Ted Talk – 5

In 1983-84, I took the redeye from San Francisco to Boston often enough to remember it was United flight 66 aboard a Lockheed L-1011. There’s a related story about AIDS politics from one of those business trips, that I may tell another time.

After landing at Logan, if it was a workday I’d take the MBTA to the office, briefcase and carry-on bag in hand, to write up my site report and fill out my expense report. If it was okay with my boss, I’d leave early and take the T home to my $600/month studio apartment with a stove that didn’t work, that the landlord never fixed. I relied on a hot plate and a toaster oven.

My monthly income was $1200, or about $3500 today. Enough to live on, but with half of my pay going to rent, it wasn’t enough to save up for a more expensive apartment while owning a car. So when my old car was beyond repair, I didn’t replace it.

In 1984, three years before the events of the Ted story, I came very close to quitting over money. If the senior VP I met with to discuss my dissatisfaction knew I had a job offer in my pocket for a much better salary, I undoubtedly would have been fired on the spot. Fortunately, his boss came through with more money for me, and I stayed. Good thing too, considering this was the guy who offered me the other job.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/baycitynews/article/ex-mckesson-chairman-gets-10-year-sentence-3324989.php

The point in telling about my own situation is to say that after the boss who started the group quit, and I took it over, I was very sympathetic to the concerns and complaints of the team members. My former boss had set the precedent, that if someone had a late landing at Logan, they didn’t have to show their face at the office right at 9 the next morning.

So did I extend Ted more slack than I would have anyone else? I was going to say no, but in hindsight nobody else put me in the same spot that Ted did. Then came the day when he was a no-show. No phone call, no message, and no Ted.

Ted Talk – 4

Although Ted was the only person I ever fired, there were a couple other guys, both White, who came close. One of them transferred to a non-traveling group after I told him he had to stop submitting his bar tabs as dinner receipts on his expense reports.

Years later, when I was reporting to a different boss, the other guy was an existing employee who had been foisted on me after he hadn’t worked out in another group. He would return from lunch bleary-eyed and smelling of booze. Fortunately for me, he quit on the day I was going to reprimand him for his poor job performance.

Ted had made it through the requisite probationary period, and his first solo business trip went well, according to the customer. He seemed to be a good fit for my installation group, but it didn’t take too much longer for the trouble to begin.

Life on the road required crazy hours, including occasional weekend travel, and doing whatever needed to be done, whenever it had to be done. So back at the office there was some flexibility with the schedule, but everybody needed to be in by 10. The weeks when Ted wasn’t traveling, he started coming in late on Fridays.

The office was in Cambridge, and Ted lived in Cambridge with a roommate. He took the subway to work, so he didn’t have a long or difficult commute.

After a couple of times when Ted didn’t show up until well after 10, I asked him what was going on. He was doing his DJ side gig on Thursday nights. I said something like, “That’s cool. Enjoy it, but don’t let it interfere with your job, okay Ted?” My little internal warning bell started ringing again.

Ted wasn’t the only company employee with a side job or avocation. One had a weekend food concession stand on Boston Common. Another worked with the fireworks company that put on the big 4th of July shows with the Boston Pops. Before retiring, when I was, to my regret, a boss once again, I suspected a telecommuter was taking extra long lunches to be an Uber driver. Thirty years earlier, before cell phones, it wasn’t easy locating Ted when he was a no-show.

Ted was a sharp dressed young man, but when he made his late appearances on Fridays he looked like he’d had a late night, and not much got done the rest of the day. Repeated verbal warnings didn’t help. I couldn’t tell Ted he had to quit doing whatever he was doing Thursday nights. All I could do was remind him to be in by 10 on Fridays, and that I was becoming concerned about his job performance.

The guy who drank his dinner was put on notice because he passed out while dining with a customer. A woman in my group, who was a co-worker at the time, caused a huge problem when she was with a customer, and made what was perceived to be a pass at another woman. That event resulted in a contract change allowing customers to reject any company representative from further in-person visits for any reason.

I began to worry how Ted was handling himself when he was away on business. Consulting with my boss, we decided to risk waiting to see if a customer complained or even invoked the contract clause. Would they be reluctant to do that because Ted was Black? For that matter, was Ted being Black a consideration for me, as his supervisor, to cut him some extra slack?

Bluetooth 1, AI 0

Recently, on my Feedly RSS newsfeed reader, I listened to this BBC podcast about how Bluetooth got its name.

Feedly has jumped on the AI tech train. Here’s what their AI thought about the podcast.

I clicked “NO” to correct Feedly’s AI, which had a 56% level of confidence that Bluetooth involves sports.

A Tale of Suspension

Tomorrow, my 2011 Honda CR-V will be at a dealership for an outstanding recall that was announced a year ago. I was told the job will take most of the day.

03/30/2023

SUMMARY:
American Honda Motor Co., Inc. (Honda) is recalling certain 2007-2011 model year CR-V vehicles. In salt-belt states where de-icing agents are used to maintain the roadway, the de-icing agents, along with mud and water, could enter the rear frame through drainage/positioning holes when the vehicle is driven through flooded areas or puddles at high speeds. Over time, the accumulated de-icing agents/mud/water mixture could cause corrosion to the frame’s internal structure. If this occurs, the rear trailing arm can fall off.

SAFETY RISK:
The corrosion to the frame’s internal structure can cause the rear trailing arm to fall off, increasing the risk of a crash or injury.


Registered owners of affected vehicles will be notified by mail and asked to take their vehicle to an authorized Honda dealer. Dealers will inspect the rear frame for corrosion to determine the remedy. Owners who have paid to have these repairs completed at their own expense may be eligible for reimbursement, in accord with the recall reimbursement plan on file with NHTSA. For additional questions, owners may contact American Honda’s Customer Support & Campaign Center at 1-888-234-2138.

Not long before the recall was announced, the rear trailing arm broke on this college student’s 2008 CR-V. Not knowing the recall was forthcoming, and somehow having access to a fully equipped garage, the very capable mechanic and Taylor Swift fan did the repair himself!

My CR-V is three years newer, and its 79,000 miles (about 6,000/year) are 200,000 fewer than that guy has on his car. So it’s in much better condition, and I don’t know what the extent of the “remedy” will be, but thanks to that video I now see why the garage wants it for most of the day.

Here is the enterprising young man after the recall was announced. The proof he did the work is on YouTube, and I hope he will be reimbursed.

Follow-up: Well, that turned out to be not a surprise at all. The recall resulted in nothing more than an inspection, and the car passed. It was actually a fishing expedition, and of course the dealership found several thousand dollars worth of problems that “must” be fixed. Having been screwed over sixteen years ago by the same dealer, after the air conditioner “Black Death” in my long-gone 2002 CR-V, I’m not inclined to give them money unless absolutely necessary.

2002 Honda CRV A/C Black Death

The owner of the excellent and trusted local garage I have relied upon for 25+ years has the print-out of “urgent” repairs. He’ll decide what really does need to be done, and I’ll drop the car off next week for him to do the work.