In 2018, I had a pretty cool opportunity to make a career change. I was running the engineering department for a small, privately held pressure vessel manufacturer in Cayce. Cool job. Real engineering work. Excellent experience working from design guy into THE guy.
The opportunity arose for me to help build a new plant in Blythewood. I helped pull the building out of the ground, get through the regulatory/inspections, install what will be half of what we will have as far as extrusion assets, and manage both the engineering and maintenance activities on a day to day basis.
The best part of this: Installing a culture where folks WANT to come to work; where it's challenging, but rewarding; where you would invite family and friends to work beside you.
I hired a new maintenance manager, in January 2020, to take over the day-to-day maintenance activities and allow me to focus more towards the engineering requirements around here. He came in, made a splash, reorganized our shop, and started hanging flags. We have the American Flag, SC Flag, Clemson flag, Auburn Flag, POW flag, Gadsden flag, and the Alabama State Flag. I thought the flags would be a nice touch and give my maintenance guys something of themselves that they could add to our space.
Today, I received instruction from my Plant Manager that we were to remove the Gadsden Flag as there was a verbal complaint made this morning as to the offensiveness of this flag.
I hate the world we live in.
I told him that he's the boss (because he's the boss). I also told him that since "they" (no racially insensitive intent here as I wasn't told who complained) are offended by a piece of history from the American Revolution that has roots in the state of SC that I would also be removing the rest of the flags; including the American Flag.
All flags have been taken down and stored properly.
We've lost boys. Get used to it. The buck doesn't stop here and I see no end in sight.
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