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| I used to work in a foundry with a group of guys who were pranksters. We did all sorts of crazy stuff. We attach zip ties to guys drive shafts and use a piece of masking tape to hold the end down. Once they got out on the road, the masking tape would let loose and the zip tie would slap the underside of the vehicle. Had one guy who ate a can of soup every day for lunch. At about 11:30, he would crack the top of the can and place it on the edge of one of the furnaces to heat up. We superglued the can to the furnace a few times. Any new guy would get convinced that we were all a bunch of criminals on work release from the prison - and we were all puzzled why he was hired there off the street. Funny part was, most of the guys working there really did look the part! When a new guy was training on the diecaster, someone would sneak up when he had his back turned and toss about 1/2 handful of shot beads into the shot ram. When the ladle poured aluminum, the flames would shoot out about 3 feet and scare the crap out of him! Another famous trick was to poke a small hole partway down on a pop can when the guy wasn't watching. He'd grab it to take a drink and it would "pee" down his shirt.
I agree to a point with Plowboy on some of the pranks mentioned - if it leads to people getting hurt or property damage, it has gone too far. We had an unspoken rule in the foundry - anything was "game" except for safety violations or personal property. I would NOT want to work for an outfit that banned all fun though. Any type of work can get monotonous and this sort of stuff would add some fun to it. As for the respect issue - any new hire soon learned that we were just making him a part of the crew and was always told afterward that he was not to take that as the rest of us "picking on him". We all took as well as we gave and everyone looked forward to the next good prank. We never did have anyone who had issues with the pranks. Maybe we were just lucky.... | |
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Breaking in the New Guy
