Maxicube The Neverending Casual Job
Without Prejudice
I went there on spec, supposedly for 3 weeks. I ended up being there for 3 and half years, all on casual rates and would have stayed for ever and anon but they moved the entire production to Ballarat.
Maxicube was my first posting as a Purchasing Officer. I had wanted to work in Purchasing but didn't think it was possible, I had done some Purchasing in our own family business but never computerised Purchasing and I was honest with the Personnel Agency when they asked me to try out for the position.
"No", had been my answer. I had worked only in Credit and knew I didn't have the level of skill required.
But the credit position I then was sent to was way beneath me and I knew it. I stayed on but rang the agency, asked about the Purchasing position and it had gone. So I stayed where I was and a week later received a call. The Purchasing position was back on the table and the Boss was aware that I had no experience but still wanted to interview me. His name was Peter V. A shy taciturn man that addressed every sentence uttered at my chest.
He had come from an accounting background and was happy to give me a try out. he did warn me however if I didn't get things in on time, 72 men would be stood down in production and I would get the blame. Great ! no pressure then.
I started the next day and was literally thrown in at the deep end. Peter V. gave me half a days training on the in house system Moss and left me to fend for myself. He was way too busy the rest of the time. An enormous giant of a man stopped off at my desk and plonked a big metal ball thing on my desk and said,
"Girly, ya need to get me ten of those by tomorrow or the machine stops production."
I looked at the ball thing covered in grease and whispered,
"What is it?"
He told me a part number and luckily I was able to wing it. The part came up on the system and where it was last purchased and for how much and I was off and running. The man stayed by my side as I made the calls. I was the first woman Purchasing Officer they had ever had and he expected me to not be as good as a man.
He was the maintenance fitter, quite elderly but very good at what he did. He unfortunately had never been married or even had a girlfriend and I figured that out all by myself as I gazed at his prolific nose and ear hair. One hair grew out of his nose with a curl like a pigs tail and I wondered if he ever looked in a mirror. Probably not.Every time I spoke to him my eyes were drawn to the nose hair and my fingers itched to grab a pair of tweezers and tweak it out.
Peter V had warned me of one man that came up from Factory 3, he always reeked of after shave and a certain pomade that he wore in his hair. Peter had said he was a letch of the highest order and I was to "watch out" for him. He turned out to be quite a small man with big expressive eyes that he rolled at me as he handed me the list of requirements. I told him I was engaged and that caused him not a jot of hesitation as he said it didn't matter he was married.
I looked at him like he was an insect on a pin to be examined and found wanting and he looked at me like he wanted to eat me for lunch. Peter had warned me that it was a blokey atmosphere which usually involves lots of swearing and impatience. I learned the terms of Purchasing very quickly, there was Urgent, very Urgent and very very urgent. Everything was usually very very urgent and my 3 phone lines were lit at all times. I used to go home and pull the phone out of the wall so I didn't have to answer another thing.
It was chaos bordering on madness and I found out ever after that all Purchasing in manufacturing was the same. manufacturing and production being a hungry beast that swallowed up everything and then some. The challenge for a purchasing officer to be able to keep stock or just enough of it to cover production and not leave stock that cost money idle for too long as it cost the Company money.
Of course anything that was complex, for example a two part glue that had to be mixed days before a run was left to the last minute to be ordered. Usually when the powder was completely exhausted not at minimum stock level. So then the chase was on to get it in and get it mixed so that it could be run through the glue lines already blended. The company we bought from didn't like us and demanded money up front, so then the challenge was to get the boss to sign the cheque and get the cheque to accounts to be processed with the purchase order and Peter would have to okay that.
After a while he let me approve my own purchase orders but up to that point it was a case of finding him somewhere on site. I would totter down the stairs in my high heels, acknowledge the wolf whistles from the 72 men on site and hoik at a run in tight skirt until I found him and run all the way back. The heels stayed, so did the tight skirt. The men grew used to me running around like a demented chook without a head and the wold whistles stopped, usually quelled by a glance from my Boss.
New rules came into being about hearing loss issues for the men and ear muffs were on the table and I was told I had to wear them if I visted the Factory. I never quite lived down my refusal to wear them as they would give me "Muff Hair". Tony G in charge of production roared laughing when I said it and at first I didn't understand as to why.
The muscled OH and S lady thought I had said it deliberately and I looked at her as if she was mad.
