It's the waiting that drags you down.

With our unemployment rate edging near 10 percent, many are waiting for companies to finally rehire. I can imagine them shaking their heads when they look at the Dow's ascent in recent weeks. Somebody's making money, but it certainly isn't them.

I'm not sure if welder Charles Salak has been paying attention to the Dow, but he's been busy with home improvement projects, occasionally working for a relative, repairing farm equipment. He isn't sitting still. In August he was laid off from Katana Summit, a wind tower manufacturer in Columbus, Neb. The company had no choice. Katana is awaiting the go-head for a 200-plus tower order. Wind energy is capital-intensive, so even today, with the promise of government help, it takes time to get the green light. If and when Katana finally gets the go-ahead for the order, Salak may get his job back. But for the past few weeks he's been waiting.

New York Times reporter David Segal visited Columbus and used Salak as the centerpiece for his article, which appeared yesterday on the front page of the business section. Segal also visited Behlen Manufacturing, a metal fabricator specializing in farm products, machine tools, and custom fabrication. Especially poignant was Segal's description of idle equipment on Behlen's plant floor. Tony Raimondos Jr., son of the company president, gave the reporter a tour of the expansive, 850,000-square-foot shop floor. (If you need space, Nebraska has it.) Riding with Raimondos on a golf cart, the reporter recalled:

"Every minute or two, you come upon a couple of guys who are galvanizing metal or fabricating tubing. Mostly, it's quiet.

"'We're hopeful,' says Tony Jr., driving past an unused ... steel punching machine. 'But it's really strange to see it look like this. The other day I looked through this window in a door to the factory floor, and it was dark. During second shift.'"

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I understand the term's intent, and that it describes workers who are ever-more-valued. I just have reservations about how the term is used. When people think of a "knowledge worker," they think of a white-collar IT professional, engineer, doctor, or others who think to innovate, using their knowledge to better an organization.

But who doesn't?

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The metal fabricating industry is made up of highly skilled, hard-working individuals who are passionate about their work and proud of what they create. But every now and then, along comes a slacker who does a half-backside job and creates all kinds of problems. Such is the case with the Northrop Grumman welding inspector who falsified some inspections on eight U.S. submarines and an aircraft carrier. "Welding Wire" readers had plenty to say about this incident and how it came to light.

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The whole concept of being away from work for a stretch lasting three to four weeks is a foreign one. Well, it truly is as most of Europe looks at August as a holiday. But it's also foreign in the sense that I wouldn't know what to do.

E-mail and gizmos, such as the laptop and smartphones, make it almost impossible not to check in. (Maybe it's time to check out the i-wood.) And even if you have the strength to ignore the job for several days, doesn't that just create a huge pile of electronic communications to dig out from when you get back?

Let's face it. We're used to working and not using vacation time. In fact, U.S. workers don't even have the right to paid vacation days. On the other hand, French workers are guaranteed 30 days of annual leave—which does little to improve their overall disposition, but makes you wonder what would happen if they had to work more.

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If you read last week's blog post "Leapfrogging the competition," you know about the Barclay's Commercial survey cited in the May issue of "Tube Talk" that said 54 percent of UK businesses view the ability to leapfrog struggling competitors as their key opportunity in the current recession. You also know that 31percent view staff loyalty, retention, and productivity as their greatest opportunity during the economic downturn.

That post included remarks from a "Tube Talk" reader who agreed wholeheartedly with the findings, particularly about the opportunity to retain skilled workers. This reader shared his frustration with the trend to cut the work force to trim costs. He said, "We need to start looking for creative ways to cut back so as to keep our most valuable asset, our work force."

Another reader believes the work force-related opportunities that exist in a recession go beyond retaining your skilled workers—it's time to weed out poor performers and find the talent that can take you to the next level.

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With all the dire news stories of the past few days, it’s nice to know something went right last weekend. Although it wasn’t on Page 1, the story got coverage, and it was quite significant.

The first private company, without government backing, successfully launched a rocket into orbit. On Sunday, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX for short) engineers successfully launched Falcon 1 into orbit from the Marshall Islands’ Kwajalein Atoll in the Central Pacific.

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Everyone who works at Tampa Sheet Metal Co. has a riverboat to thank. Yes, a riverboat.

During the early 1900s, Augusta Jiretz, looking out the window of her room in a waterfront hotel, saw a riverboat that reminded her of home, Hamburg, Germany. That was enough for Augusta and her husband, John, a journeyman sheet metal mechanic who shortly thereafter set up a two-man sheet metal shop in 1920, the Tampa Sheet Metal Co. In 1938 the company's 12 workers built a facility on what is today Kennedy Blvd., then the outskirts of town; today it's virtually downtown.

"When I first came to work here [in 1956], we did most things by hand," said John L. Jiretz, company president and the founder's grandson. "To set up a punch press took a half hour, and to change a hole size took another 20 minutes."

My how times have changed.

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Confession time. I'm a survey junkie. When I scan news sites, I always check the survey section to see the latest topics. In fact, my very first blog post on thefabricator.com, What to do about health care costs, mentioned surveys about dashboard dining and windbreakers imported from China—one has nothing to do with the other, unless the windbreaker is protecting your vehicle during dashboard dining.

I'm especially interested in surveys about human nature. The results of one survey posted today on PRNewsire.com revealed that millions of Americans will be in a bad mood this winter, and they won't react in healthy ways—one of the healthiest being—naturally—taking the supplement marketed by the company that posted the release. That's right. Just one of many product-promoting surveys.

However, another survey, for which results also were posted today, shed light on a troubling trend among today's teens, the future work force.

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On Monday Jim Reeb, director, manufacturing R&D for Caterpillar, asked some hard-hitting questions of several hundred members of the metal fabrication industry.

“So how many of you want your children to grow up to be welders?” A fraction of the audience members raised their hand. “OK, now how many of you want your children to go on to college?” A sizable number of hands went up in response.

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The June "Welding Wire" e-newsletter featured an item that appeared in the June 17 issue of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about welding careers. The article mentioned two gentlemen—Byron Hicks and Kenneth Stark—who teach welding at the Atlanta Technical College, and described how Hicks got into welding: "At his uncle's suggestion, Hicks started an apprenticeship with the Ironworkers Union when he turned 18. He did a little of everything, but soon figured out that welding was what he really enjoyed."

Some "Welding Wire" readers took the time to share their stories about how they began their welding careers. One thing all respondents had in common was a passion for welding. I think you'll enjoy Bill Coble's story.

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