As James stated in the interview, he is a rather busy man who has a lot of “’irons in the fire.” (6-7) Currently, his company is developing a new formula to make a softener for Dockers and they are having issues with the formula matching what Dockers want. He said they are having problems with the quality of the formulas across the board with this particular product (clothing being too soft or not soft enough) but he seemed confident that they would overcome them. James pointed out that “Whenever you are making chemical formulas, especially in the textile industry, the formulas are “fiddly” when you are first trying to make a new product.” (20-2) He also noted that what you do on the drawing board might have nothing at all to do with the finished product. Next, James described the other products his company is having him work on such as flame retardants for clothing and, presumably, furniture as well. While not exactly exciting like blowing up bridges, James seemed genuinely happy with his work and smiled a lot during the interview, clearly a man content with his chosen profession and lot in life.

As far as schooling for this particular profession, James has a bachelor of science from North Georgia College as well as 33 hours worth of graduate work at Georgia Institute of Technology, though he did not complete his masters. Mostly, however, James emphasized on the job learning as the prime way to get ahead in his field. According to James, “while you could figure out the reaction on a sheet of paper, you could be off just a tiny bit in your actual formula and have the entire project blow up in your face” and, from what I remember from college chemistry course, he is absolutely correct. (42-4) There is an inherent danger doing this particular job but James gave the definite impression that experience was a better teacher than college could ever be. Of course, third and second degree burns tend to be a good object lesson as well. Also, James admitted that he did not want his boss’s job because he felt that his “current company specializes in a chemistry and science of which I have only a passing knowledge, and not the in depth experience that be required.” (137-8) It is a wise person that knows they cannot do their bosses job and that they are best suited to doing whatever it is that they are currently doing. Next, James discussed the key things that helped him do his job. It is interesting to note that he listed the qualities “capable of working under pressure, a self-starter, creative, and well experienced” and then a bachelor’s degree in the order that he listed them. (145-6) By doing so, he reaffirmed his belief that experience was key to learning in his field and also placed more of an emphasis on being able to deal with a high stress job. Finally, he seemed confident that he could write a Ph.D. dissertation with no issues, even without having been in a school environment for over thirty years.

It might be that chemists simply spend too much time in a lab, waiting for an experiment to conclude or working on the chemical and mathematical formulas for the next experiment, but all the chemists that I know have their own little quirks and foibles. James is a prime example of this and so are the people that he works with. For example, during the interview, James had to have something in his hands. If there wasn’t something in his hands, he would scratch at the table with his fingernail, pulling up the veneer covering the table. When I slid a pencil over to keep his fidgeting from interfering with my concentration, he started “shadow” writing what looked like math formulas from the hand motion. In the interview itself, James talked about one of his co-workers specifically. He referred to the man as “socially inept” and gave a fairly humorous description of how the man acts. James said the man has an “annoying habit of constantly asking rhetorical questions” and has the “tendency to inject his experiences into any conversation, generally at the top of his lungs.” (74-8) He also compared the behavior of chemists to that of computer scientists, which I personally found to be amusing, and pointed out that we have similar social behaviors when we are speaking to those in our respective fields. As a computer scientist with a chemist for a father, I can promise you that our family conversations tend to be technical enough to drive my mother out of the room, unless we are talking about politics and then my mother is the acknowledged superior voice on the matter.

As far as the future is concerned, James expressed his concerns about where his industry is heading. As the daughter of a chemist, I can tell you that my parents, and presumably James as well, had to move from Georgia to North Carolina when the companies decided that it was more cost effective to move their operations for the cheaper taxes. He called the industry a “dying industry,” presumably because the standards that the American government holds chemical companies to are making it prohibitively expensive to own and operate a chemical plant. (58) Specifically, he seemed resentful towards the people that wrote the laws, saying that “Frankly, these laws are written by people who are lawyers, not chemists, and they do not understand the chemistry involved in what we do here.” (180-3) He also mentioned that “Some of the laws we have to work under are just not supported by the science and unnecessarily restricts our work, not to mention tending to make it expensive, especially when we have to redo our emissions or quadruple filter our waste water.” (186-9) Having read a good bit of law code for one of my other classes, I can definitely see his point of view. It is very frustrating when reading something written by a lawyer that actually has no clue on what it is that you are doing. Also, when expressing his concerns, James discussed what he wanted to do in the future. He seemed pretty confident that he would end up in a teaching position; something I personally think would benefit whatever high school or college that he ended up at. Of course, he also expressed the notion that he would not be as happy in a field that did not provide him with the chance to do problem solving every day but I think he would actually be able to do that in college, at least. Of course, it may be things like budget issues but at least that is problem solving of a sorts.

