Your job : fitting in (1969)

[Music] lloyd mr medwick wants to see you me glide come in sit down i'm afraid we've got some bad news for you lloyd we're gonna have to let you go now let me explain why a lloyd when you first came to us there was no question in my mind that you were able to do the work assigned at the same time i was a little worried because you never seem to be able to get it without question lloyd bornman doesn't have what it takes to fit in here what does it take to fit in well for most companies there are certain basic principles you can follow or not follow let's consider lloyd's case we'll go back to the day lloyd was hired as part of the usual orientation company policies were carefully explained to lloyd by the personnel director the hours here are from 8 30 to 5 with 45 minutes for lunch oh there are two 15-minute coffee breaks one in the morning one in the afternoon now you're allowed one sick day per month and if you can't come in be sure to call mister medley useful information intended to help lloyd get along on the job but he didn't think it was important now about your pay and we pay twice a month on the 1st and the 15th now when you get your check you'll notice that there are some deductions uh we take out for social security and withholding taxes lloyd's mind was a hundred miles away hospitalization is paid for by the company here's the employee's handbook it goes into detail on everything that i've mentioned the man tried to do everything possible to help lloyd get started but by the time lloyd got home he'd forgotten most of what he'd heard and he didn't even bother to look at his employee handbook much less read it he left it with some other papers which were eventually thrown out lloyd started his first day on the job not knowing the rules and policies of his company he was in trouble almost from the moment he arrived 10 minutes late i was wondering if you were gonna show up well i miss my bus well let's get started i want you to meet jack martz jack this is lloyd borman glad to know you lloyd i'd like you to introduce him to ken and larry and the others be glad to be sure he understands what everybody does so he knows who to see for what i understand dean pardon me just a minute but i'd like you to meet lloyd bourneman lloyd this is gene martin our secretary and she takes care of our correspondence this is ken kieffer now you can find your plans for well every product that we've ever made larry cox now if you need paper ink or a new pen or maybe even a t-square larry's a man to see paul sutz our product manager now most of our work comes from paul his designers get the ideas and we draw them again lloyd didn't really listen he didn't listen to the names of the other workers or to what they did it didn't occur to him that he'd be depending on them later to get his job done now i want you to go through each one of these drawings later mr medwick gave lloyd his first assignment he explained carefully how he wanted the drawings done be sure to make up a separate specification for each item don't put it on the individual drawing because there isn't room you'll just be wasting your time now i want simple orthographic views front top and side and if you run across a part that you think needs an oblique projection will you check with me before you does it was hard to tell so mr medwick asked him do you understand you're sure well good you can get started but when lloyd got to work he began to realize how much he needed the information he'd received and forgotten say where can i get a beam compass what's that guy's name in production who can give me the dimensions in this part where's the title supposed to go where do i find the specs on this the other workers didn't mind his questions at first but after he'd asked the same question for the third or fourth time once lloyd had the answers he was slow in getting started he kept finding other things to do personal phone calls trips to the water cooler he took more time than he was allowed for coffee breaks and for lunch finally he got to work and finished a drawing now this is pretty bad look at the smears you've got in here and when you mark a center line i expected to be center look you're off center by both of these down here now look at this lettering here in the first place you've written out every word mr medwick tried to point out what was wrong in a helpful way now in addition to all these other things lloyd you've got a wholly unnecessary view here it's not my fault jack told me to do it that way as the days went on instead of learning from his mistakes lloyd made new ones rather than wait to punch out he decided to skip it if he had bothered to read his employees handbook he would have learned that a time card is needed as a legal record of a worker's hours right i think you understand why it is that we're letting you go i mean it isn't anything that has been so bad increasingly lloyd spent his time blaming other employees and the company for his mistakes rather than learning from them that's about it goodbye lloyd better luck on your next job well hello stan in getting a replacement for lloyd mr medwick hired stanley edwards a man who seemed almost an opposite of lloyd tell me a little bit about your background i got all these in my drafting classes i think i could do a good job stan was alert bright and eager he seemed to be an excellent prospect when stan talked to the personnel director he paid close attention and ask questions perhaps too many questions instead of twice a month why don't you pay every other week then we get our checks always on the same day it'd be easier to budget now that's true but uh our accounting department closes their books at the end of each month if the pay period closes at the same time it saves them lots of time and work now if if the pay period overlaps uh then responding to stan's questions took a great deal of the director's time but he didn't mind he was pleased to find someone who seemed interested in the company stan took the employee's handbook home and began to read a good start until he came across some rules that didn't make sense to him he didn't waste time trying to understand them his mind leaped ahead to ways of changing the rules and to ways of getting around the rules to suit himself stan was eager all right eager to please himself but not to fit in arriving early on the job the first day stan still looked promising to mr medwick his fellow employees were the first to suspect that something might be wrong this is uh stan edwards ken kiefer that's right kiefer glad to meet you ken have you been at this job long about eight years stan have you ever thought of using michael you know i saw a system that uh uh acme engineering that took up about one tenth of the space and yet it was instead of simply learning each man's name and what his job was stan began giving advice maybe later after he had proved himself some of his suggestions might have been welcome but now he was just a new employee who should have been trying to fit in mr medwick began to realize that stan might not be right for the job when he started explaining to him how he wanted the work done [Music] stan interrupted several times with suggestions for improved ways of doing it before his boss had a chance to finish mr medwick had to interrupt stan to explain why he wanted it done a certain way he didn't want to discourage him from making improvements but there were reasons for doing it the way it was done and mr medwick went over them in detail finally after the long explanation stan seemed to understand without any further delays he got busy and started to draw but stan's first drawing showed he'd never really listened he put in views not called for and he changed the format of the plate [Music] when mr medwick tried to explain again why he didn't want it done that way stan argued with him insisting that his way was better [Music] again mr medwick went through a long explanation which took time and cost the company money [Music] in the days that followed stan continued trying to change the way things were done he didn't seem to care if anyone wanted his advice or not [Music] you notice that the cbsr series is more efficient and less heat build up and also puts out more tracings per hour but stan mr medwick would like to see you in his office mr medwick hired stan to make drawings not to reorganize his department but stan couldn't seem to follow the routines of the company he wasn't able to fit in so stan was also let go this time imagine that you're being hired by now you've probably got an idea of things a new employee can do to fit in would you do better than lloyd or stan would you make an effort to learn and remember the rules and regulations of your company or would you be a lloyd or a stan would you read through an employee's handbook and try to understand company policies or would you use your time trying to think of ways to change things or would you disregard it all together when introduced to your fellow employees would you forget their names or not even hear them as lloyd did would you take up more of their time than necessary as stan did how would you respond in hearing about how your job is to be done would you be thinking about how you would do it or not really listening do you think you would do better after receiving your instructions would you delay getting at your work or give advice to others on how to do their work if you dug right in would you do it your own way or the way your company wants it done [Music] having done your best what would you do if your boss pointed out mistakes give him an argument an alibi or would you listen carefully to be sure you understood what you did wrong so you wouldn't make the same mistakes again how would you do would you be like lloyd and do too little would you be like stan and try to do too much how would you fit in