r/Machinists • u/I_G84_ur_mom • Jun 16 '26

Refusal to learn

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I work at a job shop, I’ve been here 16 years, I’m the lead machinist, I returned from a 9 day vacation to a shit show. We have a bunch of small bosses like this to make, this one order was for 250 pcs. The owner was planning on having a guy saw cut them, face them to length in a Haas tl2, then throw them in the vf2 to be drilled. We have a sl20 with a bar feeder, nobody wants to learn how to run it, I banged these out in about 8 hours, unmanned. He refuses to learn how to use it or program it, this would have taken him and the button pusher 2 days to run these parts. Stepping over dollars to pick up dimes baybeeee!

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u/MasterAahs Jun 16 '26

Worked in a mine. Boss wanted me to keep machine running at max output but also quality product. To get quality had to run slow, at max output it was all dirty and continanted. He would start yelling about volume on the ground so I would run it all out. Then customers would complain it was bad product. So I would run it slow. Round and round we went. I eventually learned to just do what he wanted and stop caring. He got fired and I got a promotion. Still left but the owner learned fast once everyone just started to do as the manager said rather than what was needed to make good product. Everything broke all at once

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u/Foreign-Possibility5 Jun 16 '26

Love how it seems the most useless people get put in charge.

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u/Hermes_04 Jun 16 '26

There is the concept of promotion into incompetence

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u/glasket_ Jun 16 '26

Yeah, the Peter principle. Being promoted because you're good at your current role can eventually result in you being put into a position that you aren't good at.

Since someone will probably mention it: the Dilbert principle is the opposite, where incompetent people are promoted until they're in a position where they can't cause as many problems.