The danger of micromanagement

A pretty cool job

We MADE this! This went on a race car we built.

Halfway through my sophomore year as a mechanical engineering student, I got a pretty cool job as a lab assistant in the college machine tool shop.  I got to wear the coveralls and walk around with an oil can to make sure that the mills and lathes were maintained.  Since it was a school machine shop, I didn't do much manufacturing of my own, but spent a lot of time helping other students make parts for school projects.


The grownup
The only grownup on staff was a long-time employee of the college:  Ken Forster.  He wore his thin hair slicked to the side and had a full mustache.  Ken was as much a fixture in that shop as any of the machinery.  The decades of expertise that he provided to the students could not have been replaced by any number of books on machining.  For good or for bad, that shop was his baby.

Ken had his way of doing things.  All of it was based on experience... HIS experience.  When we calculated the proper speeds at which to run the mill,