Gary Scherling
>> It may look elitist, but the reality is not that the janitor is not
>> allowed in. The janitor doesn't have a modem.
>
>I'd change that slightly, The reality is the janitor may have a modem,
>(for games...) but doesn't want to get in!
One of my relatives used to be a janitor for a Continental Oil Pipe line
station. He was a habitual writer to the supervisors about problems with
efficiency, at the station . He was evidently a thorn in the side of his
managers and became well known as someone to avoid. Somehow his fame
spread to the Cooper-Bessemer Co. and someone decided to test his
theories. They agreed with him and sent him to company school. Not a
research Univ. John. Frank (my relative) told me that it all just made
common sense and he didn't know what all the fuss was about. They started
him on four cycle engines for oil pipelines. He was the start up mechanic
that would check the half a million dollar engine before it was started.
To start it incorrectly at that point would be a complete loss of the
investment. Kaput! That was worth about six million dollars today.
(According to the dept. of standards) When I last saw Frank in the 1970s
he had moved on to jet propulsion plants. Again, his job was to come into
a finished plant after the trained engineers had left and check the plant
out. He told me that the most recent plant had a gas pipe going about a
large heating unit that if left would have blown up the place once
started.
Ray Evans Harrell
mcore@soho.ios.com
P.S.I wonder of this is still true?
REH
.... At Christmas 1984, _The Economist_ sought predictions on four
trends in the British and world economy over the next decade. Participating
in the poll were four multi-national company chairmen, four Oxford
students, four finance members drawn from the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development and four garbagemen (called "dustmen" in the
U.K.).
In the final tally, the dustmen tied with the company chairmen. The
Oxford students and the finance ministers were miles behind.
On the question of the value of the pound against the U.S. Dollar,
which was $1.20 in 1984, the dustmen came closest to the pound's current
value of $1.60. The experts had predicted that the pound would drop below
$1.00 (U.S.).
The refuse shifters also came closest to predicting the current
price of a barrel of oil, down from $29 a barrel in 1984 to $17 today.
Experts predicted that the price would rise to about $40.
The dustmen and the company chairmen were in almost a dead heat in
correctly forecasting that Singapore's gross domestic product would
overtake that of Australia. The others thought it would never happen.
Business experts have tended to downplay the success of the garbage
collectors in the ten-year forecast, but the dustman's union is making the
most of the triumph of the working man. A union official commented to the
_Manchester Guardian_: "It proves that the Chancellor of the Exchequer
doesn't need six wise men. He just needs to talk to the dustman-in-the-
street."
-- The Winnipeg Free Press
-- mcore@soho.ios.com (Ray Evans Harrell)