THE SHIFTLESS WORKER?
The Shiftless Worker?
Charlie McManus, with a troubled look on his face, sat back in his chair and gazed out the window of his office past the plant to the surrounding mountains. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and he had hoped to be able to duck out by mid-afternoon and be somewhere far up Foster's Creek by 4:30 or so. He would rather be worrying some brook trout instead of worrying about the implications of a situation developing out in Area 7.
He could not quite put his finger on it, but there seemed to be something going on out there. Reports of the failure of operators to complete all the necessary checks on their shifts and some indications of minor grumblings among the work force had him wondering if everything was all right in the area. As the manager of Department B, he was thinking about whether or not he should try to get better information about what, if anything, was going on, and intervene in some way or just let things ride unless something more definite came up. He continued to review in his mind the company and the situation with which he was dealing.
The Company
Lost River Processing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary plant of a large conglomerate, processes ore mined in the nearby mountains into an intermediate product serving as input material for a broad range of industrial processes. The plant's production output is sold to other plants owned by the parent conglomerate, as well as to outside purchasers.
The particular mineral business in which the company engages is highly competitive, with a number of strong competitors located around the country. Since the end product produced by all these plants has the basic characteristics of a commodity, it is important to strive to be a low-cost producer, especially under the current industry condition of overcapacity of production facilities. It is also important to maintain high quality standards because quality is a major factor in securing and maintaining highly sought sole-supplier relationships with customers, which are becoming more common in the industry.
The plant, located in Ashley Springs, Wyoming (population 4,500), has been an institution in the community for over 40 years, employing approximately 500 workers in operations that continue around the clock. Most employees are from the surrounding rural, largely agricultural region. Many have grown up on farms and ranches in the area and still farm during their off time and on weekends. They tend to be a hard-working, independent, self-motivated work force in general, although there are some exceptions.
The plant has been nonunion for many years, and remaining so is an important objective of management. The chief advantage of the nonunion status as viewed by management is their flexibility to make changes as needed and as technological developments demand, without protracted negotiations or costly concessions to a union. In seeking to continue its nonunion status, the company attempts to follow ...
THE SHIFTLESS WORKERThe Shiftless WorkerCharlie Mc.docx
1. THE SHIFTLESS WORKER?
The Shiftless Worker?
Charlie McManus, with a troubled look on his face, sat back in
his chair and gazed out the window of his office past the plant
to the surrounding mountains. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and
he had hoped to be able to duck out by mid-afternoon and be
somewhere far up Foster's Creek by 4:30 or so. He would rather
be worrying some brook trout instead of worrying about the
implications of a situation developing out in Area 7.
He could not quite put his finger on it, but there seemed to be
something going on out there. Reports of the failure of
operators to complete all the necessary checks on their shifts
and some indications of minor grumblings among the work
force had him wondering if everything was all right in the area.
As the manager of Department B, he was thinking about
whether or not he should try to get better information about
what, if anything, was going on, and intervene in some way or
just let things ride unless something more definite came up. He
continued to review in his mind the company and the situation
with which he was dealing.
The Company
Lost River Processing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary plant of
a large conglomerate, processes ore mined in the nearby
mountains into an intermediate product serving as input
material for a broad range of industrial processes. The plant's
production output is sold to other plants owned by the parent
2. conglomerate, as well as to outside purchasers.
The particular mineral business in which the company engages
is highly competitive, with a number of strong competitors
located around the country. Since the end product produced by
all these plants has the basic characteristics of a commodity, it
is important to strive to be a low-cost producer, especially
under the current industry condition of overcapacity of
production facilities. It is also important to maintain high
quality standards because quality is a major factor in securing
and maintaining highly sought sole-supplier relationships with
customers, which are becoming more common in the industry.
The plant, located in Ashley Springs, Wyoming (population
4,500), has been an institution in the community for over 40
years, employing approximately 500 workers in operations that
continue around the clock. Most employees are from the
surrounding rural, largely agricultural region. Many have grown
up on farms and ranches in the area and still farm during their
off time and on weekends. They tend to be a hard-working,
independent, self-motivated work force in general, although
there are some exceptions.
