Ever been told this at work?.
There are few things that annoy me more than being told this, believe me.
Especially when the guy telling you, is just a Factory employee, or worse a Factory Supervisor.
It's bad enough having the pressure of having to find a fault in an Electrical system without being hassled by the people you are supposed to be aiding.
I've seen people have accidents after being put under extra pressure like this.
Your comments?.

Two words: wait, this is a family forum so I won't repeat them here.

First, I refuse to rush no matter what. If the boss, etc. doesn't like it, too bad. They can hire someone else. I will not compromise safety for anyone or anything.

Second, I usually respond along the lines of "Sure, if you want to fill out an accident report or deal with a death/injury instead. Or perhaps we can really damage this equipment/system since you're in such a rush."

Those responses are reserved to those arrogant enough to tell me to hurry up. Those who are respectful enough to enquire politely "how much longer?", will be met with a courteous estimate of completion time.

It's all in how it's said I guess.

[This message has been edited by mxslick (edited 08-11-2005).]

In an earlier life I fixed computers back when they filled a big room with 1000 cards in each frame and there are lots of frames.
I got gates open on 2 frames with scope probes all over, hands cupped over the tube, looking for a blip while my buddy hits a button.
The data center manager askes ... "how long do you think it will be"?

The same 2 words come to mind.

Pope Julius II; (Impatient for the Sistine chapel ceiling), "When will you be done?"
Michaelangelo; "When it's finished!"

Q: How much longer ??
A: 10 minutes longer than before you interrupted me.

[This message has been edited by techie (edited 08-12-2005).]

I admit that sometimes, the pressure is on, and you have to hustle some...

When this happens, I recall what Wyatt Earp is said to have replied when asked about gunfighting:

"Take your time....quickly."

I had a supervisor ask me one time how long it would take to fix his loom. Told him 15 mins. He came back 1/2 hour later asked the same thing, told him the same thing. This went on a couple of hours, then he said. I thought you said it would be 15 mins. I replied that it would be fixed in 15 mins, never said how long it was going to take to find the problem. He never talked to me after that!

"Two weeks...got a check?" (from "The Money Pit")

or the ever popular: If you don't like this speed, you're gonna hate my other gear.

Obviously, I pay little to no attention to their "demands" to hurry up...BUT, the people I have worked for for any length of time know that when I leave a job it's for one of two reasons:
a) It's done and nothing else needs to be done.
b) I just quit.

When it's safe and dead, I'm a Tiger.

When it's live, I'm a Turtle.

Dave

I know that feeling, how long is the power gonna be off for etc.
I usually say 2 hours when I know that it will be on in ½ hour, at least that keeps them off my back.
Other wise I do the same as techie says, or walk away and say get an other electrician and wait even longer.
I luckily gat paid anyway there I work for a big contracting company who supports their staff.

Hmmm How long is long ?

When you trip out a generator farm in the middle of rural Bosnia and the army get twitchy as there are some not nice individuals outside. Kitchen main board tripped - this was our main load so the gen sets thought Yep time to cool off awhile - so the all shut down apart from the lead set. Little knowledge comes along sees the tripped breaker and resets it. Chaos as the gen set tried to supply the load, the others wake up and start but they have no hope in syncing up with dancing one which eventually trips. So a few momnets of dancing lights and then darkness and then a hell of a lot of scared squaddies.

Our huts were at the opposite end of the camp but we had the torches and we were running. Lead set blew a few fuses and took out a control card so we'd to re config another set as lead get her started and onto bus, then we had to get lights on. talking a good 15 minutes or so. The topbrass with floating about except for the one that flicked the breaker back on. If only he had shut it down again wed have managed to scape through. It was a brown toruser that one, but we were treated to a few beers once we'd got the lights back up.

Next thing wed a few notices put round on our switchgear indicating that on no account should it be touched and in the akward areas there were a few padlocked covers attached.

We spent a good few months after the incident putting up emergency fittings and a few distributed back up ligthing towers that would start if the power went down.

Rugged

When I worked in the Shipyard, we worked some hot jobs 24/7, and were always told to hurry up. Most of them were finished and just sat, collecting dust, for a long time after. Everyone got overtime though.
In the Pentagon, there was always a mad rush to complete projects that were behind schedule because they were not planned properly, and many of them had their funding borrowed for other jobs before we even started, then management had the audacity to say we used all the manhours up!
I worked a commercial job, and quality was secondary to speed, so I quit and worked for a madman in residential that was 6 years older than me and could not get anyone to keep up with him. He was always in a hurry, but made very little mistakes.
He always told me to hurry up, but he never compromised quality.

When I was a maintenance mechanic at an amusement park the inside joke between us in that dept was "Is this ride open?"

The reason was customers would always ask us that while we were servicing a ride.

Had the transmission and transfer case on the ground beside the train ride it came out of.

Customer; Is this ride open?

Myself and another worker where wrestling a 200 pound gear box into place on a 'Tilt-a-whirl' its heavy and it's over 90 F on the Midway.

Customer interrupts us Is this ride open?

That time it took quite a bit of self control not to snap and tell the person what was ion my mind.

Bob

Back when I was just a kid working for GE as a field engineer; our managment told us that safety was first, last and only. One of my fellow trainees almost got himself fired during training class for working unsafe. If we were getting hassled to the point of being distracted or unable to continue our work safely, we were authorized to pick up our stuff and leave the jobsite. Period. And our managers would actually take OUR side when the customer called in all p***ed off. I'm glad that I had such a safety conscious boss when I was starting out.

It's many years later and I still work that way; the more you make me nervous...the slower and more deliberately I work. There's no point in MY getting hurt just so that some other poor soul can fill in for me and get hurt because of the same 'Nervous Nellie' who just can't stand that his machine isn't working at maximum efficiency at that precise second.

I once saw a poster with the cartoon character Maxine on it that I wish I had bought for my wall..."In a hundred years it won't matter; HELL, it hardly matters NOW".

Bob and Ghost,
It is my honest opinion, that anyone with a short fuse, should never be involved with Industrial or Commercial work.
Mainly because there are plenty of idiots (managers) to wind you up during important work, as in Live work.
My standard line is "You want to do this sweet-heart?, c'mon get your hands in here, it's only 400V!"

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 04-16-2006).]

when getting asked repeatedly " how much longer ?" or " How soon ... "
Just tell them that the more they ask you the same question, the more times I have to stop working. The more times I stop, the longer it will take to finish up. The longer it takes to finish , then more it will cost YOU ! So keep on asking the same question, I got ALL day and tomorrow hasn't been touched yet !
Most impatient people figure it out then.

Trumpy, I think that was the reason behind their position at GE's training center. If you're upset, angry, or just plain rattled...stop working and calm down. If the situation keeps you from being able to work safely, walk out while you can still walk.

The folks who get upset and rush through the job are the ones who don't last long (literally).

Just remember...our area of the gene pool is self-chlorinating.

[This message has been edited by ghost307 (edited 04-17-2006).]