Got talked about behind my back - right to my face

[bradgator2]

I'd like more details on this.

This is when I use to work at a nuclear power plant (1 site, 3 actual nuclear reactors). It was my first “real” job, straight out of college. The plant had roughly 3000 full time employees. There were several hundred engineers, of all kinds. There roughly 35 of us with real nuclear backgrounds, and only 5 of me (nuclear fuel designers). Anyway… emails were constant throughout the day, by every group imaginable. I was obviously the new kid. I’m sure most of who have worked for big organizations know… when you are brand new and young, you are basically perceived as a pimple on someone’s azz. Zero respect, essentially ignored. As a fresh college grad, that’s hard to swallow. (Now that I am mid-career, although different field, I totally get the treatment). So, at UF, I learned about a new way to perform a specific test (if you actually care… http://www.ans.org/pubs/journals/nt/a_3153). This new way would cut about 4 days off a 40 day refueling outage. We are talking about saving roughly 10 million dollars. It is obviously, SERIOUSLY different than the old test that has been performed for decades. I brought it up to my very cool supervisor. He knew about the test and thought it was great idea to explore it, so he told me to write a summary and send it out to a group of about 200 people. Including several high level supervisors. So I did.

One jerk forwarded it to a buddy of his who also received my email. But he also accidently had the “reply to all” in the CC. He said something along the lines of, “Hey Aaron, Do you know this ****ing guy? I guess he is trying to get us all fired. ****ing prick”

I didn’t know him and never met him. Just knew he was supposed to be on the email list. Within seconds, another email came through that said, “an attempt has been made to recall this email”. Too late. They fired him that freaking day.

And yes, we ended up doing the test my way and I got to be the lead engineer on the project. Although I didnt see any of that 10 mill, it did get me a promotion and $10,000 pay raise.

 

[2ndAmend]

Poor guy... so mean of you Mr Ox... call back ASAP and apologize to him that you made him suffer... tell him, it'll never happen again... consider sending chocolates as a gesture of love.

 

[oxrageous]

I think it's safe to say that Brad is significantly smarter than most of us.

 

[Gatordiddy]

I think it's safe to say that Brad is significantly smarter than most of us.

But I think Brad pronounces it ..."new-kew-luhr", at least that's what I read in the chat box.
must be true

 

[bradgator2]

I think it's safe to say that Brad is significantly smarter than most of us.

Neah. Didnt you read all my "name your dumbest moment" posts. I had like 10 in there. Luckily, I was blessed in the fact that math and physics was naturally in my brain... and so I really took advantage of that gift. (You want to talk about pissing off classmates in physics and calculus in high school!!)

 

[WillGetIn]

Neah. Didnt you read all my "name your dumbest moment" posts. I had like 10 in there. Luckily, I was blessed in the fact that math and physics was naturally in my brain... and so I really took advantage of that gift. (You want to talk about pissing off classmates in physics and calculus in high school!!)

Ox, didn't you know that bradgator is originally from just outside Harrisburg, PA? Some place named something like Tree Hill Island or something....

Looks like the guy that sent the email *may* have been right!

 

[bradgator2]

Ox, didn't you know that bradgator is originally from just outside Harrisburg, PA? Some place named something like Tree Hill Island or something....

Looks like the guy that sent the email *may* have been right!

I was only 3 when 3 Mile Island happened.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

Ok so ill chime in with one of these, except I wasn't on the receiving end like Ox or Brad.... I was the goat.

It was during an Iraq deployment, I was a 1LT. We had been downrange for about 30 days at this point and things were still swirling. Myself and my Soldiers were doing 16-18 hour days in order to keep pace with the flow. I was averaging 3-4 hours sleep a day and it was rough. I was on battalion staff and we had deployed as a brigade but only the battalions were given actual missions so our brigade HQ basically sat at a large camp as a tenant and simply invented "good ideas" that they pushed on us to enact. On top of that we had our real HQ and real mission which came down from theater command. So basically I was in one of those office space situations with multiple bosses and multiple competing taskings.