The plant has been nonunion for many years, and remaining so
is an important objective of management. The chief advantage
of the nonunion status as viewed by management is their
flexibility to make changes as needed and as technological
developments demand, without protracted negotiations or costly
concessions to a union. In seeking to continue its nonunion
status, the company attempts to follow enlightened human
resource practices and strives to maintain benefits and grant
annual wage and salary increases comparable to those achieved
by unions in directly competing firms in the area.
The plant manager for the last several years has been a very
capable, yet friendly, unassuming, down-to-earth individual
3. who relates very well with and has the respect of the work
force.
For the past two or three years, the company has been
cautiously restructuring its work force and adopting some new
management practices in line with a decision to eliminate some
layers of supervision and push decision-making farther down in
the organization. These moves are one response to the need for
continually reducing costs in order to remain competitive.
Over the longer range, the plant is planning to move
progressively toward an operation run on the concept of self-
managed groups. Because the work force tends to have low
turnover and be well trained and responsible, management feels
this move is well founded and offers the potential for real
savings.
The plant organization is structured (as shown in Figure 1) with
operators in each area responsible to shift supervisors, who in
turn report to department managers. The various department
managers report to the superintendent in their functional area,
who reports to the plant manager, the highest position at the
plant site.
Area 7
Area 7 is one of the processing areas falling under the
supervision of the manager of Department B, Charlie McManus.
The area is worked by several crews assigned to assure coverage
on an around-the-clock basis. The crews on each shift report to
a shift supervisor, and the crews and supervisors rotate shifts
monthly.
The supervisors are senior workers who have moved up to the
position. Most have had eight or more years of experience in the
plant before moving into their supervisory positions. As a result
4. they are very knowledgeable about plant operations in their
areas and also know all their fellow workers quite well.
There were, however, a few exceptions to this internal
progression from experienced worker to supervisor within the
plant. The parent corporation had operated a similar plant in
South Carolina for many years. Increasing pressures to lower
costs, combined with overcapacity in the industry, made
continued operation of the old plant uneconomic, and it was
eventually closed a little over a year ago.
When the plant was closed, some supervisors who were not able
to take early retirement or move to other nearby plants were
offered transfers to the Wyoming plant. Four eventually elected
to transfer and had arrived at the plant about one year ago. They
were then placed in supervisory positions roughly equivalent to
the positions they had held in South Carolina. Three of them
were assigned to Department B under Charlie McManus.
These new supervisors from the East had worked in an
environment quite different from the Ashley Springs plant, with
a quite different work force. The South Carolina plant had
employed a racially diverse work force of relatively uneducated,
predominantly rural people and had a turnover rate that was
moderate to high by Ashley Springs standards. These workers
were not highly trained and their supervisors tended to manage
them quite closely. As a result, these supervisors had learned to
be quite directive and spent a fair amount of their time making
sure that their workers did what they had been assigned. These
supervisors had subsequently brought these supervisory
tendencies and practices with them to the West.
John Williams, Supervisor
John Williams, who was among the transferred supervisors, is
one of the shift supervisors in Area 7, responsible for several
5. crews of operators involved in production work in that part of
the plant. Among other duties, one of his crews is responsible
for making sure that certain pumps are functioning properly,
that several bins collecting by-products produced during the
process are emptied on schedule, and that the work area is kept
clean.
John has been complaining to his manager Charlie, even asking
for help on one occasion, that one of the operators on one of his
crews, Mark Olson, has not been performing the job as well as
John would like. Over the past several months, according to
John, this worker has on occasion either simply failed to
perform, or performed very poorly, several of his job
responsibilities.
For example, the settling pond pumps are supposed to be
checked every four hours, and certain readings written down.
John mentioned that when assigned to this task, Mark does not
check them this often and often fails to record the readings as
required.
On the third shift, an operator is responsible for emptying the
bins of coke and silica, which are produced as by-products, by
performing a procedure called vactoring. On the second shift,
the dryer bins are serviced in the same way. When assigned as
the operator on these shift, Mark reportedly often fails to place
the appropriate bins as they should be.
Part of each operator's assigned responsibility is a clean-up
area. As the supervisor, John usually has to call Mark's
attention to his clean-up area before the monthly inspection.
