help with work

[DARKSCOPE001]

Hey guys. at work this past Wednesday I was doing a fuel tank pressure leak check.

This test involves pressurizing the fuel tank of the aircraft (Emberaer 170) to a pressure of 2.5psig then the tank must hold a steady pressure for 10min

Well I was doing the left wing and the fuel tank keept leaking out. So i was using a spray bottle with soap and water to spray all possible sources of leaks. And It was taking me quite a while and I couldnt find any.

My lead tech started getting mad and asking where it was leaking from and I had to hold back from saying "I dont know dumb@$$ if i did do you think i would still be up here doing this test?"

so he proceded to tell me there was a problem with the leak testing box and that I was wasting his time by trying to pressurize the tank with a bad leak test box and that it was my fault. So i went and got a new leak test box and still leaking. So we tried the right hand wing and it worked just fine.

Does anyone else see the problem with this kind of pressure in a work environment? or is this normal. because it was really ticking me off

 

[JJThrasher]

Yeah, I would have told him off. Does the equipment belong to the company? If so I would remind him that its their equipment that is (allegedly) broken. Stay calm and use logic to show him his own absurdity. If he attempts to punish you, go above his head using the same logic.

 

[zkling]

Yeah, I would have told him off. Does the equipment belong to the company? If so I would remind him that its their equipment that is (allegedly) broken. Stay calm and use logic to show him his own absurdity. If he attempts to punish you, go above his head using the same logic.

X2

My lead tech started getting mad and asking where it was leaking from and I had to hold back from saying "I dont know dumb@$$ if i did do you think i would still be up here doing this test?"

Lots of these situations are very dependent on the tone and wording people choose. The question that the lead tech asked is up there with "where did you last have it?" when you tell someone that you lost something, which in my opinion are useless questions. In all cases I would just try to keep cool and politely invite them to assist you if you feel they would actually help in the situation.

 

[diesel research]

if the "pressure" question is related to 2.5psi, then no that's not noteworthy.

if the "pressure" is an hourly maintenance shop rushing a job, again not noteworthy.

if the "pressure" is dealing with broken shop equipment, not noteworthy.

Are either new to maintenance trades, or feeling extra sensitive, because nothing in that story was out of the ordinary, or different than every other day. if one really has spent any considerable time in a shop w/o experiencing all of those, they should consider themselves sheltered from the rest of the world.

nope, no problem. that is merely the nature of the beast. "cant handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen" is the typical response.

 

[torqueman2002]

I'm about to retire.

I've worked in fast food, stores, gas stations, dealerships, shops, labs, and offices.

Generally, getting a head is more about dealing with people and working as a team.

Keep your cool, learn as much as you can and look for another opportunity while still working and still have a good working relationship with your team leader/supervisor.

Best of luck, all things change, given time.

 

[braol]

When people ask me stupid questions I usually give a stupid answer.lol Like when I park a car out front after fixing it and turn in the key and get asked "Did you fix it" or something like that. I will answer "No, I just got tired of working on it"

 

[DARKSCOPE001]

if the "pressure" question is related to 2.5psi, then no that's not noteworthy.

if the "pressure" is an hourly maintenance shop rushing a job, again not noteworthy.

if the "pressure" is dealing with broken shop equipment, not noteworthy.

Are either new to maintenance trades, or feeling extra sensitive, because nothing in that story was out of the ordinary, or different than every other day. if one really has spent any considerable time in a shop w/o experiencing all of those, they should consider themselves sheltered from the rest of the world.

nope, no problem. that is merely the nature of the beast. "cant handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen" is the typical response.

What are you talking about? maybe you missed what i was talking about this is an emberaer 170 jet not a car, not a truck. 2.5psi pressurizing a wing tank is kind of a big deal. maybe you dont know anything about aircraft idk.

point is its done now. and that leads should not be pressuring mechanics to pencil whip inspections. the point of the inspection is to find defects not to go though the motions and sign your name on a peice of paper. If that was the case then there would be no point of doing the inspection in the first place.

 

[DARKSCOPE001]

Yeah, I would have told him off. Does the equipment belong to the company? If so I would remind him that its their equipment that is (allegedly) broken. Stay calm and use logic to show him his own absurdity. If he attempts to punish you, go above his head using the same logic.

