Just had a discussion with a retired Boeing employee

[KrazyinKS]

He worked there for 32 years. When Boeing sold to Spirit he said what astounded him and many others such as supervisors and such was the amount of nepotism going on. . So many relatives being put in positions of decision making (supervisors and such) I did not know that. It just gets me that when companies go in the red and start having financial difficulties, they blame taxes and regulation instead of themselves and the incompetent people they just put in charge. So when they cut taxes and expect things to suddenly improve, we should not be surprised when that does not work.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. That was just the Wichita division, right?

[KrazyinKS]

3. Yes Wichita

But it reminded me of another incident. My husband had picked up used oil at car shops, and such all over western Kansas for 30 years. His company was bought out by another out of Chicago. The buyers read like a who's who of the Republican party. Shortly after they bought it they made a number of serious mistakes. They built a refinery here in Wichita, Bill was told to go pump a barrel of oil that was in the yard, he opened it up and immediately could smell PCB oil, he alerted his boss. If that wound up in the refinery that would be a serious and costly mistake. Instead of thanking him they tried to fire him. His boss had to beg them not to do it. Bill said PCB oil wound up in the refinery in Chicago and ruined one million gallons up there. It costs 10 dollars a gallon to clean it up. He said he only ran into PCB once in the 30 years he had worked western Kansas but remembered the smell. Doesn't this sound familiar, fire the guy (truck driver) that alerts you to a mistake.

[fescuerescue]

4. Why would that do that?

Trying to understand the motivations of why a company would want to fire someone who alerted them prior to making a $10,000,000 mistake. And then made the mistake anyway.

bizarre.

They must have really wanted that barrel.

[KrazyinKS]

8. The refinery that was contaminated was in Chicago

The one I am talking about is in Wichita, and he did stop them from pumping it. What stunned me was they tried to fire him after. Really they did that.

[Recursion]

6. I was just thinking that

(I'm a nearly full-time Boeing subcontractor)

Boeing is really three companies. Two of them are great. One of them is.... not great.

[KT2000]

2. important point

you are so right about that. Every failure is an excuse to go after taxes and regulations.

There is a book called Turbulence in which the author/researchers studied Boeing when it converted to the Jack Welch formula of business. They first thing they had to do was destroy the old model that included things like loyalty, shared sense of purpose, and pride in their work. It was replaced with competition among workers and fear of losing their jobs.

They followed up with a second book that told the effects od the realized changes. Not good.

[dae]

5. Thanks for the book title, I'll look it up.

[KT2000]

7. here is the info:

Turbulence: Boeing and the State of American Workers and Managers, Edward Greenberg, Leon Grunberg, Sarah Moore, Patricia B. Sikora, Yale University Press, 2010

The follow-up book was published last year I believe.