John reported he has tried talking with Mark about his
performance several times, but it hasn't seemed to make any
difference. He recognizes that Mark is one of the more
intelligent employees among his crew of operators. As such,
6. John is certain Mark is capable of performing well, if he
chooses to do the job right. John expressed his concern to
Charlie that Mark "always seems to find new ways to screw up
on and just seems to forget to do certain aspects of his job
assignments."
John indicated that Mark had also told him during one of the
talks they have had that he doesn't really like his job very much
and has been looking around for either a transfer within the
plant or for some other opportunity outside the company.
Mark Olson
As he tried to keep track of all employees in his department,
Charlie had been following Mark Olson's progress with the
company since he was hired. Mark had been working for the
company for several years, and by most indications, it seemed
to Charlie, it had generally been a good experience for him. In
the course of their infrequent, informal chats, Mark had never
given Charlie any indication that he was dissatisfied with his
job, and until recently, his performance had always been rated
quite highly. The job has no doubt become somewhat routine for
Mark now that he has learned all the tasks performed by the
crew, and shift work is not particularly enjoyable. These are
conditions however, that everybody comes to terms with
eventually. At the same time, the pay, the working conditions,
and the company are pretty good.
One thing that has been bothering Mark--and some others,
according to scuttlebutt Charlie has picked up in the
department--has been the attitude of the new supervisors the
company transferred in from back East. The crews' attitude is
that these new people seem to have taken over the department,
and all the day-to-day operations are being run by these "out of
towners." "They treat us like a bunch of slaves, don't let us
make decisions, and treat us like we're stupid" was one
7. comment overheard in the shower room a few weeks ago.
Mark appeared to Charlie to be one example of an operator who
has not been performing the job as well as he is capable of
doing, perhaps partly in response to the attitude of these
supervisors. Over the past several months, according to his
supervisor, Mark has on occasion simply failed to perform, or
performed poorly, several of his job responsibilities. Mark
admitted to a friend, who mentioned it to Charlie, that he
purposely chose random tasks to "forget" to do. "I'm acting like
this to drive them crazy, and just waiting for a job bid," Mark
told his friend in the human resource department.
Charlie ended his reverie and arose from the chair. He was still
not sure if he was dealing with any real issue or just the usual
griping and interpersonal problems heard among the crews.
Still, these problems and comments seemed to be arising more
frequently than before in Department B. He was concerned
about young Mark Olson, for whom he had great hopes in the
company.
Charlie wondered what should be done about the situation. In
line with the downward delegation of authority in the plant, he
generally did not intervene in cases of problem employees, but
rather left resolution of such situations up to his supervisors.
But in this case, he wondered if the supervisor might be part of
the problem. He wasn't sure of just what he was dealing with
here and didn't know if he should intervene in some way or not.
It was now 4:00, and Charlie headed out the door for the
parking lot and his waiting pickup, gassed up and ready to go
with his fly rod and some new Montana nymphs he was itching
to try. He had decided to put in some good thinking time before
tomorrow, when he would return with his decision.
8. 300 | Chapter 8: Workplace Stress and Aggression
Okay, first things first. Let’s take a look at how you can
develop your Findings of Facts and Recommendations. What I
recommend you do is review the major OB concepts we
discussed in the first eight chapters.
Findings of Fact and their accompanying Recommendations are
critical to a proper case study analysis. You will be required to
submit three in each of your upcoming case studies. I don’t
want to leave you hanging with just that information, though.
Therefore, the following is a rather detailed explanation of what
Findings of Fact and Recommendations are.
For the purposes of this course a Finding of Fact is an
Organizational Behavior (OB) concept or theme that is outlined
in the readings. If you are doing the required reading in the text,
OB issues should be clear to you. For example: During Chapter
2 we discussed ethics, business ethics and diversity. In the
remaining chapters we studied individual differences,
perception performance, motivation, rewards, stress and
aggression.
As you may recall, I had you looking for OB issues during your
first assignment and the second discussion thread. Hint: List the
OB issues as you come upon them in your reading and as you
participate in the discussion threads and case studies. It will
make it all clearer and easier for you as you progress through
the course. I have also listed several of them for you on the
overview for each week on the syllabus. List them by chapter
for easier reference.
