to chase a previously untapped source of income, that brings in nickels and dimes in comparison.
As I have often said, we're headed for the iceberg, someone is looking the wrong way through the binoculars (the iceberg looks further out), and someone else has ordered "full steam ahead." :eusa_doh:

 

[Captain Neon]

Well, at least you got out of there before they go broke.....:doh:

Lets just say that "preventative maintenance" is a dirty word, and woe to any one that dares suggest that there is room for improvement. When no one knows how much money each minute of a break-down costs, service life of parts, or even the last time a part was changed, there is much that can be done. In my estimation, the amount of lost income from just one week due to breakdown could easily pay to hire a maintenance planner, parts manager, and mechanic, cover their relocation, and buy houses for each of them to live in rent-free.

 

[3fingers]

Lets just say that "preventative maintenance" is a dirty word, and woe to any one that dares suggest that there is room for improvement. When no one knows how much money each minute of a break-down costs, service life of parts, or even the last time a part was changed, there is much that can be done. In my estimation, the amount of lost income from just one week due to breakdown could easily pay to hire a maintenance planner, parts manager, and mechanic, cover their relocation, and buy houses for each of them to live in rent-free.

You mean run to failure isn't a good plan? Say it isn't so! This sounds like we both have had management trained in the same philosophy. Bless their hearts.:eusa_doh:

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Lets just say that "preventative maintenance" is a dirty word, and woe to any one that dares suggest that there is room for improvement. When no one knows how much money each minute of a break-down costs, service life of parts, or even the last time a part was changed, there is much that can be done. In my estimation, the amount of lost income from just one week due to breakdown could easily pay to hire a maintenance planner, parts manager, and mechanic, cover their relocation, and buy houses for each of them to live in rent-free.

One of my housemates works at one of the theme parks here in Southern California (and it's not Disneyland) and he says that they're so cheap that at the restaurant where he works whenever the kitchen equipment breaks down they call the manufacturer's service rep but they only have him troubleshoot and then have the employees make the actual repair which is very often botched. And then they wanted him to work graveyard shift to clean the kitchen equipment which requires chemicals that are so toxic that you need a license from the state to handle them! They were only willing to pay him 42 cents more, not 42 cents an hour more, just 42 cents the entire paycheck for such hazardous duty!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The printing plant I worked in in the late '80s had a mentally-disabled boy working in the solvent room, spraying screens for reuse -- his only protection being a paper suit and a paper respirator mask. The solvent room was a converted closet with a small ceiling fan for ventilation. When I asked the foreman what the deal was there, he said, and I quote, "It can't do him any more damage."

 

[Captain Neon]

The printing plant I worked in in the late '80s had a mentally-disabled boy working in the solvent room, spraying screens for reuse -- his only protection being a paper suit and a paper respirator mask. The solvent room was a converted closet with a small ceiling fan for ventilation. When I asked the foreman what the deal was there, he said, and I quote, "It can't do him any more damage."

That's horrible. Please tell me this was a non-union facility! If the union was allowing this to happen, they were not serving their membership.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was a non-union factory. The experience of working there made me a labor militant.

That wasn't even the worst thing I saw there. I was a partner with another woman on an eight-head rotary screen press making T-shirts for one of the most famous catalog retailers in the country -- a machine which had the safety guards removed because they slowed down operation and we had quotas to meet. My partner had to reach over the top of one of the heads to adjust the registration, and her knee hit an exposed switch, causing the head to cycle and the mechanism to crush one of her breasts. She was threatened with dismissal if she filed for workers' comp, and the whole matter was hushed up. I tried to get her to do something about it, she refused because she couldn't afford to lose the job, and the company got away with it. That was when I quit in protest.

 

[jamespowers]

Sounds like my agency.
We waste dollars, to chase a previously untapped source of income, that brings in nickels and dimes in comparison.
As I have often said, we're headed for the iceberg, someone is looking the wrong way through the binoculars (the iceberg looks further out), and someone else has ordered "full steam ahead." :eusa_doh:

Yes but your agency is an iceberg too so nothing will happen. GAs are the closest thing to eternal life. They never go broke.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Yes but your agency is an iceberg too so nothing will happen. GAs are the closest thing to eternal life. They never go broke.

So it's possible we will experience the same charge, and repel each other, like with magnets?
Our agency is an enterprise account, so if we don't make the money, we don't have any.
It's a good motivator.

 

[Captain Neon]

I've been fortunate not to witness a serious accident, but have heard stories of women getting a breast caught and mangled in a membrane skinner. I had an employee that stubbornly refused to use his PPE. I dismissed him because of the very strong likelihood of serious injury were he to persist. I could not live with myself having to explain to his family that I had allowed him to work unsafely and had eviscerated himself.

It was a non-union factory. The experience of working there made me a labor militant.

That wasn't even the worst thing I saw there. I was a partner with another woman on an eight-head rotary screen press making T-shirts for one of the most famous catalog retailers in the country -- a machine which had the safety guards removed because they slowed down operation and we had quotas to meet. My partner had to reach over the top of one of the heads to adjust the registration, and her knee hit an exposed switch, causing the head to cycle and the mechanism to crush one of her breasts. She was threatened with dismissal if she filed for workers' comp, and the whole matter was hushed up. I tried to get her to do something about it, she refused because she couldn't afford to lose the job, and the company got away with it. That was when I quit in protest.

