Don't Make Them Like They Use to

[buckabucka]

We thought we could save money installing our own solar hot water system. It does work, but only after DH replaced every fitting made of cheap steel from China.
Our stove is not very old, but we already had to replace the whole digital display piece. I am very lucky that DH thinks he can fix anything, and almost always succeeds.

 

[Ridgerunner]

@so lucky I forgot planned obsolescence. Thanks for mentioning that. As an engineer, if I went to the junk yard to look at a lawn tractor, I'd try to figure out why it was there, what wore out or broke so I could make it stronger and last longer. That probably makes me a bad engineer to many managers. What many managers would want me to look at was what did not break or wear out so we could save money building that part cheaper. Make it all break at the same time.

From this post and my other one above it may sound like I'm down on all managers. I'm not. I had some really great managers that I tremendously admired. They took care of their people and they did the right thing, even when it hurt their career. These people seldom get real high in the corporate structure in big corporations because they often refuse a higher up when told to do something wrong.

I got to know a lot of managers too well when I was working in moving 100 people from a district office up to the main office. We had to fit them into a building of about 1000 people, shuffling people around and tearing down cubicles and offices and building new ones. Some managers were looking out for their people, looking at office layout and furniture and trying to see that they got the best they were entitled to and trying to arrange them so they could work efficiently. One manager brought his own tape measure to make sure that his office space was as big as he was entitled too. He even measured other offices to make sure none of his equals had more office space. He tried to get better furniture that he was entitled too. I kind of made him mad when I didn't give it to him. And he told me to just put his people in whatever offices I anted to. He couldn't even be bothered to take 5 minutes and do that much for his people. Guess who got the promotions.