Yes it was a leak testing box owned by the company and that gets calibrated yearly. But calibration is only as good as how the equipment is treated. The thing might have been kicked across the hangar the day after calibration and therefore no longer calibrated for all I know. but I did it just to get the monkey off my back.

 

[diesel research]

What are you talking about? maybe you missed what i was talking about this is an emberaer 170 jet not a car, not a truck. 2.5psi pressurizing a wing tank is kind of a big deal. maybe you dont know anything about aircraft idk.

point is its done now. and that leads should not be pressuring mechanics to pencil whip inspections. the point of the inspection is to find defects not to go though the motions and sign your name on a peice of paper. If that was the case then there would be no point of doing the inspection in the first place.

it falls right in line with FAA guidelines. im not talking about a leak or suggesting a leak isnt a big deal.

As for the point of inspections time pressure and pressuring to pencil whip, thats normal every day life. rush rush rush to get chit out the door, and then the tech takes the blame if he chooses to use substandard methods to achieve the time. on other hand, takes the blame if he finds "too much defective" during an inspection or takes too long.

we had very strict times, calculated to the 1/10th hour or 6 minutes. take 66 minutes for an inspection or repair rated at 60 minutes, and computer flags it, in addition to keeping a running stat average.

but that time pressure is all over, and only going to get worse as time goes on and companies strive for more efficiency out of their laborers, to the point of risking quality. same thing in any factory, and one result is crappy hand tools. "just let that one slide, we dont have time to reject it".

 

[CWP1616L]

My lead tech started getting mad and asking where it was leaking from and I had to hold back from saying "I dont know dumb@$$ if i did do you think i would still be up here doing this test?"

so he proceded to tell me there was a problem with the leak testing box and that I was wasting his time by trying to pressurize the tank with a bad leak test box and that it was my fault. So i went and got a new leak test box and still leaking. So we tried the right hand wing and it worked just fine.

Don't let anybody walk all over you like that; you'll regret it later on in life.

 

[celticbhoy]

Next time he gets on your case just tell him that he looks so cute when he gets upset.. you'll be surprised how often that line diffuses a tense situation.


But in all seriousness, don't burden yourself with the guy. I'm sure it's nothing personal. I can understand that you don't want to rush your job especially when it's as important as a freakin aircraft fuel tank, so just continue to be focused on the job at hand and take your co-workers tiffs with a grain of salt and know that it's not personal.... unless he calls you names.

 

[A_Pmech]

Dark,

The attitude of your foreman sounds off the reservation. I would never tolerate that kind of pressure in an aircraft shop. It's not conducive to the primary goal of air safety.

Perhaps he was having a bad day or the bean counters were breathing down his back in the morning. Regardless, it's not the way he should be handling the problem.

Don't allow people like him to get in the way of you doing your job. At the end of the day it isn't your fault or your problem if the air carrier chooses to overbook their fleet. Your job is to ensure those planes are safe to fly. You can't do that when you're being flogged by management.

 

[egnorant]

Good job on holding your tongue when presented with unprovoked anger.

I have a nasty habit of getting NICER when faced with an angry boss/coworker/customer/vendor/supplier. Had one of my bosses smile and call me a hemorroid because I tend to irritate assholes.

Your boss possibly caused the job to take 4 times as long by offering an incorrect solution, but that is on him.

Did you ever find the leak?

Bruce

 

[toolchaser]

Hand him the card & say "do YOU want to sign it off? I deal with this kind of stuff daily, but luckily I'm on the Q.C. side & don't work for the Mtc. group

 

[littletoes]

Interesting......Looking at how your reacted to Diesel Research's response, tells me LOADS.

Sounds to me like the problem may not be entirely the boss's.....but, we shall see how you respond to THIS.

If you are looking for allies, when we are only hearing your side of the story, especially when we don't know the history of the shop, then we are all making judgement calls without the full knowledge of the situation.

Many of us work in some kind of shop, and more so even than that, many of us work with co-workers, with some being the abrasive type. Yes, we do understand your situation. We have stressful jobs that must be done too.

