Catch up with the previous installments in this article series here.

Although Ben was stung by David’s treatment of him during the whole cable thing in his first weeks of employment at Frank’s Sound Company and Show Rentals, he resolved to stick it out and keep going – even though it wasn’t always easy.

Truth be told, David was a terrible supervisor and it seemed that he only had Ben doing the really crappy stuff, working with the dirty cables back from the outdoor festivals, the cases with the broken latches and warped lids, and all that.

But Ben didn’t give up. He believed in his teacher’s advice about finding ways to make this a learning experience.

So he carefully cleaned the old adhesive off the grody cables with Goo Gone, wiped the dust off the cases with a damp rag, and re-stenciled case numbers and other markings when he thought it needed to be done.

One of the other things Ben started to do to improve his own situation was to figure out ways of organizing his work so that his output could not be confused with David’s.

That way, he figured, he couldn’t get screwed again. So if David asked him to repair a bunch of cables, he made sure he did all of one type, while David fixed another type.

Ben also set up his work area and labeled everything so it was clear what had been done, what was yet to be done, and what was in process.

He made sure he had plenty of supplies on hand like solder, shrink tubing, extra tips for the iron, sharpies in different colors, etc. And he kept his tools in good working order – sharp, clean and safe.

Of course, there were times when David wouldn’t let up. Ben started to get good at detecting David’s moods and was careful to know when to steer clear.

Nevertheless, the influence of David could always be felt in some way or another. Most surprisingly was that Jack Dean, the Chief Tech, didn’t seem to notice or pay any mind.