Each of your Findings of Fact should relate to OB topics or
themes. I don’t care about the price of tea in China, etc. Look
for the OB issues. Taking the ideas directly from the text makes
it easy to identify that, for example, there is stress within the
organization. Question 2 of the Case Study of “Coleen Colombo
9. and Colleagues Resist Mortgage Fraud” (pg. 250), asks, What
influences on the stress experience appear to be present? This
question gives you direction: stress plays a part in this Case
Study. Use these clues from the chapters to help you identify
OB issues in future cases.
Your first Finding of Fact would look something like this:
Finding of Fact # 1:
Coleen and Sylvia are experiencing a great deal of stress as a
result of turmoil at BNC.
You will want to back that fact up with a couple of lines to
support the fact. Explain what makes you believe that there is
stress in the organization. Where in your Synopsis does this
relate to the problem?
Your first Recommendation should include mechanisms and
processes to alleviate the stress within the organization as a
whole. Using the information you’ve learned already, you know
that perception, past experiences and a hostile work
environment can influence stress (among many others). Your
goal is to alleviate the problems that you identify by using those
OB concepts and techniques that you already studied.
Your second Finding of Fact might be:
Finding of Fact # 2
Columbo is being harassed and bullied by the wholesaler
because she reported him for bribery. (Yes, I know she was
being sexually harassed by the same wholesaler. But don’t
confuse the issues. Stick with one idea or concept.)
Recommendation # 2
According to our text, and discussed in Chapter 2, harassment
refers to verbal or physical conduct that denigrates or shows
hostility toward an individual. That includes a person’s race,
skin color, religion, gender, national origin, age or disability
(Hellriegel, pg. 52). The wholesaler tried to bribe Colombo “to
allow a loan with fraudulent information to go through.” Using
the text’s information, as well as personal experience, it is your
job to make recommendations to rectify the problem.
11. Tad Pierson becomes supervisor of survey group.
Burt Jacobs becomes engineering manager
Lee Miller reassigned as project manager.
Three months ago
--
Tad Pierson assigned as project engineer.
Last 12 months
--
Tad Pierson & Mel Cutler work on pipeline project.
2 years ago
--
Mel Cutler works on
3 years ago
a number of projects
4 years ago
under the direction of Dan Richards.
5 years ago
--
Survey group moves to the Tech offices, ½ mile away.
6 years ago
7 years ago
--
Dan Richards & Mel Cutler stake mining claims in
Nevada
.
8 years ago
--
Frank Silverton becomes coordinator of survey group.
9 years ago
--
Lee Miller becomes engineering manager.
--
Paul Jackson becomes plant manager at another plant.
10 years ago
--
Mel Cutler joins the survey group.
12. --
Dan Richards transfers to manufacturing department.
11 years ago
--
Dan Richards is hired as a laborer in the plant.
12 years ago
--
Mel Cutler is hired as a laborer in the plant.
13 years ago
14 years ago
15 years ago
--
Paul Jackson becomes engineering manager.
--
Jerry Givens retires from the company.
16 years ago
17 years ago
--
Howard Lineberry hired as surveyor.
18 years ago
--
Jerry Givens is engineering manager.
)
Howard Lineberry, Lead Surveyor
After receiving his surveyor’s certificate from the local civil
technologies college, Howard Lineberry had gone to work for
the State Highway Department as a chainman. The job hadn’t
paid very well, and he always felt that the lead surveyor didn’t
like him and often had him doing work that was better suited for
a rodman, a position of lower status than chainman on a survey
crew.
So, when a job for a lead surveyor had opened up at Agrigreen
13. eighteen years ago, Lineberry had been glad to get it. He told
Pierson how excited he had been to be hired into the newly
created position. Previously, survey work at Agrigreen had been
handled on a part-time basis by drafting personnel or project
engineers, mainly Frank Silverton (see Figure 2). Because of
significant growth during the preceding three years, survey
work had begun to eat up nearly all of Silverton’s working
hours. As a project engineer, his salary was too high to justify
using him for survey activities, so management had decided to
hire someone with an education in surveying and some
experience to support the work of Silverton and the five other
project engineers.
