March 8, 2013 - J

[6:15 ; I arrive at work]
[6:30-7:00 ; I do 10 pieces of the same job, on the same machine, that J will do all day long]
6:54 ; J arrives
7:45 ; J has done 2 pieces
7:56-8:01 ; phone - see NOTE 1
8:10 ; J has done 4 pieces
8:20-8:22 ; wandering
+8:55-8:58 ; wandering
[9:15-9:23 ; I am not in area to observe]
9:29 ; J has done 21 pieces
+9:29-9:48 ; wandering, in his car (returns with Subway)
9:48- ? ; eating
9:59-10:14 ; wandering
+10:49-10:52 ; phone
+10:53-10:55 ; phone
10:59-11:00 ; phone
[11:20-11:55 ; lunch, I am not in area to observe]
+12:17-12:20 ; phone
12:20-12:24 ; wandering
? - 12:32ish ; wandering
+12:49-12:58 ; wandering
12:59 ; J has done 61 pieces
12:59-1:29 ; wandering (with a pass-thru at 1:15 - see NOTE 2)
1:47-2:00 ; wandering
2:10ish-2:33 ; see NOTE 3
2:33-2:38 ; wandering
2:49-3:03 ; wandering
3:05-3:06 ; phone
3:30 ; J has done 68 pieces - see NOTE 4
[3:40 ; I go home]


If the terms used seem confusing, you might read this.


NOTE 1: it should be noted here that J was caught on his phone the other day and warned that any further use would be grounds for termination. This has merely slowed him down. A bit.

NOTE 2: J went somewhere in his car at this time, because it was not in the parking lot. I looked.

NOTE 3: J spent this time helping some guy load the cardboard compactor. Again. While, of course, his machine sat idle, even though his machine sits right next to the compactor. If I had the power, I'd transfer him to the warehouse, because he's obviously not interested in running his machine nearly as much as he is in doing this other stuff. Sadly, I do not.

NOTE 4: It should be noted that, based on my numbers from early this morning, and figuring on only seven hours of actual work time, J should have been able to have made at least 140 pieces. He made less than half that. Notice that between 8:10 and 9:30 he made 17 pieces, for a rate of 4.7 minutes per piece. Between 9:30 and 1:00 he did 40 more, or about 5.25 minutes per piece. Between 1:00 and 3:30 he did 7 pieces, which, even when removing a half an hour for lunch, is still an absurd 17 minutes for each piece. My rather leisurely rate this morning was 3 minutes each. J's full day average was 6.18 minutes for each, or, as usual, about half as productive as myself.


And, because I like to make charts from time to time, I've made a kind of visual guide to J's goofing off, using clock-faces in the manner of pie-graphs to illustrate.



Just for contrast, here's what a normal working day ought to look like:



And, hey, just for fun, here's the two side-by-side for easy viewing:

March 7, 2013 - J

[6:30 ; I arrive at work]
6:55 ; J arrives
6:55-7:08 ; wandering
7:40 ; see Job 1
+8:35-8:40 ; phone - see NOTE 1
8:56-9:02 ; see NOTE 2
9:05 ; see Job 2
+9:30-9:45+ ; wandering - see NOTE 3
9:45ish-10:00 ; see NOTE 4
10:00 ; see Job 3
10:00-10:05 ; sitting, phone, eating in department
10:10-10:16 ; wandering
10:17-10:34 ; wandering and gratuitous forklifting - see NOTE 5
10:34-10:54 ; yakking (not working)
10:54-11:37 ; see NOTE 6
[11:44-12:06 ; lunch, I am not in area to observe]
? -12:09 ; sitting, eating in department
12:11-12:20 ; wandering
12:23-12:35 ; eating in department - see NOTE 7
12:44-1:15 ; wandering - see NOTE 8
1:15-1:23 ; wandering
1:30ish ; see Job 4
1:47 ; phone
1:55-1:56 ; phone
[2:18-2:28 ; I am not in area to observe]
2:28-2:33 ; wandering
2:43-3:06 ; wandering
3:06-3:08 ; phone, hair care
3:10-3:20ish ; 2nd shift takes over hereabouts - see NOTE 9
+3:40-3:46 ; phone
3:46-3:55 ; wandering
3:55-3:56 ; hair care
3:56- ? ; wandering
[3:59 ; I leave the building]


Here is a breakdown of how J's jobs went during the day:

Job 1: PVC strips. J no longer runs these at quarter or even half speed. Still he manages to make them last longer than they ought to.
set 1: start at 7:40
set 2: start at 8:03
set 3: start at 8:22 (finish at 8:33)
set 4: start at 8:43 (finish at 8:53)

Job 2: On the table at 9:05. Started at 9:10. Banners, about 40x60, total of 7.

Job 3: First cut at 10:00. Styrene pieces, roughly 20x40ish. At 10:54 J goes to another department to work, while St takes over his machine. He resumes working at 11:40. At around 1:00ish, St takes over again, finishing the job.

Job 4: Styrene again, very large ones (roughly 50x110), a job given to J specifically by management.



