‘Could we just get it over with and ’do it your way?'': Rookie tow boat drivers put in their place after tattling on their senior barge manager, then they end up begging him for help when their undercooked plan backfires

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  • "OK Boss, we can try it their way."

    Let me say up front, I loved my job in the barge towing industry. After 50 years in the industry I have done it all, and done all of it almost every way possible. I
  • know how long it will take to build tow, connect the barges together after clearing them out of the fleet moorings, but mainly I know the easiest and quickest way.
  • Our story begins on a nice hot summer day, 3 barges to clear out for a refinery run to pick up product. I explain to the crew where our barges are in the fleet
  • moorings and my plan on how we/l will get them out to build the tow, seems simple right, I've done it multiple times before, but it's hot and keep getting feedback form one of the hands
  • about how if we do it his way it would take "way less time". I know better and shut them down and we do it my way takes about 90 minutes and away we go. Heard some grumbling from the
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  • crew about being a hard and not being open to new and better ideas, heard it before and forgot about it. Two weeks later after returning to work I get called into HR(well
  • what we had for HR at the time) about how I was inflexible and not open to new and "better" ways of doing things. I was told I should listen to crew and perhaps I could learn some "new and improved" ways to towboat.
  • The day arrives, get orders, same 3 barges to put together for refinery run, same deck crew so lets try some HR advise on building tow. Ask the crew, "How you guys want to do this"? Tell
  • them where the barges are and ask which one should we clear up first and where do you want to build the tow? Ninety minutes in we have 1 barge cleared and temps are high 90's. Quiet hand
  • says on radio, "It didn't take this long last week", I said someone went to office and said I was taking too long and would not listen to better ideas. Do you guys have any more? Lets' take 10 for a water break and we get back to finishing.
  • After the break the crew came up and admitted their way was taking longer and could we just get it over with and "do it your way". I asked just to be sure I did not do anything to disrupt your
  • plan or make it harder? I don't want to be called into the office again next week for not giving you guys a chance. Took another 60 minutes to finish and get underway. Told the crew
  • to cool off and we will have a meeting about what happened. I explained if they wanted before every job we could have an little informal meeting to discuss what
  • we/l was planning and I could accept their input before we started. They thought that was a great idea, except that was a form of work and the meetings slowly went away.
  • A few years after this incident one of the alphabet agencies that regulate and tell us how to do our jobs made those meeting mandatory and they had to have paper forms filled out in duplicate.
  • Retired 3 years ago I miss the work and many of the people I worked with, it's a great career for the right person willing to watch, learn and never be at home for long periods of time.
  • Beneficial_Test_5917 Barges are nifty. Much harder, I guess, to operate than it appears to an outsider like me. :)
  • Barcata Once your second sentence hit, I began reading this in a stereotypical old sea captain's voice. 10/10
  • BassInYourFace71 So typical of rookies/junior employees who think they're smarter than someone who has been there longer than they'be been alive...
  • Pale-Jello3812 Yeah don't listen to the guy who knows how to get the job done right & fast, what idiot's enjoy the heat.

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