Milling machinists are great people. I spent a lot of time with them in the workshop while I was doing my internship and writing my thesis. Later, I realized that there are milling machinists everywhere.
Everything a milling machinist does at work involves standing at the milling machine and shaping parts. They go to eat during lunch, occasionally visit the restroom, and every hour they dart out for a smoke. That's it.
A milling machinist always meets his quota. In fact, he often exceeds it, but strangely, he only exceeds it by a small percentage. In the words of a milling machinist: "Look, we do just a bit more to get a bonus, but not too much so they don’t raise the quota." He leaves for home at 3 PM, even though the workday lasts until 5 PM, because he has met his quota.
A milling machinist always keeps an eye on other milling machinists and tries not to stand out from the crowd. If everyone is leaving at 3 PM, then the milling machinist leaves too. If everyone is exceeding their plan by 5%, then the milling machinist does the same. If everyone criticizes the side workers, so does the milling machinist.
A milling machinist will always be a milling machinist. Those random milling machinists who have become workshop supervisors or, by some miracle, directors of enterprises are no longer milling machinists. They are ceremoniously expelled from the proud family of milling machinists.
A milling machinist is stable. Nothing happens to him. He changes nothing. He simply mills. As much as required (yes, a bit more to receive a bonus). He chats with other milling machinists. Sometimes with turners. He drinks beer. He watches series. He loves fishing.
If you were to plot a milling machinist's productivity, it would be a straight line, parallel to the horizontal axis (the x-axis, to be precise). Sometimes the line rises slightly when the milling machinist is pushed to increase the quota. Upon retirement, the graph drops to zero. That's all.
How can you check if you are a milling machinist or not? It's simple – plot your productivity graph.
If you are a programmer, chart based on the metrics by which you are measured. Or the money you earn. If you are a salesperson – by income or payments. If you are a manager of programmers – by the metrics of your subordinates. If you are a mixed team manager – chart based on both metrics.
Well, then it’s simple. If your graph oscillates around a straight line, then you are a milling machinist.
If you're a hardcore geek and doubt that the chart fluctuates randomly, apply statistical methods. Don't just draw a chart; take a sample, plot the distribution, evaluate variance, expected value, and check the normality of the distribution law using the Shapiro-Wilk test, for instance. If the distribution law is normal, then you are a miller, as an upward trend would indicate a lack of normality.
Even better — take several samples over the years and test the hypothesis of equality of expected values using Student's criterion. You can verify the equality of variances using Fisher's criterion. You will find that you are a miller.
Just in case, check yourself against informal signs of a miller. For example, you’ve been doing the same thing for years — not in the sense of working at the same job, but in only programming, only selling, etc. Or you always meet the standard but never exceed it by twice. Furthermore, you care about the opinions of your colleagues and their beliefs, striving not to stand out and certainly not to influence them.
If you are a miller — congratulations. A stable, beautiful, flat productivity graph awaits you until retirement. You won’t have to worry about anything else.
If you're not a miller, there’s nothing to congratulate you on. Your graph will rise and fall. There will be no stability. And the worst part — you have no idea what will happen in a year, two, or thirty.
Source: habr.com
