OLD WOMEN SHOULD NOT BE PERMITTED TO OPERATE THE HEAT CONTROL!

[Plecostomus]

Dear Ms. Geezer:

I fully understand that due to a internal biological process you are undergoing some severe hormonal transitions.

However this does not give you the right to lower the temp through the entire office and manufacturing area. We set the plant at 72 degrees, as that is our standard documented reference temperature.

It takes 12-16 hours for everything to equalize and balance out. Thank you so much for disrupting our workflow.

In the future do not alter the settings on the thermostat without checking with one of the younger nonmenopausal folk in the company. Failure to do so will result in termination.


Sincerely,

I.M. URBOSS

---

Seriously, she turned the heat off at 630am because she was "hot" and the entire office and factory area dropped 20 degrees. We are waiting for everything to warm back up and equalize again. We do quite a bit of high-accuracy automation work so we maintain the entire building at 72 degrees so things don't change shape between one station and another.

The sign on the heater controls clearly state that workers are not to alter the settings at all... If it was up to me I'd fire her on the spot for ignoring a policy/procedure, we'll be having a meeting about this shortly to decide what to do with her.

Anyone else ever have to deal with this sort of company-wide SNAFU caused by a single worker who felt the rules don't apply to him/her/it?

 

[Mallory]

Never deliberately. I have had to deal with people accidently messing up servers to "fix" a problem that only they were experiencing.

 

[Hermiod]

There's a woman who used to sit on our floor right by the A/C controls who used to put the units on to 27 degrees C, continuous heat. Then when she started to feel a bit warm she opened up a window. When the cleaners clean the kitchen at about 11am every morning they do the same thing in there.

I'm sure you and probably I are about to get blasted for saying it's a woman/women who are responsible for workplace temperature problems, but in 10 years of working in an air conditioned office environment, it's invariably been various different women who have caused it. Working in software development, men vastly outnumber women so I don't really want to hear any ideas about the guys needing to adapt to suit the women in the office.

 

[backstept]

we've had people run around our AQL procedure to get units shipped that didn't pass in the test dept.
they'd have a tech fix 'em instead of failing the units and documenting the point of failure so we can build 'em right next time . . . we lose money on returned units and we have no solid way to figure out what the problem is unless they follow the procedure

oh and one place I worked had a thermostat that had different switches for heat and cool . . . you'd set one at which temperature you wish the heat to come on and at which temperature you wish the heater to shut off . . .
someone apparently got it backwards so things used to get unbearably warm

 

[TheSeeker]

I have the opposite problem. All the Romanian women I work with are always turning the heat up!

 

[Sephiroth]

working for me brings a whole new meaning to the term "fired" heh heh heh

 

[sidious618]

While it is rude and I'd be pissed, I think firing her may be a little extreme.

 

[Plecostomus]

In this case it was caused by a woman undergoing a severe hormonal transition... at the styrofoam factory we had a man high on drugs open a window in the dead of winter because he was "burning up maaaan..."

Styrofoam begins it's life as a stream of molten material extruded from a die under precisely regulated conditions. Gust of -20F wind through the open window shut down 5 machines.

So it's not "just" women that have thermal regulation issues.

 

[Plecostomus]

While it is rude and I'd be pissed, I think firing her may be a little extreme.

That's why we are having a meeting rather than just a knee-jerk reaction.

 

[Sephiroth]

^just put those locked enclosures over the temprature controls

 

[Marc]

While it is rude and I'd be pissed, I think firing her may be a little extreme.

That's why we are having a meeting rather than just a knee-jerk reaction.

Given that a constant ideal temperature is required for the production work and this is noted I would of fired her on the spot.

She's probably cost the business 1000s in lost or delayed production.

 

[Sephiroth]

^the situation is a bit more volitile than that, you can't fire a woman for being hormonal

 

[sidious618]

I'd just be reluctant to fire anyone in tough times like these.

 

[Plecostomus]

^just put those locked enclosures over the temprature controls

Working on it, I'm drawing something in CAD now. Why spend $200 to buy something when you can spend $7,500 and make it yourself? I kid about the prices, but I am designing a lockbox that we can knock together ourselves.

Given that a constant ideal temperature is required for the production work and this is noted I would of fired her on the spot.

She's probably cost the business 1000s in lost or delayed production.

This is my argument, as well as the whole violation of a posted procedure aspect. Some of the stuff we make here is rater technical, it ends up in processes that assemble medical or military devices so we need to document and procedure EVERYTHING, a violation could result in people getting sick/dying or our troops getting into bad situations because their equipment doesn't work.

 

[SeerSGB]

Been there dude, been there. Trying working in a bookstore with three women all going through the "change" and constantly changing the temps.

^just put those locked enclosures over the temprature controls

Won't stop some people. When I was at the theater we had a husband bust one of those lock boxes off and dial down the temp. as cold as it could go in the dead of winter (we were set at a constant 70.5 year round) cause his wife was hot. Froze up one of the AC units tight as a drum. Theater had to threaten to sue him to make him pay for the damages.

the situation is a bit more volitile than that, you can't fire a woman for being hormonal

Well they'd have to avoid wording it that way. They have to phrase as to make it clear that the termination was due to violation of product quality control procedures, disruption of workflow, and damage/delay to product. If she tried to play the hormone card-- say with the unemployment office/labor-board-- just make it clear that it was a none factor in the decision, and that the decision was due to the violation of posted and known company and manufacturing procedures that caused "damages"-- cost, time, delay, missed or potentially missed deadlines.

Or they could give her the option of having the "damages" deducted from her pay or taking a "no fault"/"Mutually agreed upon" termination/separation.

 

[Plecostomus]

Been there dude, been there. Trying working in a bookstore with three women all going through the "change" and constantly changing the temps.

Like I said it's not just women, in this case it was though.

^just put those locked enclosures over the temprature controls

Won't stop some people. When I was at the theater we had a husband bust one of those lock boxes off and dial down the temp. as cold as it could go in the dead of winter (we were set at a constant 70.5 year round) cause his wife was hot. Froze up one of the AC units tight as a drum. Theater had to threaten to sue him to make him pay for the damages.

That's why I'm designing it. I'm looking at the thermostat, I can make it so you end up breaking the thermo if you open it wrong... also my boss just poked his head in and told me to add an audible alarm.

 

[Sephiroth]

a brick of C-4 makes a good alarm noise for your prototype

 

[SeerSGB]

a brick of C-4 makes a good alarm noise for your prototype

220v electrical feed makes for a good deterrent too.

 

[Plecostomus]

^the situation is a bit more volitile than that, you can't fire a woman for being hormonal

No but you can fire someone for disrupting production and causing delayed shipments. You can fire someone for ignoring a procedure, and you can fire her when she claims "well I couldn't read the sign."

She's gone.

In more technical language the discharge was "due to violation of written procedure resulting in delayed production in excess of $25,000 and disruption of processes from violation of procedures."

To be fair though, I did grab the document that gets viewed by the state and put "laid off due to lack of work" rather than "fired" so she can get unemployment. Asshole am I, but not a evil asshole. My boss ok'd that as well so while she's not working, she's not without an income. The only ones who will ever know why she was "fired" will be me, my boss, and the QC manager.

I'd just be reluctant to fire anyone in tough times like these.

Indeed, but on the other hand you can't keep someone on who cost the company 16 hours worth of production time. Times like this you need to go out of your way to be sure you are doing EVERYTHING right so you don't come to management's notice.

 

[Sephiroth]

220? pffffft, try 1280, so you can hear it from more than 6 inces away