Did You Just Say 'F**K' at Me, Boy?!?

Fuck. It's a word that's now lost all impact on me. Not that it ever really had much before, but now that I'm on the shop floor all the time and dealing with labor relations issues on a regular basis, "fuck" is as routine as "this" and "that."

Last night, one of my operators came in early and was acting surly to the 2nd shift management. He was spouting off with attitude unparalelled to that of a snotty pre-teen girl. We're talking arms folded, eyes rolling, under the breath muttering, full on bitchiness.

Also, I think he stole ice cream from the cafeteria, but I can't prove it...

Anyway, I'm doing the shift hand off with 2nd and it's mentioned to me that operator-dude wasn't running the lathe. He had told 2nd that he had been instructed to only shave and not to lathe, so that's what he was going to do. He even went as far to tell 2nd that, "you're not my supervisor; she gets here for 3rd." Fine, good to see I have authority?

Well, I get there and we're in the area and 2nd asks him again why he isn't lathing his parts. The response is silent treatment and we proceed onward reviewing the area. However, less than 50 steps away, the decision was made by yours truly to go back and tell him to fire up the lathe and get going at the parts. I get over there and the fellow is reading the job instructions and I ask him, "Are you reading the job instructions to lathe those parts." He rolls his eyes at me and says "Sure." So I told him, "I want you to lathe those parts." He just looks at me blankly. "I said I'm telling you to fire up that lathe and get going on those parts right now." He snaps upright and quickly turns around and goes toward the lathe because he knows that insubordination is bad. However, he's muttering stuff about the Company and I clearly hear him say "fuck."

"Did you just say 'fuck' at me?" I called to him. No response. In a bigger voice I repeated, "Did you just say 'fuck' at me, boy? Don't you say 'fuck' at me!" He turns around, "No." "No what? No you didn't say 'fuck' at me?" "No I didn't say 'fuck' at you!" "Then who did you say 'fuck' at?"
"...No one..." And then I gave him the directive: "I don't ever want to hear you say 'fuck' in front of me ever again. Do you understand?" He looks at me. "Do you understand!" "Yes." "Okay, see you at the start of shift meeting."

The other supervisor asked me if I was all right and I was and told him so. However, this exchange became the topic of the next meeting I had with the other supervisors.

Later today, I had to repeat my prohibited harassment training, which is required of all employees every 3 years. For some reason, I find this kind of a fitting way to end the day - started it yelling 'fuck,' ended it talking about why you should'nt say 'fuck.'

Now that I'm writing this word in official company documents nearly weekly, the word has lost most all effect. Save for that if it's said in front of me by that operator, I get to send him home. Weird...