She didn't like me at all and gave me lists of Safety Equipment and Employee needs that were complex and took ages to do but I smiled at her with cheeky aplomb, did my work and she ever after gave me a grudging sort of respect. She liked to have morning tea with Tony G and din't like the fact he stopped off at my desk for many a chat.
The only other females employed there were the phone receptionist, a girl in accounts and a girl that sat in front of me who was supposed to help out in both departments but mainly seemed to read books furtively under her desk.
We did hire an Indian Girl who was doing an internship as an accounts Officer. She came to me one day in tears as the Maintenance Fitter man had in a moment of unrequited lust had kissed her in the gatehouse, one day when she was helping out. She wasn't an arractive girl but was a "sheltered" girl and was going to be married one day to an Indian boy, an arranged marriage. So there were tears and counselling and it had to be reported as an "incident" and shortly after she left. I would have died if he had kissed me as well, I don't think he had brushed his teeth in about 15 years.
We had another man that came up from the factory who always reeked of alcohol. morning, noon and night. He had a drinking problem but there was nothing Management could do about it except issue him with warnings, written and verbal. I just tried not to breathe that much when he came to my desk with his scribbled Kanban lists of welding rods and other items. He was a lovely man but obviously just liked a nip or ten before work. He wasn't accountable for much so I think the policy was to just leave him alone and let him get on with his job.
We ran three shifts, morning, afternoon and night and hired a lot of casuals through agencies. Suddenly we started having a lot of thefts. Milk from the fridge, coffee, petty stuff. One day it was discovered a lap top had gone and the next night they came back for the lead, they had forgotten in their haste to get. We then had to employ Security Guards to check each car as it went out of the gate. But the thefts went on, especially of power tools. It was then my job to replace them.
I had never been so busy in all my life and the time went quickly and I would often stay back late to get faxes from Overseas on products we had ordered. We kept the same suppliers as we trusted them and their parts. But one day bolts that we had always bought from one particular company started shearing off on Pantechnicons as they roared up the highways. Maxicube made refridgerated skels for the back of trucks. Massive big boxes on wheels.
Safety standards had to be high and we contacted the supplier of the bolts and asked if their Supplier had changed the composition of their bolts. They were supposed to be HD (Heavy Duty) and the answer came back,
"No"
The skels were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and had to be perfect and pass all quality and safety standards. The bolts were shearing off at high speeds and we called in the Supplier in a mad panic and he took the bolts away to have them tested.
The answer came back and quickly, the bolts were NOT the same composition as before and had to be scrapped and we started recalls on trucks. It was a massive mistake and we ended up having to sue the Supplier for non conformance and start all over again.
It was also my job, my Boss said, to do all the stocktakes from then on as he hated them and he was the Boss. I also hated stocktake as it was a dirty foul job and I would stomp back up the stairs from the Factory covered in grease and give Peter V a baleful look at which he just laughed. I also toured the site with the energy agents and together we counted all the gas bottles on site.
Maxicube had three different factories and at Factory one, the foam walls were assemembled. We had our own Factory down the road that made the foam walls that became the inner lining.They were then transported to Factory 1 and the walls were started then the sub frame in Factory 2 and the finishing in Facotry 3.
Some of the boxes were fully refrigerated or half half for cold storage on one side and frozens on the other. We also fitted the refrigerated units, the tyres on and on the lists went and I was no in charge of most of the Purcashing for Factories 1 and 2. 3rd had their own Purchasing Officer, just the one. One day they decided to get him some help and chose a man that was working on the shop floor, who was Scottish, a brilliant man and awfully good looking and the girls and I dubbed him the "Diet Coke" man.
Everytime he came up from Factory 3 we were all atwitter after he left the room. He sounded like Sean Connery with a deep boom to his voice and he was charming and gentlemanly. After a few weeks he was called up to Head Office where I was and we girls got to have eye candy day in and day out.
One day I had to leave temporarily to have an operation, everyone signed a card of good luck and good wishes and it was hand delivered to me by the "Diet Coke man. He swept me back in my chair and gave me a "Gone With The Wind" kiss of farewell and I nearly died of shock. The girls decided then and there they were getting sick so they could have the same. Put a twinkle in my eye all day.
Sadly all good things have to come to an end and Maxicube moved it's entire production to Ballarat and we all had to leave. Only one person moved with them and we all found other jobs elsewhere. I never forgot my first Purchasing position and I thank God Peter V gave me a chance.
