PLANE TALK
So all of the Chiefs (our title then) were gathered in the boardroom when the boss asked what are my options to issue the restricted flight authorities. I said, “Bring them in, the air is the same on both sides of the border, they won’t crash.” He nodded then went to the person next to me who was the Chief, Flight-Test. He had momentarily nodded off having probably just flown in the evening before from Europe. The boss asked the same question. My colleague woke up with a start and said, “What? Are we now type certifying the Fox Moth?” My boss replied, “No, we are talking about the Gipsy Moths eating all the tree leaves not certifying the Fox Moth!”
A colleague and friend of mine
was working for me, and I made him acting chief while I was away. When I returned to the office there was a little firestorm raging with finance. The acting chief had authorized a $50,000 print job (which back around 1985 was a lot of money). The print job was for AME logbooks that the apprentice AMEs used, and Transport sold the logbooks on a cost recovery basis to them. I had not planned for that expenditure in my budget but the acting chief hadn’t checked it out. Lesson – you can’t always control your delegates. Another time a new government minister arrived in Ottawa who held the belief that Canada would be better off if managers, both private and government, let employees enjoy sports on paid time. In some countries this practice is quite common. So one director thought he would trial the idea and organized a sports afternoon for his staff. Well the local paper got hold of it, published a story and all hell broke loose! Government employees getting time off for sports? The program ended that week. Lesson – you aren’t always
right following seniors advise. On another occasion I returned
from a trip and entered my office. Alone in the office I was startled by the crackling sound of a voice bidding me a good day. I looked around only to find a plaque hanging on the wall with a moving, talking fish. My staff had a good laugh and I never did find out who hung the fish. Staff can be hilarious. I attended a manager’s training session dealing with time management. They taught us to block off a certain time of the day to deal with our email and for reading documents. They also advised us to notify our staff that when your office door is closed it is your blocked time and please do not disturb. So I told my staff what I was doing and they all nodded. About two weeks into the practice, which seemed to be working, I opened my door. To my amusement there was a sign posted on my door that read, “Do Not Disturb, The Boss is Sleeping.” That was the end of that experiment. Lesson – be careful what you take away from a management seminar and implement in your own environment. My boss supported me attending seminars and workshops in order to enhance my knowledge on key areas associated with my job. I attended one in Vancouver on financial management systems. I oversaw a large budget and as finances are not normally part of the basic maintenance technical syllabus, I felt this seminar would answer some of my questions. I was sitting beside a lady who was from a financial firm. A while into the seminar I asked her, “Who dreams all this stuff up?” She replied that there are thousands of people sitting around at universities inventing changes to perfectly good systems. This reinforced my boss’s advice, go to the seminars but be
careful what changes you make in your own office. I wish I had had that advice before I tried my “quiet hour” routine.
I call this the Mexican ambassador’s incident. I arrived at the ambassador’s embassy building for the party and soon met a very well dressed man who looked very important. In government circles in a national capital the social games are quite different than those played in smaller towns and cities. The first order of business with someone who greets you is to find out what position you hold, what is your background, which schools you attended, etc. The first test is to see if you might be in a position to help them in some way; the second is to see what your social ranking is. Saskatchewan, where I come from, follows a very egalitarian type of lifestyle so this was all very strange to me. But one learns how to survive. A cardinal rule at these functions is to know whom you’re speaking with and to whom they are connected, otherwise saying the wrong thing can cause you much grief. So I was careful and asked a few leading questions of this well- dressed gentleman. He looked like he could be a senior public servant, a general, certainly he was someone of importance. It turned out he was the Mexican ambassador’s driver. Nothing wrong with that, it was how he got into all the parties around town with no questions asked. The basic rule at these gatherings, which I never followed, was to quickly move on to the next person once you learn that the person you are conversing with is of no use to you. The driver was pleasant so we had a nice conversation. Lesson – never judge a book or person by their cover. Gerry, my wife, always wanted me to be well dressed and wear nicely coordinated clothes. The days that I
42
DOMmagazine.com | mar 2017
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
