tester_res.txt

One of the more mechanical aspects of my previous career, was doing heavy maintenance on boilers at power-plants a couple of times a year. Boilers have many access ports on the turbine side of things, so that the different sections can be accessed relatively easily for maintenance. When these times of year came around, our boss would split up the team into groups with someone in charge of each job. I had officially become his second-in-command at this point and could give the final word on most inter-company disputes. In this case, we had 2 very large boilers to get opened up for the highly specialized welder, who was coming to repair the interior. The person running that job was allotted only one subordinate with whom to complete that task. I was working on another project entirely, but was technically in a supervisory role within the company and most disputes, anywhere, ultimately came to me for resolution. It was believed that it would take 1 1/2 days to have everything opened and then another 1 1/2 days to seal everything up. A conflict erupted when the subordinate suggested that they should each work on a separate boiler, to stay out of each other's way and to get the work done faster. When the conflict came to me, I had to side with his subordinate, which definitely caused some "friction" between us for most of that day. But ultimately, the first half of that job was finished at the end of the first day and the man I had the dispute with, acknowledged that splitting up that particular job was the more efficient way to go. We continued to do it that way for many years to come. With so many personalities and points of view, working on teams will always bring up disagreements about how things should be done. In my experience, cultivating an environment where it's ok to voice your opinion and try new ideas out, even when they will fail, is the best way to make improvements, find out what works and what doesn't, and allows everyone to feel like they are contributing.