Love Janette
To be continued
I went there on spec, supposedly for 3 weeks. I ended up being there for 3 and half years, all on casual rates and would have stayed for ever and anon but they moved the entire production to Ballarat.
Maxicube was my first posting as a Purchasing Officer. I had wanted to work in Purchasing but didn't think it was possible, I had done some Purchasing in our own family business but never computerised Purchasing and I was honest with the Personnel Agency when they asked me to try out for the position.
"No", had been my answer. I had worked only in Credit and knew I didn't have the level of skill required.
But the credit position I then was sent to was way beneath me and I knew it. I stayed on but rang the agency, asked about the Purchasing position and it had gone. So I stayed where I was and a week later received a call. The Purchasing position was back on the table and the Boss was aware that I had no experience but still wanted to interview me. His name was Peter V. A shy taciturn man that addressed every sentence uttered at my chest.
He had come from an accounting background and was happy to give me a try out. he did warn me however if I didn't get things in on time, 72 men would be stood down in production and I would get the blame. Great ! no pressure then.
I started the next day and was literally thrown in at the deep end. Peter V. gave me half a days training on the in house system Moss and left me to fend for myself. He was way too busy the rest of the time. An enormous giant of a man stopped off at my desk and plonked a big metal ball thing on my desk and said,
"Girly, ya need to get me ten of those by tomorrow or the machine stops production."
I looked at the ball thing covered in grease and whispered,
"What is it?"
He told me a part number and luckily I was able to wing it. The part came up on the system and where it was last purchased and for how much and I was off and running. The man stayed by my side as I made the calls. I was the first woman Purchasing Officer they had ever had and he expected me to not be as good as a man.
He was the maintenance fitter, quite elderly but very good at what he did. He unfortunately had never been married or even had a girlfriend and I figured that out all by myself as I gazed at his prolific nose and ear hair. One hair grew out of his nose with a curl like a pigs tail and I wondered if he ever looked in a mirror. Probably not.Every time I spoke to him my eyes were drawn to the nose hair and my fingers itched to grab a pair of tweezers and tweak it out.
Peter V had warned me of one man that came up from Factory 3, he always reeked of after shave and a certain pomade that he wore in his hair. Peter had said he was a letch of the highest order and I was to "watch out" for him. He turned out to be quite a small man with big expressive eyes that he rolled at me as he handed me the list of requirements. I told him I was engaged and that caused him not a jot of hesitation as he said it didn't matter he was married.
I looked at him like he was an insect on a pin to be examined and found wanting and he looked at me like he wanted to eat me for lunch. Peter had warned me that it was a blokey atmosphere which usually involves lots of swearing and impatience. I learned the terms of Purchasing very quickly, there was Urgent, very Urgent and very very urgent. Everything was usually very very urgent and my 3 phone lines were lit at all times. I used to go home and pull the phone out of the wall so I didn't have to answer another thing.
It was chaos bordering on madness and I found out ever after that all Purchasing in manufacturing was the same. manufacturing and production being a hungry beast that swallowed up everything and then some. The challenge for a purchasing officer to be able to keep stock or just enough of it to cover production and not leave stock that cost money idle for too long as it cost the Company money.
Of course anything that was complex, for example a two part glue that had to be mixed days before a run was left to the last minute to be ordered. Usually when the powder was completely exhausted not at minimum stock level. So then the chase was on to get it in and get it mixed so that it could be run through the glue lines already blended. The company we bought from didn't like us and demanded money up front, so then the challenge was to get the boss to sign the cheque and get the cheque to accounts to be processed with the purchase order and Peter would have to okay that.
After a while he let me approve my own purchase orders but up to that point it was a case of finding him somewhere on site. I would totter down the stairs in my high heels, acknowledge the wolf whistles from the 72 men on site and hoik at a run in tight skirt until I found him and run all the way back. The heels stayed, so did the tight skirt. The men grew used to me running around like a demented chook without a head and the wold whistles stopped, usually quelled by a glance from my Boss.
New rules came into being about hearing loss issues for the men and ear muffs were on the table and I was told I had to wear them if I visted the Factory. I never quite lived down my refusal to wear them as they would give me "Muff Hair". Tony G in charge of production roared laughing when I said it and at first I didn't understand as to why.
The muscled OH and S lady thought I had said it deliberately and I looked at her as if she was mad.