NOTE 1: it should be noted here that J was caught on his phone the other day and warned that any further use would be grounds for termination. This has merely slowed him down. A bit.

NOTE 2: J spends this time looking at order bags, even though he already has three bags at his station. Since he rarely does more than four orders a day, this seems to be pointless activity.

NOTE 3: Being busy and/or distracted, I didnt see him leave, nor did I see him return. It is possible that he actually took a regulation 15 minute break. But it's unlikely, especially since he returned with food.

NOTE 4: Spent this time helping someone with the cardboard compactor, which, while nice of him, I suppose, left his machine sitting idle, something that happens far too often with J.

NOTE 5: Again, J is doing something that other people are paid to do, while his machine sits idle. And J does sure love him some forklifting.

NOTE 6: Supposedly, J spent this time in another department helping them out while St, who's machine was being repaired, worked his machine. I can not tell you if he actually worked elsewhere, or just goofed off for 43 minutes.

NOTE 7: This gets special mention because of the scale of the eating. Normally, J is content to stuff fries or sandwich or something like that in his mouth, cramming most of his food down within five minutes or so. This was more a case of J eating some sort of meal out of a round plastic container (Asian, perhaps?), with a fork, while his machine sat idle. Again.

NOTE 8: So, obviously, this wasnt his lunch break. Instead he was out in the parking lot, doing what appeared to be cleaning out his car. Which is fine, assuming that he was actually off the clock (which I have no way of determining, sadly - although, considering the preciseness of the length of the break, he probably did clock out). Still, since he was able to clean his car on lunch break solely because he both went to get food and ate said food on company time, I feel it worth noting.

NOTE 9: Here's how shift change usually goes down with J: L arrives a bit before 3:00. If J is out on break, L waits. Sometimes L gets tired of waiting and takes over the machine. Sometimes J makes him wait until 3:30. J used to make him wait longer, but management stirred themselves enough to stop that. Regardless, shift change involves a lot of talking, often with extra people involved. At some point, J will sit down, frequently with his phone, and do "paperwork" (J spends more time on "paperwork" than three most productive people in the department combined). Then he will disappear off and on. He almost never leaves on time, and is almost always still somewhere in the building when I go home.


If the terms used seem confusing, you might read this.

March 5, 2013 - J

[6:14 ; I arrive at work]
6:59 ; J arrives
7:05-7:10 ; wandering
7:22-7:26 ; wandering
7:30 ; actually starts working
7:35-8:10 ; see NOTE 1
8:45-8:48 ; sitting
[9:20-9:33 ; I am not in area to observe]
? -9:46 ; wandering, with a pass-thru at 9:37, see NOTE 2
9:46- ? ; eating in the department
[11:34-12:02 ; lunch, I am not in area to observe]
? -12:16 ; yakking with CC from IC
+12:27-1:13 ; wandering
2:00-2:30 ; see NOTE 3
2:30- ? ; sitting, see NOTE 4



If the terms used seem confusing, you might read this.


NOTE 1: J unloads the cardboard compactor, a process that takes 35 minutes and involves two separate forklift trips (one of which took 9 minutes to get 2 standard pallets), but should not have.

NOTE 2: At 9:32, J passed through the area, carrying a fast food bag (Subway, I believe), so he'd apparently been somewhere in his car. If so, he would have had to leave at least 9:25, which is about his regular time to start his "normal", over-long morning break.

NOTE 3: sometime after 2:00 (I first noticed his absence at 2:07, but I think he'd been gone for a while), J spent a significant amount of time removing full recycling boxes from our are, but not replacing them with empty ones. He was gone from at least 2:07-2:13, 2:15-2:23, and 2:24-2:30.

NOTE 4: Apparently exhausted from his efforts recounted in NOTE 3, J sits down. Unfortunately, I didnt notice when he stopped this, or anything else he did for the rest of the afternoon because I was busy.

March 4, 2013 - J

[6:00 ; I arrive]
9;42 ; J arrives
10:00-10:15 ; wandering - see NOTE 1
10:15-10:19 ; wandering
11:22- ? ; sitting
[11:24-11:51 ; lunch, I am not in area to observe]
12:01-12:40 ; see NOTE 2
12:41-12:50 ; wandering - see NOTE 3
12:55-1:19 ; wandering
1:20- ? ; eating in the department
2:18-2:30ish ; wandering
2:54-3:08 ; wandering
3:09-3:18 ; wandering - see NOTE 4
3:20-3:23 ; wandering
3:27- ? ; wandering
[3:31 ; I leave work]


If the terms used seem confusing, you might read this.


NOTE 1: J apparently went somewhere in his car, unless he spent 15 minutes getting a drink which he had left there.

NOTE 2: J, who was recently given final notice about his phone usage while on the clock, was using his phone during this time while "working". He was also using the phone, and doing nothing else, from 12:08-12:10 and from 12:20-12:23.

NOTE 3: I think that J may have gone abroad in his car at this time, though I'm not sure. He was telling a story about a train crossing the road, but I couldnt tell you if it was recent or not, since I was not paying a lot of attention and only overhearing rather than joining in the conversation.

NOTE 4: left carrying a football