If this is an on-going situation, how bad must it get before something is done?

Your employer most likely has a Human Relations department, call for mediation and get it resolved before it escalates.

Good Luck, an unhappy work environment can make life unhealthy.

 

[celticbhoy]

"An unhappy work environment can make life unhealthy."

For the love of god this is so true. It's a lot easier said than done when people tell you to leave your work problems at work.

 

[bobcatdan]

When I first started with bobcat, I was an ASE and ford cert tech and a pretty well rounded john Deere tech who for the last 6 months averaging 120% revenue recovery with no rework. Granted I did not have bobcat experience. I was belittle as a walking idiot who shouldn't be allowed to hold a wrench for a year. It has gotten better even thou they still do it. Now that I'm a pretty well rounded tech I see stuff they do stupid, but who am I suggest an easier way.

 

[justanengineer]

Interesting......Looking at how your reacted to Diesel Research's response, tells me LOADS.

Sounds to me like the problem may not be entirely the boss's.....but, we shall see how you respond to THIS.

I agree.

Maybe Ive been missing out, but I cant think of a time where I ever got along with EVERYBODY. Frankly, Ive always worked for or worked with at least one serious a$$hole who Ive had to deal with directly. Personally, I choose to overcome their attitude by earning respect the old fashioned way - with my work rather than by b!tching about their b!tching. I realized that a person's attitude doesnt have any relevance on their working ability, and Ive also noticed that some with the worst attitudes are the ones I learn the most from. Work hard, earn their respect, and I bet the attitudes will either soften a bit or you will get used to it.

 

[RCStocker]

Many people both men and women get positions of authority and they don't have any people skills. A few simple questions like have you checked the equipment box or can I help you with the problem would have been nice. There are so many nasty people out there. They are in all walks of life. I have been around the medical field quite a bit. I have nothing to do with it other than I have a wife who was a professor. She said the doctors were demanding and down right nasty at times. When I worked for the US Navy as an Inspector my boss was a total dumb *** and chewed me out all the time. I walked off the ship and up to the office and right into bosses office. I knew all of them. I told him what was going on and that is was bad for moral and getting things done. One week later I had his job. Never get nasty. A sharp wit can get your point across. No mater where you work you will run into someone with an attitude. The better you are at something the more someone will hate you and cause you problems. Handle it with class and move on. I think that every boss should have a class in people management. It would do wonders for moral and production.

 

[diesel research]

the problem isnt even so much on management, customers, or coworkers being demeaning or assholes or rude.

MRO type maintenance work itself has a problem, whether in a customer-pay or fleet environment. No matter if it is a barking fleet manager, operator, or garagejournal member taking his personal car to the shop, there is a fundamental attitude that the repair industry is merely an expense, w/o anything NEW in exchange for their "hard earned dollar". Easy for us to say we make them money while saving them money, but the attitude is equipment shouldnt fail in the first place, so every failure is an expense, blamed on the bad news bearer, further compounded when said bad news bearer takes equipment out of service for additional time, providing inconvenience and lost profits. It's been working fine for this long, it should continue to give me troublefree service. Preventative maintenance inspections are supposed to magically prevent all failures. "If i pay you to look at it, i shouldnt have to ever buy parts or take it out of service beyond the 1hr inspection time annually" Repairs and downtime are rarely ever considered a normal part of operation.

They remind me of friends who hate doctors/hate going to doctors because "they always give me bad news. id rather not know. i just want them to reassure me im just fine."

In the meantime, we would like to think of ourselves as skillful craftsmen practicing our art. The customer /client/boss sees it as a hassle and expense, and a overpaid production slot. It is unfortunate that you experienced your first rush/pencil whip pressure, but throughout most of the industry, thats an all day everyday part of the job, and will likely continue to be for the rest of life. Don't cave in, but dont be surprised at the response.

 

[EOC_Jason]

so he proceded to tell me there was a problem with the leak testing box and that I was wasting his time by trying to pressurize the tank with a bad leak test box and that it was my fault. So i went and got a new leak test box and still leaking. So we tried the right hand wing and it worked just fine.

After the other tank test I would of looked him square in the face and said, "Now get your ***** *** back in the kitchen and make me some pie!"