She didn't like me at all and gave me lists of Safety Equipment and Employee needs that were complex and took ages to do but I smiled at her with cheeky aplomb, did my work and she ever after gave me a grudging sort of respect. She liked to have morning tea with Tony G and din't like the fact he stopped off at my desk for many a chat.
The only other females employed there were the phone receptionist, a girl in accounts and a girl that sat in front of me who was supposed to help out in both departments but mainly seemed to read books furtively under her desk.
We did hire an Indian Girl who was doing an internship as an accounts Officer. She came to me one day in tears as the Maintenance Fitter man had in a moment of unrequited lust had kissed her in the gatehouse, one day when she was helping out. She wasn't an arractive girl but was a "sheltered" girl and was going to be married one day to an Indian boy, an arranged marriage. So there were tears and counselling and it had to be reported as an "incident" and shortly after she left. I would have died if he had kissed me as well, I don't think he had brushed his teeth in about 15 years.
We had another man that came up from the factory who always reeked of alcohol. morning, noon and night. He had a drinking problem but there was nothing Management could do about it except issue him with warnings, written and verbal. I just tried not to breathe that much when he came to my desk with his scribbled Kanban lists of welding rods and other items. He was a lovely man but obviously just liked a nip or ten before work. He wasn't accountable for much so I think the policy was to just leave him alone and let him get on with his job.
We ran three shifts, morning, afternoon and night and hired a lot of casuals through agencies. Suddenly we started having a lot of thefts. Milk from the fridge, coffee, petty stuff. One day it was discovered a lap top had gone and the next night they came back for the lead, they had forgotten in their haste to get. We then had to employ Security Guards to check each car as it went out of the gate. But the thefts went on, especially of power tools. It was then my job to replace them.
I had never been so busy in all my life and the time went quickly and I would often stay back late to get faxes from Overseas on products we had ordered. We kept the same suppliers as we trusted them and their parts. But one day bolts that we had always bought from one particular company started shearing off on Pantechnicons as they roared up the highways. Maxicube made refridgerated skels for the back of trucks. Massive big boxes on wheels.
Safety standards had to be high and we contacted the supplier of the bolts and asked if their Supplier had changed the composition of their bolts. They were supposed to be HD (Heavy Duty) and the answer came back,
"No"
The skels were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and had to be perfect and pass all quality and safety standards. The bolts were shearing off at high speeds and we called in the Supplier in a mad panic and he took the bolts away to have them tested.
The answer came back and quickly, the bolts were NOT the same composition as before and had to be scrapped and we started recalls on trucks. It was a massive mistake and we ended up having to sue the Supplier for non conformance and start all over again.
It was also my job, my Boss said, to do all the stocktakes from then on as he hated them and he was the Boss. I also hated stocktake as it was a dirty foul job and I would stomp back up the stairs from the Factory covered in grease and give Peter V a baleful look at which he just laughed. I also toured the site with the energy agents and together we counted all the gas bottles on site.
Maxicube had three different factories and at Factory one, the foam walls were assemembled. We had our own Factory down the road that made the foam walls that became the inner lining.They were then transported to Factory 1 and the walls were started then the sub frame in Factory 2 and the finishing in Facotry 3.
Some of the boxes were fully refrigerated or half half for cold storage on one side and frozens on the other. We also fitted the refrigerated units, the tyres on and on the lists went and I was no in charge of most of the Purcashing for Factories 1 and 2. 3rd had their own Purchasing Officer, just the one. One day they decided to get him some help and chose a man that was working on the shop floor, who was Scottish, a brilliant man and awfully good looking and the girls and I dubbed him the "Diet Coke" man.
Everytime he came up from Factory 3 we were all atwitter after he left the room. He sounded like Sean Connery with a deep boom to his voice and he was charming and gentlemanly. After a few weeks he was called up to Head Office where I was and we girls got to have eye candy day in and day out.
One day I had to leave temporarily to have an operation, everyone signed a card of good luck and good wishes and it was hand delivered to me by the "Diet Coke man. He swept me back in my chair and gave me a "Gone With The Wind" kiss of farewell and I nearly died of shock. The girls decided then and there they were getting sick so they could have the same. Put a twinkle in my eye all day.
Sadly all good things have to come to an end and Maxicube moved it's entire production to Ballarat and we all had to leave. Only one person moved with them and we all found other jobs elsewhere. I never forgot my first Purchasing position and I thank God Peter V gave me a chance.
Love Janette
To be continued
