(no subject)

One thing I love in life is defusing someone with a bad attitude by nothing more than truth and a smile.

Background: We have a "shuttle truck" that moves material from the factory to our warehouse at around 65,000 pounds a trip. The driver has a forklift on either end of the process for loading and unloading.

I had some material at the factory that needed to go to the warehouse to be shipped. So borrowed the shuttle truck drivers forklift and brought the material out to the staging area for the shuttle truck. I set the material down close by, but not in the way, and was waiting for the driver to return so I could explain to him what I needed to be done with the material.

My Nextel beeped and I was called away before he could return. So I put his forklift back exactly as I had found it and had to leave for a minute.

The minute turned into a half hour.

I came back to find the material tossed aside and a very angry shuttle truck driver (I'll call him STD)

STD: Some asshole just left this material sitting in my area!
MJC: Yeah, it was me. *raises hand and smiles* I'm your asshole.
STD: Next time tell me before you drop shit in my area!
MJC: I was waiting for you to return but I got called away. *shows set of metric tools in back pocket.
STD: Oh.
MJC: Yeah.
STD: And someone drove my forklift!
MJC: That was me, the other two are broken.
STD: Oh.
MJC: Sorry bout that, but I need to get this material out today.
STD: You left a load on the forks off the ground!
MJC: About an inch off the ground and tilted back?
STD: Yes!
MJC: That's exactly how I found it, so I took care to leave it that way.
STD: Really? I never do that.
MJC: Don't sweat it.
STD: Cool.