The crew leader helped me get the new roll of paper into that beast, and then it printed out my test pattern. I then had to build a box, complete with labels and tags, baubles and bows. I set that hateful thing down with a sigh of relief, turned around and watched someone place the sixth completed alternator on the testing table, then run like a rabbit back to the other end of the line again. For someone who was supposed to build one alternator from start to finish, I was spending an awful long time just testing the rotten things. When our break buzzer rang two hours later, I had built exactly two alternators and had spent the rest of the time testing them. The “ failed test” line was stacked four levels high, with nobody in sight to tear them down. Guess who got that job after break? Yup.
By the end of the day, our supernaturally inspired quota of four hundred parts, had turned into a reality of only 250 completed parts. Management decided we were morons and we should grow a brain. They informed us that we would rabbit chase or else. I don't know what the “else” was, but it sounded fairly dangerous. The next day we tried again, with even weirder results. If I am not mistaken, the rabbit chase technique lasted exactly three days, after which we reverted back to our old way unless someone was looking. That someone did not include upper management since those idiots had no idea what rabbit chasing actually looked like anyway. Most of them had no idea what an alternator looked like.
As a result of our “mutiny” we managed to meet our four hundred piece quota every single day, and the clueless wonders in charge of the company were so proud of themselves because their cool new plan had worked so wonderfully. They never did figure it out, and they bragged to everyone they knew about how successful rabbit chasing was. Meanwhile, I would imagine that the Canadians were well entertained by the rumors they no doubt heard about us, and particularly about the quality of our work.
Oh well. The joke is on Mexico now, because the stuff we were building, they are now building down there. I wonder if they had to try the rabbit chase too, and I wonder if they were as “successful” at it as we were? As far as I'm concerned, they can keep it because this little rabbit has now returned to the wild.
