This post is an addendum to the long-winded onanism before the last one. This one will be a bit more brief, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Even I was starting to get pissed at what a blowhard I was with that prior post.
I started my first job in the middle of August ’96. The first week at any job is fairly uneventful. You’re given some tasks to get your oriented with the company and procedures. If you’ve had three or more jobs you’re very likely familiar with what’s expected of you. For a person who’s never had a real grown-up type job, it’s completely different. It felt a lot like the first day of kindergarten. I was confused, utterly lost, and filled with doubt concerning my ability to fit in and perform responsibly.
The cast consisted of the following players.
There was Larry. Larry was one half of the company management. He was a very nice guy. Though his outward appearence belied his nice guy demeanor. Larry at first glance and generally every glance after that looked like the Road Warrior type. He had a long pony-tail and a beard. He almost always wore black or dark colored clothing. He had a penchant for telling stories that were extremely amusing, graphic, and occasionally very lewd. In his spare time he worked on and rode motorcyles. All of them were Harleys.
Toby was the other half of management, though he did very little managing even when he was in the office. Toby spent most of his working hours at home. There he had a structure built solely to allow him to work without interruption. We affectionately termed it The Shed. It was there that he did most of his work. He’s the archetypal engineer. Lives to discover and find new and interesting ways to create things. As such he had no taste for management duties. His wardrobe consisted mainly of blue denim (shirts and trousers) and a black leather vest. Very nice guy to work for. Played the violin and composed music in his spare time. Also played a lot of computer chess in his spare time.
John was the production/assembly manager. You can hardly call it managing when he only had himself in charge, but he eventually had people to manage after the acquisition. John is in my mind a very opinionated person. He had a hypeactive personality, and he was great with strangers. He was never at a loss for word, and struck up conversations easily. Physically, he was very tall. I think he was something like 6′ 4″ (192 cm). He was also rail thin. The weird thing was that he had a voracious appetite and a sweet tooth. He admitted to us that he went through 5 or 6 gallons of ice cream weekly. It was apparently his after dinner desert habit.
Ben was the technician. Ben was the cynic amongst the group, but it can’t be said that he didn’t have a reason. He’d led a hard life. An aspect of his cynicism is the extremely funny and sometimes very unPC jokes he would make. Ben is a very imposing person. He was only about 2″ taller than me but he was twice my weight. A lot of it centered around his belly, though I won’t say that he didn’t have muscle either. He had tattoos on both arms all the weay up to the wrist. The tattoos were from his biker days. He also had a pony-tail. Like I said. Very imposing.
It was with this little group that I was initiated into the dubious world of gainful employment. Looking back on it, I’m rather glad and proud that I started with these guys. They weren’t perfect, but neither was I. It was with them that I learned how to interact with people without being patronizing and at the same time not be so yielding as to allow them to walk all over me. They allowed me to learn (make mistakes . . . lots of mistakes) at my own pace. Mostly, I learned how to lighten up from these guys and it’s a lesson I’ll always be grateful to have received.
The job lasted almost three years. We went throught quite a bit. A year after I started we went through another acquisition. In the interim we did so well on sales on the product I was supporting that the new management decided to move the whole manufacturing operation closer to home – Waukesha. Right next to Milwaukee. Wisconsin. Yes. THAT Wisconsin! Cheese, beer and the Green Bay Packers. It was like Dallas all over again with strange accents and cheese fetish. That will be another story.