Finally, James talked for a while on the ethical concerns of a person who is also a chemist. Even when complaining about the laws, James pointed out that they made a very serious effort to comply with all laws and regulations, company, state and federal. Of course, as he pointed out, breaking the laws or regulations could result in jail time but I really got the sense that he would follow the codes even if he could not be prosecuted for the law breaking. James specifically stated that he would not cheat the company out of money, even if he considered the occasional surfing the Internet not to be cheating the company, and he never falsified an expense report. Finally, James was very firm in his position about lying on reports, presumably lab write ups and chemical formulas. He stated, “We do not fabricate our results or massage the data excessively to prove our hypothesis. If the data disproves the theory, then so be it...the theory was wrong.” (196-98) That seems to me to be the only way to run a chemical experiment, if you are falsifying your results or the formulas, someone could be seriously injured when that someone tried to repeat the experiment.

Not really. Generally, I make the coffee (or the good coffee - we have a debate going on this one) since I'm usually the first of the "real coffee" drinkers to get to work. At lunch a group of us play cards and on Fridays we go out to lunch. Other than that, I don't have a set routine. As a development chemist with many "irons in the fire" my job is pretty much day-to-day or even hour-to-hour and quite often I'm diverted from what I'm working on to handle the "crisis du jour" in our plant or that a customer is having with one of our products.

Specifically and right now, we are working on a fabric softener for Dockers pants, among several other long-term projects. This particular project, however, is not going nearly as smoothly as I could wish. The formula we are currently working on is very time intensive to make and Dockers has not officially sanctified the product. We are having a couple of problems with quality issues; one batch will turn out softer than another batch, another batch will completely fall apart when we pull it out of the dryers, and yet another batch will be stiff as a board. This might sound like a big deal but it actually isn’t all that uncommon. We will get it, thought. It’s just a matter of time. Whenever you are making chemical formulas, especially in the textile industry, the formulas are “fiddly” when you are first trying to make a new product. What you figure out on paper might have nothing to do with the actual product later. There is a lot of trial and error in this business, though, of course, not without intensive research at first.

Some of the other projects I have in the fire at the moment include a new flame retardant for children’s clothing as well as several other softening products. These are mostly long-term projects with little to no change; we just have to “baby-sit” the actual making of the product to insure our product quality is not diminished.

Where have you learned from this job?

Where did I learn my job? I have a bachelor's degree in chemistry from North Georgia College in Dahlonega, GA, 33 hours of graduate coursework at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Ga, and over thirty years of work experience in various industries

What have I learned from my present job? Mostly, I've just picked up a number of technical points that have overall increased my knowledge base. I refined and expanded on the chemistry degree and have learned enough to get a write a dissertation for a PHD, if I really wanted to pursue that avenue. Once out of school, I figured out, pretty quickly, that while you could figure out the reaction on a sheet of paper, you could be off just a tiny bit in your actual formula and have the entire project blow up in your face. Well (laughs) not literally. I have screwed up a couple of batches by having the measurements be just a shade off. (shrugs) It happens to even the best of us. I have also learned, however, that when a boiler overflows, I need to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Third and second degree steam burns are not exactly pleasant, you know.

While in my present job, however, I taught myself HTML, some Java programming, and a lot of linear algebra when my son took it in college (on my own time) and I'm always on the lookout for things to learn.

If you could change something about your job/boss, what would it be?

Increased job security. I work in the textile chemicals industry which is clearly a dying industry in the United States. As I get older, my prospects of changing jobs or even re-inventing myself and pursuing an alternate career get fewer. I plan or working as long as I can, but I don't want to start at Wal-Mart too soon. One of the things that I am looking into is either going back to college to pick up my PHD and teaching college or getting a teaching certificate and teaching high school. I think I might be leaning a bit more towards teaching high school but I am not sure that I actually have the patience for that. At least with college students, while you might have some brats in the class, hopefully I would be teaching the upper level courses and would have students who actually wanted to learn.

Do you have any notable co-workers? Do you have relationships with any of them?

Notable in what way? One of the ladies I work with is an excellent baker and cook and she tends to bring in new dishes for us to try. My most immediate co-worker is notable for his annoying habit of constantly asking rhetorical questions ("Think it will work?" {in reference to whether the car will start, the light will come on, the formula will work}), sneezing extremely loudly, having been everywhere, and the tendency to inject his experiences into any conversation, generally at the top of his lungs. Sometimes I just want to scream at him to be quiet and let me work but I don’t. He is one of the typical anti social, no, that’s not right. It’s more like social ineptness. For some reason, chemists tend to be somewhat socially inept which is kind of silly and Hollywood glamorized but it is actually the truth. Not quite as bad as Hollywood likes to pretend but there is a definite level visible. You are in the computer science department, right?