Fast forward to a month in and I had been getting constantly badgered by a brigade level officer about doing a bunch of stupid paperwork to get some access cards with elevated privileges for all of my guys. The issue was we were on a completely separate camp and the systems we had weren't set up to use those cards so it was pointless. I had voiced this multiple times but to no avail, brigade kept saying all will comply and we simply didn't have the time to be bothered with stupid crap that was pointless. I get into my office one morning and I have a nasty gram email from this individual (who had just been promoted to colonel) about me being 15 days delinquent on the tasker. It really pissed me off so in my anger I meant to hit the Fwd button but guess I hit reply or reply all, then typed in my platoon sergeant's name and sent him an email that read something along the lines of

"Hey man, brigade keeps hounding me about these stupid access cards. Ive been blowing them off to this point but it looks like we may not be able to much longer. Any chance we can find some time to get this crap done just to get these @ssholes off our back?"

Then hit send... a few minutes later my PSG walks in and is like uhhh... sir....
Anyway, the next meeting with brigade I got my ass handed to me by the brigade XO in front of a lot of brass but it didn't end up being that bad because our battalion commander had the email I sent forwarded to him from brigade with the expectation that I would be formally reprimanded. Instead he called me in, slapped me on the back and told me not to worry about it, and that he hates those @ssholes too!

 

[NVGator]

This is when I use to work at a nuclear power plant (1 site, 3 actual nuclear reactors). It was my first “real” job, straight out of college. The plant had roughly 3000 full time employees. There were several hundred engineers, of all kinds. There roughly 35 of us with real nuclear backgrounds, and only 5 of me (nuclear fuel designers). Anyway… emails were constant throughout the day, by every group imaginable. I was obviously the new kid. I’m sure most of who have worked for big organizations know… when you are brand new and young, you are basically perceived as a pimple on someone’s azz. Zero respect, essentially ignored. As a fresh college grad, that’s hard to swallow. (Now that I am mid-career, although different field, I totally get the treatment). So, at UF, I learned about a new way to perform a specific test (if you actually care… http://www.ans.org/pubs/journals/nt/a_3153). This new way would cut about 4 days off a 40 day refueling outage. We are talking about saving roughly 10 million dollars. It is obviously, SERIOUSLY different than the old test that has been performed for decades. I brought it up to my very cool supervisor. He knew about the test and thought it was great idea to explore it, so he told me to write a summary and send it out to a group of about 200 people. Including several high level supervisors. So I did.

One jerk forwarded it to a buddy of his who also received my email. But he also accidently had the “reply to all” in the CC. He said something along the lines of, “Hey Aaron, Do you know this ****ing guy? I guess he is trying to get us all fired. ****ing prick”

I didn’t know him and never met him. Just knew he was supposed to be on the email list. Within seconds, another email came through that said, “an attempt has been made to recall this email”. Too late. They fired him that freaking day.

And yes, we ended up doing the test my way and I got to be the lead engineer on the project. Although I didnt see any of that 10 mill, it did get me a promotion and $10,000 pay raise.

So out of all that math and science in your brain you still have the ability to be a Designer?

Good for you, bro, no homo.

 

[NVGator]

Ok so ill chime in with one of these, except I wasn't on the receiving end like Ox or Brad.... I was the goat.

It was during an Iraq deployment, I was a 1LT. We had been downrange for about 30 days at this point and things were still swirling. Myself and my Soldiers were doing 16-18 hour days in order to keep pace with the flow. I was averaging 3-4 hours sleep a day and it was rough. I was on battalion staff and we had deployed as a brigade but only the battalions were given actual missions so our brigade HQ basically sat at a large camp as a tenant and simply invented "good ideas" that they pushed on us to enact. On top of that we had our real HQ and real mission which came down from theater command. So basically I was in one of those office space situations with multiple bosses and multiple competing taskings.

Fast forward to a month in and I had been getting constantly badgered by a brigade level officer about doing a bunch of stupid paperwork to get some access cards with elevated privileges for all of my guys. The issue was we were on a completely separate camp and the systems we had weren't set up to use those cards so it was pointless. I had voiced this multiple times but to no avail, brigade kept saying all will comply and we simply didn't have the time to be bothered with stupid crap that was pointless. I get into my office one morning and I have a nasty gram email from this individual (who had just been promoted to colonel) about me being 15 days delinquent on the tasker. It really pissed me off so in my anger I meant to hit the Fwd button but guess I hit reply or reply all, then typed in my platoon sergeant's name and sent him an email that read something along the lines of

"Hey man, brigade keeps hounding me about these stupid access cards. Ive been blowing them off to this point but it looks like we may not be able to much longer. Any chance we can find some time to get this crap done just to get these @ssholes off our back?"

