JunkyardDog

Yeah, I keep looking at those used Sportsters on Craigslist, and admit I am very tempted. I will probably wind up buying one eventually. They are a little small for me, a Sportster 883is noticeably smaller than my Kawasaki Vulcan 750 overall, but I love the look, sound, and the primitive design. Jerry.

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Buickguy

JYD,you've got a very good point. I always treat my customers with respect but I can't do "the customer is always right" in my profession.
Think about it this way, if an MSF instructor did that there would be a lot of unsafe riders.

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Fridgitator

If I worked from the premise that the customer is right, more than a few of them would be dead. I'm an in-house repair tech now, so I don't have to lay it on thick like I did when I worked at hotels. I can tell people flat out that they are not allowed to have space heaters under their desks, they can't store rags soaked in flammable liquids piled up against the gas water heater, etc. In the hospitality environment, you have to pretend that they are reasonable even when they are being so stupid that you wonder how they got there without supervision.

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JunkyardDog

Most definitely the customer is NOT always right, but I believe any professional should be polite while telling them that. Being rude to a customer is just not justifiable, unless they push it to far. Fortunately, I work for a government fleet department, and have a captive customer base. They don't own the vehicles they bring in, but politics do come into play. By city rules, police vehicles and street sweepers come first, but on the other hand, if the mayor, city manager, or other high ranking city official brings their car in, it usually gets taken care of first. That's just the way it works in government. Jerry.

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JunkyardDog

Oh, by the way, I guess I will NOT be buying a Sportster any time soon, I just bought a brand new '09 EX500 Ninja for about half what they used to go out the door for, and it is also a primitive design, goes all the way back to '85. Simple parallel twin, much like the Rebel, only twice as big, in a sportbike frame. It is plenty fast for normal street riding, does the quarter mile about two 10ths faster than my race car, and handles like a dream. I already put GenMar risers on it to raise the bars and take most of the weight off my arms and shoulders. I just really missed being able to carve up the local mountain and canyon roads, and couldn't resist the price. Jerry.

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Fridgitator

I'm always polite, but there are times when I have to be very insistent about things like the rags against the water heater, or messing with the thermostats. I have been known to tell management types that if they don't stop messing with them, I'll put lock boxes on them, and not give them the key. Many people are deeply offended by being spoken to that way, now matter how polite I am about it. As for priorities, Freezers come first, followed by refrigerators and then A/C. A/C in areas habituated by children and adult visitors outrank staff only areas, including the CEO's office. I really do my best to keep everyone happy, whether I like them or not. Still, when it's 105 outside, there are days when there are more machines breaking down than I can possibly get to, and someone is going to feel slighted.

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Buickguy

Yes, polite is the watchword. Always treat the customer politely. However when an unsafe condition exists, sometimes immediate action is required that can come across as somewhat rude. Challenging someones assumptions can be a tricky thing and again must be handled with the utmost tact yet still addressed.

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JunkyardDog

In my job, you don't insult management, that is a good way to find yourself without a job. The building and facilities guys have told me the same things. You can point out things to lowly workers, but you leave management alone. If they are breaking some sort of safety rule, you let them deal with it. The city I work for has a "safety supervisor", and he, and he alone, outranks management types on safety issues. Basically I'm in a pretty safe place, I just follow orders, the boss assumes the responsibility for those orders. I have had a number of chances to be a boss, and turned them down. First, it is very little more money to start with, there is ten times the responsibility, and aside from dealing with work related issues, the boss has to deal with employees and people who bring vehicles in who act like second graders. It's like, "he got a new screwdriver, how come I can't have one?'', or, "he got to go home early, how come I didn't?" ot my kind of thing at all. Plus, I have always been blue collar, and becoming a boss would cross the line, and make me a traitor to what I believe in, IMO. Also, having seen the mess a lot of people make, I'd rather do it myself than tell someone else to do it, then be responsible for what they did.


As for building and facilities, in the summer, anything related to cooling comes first, including A/C. If the building and facilities guys get behind, as they often do in the summer, their supervisor has a long list of contractors he can call, and the one who can get there first gets the job. Summer heat in AZ can be lethal. If the A/C goes out in an office, the employees are sent to somewhere where the A/C is working to wait it out until theirs is fixed.


Not much gets done outside in the summer. The parks and streets guys work about 15 minutes out in the heat, then sit in their trucks with the A/C on for 15 minutes. So they actually only work about half a day, but that is one miserable half a day. Jerry.

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Fridgitator

My career has evolved from hospitality to facilities repair. Although I'm still pretty good at putting on a happy face and making people feel important, My main priority is now the safety and comfort of a couple thousand four and five year old children. no one's ego, including my own, is more important than that.

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Fridgitator

I have the usual political stuff to deal with as well. There are some things that aren't worth noticing, others that can be casually mentioned to rational people that won't be offended, and others that are mentioned to a supervisor or noted in a monthly safety inspection report. I'm nobody's boss, and I like it that way. I've done the boss thing; left it behind for where I am now. We also bring in contractors as needed, but we don't have that fast a response. There are times when we have to close all or part of a facility if we can't cool it within parameters as described by every level of government from the local city codes to the Department of Education guidelines. I've been on this job long enough to know who I can deal with face to face, and who is better referred to someone else. I do enjoy the variety, and there are days when I really wonder what I'm doing there. If it was about money alone, I wouldn't have lasted a week.

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