FIGURE 2
(
VINCE ADAMS
Surveyor
) (
MEL CUTLER
Surveyor
) (
Plant Manager
Manager
Manufacturing
BURT JACOBS
Manager
Engineering
Other
Managers
DAN RICHARDS
5 Other
Project Engineers
TAD PIERSON
Manager
Engineering
14. FRANK SILVERTON
Project Engineer
HOWARD LINEBERRY
Lead Surveyor
)
Jerry Givens, manager of the engineering staff at the time, and
since retired, was the man who had hired and first supervised
Lineberry. Since being hired, he has worked for four different
supervisors. He remembered Givens as a “cantankerous, hard-
headed boss who had very specific things that he wanted done
and definite ideas on how they should be accomplished.”
He often lost his temper and openly criticized Lineberry
oranyone else doing something he didn’t like. Nevertheless,
Lineberry felt that he got along well with Givens. He usually
had Lineberry’s daily work scheduled by the time Lineberry
arrived in the morning and explained what needed to be done
and how it should be done. Only occasionally would Givens
have to stop by during the day to change the focus of activities.
After Givens retired, Lineberry reported to Paul Jackson, the
new manager of engineering. Unlike Givens, Jackson expected
Lineberry to plan his day based on the work that needed to be
done and to go ahead and do it. About that time, Lineberry had
been thinking that he could do a better job supporting the
project engineers, who were increasingly busy on more and
larger projects, if he worked with them more directly. The
increased pace of work often resulted in last minute requests for
Lineberry to provide information and field work. He felt that he
had handled fairly well what had become frequent daily changes
in his work schedule.
Then one day Jackson accused Lineberry in front of a couple of
the engineers, of being “disorganized and possibly lazy.” Later,
maybe as a result of thinking about what Paul had said, or
maybe as a result of just bad luck, according to Lineberry he
made an error fixing the location of a building foundation. The
15. error wasn’t noticed until it was time to erect the new mill.
What followed, Lineberry remembered, was “pure hell as the
foundation was demolished and replaced at considerable cost in
time and money.” After that, people stopped talking when he
walked up, and he often overheard “little biting comments”
about him. Lineberry had “considered quitting, but good jobs
were hard to get.”
After the foundation incident, Jackson became increasingly
critical and finally decided that Lineberry needed someone to
assist him and double check his “error prone” work. At the same
time, Agrigreen was planning to build a new wastewater holding
pond, and the project would require extra surveying help.
Jackson hired Dan Richards to assist Lineberry. Richards was a
bright, hard-working young man who had the same training as
Lineberry and who was also pursuing a degree in engineering.
As the project proceeded, Richards had openly expressed his
feelings that his leader, Howard Lineberry, was slow and stupid.
Lineberry felt relieved a year and half later when Richards was
transferred to the manufacturing department.
Mel Cutler, who had been employed in the plant for two years
as a laborer, replaced Richards. He had previously worked for
another employer as a draftsman and had also gained
considerable experience in surveying. Lineberry immediately
liked Cutler, something he had never felt for Dan Richards.
Cutler was willing to work with Lineberry on how to do the jobs
and often caught small errors before they became problems.
Ten years have passed since Cutler first joined Lineberry, who
now felt a “slight pang” as he wished things were still the same
between them. But, during the past five years, relations between
them had become increasingly tense. Recently, the only verbal
exchanges between them had been terse and directly concerned
with the job. Much of the enjoyment of his job is gone, and
Lineberry often dreaded coming to work.
16. A few months after Cutler had been hired, another supervisory
change occurred. Lee Miller, a former project engineer, took the
manager’s job when Paul Jackson was promoted to plant
manager at another Agrigreen plant. Miller had been very
successful as an engineer but as a supervisor was somewhat
indecisive.
Meanwhile, increasing workloads had resulted in the hiring of
additional draftsmen, and office space was getting tight. Miller
corrected the situation by remodeling some space in the
basement of the Tech offices located about a half-mile from the
plant, and Lineberry and Cutler moved there. Nobody bothered
either of them much in the new location. Lineberry felt good
about the change because he now had space for the survey
equipment and he was away from the mainstream of the
operation. He needed to see the engineers only when he felt like
it and wasn’t bothered as often by hearing their derogatory
comments.
