It’s Called Tribal Knowledge

(This post is brought to you from my blogging betters and the masters of their universe. I was honored to be added to their blog roll and as soon as I figure out how to make a blog roll they will be on mine. Thank you bustednuckles.)

 
Sure this meme is tongue in cheek, implying that the guy is about to go around some safety protocol but the underlying message is that he knows how things actually work.
The outfit I work at now and the last place I worked at, both being perfect examples of what I am driving at.
Out of all the maintenance people at both places, the youngest guy was fifty years old.
The last place, the oldest guy finally retired at 76!
For two years before he finally said Enough, I kept telling the managers that they needed to find some young guy and tether him to the hip of the old guy so he could save some of the knowledge the old dude had.
Over and over I warned them that the old guy knew that plant inside and out and when he left, all that knowledge was going to go with him.
This was a very specialized industry and no joke, it took YEARS to get even half way competent. High pressure gas systems, high voltage electrical systems, high heat/pressure vessels, all kinds of very dangerous equipment and very strict safety measures to keep form blowing the entire plant and a half square mile of neighborhood from getting blown to Smithereens.
Did they listen?
Hell no.
Even worse, when the Plandemic hit, they started whittling down their maintenance team. At the end when me and my biddy got shit canned, when we left, they had gone from 16 maintenance guys, down to 4.
You can not tell me that they weren’t pencil whipping all of the calibrations and required maintenance schedules at that point because we could barely keep up with all of it with 16 people. That plant was running 24/7 and now I believe they are down to 2 shifts Monday through Friday.
They literally had permanent job opening ads in several outlets and could not get anyone to even apply.
The outfit I work at now has the same aging maintenance team issues and they also refuse to see the writing on the wall.
I am the oldest of 3 guys. The next guy is 60 and the youngest is a guy I worked with at the other place. He is 50.
This place also runs 24/7, with just 3 guys on Dayshift to keep the joint running. They rely heavily on outside vendors and extra Millwrights when things break down.
Somehow they justify this great expense instead of hiring a full time guy to pick up the slack.
When I was first hired, it was with the expectation that I would move to Swing Shift after a few months and every once in a while they bring that up.
It isn’t safe for one guy to work by himself and they kinda know that if they split up the Dayshift crew they have now that they will be fucked.
But they still refuse to hire just one more guy.
I’m sure it’s like that all over this country and they are cutting their own throats over the cost of one guy’s salary and benefits, when they wind up paying six times that amount to outside help.
It’s hard for me to have any sympathy for this behavior and when I finally go, they are losing forty five years of mechanical repair experience. Apparently they think experienced maintenance people area dime a dozen.
The here and now reality is, all us old farts who have that experience are either retiring from the work force or are falling over dead and there isn’t anyone coming up behind us in large numbers.
The Airline industry and the Automotive industry are already suffering this shortage of experienced people and this DEI bullshit is already getting people killed.
Frankly, I don’t see any good solutions on the horizon.
I think the late, great George Carlin saw this coming a few decades ago and said it best,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tetndXjHG1U

They are getting exactly what they wanted and they are going to reap what they have sown.

https://bustednuckles.net/its-called-tribal-knowledge/