| At one time I worked at quality control in a sheet metal plant.
It was a better job than I had anticipated with a good salary, no timeclocks, and the best hospitalization money could buy, and better health insurance than UAW auto workers had. I appreciated the opportunity and threw myself into the work with all the energy I had.
The other men nicknamed me "the white tornado" because I was everywhere. I replaced all the old blueprints and started to check all the jigs and fixtures. This annoyed quite a few people along the way who had ignored these things for many years and now looked a bit foolish for having done so little for so long.
I put a sign over my office door:
If you can lead, lead. If you can follow, follow.
If you can't lead OR follow then
GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!
The plant manager was an ex-Army G2 (intelligence) officer who, much to my surprise, actually was intelligent. His name was Henry but everyone called him "Hank". A very straight-to-the-point type of personality that worked for me. Hank told me, with a huge grin on his face, that I had to remove the sign. He said too many people were complaining to him that they thought it was aimed at them. He said their guilt was very entertaining but the sign had to come down. We seemed to be working as a team and there were even discussions about moving me up the corporate ladder in the near future.
One afternoon Hank paged me to come to his office. This was not unusual at all. We had many private discussions about many things and Hank would even ask my opinion on non-work related matters. I expected this meeting to be much the same as the others had been. Wrong.
When I walked into his office he told me to close the door with a very serious look on his face that made me a bit nervous. I assumed I had made some grevious error and was going to get sacked. Hank said that he had decided that it was important that I call him "sir" inside the plant. I started to smile, then seeing his seriousness, thought better of it and simply asked why that was important. He ignored the question and told me to try calling him sir". A rehersal just to be certain I understood him.
I said "yes sir" but the words hung in my throat. I realized this was his way of putting me in my place. My being "the white tornado" was stealing his thunder and he wanted me to know that I wasn't all that much. I was training two new people for quality control at the time and thought I should ask if this would apply to the other men in quality control. Hank replied "No, just you". I managed to get out of there without saying what I was thinking but my face was on fire and I was on the verge of quitting.
It wasn't that I never called another man "sir". I did. It was that it was intended to humble me and I didn't agree that it was necessary. I decided to sleep on it and either quit or tell Hank what he could do with his "sir" routine or both.
The following day I was thinking that this was how the military managed to remind soldiers who was in charge. They seemed to have to call everyone sir. I had my solution. I would refer to all of the men as "sir". Hank couldn't limit me to how many "sir"s there were to be. I replied "yes sir" and "no sir" to everyone, even the sweepers.
Later that day while talking to one of the employees with the appropriate "yes sir" and "no sir" I turned around and there was Hank. This time HIS face was red. I had never seen him lose his composure before. He tried to say something to me but it came out MPFH ...MWATH...HLRMPH then he turned and walked away.
Hank and I never discussed the "sir" thing after that. I left this job about six months later to accept an apprenticeship in the metal working trades. Even now I say "yes sir" and "no sir" to everyone with a smile and think of Hank.
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