Taking pride in your work


My grandfather was a joiner, he was quite a serious person, and quite intelligent even though he didn’t have the opportunity of a prolonged formal education. Some of his advice still resonates.

“If you’re going to do something then do it well”.

I don’t particularly take pride in work but if I’m associated with it then I definitely work to as high a standard that I’m capable of.
This is good advice provided you've not been tasked with mucking out pigs or something. Given a task like that do it as terribly as you can.
 
Welders nowadays are much better than they used to be 30 years ago in my experience. No more shipyard welders speeding the job up by sticking packets of rods or pesetas in and welding over them. There’s much more NDT going on and you’re going to get caught. Plus the quals we see nearly always pass first time. When I started some of the shite we got presented with was unbelievable, but now they get weeded out before they’re submitted for testing.
Yeah some of the last year apprentices are putting better welds down than the experienced guys. The problem I have is there never seems to be any come back on the welders for presenting shite or failing volumetric testing for stuff they could easily rectify during weld runs - thus costing time on repairs and extra NDT. Very frustrating, glad I’m in the office more these days and not dealing with them 😂
 
Tradesmen still take pride in their work. It is the oppresive greed of some employers that reduce the time allotted to complete the job properly, along with paying the minimum they can get away with that erodes the quality and loyalty.
My Dad did a 7 year apprenticeship as a joiner. Worked 45 years solid (few years out when he bought a pub).
He did loft conversions single handed all over the country. Built bespoke staircases for each. Took huge pride in what he did.
Final job was working for the council, doing shit jobs, for shit money, in shit conditions.
Pretty sure the pride in his work was tested for the last few years of his working life, bless him.

Agree, I worded my post badly, I should have said the vast majority where now it's all about money/time, as you quite rightly point out.
 
When I finish a report, I probably spend another half hour on the details. Who’s going to notice if one photo out of 30 pages is 1 line lower than the rest? Well somebody might and I don’t want them to think they’re paying a couple of grand for anything less than a top drawer job.

Precisely. If someone has taken so little time/care on the stuff that is plain to see then what sort of errors are lurking in the detail. For anything beyond an email response, I'll print the document out and proof read it. I don't understand why, but I spot errors on a printed page that I just don't see on a screen.
 
I am a pragmatic perfectionist.

I want it to be perfect but I understand sometimes the deadline is more critical.
 
i've always thought if you're doing something it might as well be done right.
i worked as a welder and always tried to do a decent job. even now on the wagons i try to drive safely, don't rush about and stick to the highway code. once i get to wherever i'm going tipping or loading tanks, taking short cuts will lead to trouble.
it's nice to lock the cab up at the end of the week having had no dramas.
 
I'm not the most educated of blokes, but have done particularly well for myself purely down to hard graft and putting in the hours.

However of late I'm so frustrated by red tape, and failing processes at work I've just about given up and go through the motions just to get by...it doesn't feel natural after 27 years, but I'm giving up for my own mental health.

New structure coming in the company, hopefully a chance for things to improve, or i move elsewhere for a new challenge as I don't think i can work much longer like this.
 
I try my best and if my work is sub standard for whatever reason I’ll want to put that right. There are days in the past where I’ve coasted though, don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing once in a while.
 
Precisely. If someone has taken so little time/care on the stuff that is plain to see then what sort of errors are lurking in the detail. For anything beyond an email response, I'll print the document out and proof read it. I don't understand why, but I spot errors on a printed page that I just don't see on a screen.
I put it into a pdf to check it renders properly then view it at one full page per screen. If you fire through it with the arrow keys you can easily spot odd alignments.
 

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