It is unbelievable to me that someone would hold themselves to a completely different standard than the ones they hold their underlings to. Unfortunately it’s true too often.
This experience happened to me during my time in an unnamed branch of the military where I repaired jet engines.
Jet engines, as you can image, are complex pieces of machinery. Training consisted of a ten-week intensive hands-on learning and classroom time, plus on-the-job training once I arrived at my duty station.
Luckily we didn’t have to memorize procedures – they were provided with step-by-step instructions in the technical manuals. Still… lots of room to make mistakes, which young recruits often make,
One particular hands-on training exercise consisted of correctly seating the many different types of seals found of jet engines, all of which needed to be air or fluid tight. The seals and connectors were mounted on a platform and after some instruction, I passed the hands-on test with flying colors.
Then one day came my turn for the dreaded task. Everyone was given and evaluated on a task – some required maintenance on the jet engine. A task was usually removing and replacing an engine component while the quality assurance inspector watched and took notes. At the end of your task, we were told that we either passed or failed.
My task was installing engine turbine shaft bearings with the required carbon seals.
Luckily for me the technical manual had step-by-step instructions with illustrations. No problem – except for the part of seating the carbon seals. They were smooth on one side and had grooves on the other. The technical manual did not specify which side was the sealing surface and I don’t remember anywhere in my training where that was specifically mentioned.
I had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right.
Unfortunately I chose wrong. I should have been alerted when the quality assurance inspector raised his eyebrows. But I continued – I chose the smooth side for the sealing surface of the carbon seals when it should have been the side with grooves.
No surprise, I failed my task. Since bearings are a critical part of the jet engine, my mistake would have caused engine failure and possible loss of the aircraft and of life.
The shop chief, Master Sergeant B called me into his office to yell at me for failing my task. He yelled at me for not paying attention to my hands-on training regarding the correct procedure for engine seals and connectors. Most importantly, he yelled at me for making him look bad.
Later in the day the same quality assurance inspector who had failed me on my task found me in the engine shop and told me he had heard that Master Sergeant B yelled at me in his office.
He asked me if I reminded shop chief Master Sergeant B that he failed his own task within the past couple of weeks.
I responded no, since my task was mine and I owned the failure. Sure, I was aware that the shop chief had failed his own task, but that failure was his to own.
What puzzled me as a young recruit was that a seasoned mechanic like Master Sergeant B did not hold himself to the same standard as a young recruit like myself.
Many, many years later I think about this. Do we own what is ours? Do we hold everyone to the same standard, including ourselves?
