Watching people work

[uphillstruggler]

I was watching the ground workers on the new museum today. It's only after I watched them for a while that I realised how methodical it all is and not just barging in with a digger.

Evening @Moon bunny

Which new museum might that be? I work in a lot of museums as part of my job.

Been lucky to be involved in the industry for a long time.

 

[slowmotion]

A plasterer. A good one is poetry in motion.

Especially the ones on stilts doing tall ceilings. That relaxed wrist action is a sight to behold.

 

[Moon bunny]

Evening @Moon bunny

Which new museum might that be? I work in a lot of museums as part of my job.

Been lucky to be involved in the industry for a long time.

The reincarnation of the old Windermere Steamboat Museum. Exciting times.

 

[Milzy]

I like to watch the tories help destroy our planet and the poor.

 

[AndyRM]

I know. Especially the hollow promises of further work in the future!

Also the bit about newspaper adverts. I've done countless ads over the years and I've still got no idea how wide a 'column' actually is!

 

[biggs682]

I like to watch the tories help destroy our planet and the poor.

we might be getting closer soon

 

[Fnaar]

Watched a bricklayer at Hampton Court a while ago...very interesting. Watching food being prepared is irresistible too! Arborcultural work is another favourite of this viewer.

Thai ice-cream:

 

[slowmotion]

Thai ice-cream:

That ice-cream thread reminded me of the dollar bill printing scene in "To Live and Die in LA". That's the sort of work that would be fun.
[media]
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvf8aEZerPE
[/media]

 

[Globalti]

The reincarnation of the old Windermere Steamboat Museum. Exciting times.

Can't wait! When are they re-opening? This Spring I hope.

What I think this thread is about, is economy of movement. When you watch somebody doing a job who knows the job inside out, t's a real pleasure to watch because every action and every movement is productive and useful, the result of years of practice. You can see it in videos like this about the company in Brum who make scissors:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWRw_6StpQQ

 

[uphillstruggler]

The reincarnation of the old Windermere Steamboat Museum. Exciting times.

I've got a flattened coin from there, from when my daughter was teething - she's nearly 15 now.

That sounds like a cracking view you've got.

Good luck with the revamp. Are you directly involved?

Back to the subject matter. A tinsmith. I was working at one of the major car plants recently, and seeing those guys at work was a joy.

 

[Globalti]

OK maybe I should have written economy of effort. Is it any different if it's physical or intellectual effort? The programme on the CPS was fascinating and yes, we saw some highly experienced, mature specialists considering some complex cases and achieving mostly appropriate outcomes.

In my own job with 36 years of commercial and technical experience I've reached the stage where I feel I am pretty much on top of it. I guess this is the time when people go off and become consultants because their knowledge is actually valuable to somebody else. The arrival of computers in the office about halfway through my working life made me massively more effective and I can receive a sales enquiry and get it actioned in an appropriate way in a matter of minutes nowadays, whereas 15 years ago the same would have taken me a couple of hours of research. There is a certain elegance in being able to do one's job efficiently.

 

[swee'pea99]

What I think this thread is about, is economy of movement. When you watch somebody doing a job who knows the job inside out, t's a real pleasure to watch because every action and every movement is productive and useful, the result of years of practice.

You remind me of one of my favourite accounts of good writing, from a guy called William Strunk, co-writer of the legendary 'The Elements of Style':

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

 

[Globalti]

Well a large part of my job involves meeting and emailing people for whom English is not the first language, then convincing them that my company and I are trustworthy, which is difficult when many are accustomed to being cheated by their other suppliers. I actually enjoy writing emails and fifteen or twenty years of using computers has not diminished my enjoyment of word processing; it never ceases to amaze me how you can rewrite a piece, remove a few superfluous words, rearrange a couple of sentences and make yourself so much clearer while the old version of what you wrote ceases to exist. It's miraculous.

When I was about 15 my Dad gave me a copy of The Complete Plain Words by Sir Ernest Gowers, which I enjoyed very much.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Plain-Words-Ernest-Gowers/dp/0140511997

 

[swee'pea99]

Once long long ago my work took me to a quayside factory in Grimsby, where men in white coats lined long counters inside a vast hangar-like room, filleting fish. If you've ever tried filleting, say, plaice, you'll know how tricky it is, making sure you get close enough to the bone not to waste any flesh, without actually striking bone, which obviously the knife snags on. The few times I've tried, it's generally taken three or four minutes, and ended up with quite a ragged result and quite a lot of waste. These guys, each armed with a long, ancient knife about as thin as a razor and twice as sharp, would pick up a fish and slap it on the slab, then swish-swish-flip...swish, swish, in the tray. Five seconds? Something like that. It was mesmerising to watch. While I was discussing it with the guy who was showing me round, the air was suddenly filled with a thunderous noise, and we looked up to see every man in the place holding his knife upright, pounding on the counter with the handle. I looked at him quizzically. "Someone's knicked himself," he said. "And that's a tradition that goes back to the middle ages at least ..."

Later in the factory I watched ladies who pack vol-au-vent casings. Everything came down central conveyor belts that divided the desks where a dozen of them sat, six on each side, face to face. Take cardboard template, unfold into box, grab six casings (small dough disks) and line box - shuff, shuff, shuff - just like dealing cards - then a sheet of greaseproof paper, then another layer of casings - shuff, shuff, shuff - then top down on box, and onto conveyor. Repeat. For eight hours. Sounds like hell, but they seemed perfectly cheerful. Basically they got together with a bunch of their mates and nattered all day, while their hands did something they were barely even aware of...

 

[Milkfloat]

I rarely like watching anyone work - except strippers.