Foreman told me to "work smarter not harder" and then yelled at me for doing it my way

Last month on a job in Houston, I was welding a tube sheet on a feed water heater. The foreman, this guy named Dave, came over and said I was taking too long with my setup. So I rigged up a simple jig from scrap to hold the pieces steady while I tacked them. He saw it and chewed me out for "going rogue" and wasting material. Made me tear it down and do it his way, which took twice as long. Has anyone else had a supervisor shoot down a good idea just because it wasn't theirs?

2 comments

2 Comments

simon_chen14d ago

Wait, he made you tear down a working jig just because he didn't think of it?

lily_sullivan8214d ago

The real issue here isn't the jig or the materials. Dave had already made up his mind about how the job should go before you even touched your torch. When you showed up with a better way, it made him look like he hadn't thought of it first, and that bruised his ego. Some foremen see their authority as more important than getting the work done efficiently. You were probably supposed to fail on his terms so he could look good telling you "I told you so" later.