I think someone will be looking for a new job...

[Deleted member 1258]

It has been a quiet day, so I'll pass some time telling you one of my tales...

I had a factory job in Coventry in my mid-20s. It was on a small industrial estate near where @dave r lives (he actually worked for them briefly too, though we don't remember each other from back then).

We used to load heavy pallets of finished product onto lorries at the front of the factory unit. Often they would be flat bed lorries and if so, the fork lift driver could load those directly. At other times a tractor unit would drop off a big covered trailer for us to load and the driver would return later to pick it up. The fork lift driver would put the pallet at the back of the trailer and one of us would use a pallet truck to shift it within the trailer. One of these...

View attachment 533959

So here is a sketch of a trailer being (BADLY!) loaded...

View attachment 533960

What happened next...?








Yes, you got it!

View attachment 533961

I was only there for a week with an agency so I'm not surprised we don't remember each other, I've never managed that myself, or seen it done, though there's stories about this happening.

 

[screenman]

My wife is careful now in making sure the steadies are down when she gets in the caravan, much the same as the trailer thing happened to her a couple of times.

 

[ColinJ]

I was only there for a week with an agency so I'm not surprised we don't remember each other, I've never managed that myself, or seen it done, though there's stories about this happening.

Normally we would put the first few pallets at the wheels end of the trailer, sideways on so we could still get by later to load the far end of the trailer. That way the weight at the other end would be counter-balanced. Whoever was doing the loading inside the trailer that time didn't seem to understand the concept...

I've just had a flashback to another incident there... The tarmac in front of the industrial unit was starting to break up and I saw the fork lift driver arguing with the management about it. He told them that it wasn't safe. They said that they would see about getting it sorted out but weeks later it still hadn't been.

Eventually,I was inside the factory and I heard a loud noise from outside. People started running out to see what had happened. Sure enough, as predicted a wheel on the fork lift truck had gone into a pothole and the vehicle tipped sideways, causing its load to fall. Fortunately, nobody was caught underneath. A few hours later, those potholes were being filled...

 

[PaulB]

I believe it's called being promoted out of harm's way.

I can accept it now but for many years I was in denial regarding my own incompetence. I'd been educated at Eton though and that was enough to cover me for my inadequate handling of any responsibility anyone was daft enough to hand to me. I stabbed fellow Etonians in the back and my way to the top became clear. I knew that Eton's pupils got the day off should someone become Prime Minister so that became my goal. Eventually, they promoted me out of harm's way for everybody* and I spent a few lucrative years living in great luxury and meeting the top people of the world. It also meant I had the sycophants kissing my ring and allowing my controllers and father to do whatever they damn well chose to do.

* Except the proles on whose vote I relied.

 

[Littgull]

So what we looking at then?

Do something like that in the police and the likelihood is you'll be punished by being given a plum job on Roads Policing. No kidding either! I know a bobby that decapitated a new PSU carrier on a low height barrier during an unauthorised pursued, and within a month he was on traffic. In any line of work outside of the public services antics are punished, but in the public services people get rewarded for it.

That's a sweeping generalisation about public services. Are you sure it's not borne out of personal bitterness and prejudice?
I worked in PS for years and can recall that the majority of employee misdemeanours were very strictly and swiftly punished.

 

[Paulus]

I can accept it now but for many years I was in denial regarding my own incompetence. I'd been educated at Eton though and that was enough to cover me for my inadequate handling of any responsibility anyone was daft enough to hand to me. I stabbed fellow Etonians in the back and my way to the top became clear. I knew that Eton's pupils got the day off should someone become Prime Minister so that became my goal. Eventually, they promoted me out of harm's way for everybody* and I spent a few lucrative years living in great luxury and meeting the top people of the world. It also meant I had the sycophants kissing my ring and allowing my controllers and father to do whatever they damn well chose to do.

* Except the proles on whose vote I relied.

You are Boris Johnson and I claim my reward.

 

[raleighnut]

One of the ramps I used to work on at A ford dealership you could only put the cars on one way around, get it wrong put the car up in the air without paying attention and you put a huge dent across the roof, I did not get sacked for that one.

When I worked at the SAAB dealers they had 2 ramps with the swinging supports (one long and one short pivoted) each side unfortunately they'd been fitted with the short arms facing the wall so you couldn't get the hoist in when removing an engine they had to go onto the ramp backwards (not ideal) We went in one morning to find that the head mechanic had started early on a 99 EMS (top of the range prior to the 'Turbo') with a gearbox problem, that's an engine/gearbox out job as it's a bit like a Mini assembly. It seems he'd been taking the exhaust off the manifold when the car had slipped on the supports and ended up nose down on the ground, Jim was white as a ghost which for an Indian guy is quite difficult. It took em ages to get the back of the car on the ground.