Remembering Names

I should have known by the little smirk on my supervisor's face as he walked away that something was up. He just put me in charge of foilers (a type of edging machine). Told me to get all four machines ready, and he would be sending me a full crew of eight men. I hurried to try and get the conveyors loaded so they could get to work as soon as they got to me. 

They arrived as a group. All newbies except for Brent, who was a good worker, and Jerry, who had to be the slowest worker in the building. Had to do a quick orientation for the other six and then paired them up on the machines. Gave Brent someone who looked competent and gave Jerry someone who didn't. The job isn't that complex. One guy puts the work in the machine, the machine does its thing, and then the other guy on the other end of the machine takes it out and stacks it. As long as the first guy puts it in the machine straight and the other guy doesn't bash it on anything on the other end, everything should run well. I get to run back and forth, making sure everything is running properly, bring them palettes of work, and get rid of the ones that are finished.

Since I was going to be telling these guys what to do all shift long, I figured I'd better learn everyone's names. That's when I figured out what the game was. Larry, Terry, Barry, Gary, and a second Jerry. I was holding my breath when I got to the last guy. His name was Brock. I started laughing and told him he was the only new person whose name I was going to remember. I'm sure the supervisor would have made sure they all rhymed if he had the bodies to make that happen.

The shift ended up going well. Just everybody had to get used to being called "hey you!" Brock and I ended up working together for another company a few years later.