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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Topic: Aerated Oil
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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"
Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 08-07-2005 09:38 PM
quote: Louis Bornwasser
In one theatre I was so sure that they were NEVER oiled, I drew a circle around the oil can after putting a small folded note (like a fortune cookie) under it. 14 months later when the next intermittent seized; I challenged the manager to show me logs when the projectors were oiled. "Move the oil can, I said" when they did a small note fluttered out from the bottom of the oil can with a date 14 months ago: The answer: NEVER. I had been the one who oiled them last. (Best argument for regular service.)
Good trick. After it has been used once, do you have other tricks like that? Attaching a hair at the back of the can, as I learned from a spy handbook for kids, in that case to tell whether a door has been opened, might be another good idea.
The Kinoton oil cans are plastic and semi-transparent. You can mark the oil level and date on them with a felt pen. You could get similar containers for other oils and do the same. Of course, you don't know if they just pour it into the toilet then...
quote: Dieter Depypere
Quite an unbelievable story. I mean what kind of projectionists are those who don't check the oil level!? I guess those projectors weren't cleaned well either. Such morons should not be allowed to touch a projector *anymore*.
That is quite common here in Los Estados Unidos. The general work ethic of employees is by far the worst I have ever come across anywhere. Most people here just want to make it through the day doing as little as humanly possible. The word "initiative" or what it stands for is absolutely unknown. You have to babysit them and supervise them very closely, otherwise nothing gets done. You even have to demonstrate people here how to use a cloth or rug for basic cleaning, otherwise they will just claim "this has never been shown to me"...
In several cases, I wrote very detailed cleaning instructions and demonstrated what they actually mean. The next time I came back to the location, the instructions had mysteriously disappeared from the wall I had pinned them to, and from the projection folder in which I had filed a copy, and the same employees who I had personally trained told me they had never heard of these instructions.
You would think that this would have some consequences for the employees. Not really. You have to document everything in painstaking detail to prove that they didn't do their work properly. Because as lazy as many of them are, as sensitive they are and to a high degree resistent to constructive criticism. This creates a lot of paperwork and wastes a lot of time. A basic understanding of "you come here to work, so you work during the time you are here" is completely beyond most of the "work force".
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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"
Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 08-08-2005 12:30 AM
That's not remotely as easy as it looks. "Employment at will"? Haha. California is "Sue at will". We fire people because they didn't do their work, the next day they show up with an attorney claiming they hurt their back. People are let go because they missed their shifts three times within a month, the next day their parents call and demand to speak to the CEO, hinting that something terrible and deforming has been done to their beloved children. I don't have much to do with the HR stuff, but I have sat in the office and witnessed our staff's ears chewed off to the bone about stuff like that. All the time.
Companies are afraid because employees have so many handles to tie them up in litigation over nothing. I see so many examples of our people not doing their work when I tour our theaters, but I would literally need a full time secretary just to document all that. With very few people, you can actually sit down and have a mature talk of the "OK, you made a mistake, but let me show you how it goes, and then everything is forgotten" sort. No, you ask them how the equipment actually broke, and after denying that they worked that day, you show them the documentation, then it dawns on them that they did actually work - the day before yesterday, that long ago -, and then they take off becuase they really don't feel comfortable about the situation and this conversation.
Dave, you haven't worked in the theatre industry? Well, I haven't worked in other industries here, but I have a feeling it can't be that different in lower level jobs in other places. Have you ever shopped at the HomeDepot and tried to find one of the employees?
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