Boing

I worked at Boeing for a little over a year, about a decade ago. Production line on the big one. I look back on the experience in amazement of the worlds largest human worker beehive. I will speak to the fun stuff as it was mostly hard work as well as an exercise in tolerance as I was forced to slow my pace, as my pace has always been fast. First day on the job, a man told me to slow down, that I was making them all look bad. I told him to speed up. I was soon surrounded by a crew of those who agreed with him. We had words. Mostly profane.

We all soon became fast friends. This work was all they knew, most of them grandfathered in. I took a huge pay cut to work there, seven ten hour days a week to compensate. As I had a trade and about 30 jobs in my resume, I was free to leave anytime. They were stuck in the hive. My plan eventually failed and I moved on.

There was a small man they called "the little bastard", and he filled those shoes. As they were all devious, he was the prince. As a frozen rivet was delivered in a steel box full of nitrogen pellets one morning to fill an oversize hole, a two liter bottle was produced by Mike. He dropped a pellet in the bottle which contained a few inches of water, screwed on the lid and threw it in the chute which led to to a dumpster on the factory floor. The crew started counting as they peeked from the structure. In less than 20 seconds a huge boom blew most of the debris out of the dumpster. A Quality Assurance man standing nearby dropped his clipboard as a few pigeons and dust fell from the rafters. Then it was back to work as if nothing happened, full blast rock and roll on a boom box amidst the riveting. Double hearing protection a must. Marshmallow earplugs beneath headphone style noise protection.

The teamwork there was incredibly strong. The integrity of the product speaks for itself as pride in workmanship was genuine. A lot of down time between delegated processes and restocking stores for the next line move. Therefore, time to plot and plan the next devious episode. One morning a zip lock bag of "doggie doo" came out of a pocket and was passed around for inspection. "The Little Bastard" was elected and with his latex gloves, he deftly packed a managers desktop phone mouthpiece, neatly beneath the speaker. He then called him from afar on his cell phone. All were peeking as he answered. All laughing as he held the mouthpiece far from his face, which was suddenly scrunched into a gagging scowl. A short time later, facilities replaced the phone. This process was repeated once more that day with the same results. The crew, congratulatory and satisfied in their successful assault on management, lounged and talked about the next notch in their collective belt.

In all of the jobs I have held in the electrical industry, Boeing was by far the most edgy and counterproductive as far as management and blue collar working in harmony. I will say I learned a lot, yet I was lied to when I was hired and promises were not kept. So many stories......another time.

StevenLoon