Then hit send... a few minutes later my PSG walks in and is like uhhh... sir....
Anyway, the next meeting with brigade I got my ass handed to me by the brigade XO in front of a lot of brass but it didn't end up being that bad because our battalion commander had the email I sent forwarded to him from brigade with the expectation that I would be formally reprimanded. Instead he called me in, slapped me on the back and told me not to worry about it, and that he hates those @ssholes too!

If I've never said it before, Thank you for your service.

 

[GatorJ]

Hilarious. I've had something similar happen over email. Some douche hit "reply to all" by accident .... And that "unsend" button doesn't really work.

And then one time, my wife screwed up big time. A friend was over and they both talked to this one coworker on the phone they didnt really like. When they hungup, they proceeded to trash her. What she did not realize was she accidentally redialed the number and it went to her voicemail. After like 5 minutes she looked at her phone and realized what happened..... That their whole conversation was recorded onto that chick's voicemail.

Oh my

 

[stephenPE]

Not surprised by the ox story and how he abused the guy. 1st story. I worked at UF while in school there. Delivered AV equipment all over campus. My grandmother ran that dept for loaning it out. She was a little over the top if you get me. She treated that equipment as if it were own. So my buddy Jerry and I roll into the Dept of Architecture early one morning and the secretary or receptionist (pretty gal) began telling us what a trip the lady on the phone (my grandmother) was. She went on an on and then Jerry, my partner said. "Let me introduce you to Steve, her grandson" The look on her face was priceless. I told her everyone reacts to her like that. She once severely scolded a full professor for leaving his projector in Univ Aud,. unsecured. He eventually became the head of the Dem party in Alachua County. I had another better one but forgot it. Age.........

 

[oxrageous]

Not surprised by the ox story and how he abused the guy.

Abused the guy? Because I didn't call him for a few hours?

 

[URGatorBait]

Abused the guy? Because I didn't call him for a few hours?

You probably gave the guy the echo chamber

 

[bradgator2]

So out of all that math and science in your brain you still have the ability to be a Designer?

Good for you, bro, no homo.

If by Designer, you mean being able to design and optimize nuclear fuel and reactor placement designs to support reliable, safe, and economic power generation, while also satisfying federal licensing criteria and laws; and provide nuclear fuel reactor physics technical support to the reactor operators during normal power, off-line, and emergency situations....... then: yes.

 

[URGatorBait]

If by Designer, you mean being able to design and optimize nuclear fuel and reactor placement designs to support reliable, safe, and economic power generation, while also satisfying federal licensing criteria and laws; and provide nuclear fuel reactor physics technical support to the reactor operators during normal power, off-line, and emergency situations....... then: yes.

My step dad works in the nuclear business (consulting now though). He helps in the planning for meltdowns when idiots like you **** up

 

[bradgator2]

My step dad works in the nuclear business (consulting now though). He helps in the planning for meltdowns when idiots like you **** up

Are you drinking on the job again?
There has never been any kind of nuclear accident due to a faulty fuel design. There are honestly too many safety calculations for that to happen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_accidents
95% of them are directly caused by human error. The other 5% was an equipment problem, and then a human totally made it worse.

 

[URGatorBait]

Are you drinking on the job again?
There has never been any kind of nuclear accident due to a faulty fuel design. There are honestly too many safety calculations for that to happen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_accidents
95% of them are directly caused by human error. The other 5% was an equipment problem, and then a human totally made it worse.

You can thank guys like my stepdad for there not having been any meltdowns.

You're welcome

Actually I'm not sure what his actual job title was when he was working full time, but he consults now. Travels all over. Upstate NY, Homestead, and a couple others in the US. He's also traveled to Dubai a few times as well.
I just know he's involved in the planning for those types of things, should they happen. I'm sure there is more to it.

 

[NVGator]

If by Designer, you mean being able to design and optimize nuclear fuel and reactor placement designs to support reliable, safe, and economic power generation, while also satisfying federal licensing criteria and laws; and provide nuclear fuel reactor physics technical support to the reactor operators during normal power, off-line, and emergency situations....... then: yes.

I actually meant Designer as in Nuclear Bomb Designer. Geez.

 

[bradgator2]

I actually meant Designer as in Nuclear Bomb Designer. Geez.

I'm just busting your balls because you were busting mine.

But you are right, a nuclear bomb designer does sound cooler. Somebody has that job.