Foo - Baah, I don't want to go to work tomorrow :(

One of the machines at work has always had a problem with leaking coolant, at least in hte past 4 or 5 months. It's never been too bad, just a shallow puddle that I can mop up in 5 minutes. Another employee is supposed to take care of it, but he "never finds the time". I am low enough on the totem poll that I can't use that excuse and keep my job at the same time.
Today is the usual "Bernie, you have a lake behind your machine". I go, it's a pretty good sized puddle. This one takes at least 20 minutes to clean up. My boss tells me that he just does not want to deal with it, and that I should just mop it up because it is easier.
THis machine holds 40 gallons of coolant.

20 minutes later an employee tells me I did a lousy job mopping up that puddle. I am like WTF no I did not. I go behind, it's back! So I get a tray to put under where the leak is. I inform my boss that the rate at which this puddle is forming is increasing quite a bit. Every 20 minutes or so, I empty that tray into a 5 gallon bucket. I was collecting 8 gallons of coolant per hour. I would pour the coolant back into the machine.

At 4:30 I leave. I tell one of the employees, he tells me he does not give a fuark. He says he will just add more buckets of coolant from the sink as the machine loses it. So I know that during the night while everybody is gone and the shop is closed, that machine will leak. I know that there will be 40 gallons of coolant on the ground. Blue, nasty, sticky, stinky liquid. But I know I will be called upon to clean it :(.

That really sucks.

What kind of machines are you talking about?

One of the machines at work has always had a problem with leaking coolant, at least in hte past 4 or 5 months. It's never been too bad, just a shallow puddle that I can mop up in 5 minutes. Another employee is supposed to take care of it, but he "never finds the time". I am low enough on the totem poll that I can't use that excuse and keep my job at the same time.
Today is the usual "Bernie, you have a lake behind your machine". I go, it's a pretty good sized puddle. This one takes at least 20 minutes to clean up. My boss tells me that he just does not want to deal with it, and that I should just mop it up because it is easier.
THis machine holds 40 gallons of coolant.

20 minutes later an employee tells me I did a lousy job mopping up that puddle. I am like WTF no I did not. I go behind, it's back! So I get a tray to put under where the leak is. I inform my boss that the rate at which this puddle is forming is increasing quite a bit. Every 20 minutes or so, I empty that tray into a 5 gallon bucket. I was collecting 8 gallons of coolant per hour. I would pour the coolant back into the machine.

At 4:30 I leave. I tell one of the employees, he tells me he does not give a fuark. He says he will just add more buckets of coolant from the sink as the machine loses it. So I know that during the night while everybody is gone and the shop is closed, that machine will leak. I know that there will be 40 gallons of coolant on the ground. Blue, nasty, sticky, stinky liquid. But I know I will be called upon to clean it :(.

Man that stinks, you should find a better job. You are not their clean up man or servant, i don't think you deserve to be treated like crap either.

You are not their clean up man or servant,

If he's "low enough on the totem pole" he kinda probably is. I had jobs where I had to clean up after other people all the time. Why would you pay someone $25 dollars an hour when you have someone who makes $8 dollars and hour that can do the same job. You either pay your dues till there's someone else lower on the pay scale, or you find some other place to work.

That does suck though, particularly since it's due to poor maintenance on the part of your superiors. It seems like there's always someone higher up that can't do their job properly and the blame and consequences land squarely on whoever is below them. Meh, just call in sick.

You are not their clean up man or servant

Umm, yeah, I think he is.


I remember having to clean up all the used oil filters at my first job, boy, that was fun.

What happens if the machine runs out of coolant? I bet THAT will get someone's attention. Isn't there a maintenance department? Put the machine down and inform them. If they still don't want to fix it, then ask for the biggest wrench and the biggest screwdriver they have and tell them that you'll take care of it yourself. :)

There is a maintenance department, his name is Phantomcow2 :).
I know i get stuck with the crap jobs, that's why I am there. The other guy who works with the milling machine probably gets payed double what I do. It's cheaper for the company to have me deal with this crap than to fix it right. All of the crap work gets loaded on me, but that's what I expect. I think it can get ridiculous though. Once I was told to mow the lawn (a bit over 1 acre). But every 4 minutes I had to run in and load this damn machine. It takes a minute or so to get outside, and a minute to return. SO I would mow the lawn for two minutes at a time until I had to shut the mower off. About half the time my boss had the highest pay employee run out and get me to inform me that my machine has stopped :p
I think it is his way of unleashing his frustration.

It sounds like you have a sucky job phantomcow. I've had a few of them too. Hang in there and it should get better. I'm amazed your Supervisor doesn't want to deal with a defective machine. You need to find a way to report the defect to maintenance if only to cover your butt. If that machine fails he will probably blame you.

It sounds like you have a sucky job phantomcow. I've had a few of them too. Hang in there and it should get better. I'm amazed your Supervisor doesn't want to deal with a defective machine. You need to find a way to report the defect to maintenance if only to cover your butt. If that machine fails he will probably blame you.
Could be worse, PC! I used to have to follow an elephant around with a shovel:eek:

and no, I'm not kidding!:p

Is the machine hot at the point of the leak? I mean, can you identify where the leak is, and if it's a single leak? Is it at a fitting, or in a casing, or along a pipe? Is the coolant under pressure at all? You may be able to patch it somehow with epoxy. Unfortunately, I don't have enough info to offer any good way to perhaps fix it, or to at least slow it down. But the way the rate's increasing, sounds like a catastrophic failure in the making. It really needs to be handled soon.