| I began working for
Motown the day after I got married, way back in September, 1963 -
I was 17. I was a "technician/draftsman." Half of
my time was spent sorting electronic parts and fixing microphone
cables. The other half of my time was spent completing
drawings for equipment that was being built - an activity I got a
lot of enjoyment out of. |
| Quitting
time was 6:00 and usually the majority of the staff (100 or so
employees) would line up at 5:58 to punch out at exactly 6:00
PM. I was newly married and wanted to get home to my wife as
soon as possible - so for the first two days I was one of those
employees in line at the clock. |
| On the
third day, however, my boss wanted to talk to me at 5:58 and I
spent a few minutes talking to him. As a result I punched
out at 6:12 PM. During the drive home (about 10 miles), I
noticed that there was a free-flow of traffic (on the first two
days, much of the drive home was bumper-to-bumper). To my
amazement I got home about 1 minute later than the previous two
days. |
| Since I
didn't like crowded lines and bumper-to-bumper traffic, I stated
working at full speed until after 6:00 PM, cleaned up and punched
out between 6:08 and 6:12 each day as a normal routine. |
| Apparently
my boss noticed. Two weeks later he came to me with my time
cards in his hand. He informed my that I couldn't get paid
for the extra time after 6:00 PM because "overtime" had
to be approved in advance. Offhandedly I said, "Oh I
didn't expect to be paid for those few minutes." I
never told him that I was just avoiding rush hour traffic.
Apparently I gained a reputation that day of being an unusually conscientious
employee. |
| Two weeks
later, on a Friday, my boss wanted to talk to me at 5:58
PM. He told me that I was being promoted with a 20%
raise. The following Monday I was to report to the Disc
Recording Engineer for training. I was to be trained for the
job for two full weeks before I had to take over. During
those two weeks of "on the job training," I thought I learned
a lot and felt that I had fully picked the brain of the engineer who I
was replacing. I also had a birthday during the time and
turned 18. |
| During
the first couple of weeks on my own, I had a couple of problems
with the discs that I submitted to Quality Control. I
remember the secretary saying "This record skips - check it
out for us." I must have looked blankly at her, so she
added: "It's probably a defect in the blank - that's what it
usually is." I looked at that disc under the microscope
and saw the line that the needle made when it skipped. I had
no clue as to what the problem was so I deepened the groove a bit
and took a new copy back to the secretary, meekly adding "You
were right - it was a defect." |
| In that
afternoon I learned that I really didn't know enough to do the job
and apparently the guy that trained me didn't have a clue either
(of course it would have helped to be able to ask
him). I found out just how much trouble I was in when
my boss told me (later in the week) that the president of the
company had requested that the Disc Recording Engineer be fired
because he was incompetent. I wanted to yell: "Hey guys
- do you realize that all I know is what this guy showed
me????" |
| No one
else knew anything about disc recording - including my boss.
I was stuck. I got out big thick books from the engineering
department and started reading during the day. Fortunately
for me, we were in a lull and there was only about 3 hours of work
each day - and the rest of the time I had my head in the
books. I also requested copies of released records and
hand-cut discs from the past and studied these under the
microscope. There was practically nothing in the books about
how to cut a record but a lot of information (which I didn't know)
about the equipment. |
| At 6:00
PM I punched out and stayed two hours each night doing "test
cuts" - trying to get the same results that I saw on the
best-sounding recordings that I had observed during the day. I really
hated staying late - but I really needed to "train
myself." I held my breath when I put in a double-sized
purchase order for blank discs during a period where there wasn't
much to cut - no one objected and I got my blanks to practice
with. |
| I learned
something valuable during this period. I learned that
on-the-job training consists of more than just doing what someone
who is "supposed to know" shows you to do - there are no
guarantees that that person knows everything (or even
enough). The "hands-on" training during my late
hours taught me what I needed after studying books. I
wound up keeping some of the things that I was shown to do and
throwing other things out. |
