Had a kind of frustrating experience this morning due to a lack of communication, and a flagrant disregard for the rules at the maker space re: 3D printers.
There was a 12 hour print going last night, and a queue of files that needed to be printed (including Tim the Terror Kid) and one of our members submitted a file which, due to some rules, jumped to the front of the queue.
The night crew didn't hand off the new queue to the morning crew.
The morning crew ignored the existent queue, and instead kicked off a 6 hour personal print. (The rules on personal prints for employees are clear: Only when nothing else is scheduled. No prints over 5 hours before 4pm)
He jumped the queue because it was christmas, and there was time pressure, but the other prints that were scheduled (some of which had been in the queue for several days) also had similar time pressure, and the non-employee member file 100% goes first.
Normally, this wouldn't have been a huge problem. We have multiple 3D printers.
But the same employee who jumped the queue has rendered one of our other printers nonfunctional, possibly permanently so.
The member's print, when we finally got it going (6 hours later than we should) ultimately failed.
Chances are good that it would have failed either way, but we would have had enough time to try again without the delay from this morning.
We had a chat about it when I realized what was going on, and implemented a better hand-off protocol for the evenings. That part is easy.
The other part, though is harder.
I need to be able to trust our opener to follow the rules, rather than trying to skirt the rules to his own advantage because no one is around to stop him, you know?
And I need to be able to trust him to ask for help, or at least not to Destroy equipment when he can't get it to work.
I feel like we've been having this conversation since we opened the doors, and I don't know what to do to make it better.
Possibly a longer take than desired
@ajroach42 that sounds really frustrating. It also sounds maybe like it's not just a 'trust' problem but also a humility/etc problem.
In a maybe less generous perspective, perhaps there was some arrogance / brashness in attempting the failed fix instead of asking for help or letting someone know.
In a kinder perspective, I could see how someone might have tried to change or fix something if they were nervous and could have felt like they needed to reach way beyond their expertise. Especially with the holiday coming up, maybe? I've ran into this attitude in factories-- something is wrong, I am a factory person, I will try to get the machine to stop alarming because it going wrong must somehow be my fault and if I don't fix it right now, it might look bad. Often, the method used to fix it is wrong, damages equipment, and makes the place less safe.
One of the things Cyberia makes sure to stress to our users is that we have zero uptime guarantees. We're all volunteer run, and if running things isn't fun, we'll just stop.
The folks with prints in the queue... Could well have ordered those prints out to a job shop if they desperately needed it by a certain time. Hypothetically. It's way less cool, but you're just not a multimillion dollar corporation whose goal is to crank out prints. It's cool when you can show them up, but makerspaces offer way more to their communities than just a factory would. Maybe stress that it's OK to not be a factory a little more? IMO, best effort is usually pretty good vibes.
If you don't have it, a rotation policy might be helpful. Like, 'if something goes weird on your watch, your job is different for a week or so while some fresh eyes take a look'? That way, if someone is uncomfortable or scared or not confident enough, maybe they can do things that are a bit less challenging for a bit and feel a little more secure and valued. Plus, it's a clear consequence, but doesn't necessarily feel like a punishment. Just a thought!
Also, lastly, I wonder if your spaghetti issue might be an airflow issue. If there's a way to control for that (maybe put it in a box and see if it improves?) it might be a simple test. Especially if the spaghetti is directional.
Best of luck down there! 💙
