What do you do for a living

[356D]

ccm911 wrote:

APXD 30 wrote:

Is this Chris sniffing around for his monthly column topic?

Now be realistic. How can I make CPAs, engineers, IT folks, etc. sound funny?

Spend a day in MY office.... heh heh......

[ccm911]

Actually, you ay be right.  We laugh all day at work too.  Now, I realize that some folks think it is not proper to speak about professions in the club, but I have actually heard some of the funniest stories about people's jobs subsequent to asking.

As long as you are not doing it in order to sell anything to anyone, it is fine.  I mean, Mr. Minkin in no way sells, but we all know where to go when we rip up our seats.

And I am sure that as a structural engineer, you must have some funny stories.

[356D]

ccm911 wrote:

Actually, you ay be right. We laugh all day at work too. Now, I realize that some folks think it is not proper to speak about professions in the club, but I have actually heard some of the funniest stories about people's jobs subsequent to asking.

As long as you are not doing it in order to sell anything to anyone, it is fine. I mean, Mr. Minkin in no way sells, but we all know where to go when we rip up our seats.

And I am sure that as a structural engineer, you must have some funny stories.

Yeah, I see nothing wrong with trading stories. It's a pretty common ice-breaker in conversations.

And yes, I have seen some goofy things in this business. Most of our belly laughs come from stupid customers or stupid erection contractors.

But in the office, we have a blast with little pranks. Like the time I got a new Dewalt screw gun delivered to the office. I screwed the boss' desk drawers shut - from the back! Funniest part was, after he spent 45 minutes on his back with a phillipshead screwdriver taking out the (15) 3" screws, I was standing in his doorway with the screwgun in my hand saying, "Why didn't you just ask to borrow this?"

Or the time we turned the volume down on his handset of his phone, so when he got a call and picked it up, he couldn't hear anything. Then when he'd go out to the front office to complain to the secretary, we'd put the volume back to normal...

Or we'd wait until he was all the way across the room on the way out to the men's room or someplace, and we'd ring his phone. Just as he'd make it back to his desk, we'd hang up..... over and over....

Oh, I have dozens of them.

[Phokaioglaukos]

356D wrote:

ccm911 wrote:

Most of our belly laughs come from ... stupid erection contractors.

Do tell!

[356D]

One customer was installing a batching plant, which required several new foundations, in specific locations to accomodate various mounting points of some very large pieces of equipment, structural towers, conveyors, etc. After several phone calls from the concrete contractor, during which he'd say something like, "I just don't see how all this is gonna fit on this little site. Are you sure you measured stuff right?", my boss and I went to the site. The contractor spread the drawing out on the table and asked us to explain how he was supposed to put concrete in the ground when there's an existing building in the way. We looked at the drawing, looked around, picked up the drawing and rotated it 180 degrees, and said, "North is THAT way!" Solved all his problems....

Another customer asked us to come to look at some equipment that seemed to be sinking into the ground, so we visited the site. The equipment turned out to be a large screen that was 4 floors up in a screening tower. Upon climbing the stairs, we saw a 36-inch deep beam that was sagging horribly under the weight and vibration of the screen. There were two sections of 4" pipe under it, near the center, acting as braces. Between the two pipes, was a section of the bottom flange and the web that had been torched out! It seems, the plant maintenance worker thought that the beam was plenty big enough that he could cut out 3/4 of the web near the center to route a 6-inch dust collection duct that, in his own words, "would have cost us about $75 to have 2 elbows fabricated to have it miss the beam." Oh, and the screen was still in operation, 24/7!

Trust me, there is some serious lack of gray matter out there......

[Phokaioglaukos]

And here I thought the erection contractors were dancing at Vixens near Summit Point....

[356D]

There was a time I was driving to a site in Maryland, and as I was driving on the entrance road, I saw the steel structure being erected. Having done the steel design drawings myself, I was familiar with every piece. I got to the job trailer and asked the construction manager to see the drawings. After a quick review, I asked him to join me outside. I pointed to the top of the tower and asked, "Why is the door framing on the fourth floor? And how is anyone supposed to get inside the building once the siding is on it?"

The girts and framing for the walls was fairly repetitive, and some of the girts have holes for the door framing steel and some obviously don't. The ones that did were installed on the 4th floor instead of the 1st, so the men hung the door up there, "Because that's where the holes were."

[APXD 30]

ccm911 wrote:

APXD 30 wrote:

Is this Chris sniffing around for his monthly column topic?

Now be realistic. How can I make CPAs, engineers, IT folks, etc. sound funny?

Judging by the times of many postings, during business hours, it would be easy to do perhaps in Mad Lib style. Here's your setting....

____(adj) winters day.....______ (model) hibernating at home.......here sits the _____ (occupation) at front of his/her desk, eating ______ (food type) at lunch while visiting the (website) RTR Forum and planning the first ______(DE, rally, social) RTR event.

Take it from there Chris. I read your articles, you have the skills.

[ccm911]

I once had a lady call me eight times in two weeks to have her password reset!  I really wanted to call her boss to inform them that they had indeed, hired a moron.

I also once placed the designation of "Terminated" next to a guys name in the system for a bust.  But unbeknownst to me, the "Terminated" field was actually used to retrieve the names of the folks who had entered Journals to the system.  In short, upper management was sent the Journal Entry report.......for the next week or two, the guy had to explain to everyone that he was not leaving.  And when my boss called me in for a "talk", he couldn't stop laughing.

We have fun.  

[catchacab]

I don't think there is anything wrong about knowing the occupation of our fellow members.  I think feel that private discussion about our workday events is sometimes therapeutic.  It is (and yes, this is not nice) good to hear that other people do have days as bad or worse than some of our days at work. 

I personally don't judge others by their job (as long as they have one Chris).  When I was pursuing my post-college education, I worked in a supermarkets stocking shelves, cleaning bathrooms and moping floors.  My College Diploma worked well as a paper towel.

I like to do business with those who share common experiences and hobbies.  A few years ago I proposed to have a club directory for those who would like to advertise their business to other members of the club.  My reasoning for this was to increase interaction between club members,  possibly introduce inactive members to club activities, and increase advertising in Der Gasser.

I do have clients that are members of the club.  They were clients before we knew of our mutual interest.  I do business with some members of the club.  I have chosen to do business with other members of the club and have been satisfied with their work.

I do not feel comfortable listing my profession on this public forum, but when asked I am not ashamed of what I do.

Let us not talk about business, but lets look forward to the warm weather.

Good Driving!!!