You ever heard the old joke about manufacturing? It’s worth telling the joke again, just in case you’re filling out your manufacturers insurance form and need some diversion!
It goes something like this. A young, keen apprentice starts at an engineering firm and gets put under the wing of an older hand who’s nearing retirement, and has seen it all, done it all and has got the t-shirt. And no doubt also seen many a manufacturers insurance policy.
So the apprentice turns up, bright new overalls, a big, nervous smile and is anxious to please his allotted workmate. Not for him (yet) the task of filling out a manufacturers insurance questionnaire.
It’s Monday morning and the old hand meets his youthful new colleague with a wistful air, recognising himself in those eager eyes and fresh features, all those years ago when he first started as an apprentice.
So he waits until he has the young man’s attention and says: “Listen son, first job, I want you to pop down and see old Harry in the stores. As him for a long weight. I’ll need it for a job we’ve got to do this morning. Understand?”
“Okay Frank. Down the stores for a long weight...” replies the apprentice, who runs down to the said stores, finds Harry, who hears the young man’s request and nods sagely, telling the man to sit outside. Some hours pass and the bored apprentice asks Harry what’s happened to the long weight. “The long weight you say son? You’ve just had a long wait, now run back along to Frank.”
It’s a rites of passage for all apprentices. It may not be covered in the clauses of the manufacturing insurance policy, but it’s good to know.
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