The Apprentice

We were in the late 1980s and in an industrial environment, a factory producing fruit juices and packaged food products.

Young F., aged 17, was trying his first job with the right to an employment contract and Social Security discounts. Every day, he dressed in the uniform to learn from Ti Alfredo the secrets of the machines that helped to can, capsulate and label the juices and the various products packaged in that unit.

Ti Alfredo was a man with more than 50 years old, with a long nose and bald, and when he was angry with life he used to use the expression 'Ah evil wire of clothes', because as a child, when he fell from a second-floor window he was saved from dying because it fell on the wire of the neighbor's clothing on the ground floor. But he was usually a cheerful, amusing man, and above all with many stories to tell.

In his spare time he played in the Philharmonic Band of his homeland, which brought him closer to young F. who also played in the Philarmonic Band of his homeland.

Most of the days were spent cleaning the parts of the various machines that were going to be serviced, the smell of diesel was the aroma of those days, and hopefully, in the end, he still had to use a water nozzle with a lot of pressure, which in certain measure could even be quite fun.

In addition to these tasks, young F. was very happy when asked to use the forklift to pick up heavier parts or take material to the landfill at the back of the factory. As a first job, it had everything to be fun because at 17 and in the late 80s, without internet and social networks, the concept of fun was quite different.

Ti Alfredo had a Chief who was at least 20 years younger than him. A young man with a slightly more serious face and nervous behavior, perhaps the result of the greater responsibility he had at the factory.

When production stopped because of machine problems (at that time computerization did not exist and everything was very mechanical), it was an urgent sign because each stop implied a huge cost for the factory with the entire line stopped and dozens of people unable to work.

At that time the boss of Ti Alfredo would appear to run inside the Metalwork area and shouting that we needed to go and solve the problem right away. Several people turned to see what was happening, but it was up to Ti Alfredo to solve the problem. He, with his characteristic walk, shaking his body with an almost theatrical cadence, with his shoulders and back straight, in contrast with his legs that were very arched.

It almost seemed like a ceremonial movement when he went to the door that gave access to the area of the production line, shouting to young F. to accompany him and carry the toolbox, metallic and very heavy, maybe even too heavy for the physique of young F..

When arriving at the place where the machine was stopped, the boss of Ti Alfredo always gave very precise instructions on the problem and what he should do to solve it and for the production to resume its normal rhythm.

Ti Alfredo, as an educated man and respectful of the orders of his superiors, started the operation in detail ordered by his Chief.

Being an educated man, Ti Alfredo was still a man marked by many years of work with mechanics and machine oil. He had big, strong hands, very calloused and with a grimy tone already embedded in the lines that drew his skin.

Young F. looked at those hands and wondered how those large fingers managed to play the saxophone in the philharmonic. The saxophone is a delicate instrument with mechanics prepared for thinner and more agile fingers, which was definitely not the case for Ti Alfredo's fingers. Unfortunately, he never had the opportunity to see what his side was like.

But he had the opportunity to get to know another facet, and this marked him in such a way that even today young F. presents it as one of the greatest management lessons he had in his life.

While doing what the boss had ordered, Ti Alfredo was quietly saying to young F., 'the problem is not here, but I do what he says and the machine will stop again in an hour'. And in reality, after he did what the boss ordered, the machine would stop again after 1 hour.

Again the boss appeared in the workshop, and again the scene was repeated.

The young F., in the interval between passing another tool at Ti Alfredo's request and helping with the tasks in which he needed another pair of hands, there he heard him again saying that 'this is also not the problem, the machine will stop again '.

When the prophecy was fulfilled (almost always), the boss returned, more and more nervous and irritated, until he completely lost his temper, already with the Director of the factory on top of him asking for responsibility for stopping production.

At that time he would turn to Ti Alfredo and ask 'what do you think may be causing this problem?'… And that was the magic question that suddenly brought Ti Alfredo, a man who knew and was close to all the machines in the factory, to give his opinion by identifying the real problem and solving the situation.

The lesson that young F. learned was that being a boss is not an easy task, but that with a good deal of humility and asking the right people, at the right time, many problems could be avoided.

I think that these days this is called Empowerment ...

Final Note: I was young F.

Helder Figueiredo

PS: Originally this text was written by me and published in portuguese in the book "Conta-me Estórias Storytelling na gest?o de pessoas" (Portuguese Edition), January 1, 2019, by Pedro Ramos e José Bancaleiro (Authors)