Posted on 09/10/2018 4:40:11 AM PDT by vannrox
Up until the 1980’s, the “hazing” of new employees was a time-honored tradition. Here, the new employees would be given the crappiest jobs, told to do the hardest things, and treated horribly. This all seemed to disappear in the middle 1980’s. This article is dedicated to all those older workers who had to endure the “hazing” period and what it was like… Introduction
Today, little remains of the old days of Hazing. You can see it on College campuses and universities when people “rush” to join a sorority or a fraternity. That’s about it. The hazing during High School has pretty much been eliminated. With the only vestiges of it being the movie “Dazed and Confused“.
People have forgotten that “hazing” was an important part of life. You went through it numerous times in your life, and one of the most harrowing was when you started work at a new job. Here, we look at this aspect of life. In it, I describe the hazing rituals that I experienced in Western Pennsylvania in the 1970’s. Hazing in the Coal Mines
One of the first jobs that I had was in the coal mines when I was 14 years old. My father believed
(Excerpt) Read more at metallicman.com ...
I like that concept.
““Go back to the shop and get the pipe stretcher””
“Go to material control and get 3 feet of flight line.”
And my favorite, “Go to material control and get two buckets of red and green striped paint.”
Steam blanket. Prop wash. Key to the sea chest. Metric crescent wrench. Fetch a henway. And on and on and on......
I worked with many engineers from Europe, they all had spent time with a lathe, mill, welding...Also the old WWII US trained guys.
I remember one said, he had to cut a keyway in a shaft BY HAND. He said it has not been done like that since 1950!
I ask how it is done, he said find the best in the class and offer him cash.
Yeah well, I was an active duty JAG officer for three years and in the reserves for 8 years after that..........I know a number of academy folks and one of my best friends taught at the academy (Air Force). So don’t give me that crap about hazing having a military purpose. Rolling people downhill in a locker cannot have a military purpose. Beating people up with soap bars in a pillow case? No.
When I was a newbie RF Engineer, we had a van we rented to use for drive testing. It was full of electronic equipment, all powered from the cigarette lighter. One day the older engineers sent me to bring the van back to the rental place to replace the fuse. The clerk gave me an earful about how the van constantly kept blowing fuses, and she had already told us we weren’t getting another fuse and she wondered what the he!! we were doing in that rental van, anyway.
<p.When I got back after buying and replacing the fuse myself, the other engineers laughed their heads off at my story.
Well, that is the response I would fully expect to hear from some. Have you ever been in the military? Just curious.
They appear sufficiently hazed.
Now if we could only see a picture like that with Bill & Hill.
:P
And as to the original topic, I am somehow reminded of “Revenge of the Nerds”. Classic movie.
I don’t think having a blanket party is what RFengineer was talking about.
The vast majority, perhaps all, that I have ever known would not do something that intentionally causes harm to someone, which that clearly does.
That said, my company in boot camp did take a guy and scrub his bare skin with stiff brushes because the guy refused to observe personal hygiene and got the entire company in trouble during an inspection. His observance of common hygiene was an ongoing issue that was the issue, not a one time isolated event. But I view that as a bit different than hazing.
“”Manufacturability” is a huge part of good design. A good engineer will design so that the poor schlub on the assembly line or in the shop can build the damn thing without standing on his head.”
Exactly why it was done.
Education met the real world on the factory floor.
There’s hazing, and then there’s hazing. When I stood my first messenger watch as a US Navy Seaman Apprentice, I was sent to a location on the ship to see a particular petty officer and obtain a container of red running light oil. That petty officer sent me to another location and another person, and so on for a number of contacts. Of course, there’s no such thing as running light oil...but the travels seeking it helped familiarize me with the ship’s layout and some of our senior petty officers.
Then there was the “Sea Bat” ploy. A number of sailors were gathered on the fantail around a cardboard box partly covered with a towel, and were peeking inside at it. A couple of others were doing some desultory sweeping nearby. One of my shipmates asked what was in the box and was told it was a Sea Bat. He bent over and lifted the towel to have a look, and one of the broom wielding swabbies swatted him on the rear as all the others yelled “SEA BAT”!
A new junior officer was the next victim; his swat was a bit less aggressive than the other received.
Nope.
Amen...how about the CPO initiations of ‘the day’.
Today it basically consists of the CPO desig has to do laundry for a subordinate....
Yes SIR, the old way may have been somewhat embarrassing but how do you maintain ‘respect’ after you have had to fold an E3s skivvies?
About the ‘only’ way that would work is to get transferred once you are presented ‘The Hat’.
Back in the ‘day’ the quickest way to get a transfer is go from E to O.....never got a chance to settle into the Wardroom before the new orders were in place.
Leads to the old ‘Two best ships I ever served on were the one I just left and the one I am going to’
Like I said, I understand that is how some may view this kind of thing.
A lot of things viewed out of the context they are in sometimes look odd.
And just to be clear, I don’t condone things that can be injurious.
But I look at things like the initiation rites for Crossing of the Equator...nobody was hurt by those things (except sometimes by accident when people would slip or something) and those are virtually verboten now. They probably have cake and hand out the certificates.
And I think that is something that is lost. Going through an initiation or ritual like that one tied you emotionally to generations of mariners before you who went through their own ritual.
I just think things like that are important and DO have value. (Obviously, I am not defending things that are primarily injurious to both physical and mental well-being.)
Didja ever find that bucket of elbow grease?
Wow Romanian soldiers had G36Cs? Never noticed that before. What year was that, 93?
Well, it’s like anything else, a small percentage of idiots ruin it for thevrest of us. My fraternity hell week was actually pretty fun, and only really involved partying pretty hard (but nothing forced to the point of danger) and some mild, but funny & good natured, public humiliation. Of course, I pledged to a frat with smart & cool guys, not retard bohunks.
I don’t know what those traditional rites are (didn’t know they existed until now), but sure, acknowledging experience and skills is always good.
Probably means less now when so many have flown across the equator for vacations, work, or whatever.
The British Navy, for example, however, was famous for imposing homosexuality on its sailors, which I don’t think is a good thing.
Ugh. I am with you on that, I certainly wouldn’t be for anything like that, and given some of the stupefying things coming out of the USN in the last couple of years (especially that thing about the tranny airman putting on shows for the crew of a ship) it is hard to even think about anything like that.
Sigh. Now I understand why many elderly people just get sick of life, seeing the way some things change.
If my dad could ever see his Navy now...
From what I heard, there is not “official” Shellback ceremony; but it still happens; just a little more quieter in today’s world..
I became a SHellback in 1990. My son will be joining our ranks sometime in early 2019.
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