So, You Want To Be In The Movies
Blatant commercialism! Where will it all end? There we were, under the heaviest loading conditions of the year! The Thanksgiving day sales events and all of the deadlines and all of the deal making to move our products. And myself being the dispatcher came to work fully geared and psyched to make over 465 drivers and as many helpers roll out on time. I already knew it was going to be a twenty four hour shift, and had no plans for sleep that night. Had I known what was really going to happen, I'd have stayed home. My personal honor was at stake with every shift, every day. This day left me pondering such a frame of mind for years to come.
I knew something was up when I saw all the people wearing guest passes on their jackets. Our spotters, who backed in the trucks to the loading docks and yard positions were barely able to move at a crawl with all these folks in the way, and we immediately fell behind. Production was flying out of all thirty two docks, and backing up everywhere. Over 130 products had to go into hundreds of trucks in any combination depending on the delivery area. For instance products number 1, 33, 18, 67, and 109 had to go on one truck, while another might get even more different products and not even share any of the previous trucks numbers. With no cooperation from the production departments production schedule, (they were producing random products without synchronizing the products we needed first), we were all over our heads right from the beginning. This mix really compounded our position.
This quickly grew into an amazing dizzying spectacle, and then, just as it looked like all would be lost and the day was a total disaster, it happened. Trucks with cameras pulled up to the dock area, and the docks were roped off as our trucks pulled out. With our facility at full production, we were left with only two working docks, for hundreds of truck maneuvers. Now the day was something much worse than a total disaster. Yes, some overpaid and under-qualified idiot sanctioned a commercial to be made right at this moment! We all just looked at each other, and in just moments over a hundred different products poured out through two openings, fully automated and tumbling everywhere. I enlisted helpers from every corner of our plant to start loading all this confusion on trailers, and in the dark no less, and what a mess that made. Hundreds of products that on the outside looked nearly identical were now all mixed up.
The commercial got made. The products never got straightened out exactly, and went out late, and were all mixed up. Hundreds of excess helper hours added up. That was a good thing for them at this time of the year. Over time for the drivers added up too. The goofs who condemned us to failure by scheduling this commercial at this time all congratulated themselves. When I was summoned and asked why the drivers were late and the overtime so high and the helpers hours so inflated, all I could croak out was, "Idiots, scheduling commercial, closing docks, imbeciles, chop heads off!"
Knowing that I was a little pissed off, they decided to let the whole thing go. I guess they hid all of the refunds to customers, overtime and extra hours into the cost of making the commercial. It was sad to see the companies year end publishing's and to discover the huge bonuses these con men gave to themselves, when in truth they would have been dangerous cleaning ditches for a living.
All these years later, my blood pressure still goes up and I start shaking as my mind travels back to that day, and I wonder how much of my own life I lost through the tremendous stress of those events during that one day. The drivers made out good, extra pay and all. The helpers did great. We on the front lines questioned whether we still had our sanity. So, you want to be in the movies?
The Flying Scotsman
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