The Pompadour

When the engineering manager appeared at the door with The Pompadour, I was completely speechless. Not only did I not know they had hired a new engineer, but they had hired quite possibly the nerdiest guy alive.

There he stood, in all his pompadour glory, 98lbs soak and wet, with 3 inches of hair and gigantic wrap around safety glasses, looking at Sophia and I as the engineering manager made his introductions.

"Hello Ladies, this is The Pompadour, he is our newest addition to the support staff. Pompadour, this is Sophia and Phoebe. Phoebe, I would like to start out The Pompadour in the incoming area for a little training, it probably won't be until tomorrow morning, do you think we could arrange that?" the engineering manager had really left me no options. It's not like I could say 'no, you're on crack, I don't think so.'

"Sure, just send him back and we'll get started." With a smile affixed to our faces, Sophia and I had welcomed The Pompadour and told him is was nice meeting him.

"OMG! That is the biggest nerd I've ever seen." I waited until the engineering manager and The pompadour were out of earshot then let it all spill out. "When did they hire this guy?"

"He must be the guy they were talking about in the plant meeting," Sophia had been here on Wednesday when they had the meeting, I was off sick.

"This should be interesting," I was already dreading his return.

I didn't have to dread for long.....

Less then 30 minutes later I had returned to the area to find The Pompadour and the engineering manager were back, apparently for training. So much for 'tomorrow morning'.

The Pompadour and I started our training session in the receiving department. I was completely embarrassed at the level of training the receiver was displaying. Not only did she not explain any of the steps she was taking, she did not take the time to explain what any of the acronyms meant, and, top it off, she was talking down to him and chatting on the phone right in front of me.

I was horrified.

Note to self: Do not do that again!

Looking to escape this mortifying experience, I headed The Pompadour in the direction of Sophia for a little training on the inspection of custom product. I was pleased to see her professional demeaner and calmness as she began her training.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I headed back over to the receiver and asked her what the hell the scene was all about, I could see The Pompadour was nervous as hell, the whole scene had caused him to break out in hives all over her nick and face.

"I don't know, I just was trying to do too much," her eyes were huge. I don't normally have to talk to the girls about their behavior.

"Ok, we just need to be patient as we are walking through things for others. Remember, he is here to train and learn our process. It is my responsibility to the engineering manager to make sure he has a basic understanding of the process," I was relaxed with my tone but firm with my instruction. I was definitely non plussed with her behavior.

Things I have learning about The Pompadour in his brief training session within my area:

• The Pompadour is married and has a son, but spent the last 3 years in China without his wife and son. He is also minus a wedding band. I have a feeling The Pompadour is no longer married, but pretends to be.
• The Pompadour was laid off from his previous job because of downsizing. He had made switches for the automotive industry.
• The weather in China this time of the year is absolutely beautiful.
• The Pompadour had applied for a position within the company of one of our customers, he had not heard back from them to this date.
• The Pompadour is considering renting an apartment in town throughout the week so he does not have the long commute to and from work each day.

On an unrelated side note:

I received this email from Mr. Brownstar earlier this afternoon.

To the gang,
I would like to cancel the additional 5-S meeting we added for Tuesday. I have a Dr. appointment that I can not reschedule and would
really like to be present when we continue. Please bring any ideas and walk through input to this Thursday’s scheduled meeting.
There will be an agenda forthcoming.

Sincerely, Mr. Brownstar

What an ass. Too afraid he's going to miss something, he feels the need to hold us back from actually achieving something. This is EXACTLY the reason why all of our other attempts at 5-S have failed, to date.