A little pride in your work

[Guest nicemac]

What ever happened to people doing a good job, no matter what their job was? People used to take pride in their work. The products they made were made to last. People were craftsmen. It was easy to find high-quality workmanship.

Which brings me to the display of "workmanship" I saw on the way home yesterday. TDOT is repaving several roads around my house. Mind you, these roads are not in bad shape, but they are getting repaved anyway. You know, we have so much money to burn in the highway budget.

Anyway, Highway 96 between Franklin and Arrington is one of the roads getting some new pavement. At least it is not getting totally repaved. This road is only getting about 1/2 mile of new pavement just east of Trinity Elementary School. That means new striping on the road. I about fell over when I saw the stripe job. To say the lines are crooked is a gross understatement. A drunk man driving the paint truck with four flat tires could have done a better job. I cannot describe how bad it is. The road is so busy, I really can't stop and take a picture. If you are in the area, check it out. It would be very funny if it hadn't cost us (the taxpayers) so much money…

[monkeylizard]

roadkill with road line markings painted right over the top | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[daddyo]

What ever happened to people doing a good job, no matter what their job was? People used to take pride in their work. The products they made were made to last. People were craftsmen. It was easy to find high-quality workmanship.

Which brings me to the display of "workmanship" I saw on the way home yesterday. TDOT is repaving several roads around my house. Mind you, these roads are not in bad shape, but they are getting repaved anyway. You know, we have so much money to burn in the highway budget.

Anyway, Highway 96 between Franklin and Arrington is one of the roads getting some new pavement. At least it is not getting totally repaved. This road is only getting about 1/2 mile of new pavement just east of Trinity Elementary School. That means new striping on the road. I about fell over when I saw the stripe job. To say the lines are crooked is a gross understatement. A drunk man driving the paint truck with four flat tires could have done a better job. I cannot describe how bad it is. The road is so busy, I really can't stop and take a picture. If you are in the area, check it out. It would be very funny if it hadn't cost us (the taxpayers) so much money…

Thanks for the heads up; I will avoid that strip of road when I head to Chattanooga this weekend.

[Guest WyattEarp]

American quality and craftsmanship has severely fallen off. I don't know if it's laziness, being cheap and trying to cut corners and expenses while maximizing sales and profit. Whatever it is, I have no doubt it's a factor in the current state of our economy.

I don't only notice it with products and goods, I notice it with services provided.

I got comcast digital earlier this month for my apartment, went and picked up the box, followed the instructions to activate it, nothing happened. So I called Comcast, they tried to send a digital signal, it didn't work. Took it back, got another box, same thing happened. So they sent someone out. He was here 5 minutes and got it working. Then he cursed the customer service people for their incompetence up one side and down the other, and said they couldn't activate a nicotine patch in the middle of a craving if their life depended on it and all I could do was laugh. He said they can't do anything right, they don't pay attention to what they're doing when they code a digital box, and then it somehow gets the signals mixed up and won't activate.

Maybe it's magnified in my mind because it seems to happen more often to me, but I find have to be proactive in regards to getting a product or a service, because in general the person on the other end of the phone doesn't have the slightest clue about the product or service being sold, and they don't care that you want it a certain way, so long as they get your payment, and they get their commission. And I've also had some great experiences where I was surprised by the quality of service I got, the knowledge of the person on the other end of the phone about the product or service I was inquiring about.

Since I was about 18, I've found if you want something done right, you usually have to do it yourself because you just can't depend on other people to do it the way you want it and to care about it getting it to you the way you want it.

[Will H]

Yeah....

[laktrash]

Part of the issue in this case

TDOT = government job = typical government attitude

Not intended to offend anyone

[Guest nicemac]

Yeah....

This is just about how bad the stripe job looks, only without the downed tree and for 1/2 mile!

[Guest GunTroll]

Those photos are great. Driving down my road is a guessing game as to whether or not your on your side of the road. Kind of like not having lines...that can be seen very well anyways. Probably a drunk has used that excuse more than once.