Yes.

Then you know what I am talking about. You computer scientist are almost as bad as the chemists. I guess part of that has to do with perceptions, really. When we speak technically to one another, laymen are generally left out of the conversation so there is the perception that all we are interested in is chemistry. Fortunately, my family has kept me grounded and my outside interests have been wide and varied over the years so I like to think that I am more “normal” than the rest of the chemists I work with.

My boss is one of the "granddaddies" of durable press chemistry, but I work with no one of any real fame or note. Mostly, all of us are ordinary work-a-day types with our own quirks. While we are all very friendly with one another, basically, the truth of the matter is that we are all there to work. They pay us for the work that we do not for the friends that we might make.

What would you like to change about your job? What do you like most about it?

My efforts would really make a difference, instead of merely marginally increasing the wealth of the company's stockholders. I would love to make a new product that totally revolutionizes the industry but I doubt that will happen. When you are working in textiles, you aren’t going to make something sexy that gets a lot of attention. What I really like about my profession is the problem solving aspect of the job. You are given a problem and it's up to you to solve it. And sometimes, I've come up with something unique. The creativity inherent in my profession is one of its biggest attractions and it’s the part I would miss the most were I to quit my job tomorrow.

How would you describe your relationships with your co-workers, manager, and boss?

Generally, I have a good working relationship with co-workers and my supervisor. There have been a couple of people over the years that I would have gladly taken out back, but only a couple. Sometimes, I get irritated with my current boss and him with me because we both have fairly strong personalities and similar abilities, but we get over it. The one boss I had that I truly despised was the owner of a small company that I was technical director for. He was a very difficult person to get to know and a huge worry wart as well, so he'd worry a person to death any time there was a problem instead of letting them have the time to correct it. While I worked there, he drove me crazy, standing over my shoulder while I was mixing products which is really not safe in a chemical lab. By the end of that particular job, neither one of us could really say who was happier when he finally sold the company.

Are you capable of doing your bosses job? Would you?

Actually, I had a similar position before moving here. As alluded to, I was the Technical Director of a small chemical company in Georgia. Before that, I was the Research & Development Manager for another, larger company. The basic difference is that my current company specializes in a chemistry and science of which I have only a passing knowledge, and not the in-depth experience that would be required.

As to would I want my boss's job, the answer is probably no. I have been there and done that and I am not particularly comfortable in that position.

What kind of qualities, skills, etc. does this job require?

You have to be capable of working under pressure, a self-starter, creative, and well experienced. You also have to be open and fair-minded. You don't know everything. You have to have a degree, a bachelor’s at a bare minimum. Well, for my company, at any rate. It might be different for other companies although I tend to doubt it. Actually, it’s funny. The company pays you for your experience, not the hours that you work. The whole “salary” system, I guess. But, if you are straight out of college, for example, you have the knowledge but no experience. Catch 22.

Do people at your job ever do anything they aren't supposed to (use the internet, sleep, steal)?

All the time. Nearly everyone I know in the office except some of the older (age-wise) and some of the newer employees look at Yahoo or other non-business websites from time to time. Our company has a policy that says the Internet is for work related use only but, like I said, pretty much everyone surfs from time to time, including our IT department workers. I don’t think there's much stealing although people do use the copier for personal documents or take pens and paper home. We can use the postal meter for personal mail. We have an honor system to use it, and so far, I think that the system has been honored and not taken advantage of.

What standards, ethical or technical, do you adhere to in the work place?

We try to follow all pertinent regulations and company rules. There are two sets of Federal regulations that impact us almost daily. One is the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the other are the Hazardous Materials Handling and Shipping regulations. We follow these very closely, not do so invites fines and possible jail time, depending on the infraction. I don’t know about you, but I certainly am not going to jail for a job. The company also has a set of "Cardinal Rules". These would be the four or five deadly sins that, if committed, could result in someone being very seriously injured or killed. No job, no matter how noble, is really worth dying for and, having burned myself before, I have no intention of ever messing up in the lab again.

It is kind of frustrating, actually, working under the federal and state laws that govern our industry. Frankly, these laws are written by people who are lawyers, not chemists, and they do not understand the chemistry involved in what we do here. They go off on us for having trace amounts of certain chemicals in our emissions, even if they are harmless in trace amounts, and force us to change our emissions or clean the waste water or whatever, regardless of whether or not it is really necessary. Some of the laws we have to work under are just not supported by the science and unnecessarily restricts our work, not to mention tending to make it expensive, especially when we have to redo our emissions or quadruple filter our waste water.

Ethically, we understand that all work done on company time or any chemical developed on company property or with company equipment belongs to the company whether or not it pertains to the company's current businesses. We don't cheat our expense accounts.