 

[jamespowers]

So it's possible we will experience the same charge, and repel each other, like with magnets?
Our agency is an enterprise account, so if we don't make the money, we don't have any.
It's a good motivator.

That is the way all GAs should be run.

Yes, GA icebergs repel each other. They try to steal each other's money.

 

[Gregg Axley]

That is the way all GAs should be run.

Yes, GA icebergs repel each other. They try to steal each other's money.

I know that to be true.
We had over 10 million dollars taken from us, pardon me, "re-appropriated" from us years ago.
Idiots.
Then for years we barely got by.
I'm just now recovering in my department, but bear the scars of the whole battle.

 

[Dragon Soldier]

It was a non-union factory. The experience of working there made me a labor militant.

That wasn't even the worst thing I saw there. I was a partner with another woman on an eight-head rotary screen press making T-shirts for one of the most famous catalog retailers in the country -- a machine which had the safety guards removed because they slowed down operation and we had quotas to meet. My partner had to reach over the top of one of the heads to adjust the registration, and her knee hit an exposed switch, causing the head to cycle and the mechanism to crush one of her breasts. She was threatened with dismissal if she filed for workers' comp, and the whole matter was hushed up. I tried to get her to do something about it, she refused because she couldn't afford to lose the job, and the company got away with it. That was when I quit in protest.

Were that to happen here, the injured party would quite possibly never have to work again, in any event, unless it was a really well paid job dismissal would be the least of her worries (in fact, if opposed and proved unfair she could up the ante again).

I think Europe might have overtaken the States in the return for litigation stakes.

 

[Edward]

Were that to happen here, the injured party would quite possibly never have to work again, in any event, unless it was a really well paid job dismissal would be the least of her worries (in fact, if opposed and proved unfair she could up the ante again).

I think Europe might have overtaken the States in the return for litigation stakes.

The UK has certainly become much more litigious than it used to be, though the courts remain beyond the reach of many. It's an expensive and time consuming business to sue anyone.

 

[Dragon Soldier]

The UK has certainly become much more litigious than it used to be, though the courts remain beyond the reach of many. It's an expensive and time consuming business to sue anyone.

Returns are usually worth it though.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Were that to happen here, the injured party would quite possibly never have to work again, in any event, unless it was a really well paid job dismissal would be the least of her worries (in fact, if opposed and proved unfair she could up the ante again).

I think Europe might have overtaken the States in the return for litigation stakes.

I urged her to do just that -- but she refused because she didn't think one woman had a chance of beating a Well Respected Business Leader in court, and was afraid if she tried, she'd end up blacklisted and unable to find another job. Our local unemployment rate at the time was around 20 percent, and in a small town the Business Community can use that as a very effective weapon for keeping the rabble in line.

It's been over a quarter of a century, and it still makes me spitting mad to think of it. Especially since the guy who owned the company cashed out a few years later for a cool million.

 

[Edward]

Returns are usually worth it though.

Depends on the area, really. Medical negligence is rarely worth the risk, for one. Libel is another.

 

[rjb1]

"It's been over a quarter of a century,"
That seems to be a key aspect. I interact with a lot of industries, mostly non-union, and they are fanatical (almost) about safety these days. The costs of lawsuits is too high to take any chances. I have no reason to think that they don't care about the health and welfare of their employees, but I am sure that they don't want multi-million dollar settlements, which they would definitely have if they deliberately bypassed safety systems (!) and someone got hurt or killed.

 

[sheeplady]

"It's been over a quarter of a century,"
That seems to be a key aspect. I interact with a lot of industries, mostly non-union, and they are fanatical (almost) about safety these days. The costs of lawsuits is too high to take any chances. I have no reason to think that they don't care about the health and welfare of their employees, but I am sure that they don't want multi-million dollar settlements, which they would definitely have if they deliberately bypassed safety systems (!) and someone got hurt or killed.

While I think that is likely in the U.S. (and many other "developed" nations), there's sadly ample evidence that overseas in "developing" nations that is not the case. We've got companies like Foxconn that violate the basic constructs of human decency when it comes to working conditions and safety issues. And we've got companies like Apple that contract with these companies emphasizing value production times and volume and turn a nearly blind eye to the poisoning of their employees, blowing them up, and having working conditions be so bad that the employees en mass go up to the roof and threaten to commit suicide. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&)

And I have to say: Anybody (and I mean anybody) who buys a product because it's "better," and "shiny," and makes them "look cool" knowing about this kind of absolute bull **** inhumane working conditions ought to be publicly shackled.

Not that much has improved in working conditions overall- we just moved the problems overseas. But as long as people get their new shiny gadgets, people are happy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And I have to say: Anybody (and I mean anybody) who buys a product because it's "better," and "shiny," and makes them "look cool" knowing about this kind of absolute bull **** inhumane working conditions ought to be publicly shackled.

And those who rationalize such modern slavery on the basis of "but look how much better life is for Those People than what they had before" ought to be beaten senseless with the collected works of William Lloyd Garrison.