[Guest WyattEarp]

it could be worse. be glad it's just the road stripes, and not the actual quality of the roadwork. Tennessee has some pretty smooth roads and highways compared to Missouri and Ohio.

lived in MO, roads were awful, I worked in Canton, OH a few years ago and the roads there are so bad, they make Missouri roads look good.

[Guest nicemac]

it could be worse. be glad it's just the road stripes, and not the actual quality of the roadwork. Tennessee has some pretty smooth roads and highways compared to Missouri and Ohio.

lived in MO, roads were awful, I worked in Canton, OH a few years ago and the roads there are so bad, they make Missouri roads look good.

The bad thing is the roads they are repaving not that bad. Wilson Pike got it from end to end and it didn't have any problems anywhere that I was aware of (I drive it several days a week). I mean, WE'RE BROKE!

[peejman]

I've noticed the same thing. I think the biggest cause is a lack of personal accountability for mistakes. The areas where you're likely to find good craftsmanship, you're also likely to find personal accountability.

Automation and cost pressures have changed a lot of things. Working used to be about doing a good job with one's hands. With automation, the ability to have any personal influence over the outcome of the job is largely removed. Which means you change from a skilled craftsman to an unskilled operator.

I'm thankful to work at a place that still requires personal accountability. Folks with little pride in their work and/or poor craftsmanship typically don't last long.

[monkeylizard]

nicemac, are these the permanent painted lines? I know when they resurfaced I440 several years ago they used some kind of tape that didn't stick really well. It ended up looking like something from a Dr. Seuss book. Then when they finally finished everything else they came back and removed that stuff and painted real lines.

[daddyo]

OK, my curiosity is getting the better of me. I'm gonna go check this out today on the way home.

[Guest nicemac]

nicemac, are these the permanent painted lines? I know when they resurfaced I440 several years ago they used some kind of tape that didn't stick really well. It ended up looking like something from a Dr. Seuss book. Then when they finally finished everything else they came back and removed that stuff and painted real lines.

These are the permanent lines.

[mcurrier]

Part of the issue in this case

TDOT = government job = typical government attitude

Not intended to offend anyone

It offends me. As a taxpayer!

[vontar]

I know what OP means, when I was growing up and new to driving, the roads were as described above, not prefect but not bad. One day they a road crew went though and spilled and spread some pavement all over the place in about a 5 mile area in patches. Not in one big lane. I mean they added patches randomly to make it look like the road had been patched here and there were there was really no problems. Then we had to drive on that crap for about a year before they went back and pave the whole road to actually fix what was not broke to begin with.

[kieefer]

When the complaints come in to the city, assuming they might, expect to see the whole section repaved and done during school opening and closing.

[daddyo]

Took the wife to Stein Mart last night, and on the way home I decided to ride past Trinity Elementary and see for myself. Sure enough, the lines have been done very, very poorly, and they are permanent. The new road surface is nice, but my wife said, "What was wrong with this section of road that they think they needed to repave it?". I didn't have an answer.

[Guest nicemac]

Took the wife to Stein Mart last night, and on the way home I decided to ride past Trinity Elementary and see for myself. Sure enough, the lines have been done very, very poorly, and they are permanent. The new road surface is nice, but my wife said, "What was wrong with this section of road that they think they needed to repave it?". I didn't have an answer.

I wonder what 7/10 mile of pavement that wide costs (at government prices)? I had a buddy that got a one lane driveway paved. It was only about two hundred yards and it was over $30,000.

[Ebow1]

What happened to pride in your work? Automation for one, my guess would be employers who treat their employees like crap. This is something I seem to be a magnet for. My current store manager seems to honestly believe that it is our job to do his. Take into account bad bosses, companies that always take the side of the complaining customer no matter how absurd/rude they are to the employee, corporations creating massive amounts of rules that serve no purpose other then interfering with your job, and it's not hard to see why people just stop caring. It's Office Space all over the country. People work just hard enough not to get fired.