Shut up or I'll weld your mouth shut

Over the last several days I've been watching a job in the factory taking shape. It's a truck chassis extension. Essentially the rear wheels, axle, tail shaft and differential are removed and the chassis rails are cut through breaking the truck in half. Those rails are extended with matching steel c-channel and welded back on before the extended tail shaft is re-fitted along with the back wheel assembly. It's a massive job requiring an engineering certificate for compliance so has to be very precise. I've enjoyed watching the process but today I got a little more hands on.

The job is about one hundred and ten hours worth of labour, so about $16,000 plus materials so time is of the essence; the client accepted the quote and that's what the company will be paid on completion, irrespective of how long the job actually takes. It's running behind so I jumped on the tools today to help one of the lads out and push the job along.

Working in the factory isn't my role but getting on the tools gave me a chance to learn a little, show the factory team that I'm not above getting my hands dirty and that I'm a team player. A win win situation really...But why do I feel like I lost?

I was in the factory for almost five hours working directly with a welder/fabricator fellow who has a vast knowledge of his trade, He used to make trains at his last job, has worked on the submarine project welding inside the hull and various other things but... He would have to be one of the most negative people I have met in a long, long time and that's not legit for a chap like me who usually steers well clear of negative people.

The negativity began the moment there was the smallest of issues, the drill bit biting into the burrs on the steel and stalling was enough to send the conversation spiralling downward into the negativity-abyss and it dragged me with it. Heaven forbid his gas cylinder ran out on his welder! After about thirty minutes I wanted to weld the guy's mouth shut with his own Mig-welder. I couldn't of course, so I endured hours and hours of negativity and right now I feel pretty drained because of it.

Usually I'd apply my phrase from above, the don't go, or stay, as long ethos but in this case I was somewhat captive. I couldn't escape. All I could do was try and steer the conversation to more positive topics and hope to keep them there...But no, it wasn't possible. Kill me now, I was thinking after the first hour.

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears - Marcus Aurelius

It's easy to play the victim in life, especially these days where society, for some unknown reason, seems to promote it as a perfectly acceptable state of being. It's also easy to lay blame, to shift it away from oneself rather than take ownership and responsibility for one's own thoughts, attitudes and actions. I'm not sure, but I think people may like the feeling of empathy they get from others when they do so; maybe it's easier to blame and be negative than seek the solutions that will move one forward to better thoughts and a brighter future. I could be wrong though - I'm no expert.

What I know for sure is that I repel negativity, I just can't stand it and to have to work so closely with someone who was so completely negative brought me to a state of abject misery...I guess the only good thing is that I could go home and get back to normal; that chap has to live with himself and his negativity all the time, I was able to escape it.

I could have walked away, helped elsewhere, but I'm not one to shy away from a commitment; this job needed to be accelerated and I was able to help that happen so I did what I had to...But I'll try and avoid it next time, I just can't deal with the negativity...Or trust myself not to weld his mouth shut!

It was a funny day today. On one hand I helped a chap find clarity, take him from feeling miserable to feeling like there was light at the end of the dark tunnel he was/is in which I wrote about in my last post. On the other hand I spent a miserable five hours with an incredibly negative person whom, try as I might, I could not sway from the path of self-righteousness, victim mentality and extreme negativity. A weird sort of day.