I would like to announce the 802 Metal Arts employee of the month, Maureen Jocelyn. MJ hasn’t been welding for a long time, but she has worked hard to perfect her craft. She makes the shop a much more fun place to be with her banter, fake swear words and her flame helmet. Sure, she does set down the mig gun, so the trigger is on, and a mile of wire comes out all over the floor sometimes but we are working on a better alarm system for that. (Apparently when I yell across the shop “WTF are you doing?” its not helpful). She is also in control of the swear jar and gives out the hairy eyeball look when other people swear too much. I have learned that when I burn myself or cut off a piece of skin with a grinder I should say…..gosh darn it! Not diving into an expletive laced tirade and throwing my gloves while jumping around, which is how I was trained many years ago in various metal shops.
She is bringing the shop up to today’s standards. We now wipe off the bench if we are eating lunch out there, you would find tea in the coffee cups and the discussion includes the relative cuteness of various art items. There are a lot more pink and light blue colors, the bees have become friendlier and the rough edges have become smoother.
She has sold several large pieces lately and continues to make her specialty items like the dragon fly stakes and bees. As her confidence grows, she has been able to critique other employees’ work with a more critical eye and point out the areas of improvement that are necessary. Always in a supportive and constructive way. Like pointing out that those two colors don’t go together or that looks bad, ears don’t look like that.
For all this hard work, she will have her picture posted on the bulletin board for one week and the company will have a pizza party on Friday afternoon in her honor.
I also want to personally thank her for not going to HR after the unfortunate incident where I was informed to remove my hand from her bottom before she hit me with a hammer. HR gets testy with reports like that, and I saw no need to get them involved.
