Recently we have had a new trainee hire on , who wants to stay with the company , and enter in to training to become a heavy equipment and diesel engine technician . The young lad seems to have all the necessary skills to be an excellent technician ,is very bright , asks all the right questions , never complains about the task he has been assigned . The problem is , he looks like a junior version of Hulk Hogan , or Jesse Ventura , the wrestling guys , and has anger management problems . If he becomes upset , things would go flying thru the air , no hesitation . I took him aside the other day , explained carefully to him that he wasn't going to make it unless he learned to control his temper . I find out later that he had in fact been trained to be a boxer , had been thoroughly trained to be a wrestler as well . I asked him why he didn't pursue it further , he said " I wanted a real job that would give me satisfaction in what I do " The smile came at the end of this week when we had finished going over a John Deere 6405 4x4 tractor that the boss keeps around for odd jobs , it has been modified for landscaping and general construction work . It was time to take Grunt out for a field test , it got that name from all the odd jobs we use it for . The young lad came up to me , was almost shy , believe it or not , and asked me very quietly , "Roger , can I take Grunt out for a field test ? I promise I won't hurt him " I told him he was still on probation , sort of , and that I couldn't hand him the keys to a tractor worth several thousand dollars , if he ever damaged it , I would have to answer for it . Finally , this young man , who is about six feet tall , who weighs about 240 pounds , and who could eat me for breakfast , if he ever got angry , looked at me like a ten year old kid , and asked the same question again , only this time , he said " Please ? ' . I couldn't say no , handed him the key , said , " Go for it son , you earned it " He lit up like a Christmas tree , jumped in the tractor , fired it up , looked at me like he had just been handed a check for a million dollars , drove off with the unit for the field test , brought it back in , no damage done . That's when the smile came on , I knew this kid was going to be a keeper , and a damn good technician to boot .

Roger Rutledge
Technician/Shop Foreman
Green Park Services
Brantford, Ontario, Canada