Four years ago, Miller had told Lineberry and the other
surveyors that he would like them to coordinate their job
assignments and schedules through Frank Silverton, indicating
that Silverton had much more surveying experience than he did
and would know better what the needs were. Lineberry
remembered feeling uncomfortable about this arrangement
because Silverton wasn’t really his boss, and he still had to
have Miller sign his time cards and approve his vacation.
During the past four years, Cutler had occasionally worked on
small projects outside the plant, most frequently for Dan
Richards, who always specified which individual he wanted
when requesting help.
Recently, the company had constructed a fifty-mile pipeline to
deliver raw material to the plant, and Cutler was chosen to work
17. under Tad Pierson on that project. Pierson was a recent
engineering graduate charged with overseeing the pipeline
survey and construction, which had lasted from April through
December the previous year. Lineberry still felt angry about
Cutler’s assignment to the project because he has had “more
experience than Mel at surveying and could have used the over-
time money.” The only benefit to Lineberry resulting from
Cutler’s outside work was that Miller had hired Vince Adams to
help Lineberry during the summer months. Lineberry and
Adams thought much the same way about many things, and
Lineberry had a genuine affection for this “just-out-of-high
school” young man.
Following completion of the pipeline project, Tad Pierson had
been made a project engineer, and because of the lack of space
in the plant offices, was given space in the Tech offices near
Lineberry Adams, and Cutler. Pierson was openly friendly with
Cutler, but Lineberry felt that Pierson “acted coolly” toward
him and Adams. They seemed to have nothing in common, and
each time Lineberry had tried to talk to Pierson, Pierson seemed
to cut the discussion short and make an excuse to leave.
A week ago, Lee Miller had stepped down as manager of
engineering and resumed duties as one of the project engineers.
Burt Jacobs, a big, loud, direct person (in Lineberry’s opinion),
who had been the manager of purchasing and stores (plant
supplies) replaced him as manager. Jacobs was an engineer
about half Miller’s age and several years younger than
Lineberry. Only this morning, Jacobs had called the engineering
department together to say that change was needed because of
the friction between engineering and the other departments in
the plant. He also said that the surveyors were now to report to
Pierson (which made Lineberry very uneasy) and that anyone
needing surveying services must now schedule it through
Pierson.
18. Mel Cutler, Surveyor’s Helper
Mel Cutler arrived in town without a job and was a “happy
man” when he got the call from Agrigreen. The company needed
a plant laborer, and he needed a job. He remembered the job for
the next two years as “the most exhausting and filthy job I have
ever worked.” Finally, ten years ago a surveyor’s helper
position had opened up, and with his background in surveying
and drafting he was able to get the job.
Cutler was assigned to Howard Lineberry. For the first few
years, they worked well together. Both men had young families,
and they shared many of the same outside interests. Cutler had
been willing to go along with the way Lineberry had always
done things until about five years ago when he noticed that they
“experienced continual problems due to the way Howard kept
his notes.” Cutler tried to show Lineberry the way he had been
trained to keep notes, but “Howard would have nothing to do
with it.” The debate continued for several weeks.
Soon, Lineberry started keeping the work schedule to himself,
and Cutler often had no idea what they were going to do next
until Lineberry stopped the truck and started unloading
equipment. In addition, Lineberry’s frequent snack breaks were
starting to bother Cutler. He began losing respect for Lineberry
and thought that Lineberry was “growing less concerned about
his job.” No amount of criticism from Frank Silverton, their
boss, seemed to have any effect on Lineberry or the number of
errors he committed.
Moving the surveyors out of the plant had been wrong in
Cutler’s opinion. He said, “Howard started taking advantage of
the situation almost immediately by coming in late and leaving
early a couple of times each week.” Lately, Lineberry had been
taking naps after lunch, justifying it by saying that he often
worked late and was just making up the time. For the past year
19. or so, he had been far more likely to be late for work than to be
on time. Whenever Silverton mentioned it, Lineberry always
had an excuse. Silverton gave up trying to get him to work on
time and settled for just getting some good work done.
Years ago, Dan Richards had first called to see if Cutler wanted
to help him stake Agrigreen mining claims in Nevada, and
Cutler had jumped at the chance. This turned out to be the first
of many surveying expeditions that the two men made together.
Looking back, Cutler could see how they had developed a “lot
of respect and trust in each other’s work.” They often joked
about Lineberry’s laziness and what an idiot they thought he
was.
Cutler had been extremely happy when he became part of the
pipeline survey crew. He had met Tad Pierson, the pipeline field
engineer, at a party that Richards had given and had
immediately liked him. Shortly into the project, Pierson, on
Richards’s recommendation, put Cutler in charge of the pipeline
survey crew and made him responsible for inspections for the
eastern half of the pipeline.
Cutler felt good about the assignment and vowed that he would
be “the best worker Tad had ever seen.” The hours were long--
he had averaged more than thirty-five hours overtime a week for
fifteen weeks straight and had never once complained. Pierson
was also working long days, and Cutler felt that they had
developed an unspoken respect for each other as solid, hard
workers. Pierson had backed him without question when Cutler
had ordered the contractor to dig up a quarter mile of pipeline
that had been buried rather hastily while he had been gone from
the work site. Cutler had felt, and later proved, that the
contractor buried the pipe to prevent proper inspection.
Cutler had talked with Pierson about Lineberry indicating he
didn’t “look forward to working for him again when the pipeline
20. is completed.” Later, after Pierson had been reassigned to the
plant, Cutler regularly stopped by to talk with him, often
pointing out some of the things that Lineberry and Adams were
doing; Cutler and Pierson laughed and shook their heads.
Cutler had been excited to hear at this morning’s meeting that
Tad Pierson was now in charge of the surveyors. He wondered
how long it would take Pierson to fire Howard.
Tad Pierson, Project Engineer
In reviewing his own career with Agrigreen, Tad Pierson had
the following thoughts.
I don’t know; I guess I’ve known Dan Richards since I was
about fourteen or so. We used to pal around in high school and
have always been dose. Dan told me he had wanted out of this
area so badly because of Howard. He really hates the guy, and I
guess I don’t have much respect for him either. It’s really ironic
that now I’m Howard’s boss.
Yeah, it was Dan that talked me into going back to school.
When I was ready to give up as I’d done before, he told me,
“You can always quit.” He knew it’d make me mad enough to
stay. I guess I owe him for that. That, and his pulling the strings
that got me on here. When I called him yesterday, to let him
know about the change, he almost fell off his chair laughing.
Then he stopped and said that he wished he was me so he could
fire Howard. He was serious; he really hates him.
I don’t know what I’m going to do. I think the company would
be money ahead to fire Howard. But, I went through the firing
thing with a guy on the pipeline crew last summer. With all the
letters and documentation and stuff you have to go through, it’d
take two years to get rid of him. When I think of how long he’s
been here and his family and all, I get kind of squeamish. I
21. guess I just don’t know what to do. I’m going to think on it
some.
When Burt asked me if I’d take the surveyors I told him I
would, but not like Frank had. If I wanted to fire Howard, I
wanted to be able to do it. He told me, “They’d be yours; just
document it. I’m going to have my hands full trying to fix other
messes without trying to handle that problem too.” I almost get
the feeling that both of us are in up to our ears.
With regard to Howard, about a month ago I went over to see
Mel for a minute. There was Howard, with his head down on the
drafting table, sound asleep. He didn’t even hear me come or
go. Vince wasn’t any better, he was sitting there holding his
hard hat and staring into it, dazed. I don’t know if he knew I
was there or not either. What a pair!
The pipeline was different. You knew it was just a summer
thing, so we could put up with a lot of stuff. Mel’s a good man.
He’s pretty sour on the company though. He doesn’t think
Howard should get paid more than he does and “still get away
with the crap he does.” He’s already told me I should fire both
Howard and Vince.
I just don’t know what to do. I talked with some of the
engineers. Half of them don’t trust the work they get from
Howard—they’d rather go out and do it themselves, and they
do. I sometimes wonder what the heck we even have the
surveyors for. I wonder what I should do?
7
