Thing
Easy to stay nice and clean doing 8-5 Mon to Friday in Gen Office. Not so easy working a 15 hr night shift in the shed up to your ears in hydraulic fluid and all the other good stuff trying to generate the jets for the programme. There were many times that I took over at 5pm from the offgoing day shift and handed back over to them at 8am the next morning, after having worked virtually non stop apart from a brew here and there.
It wasn't Prima Donna behaviour, it was too bloody tired to really care if the crease on my trousers wasn't razor sharp behaviour. Luckily, some of the more enlightened GD staff cut us some slack on that front.
I remember the time before they started to recognise that a engineer needed more than one pair of No2 trousers, the "you get issued with 2 pairs of coveralls" was worth absolutely squat when you got soaked in hydraulic fluid, fuel, oil, Skydrol etc rendering them unwearable until you had them laundered ( they were not washable ) then we gradually got a second pair, then two pairs of washable working trousers, sensible dark blue work shirts, then the blunties got the wooley pulley redesigned with a V neck which was a retrograde step.. Trying to get a pair of combat boots changed at stores because the soles were worn and were dangerous to wear up on a Puma's decking in the rain I got the "you should be wearing your safety boots"... It showed a total lack of understanding that went on, he seemed to think that in the field one should carry ones safety boots with one to change into before climbing on an aircraft, but then without experiencing it one can understand the lack of understanding.
It is often impossible to come off shift looking smart, try polishing a pair of shoes that are soaked in fuel or skydrol, unless you have full changing facilities and showers etc.. Try working on a fuel system or pulling Skydrol pumps off that are above you, the fluid has only one way to go and that is down, often over you.
Thing, speaking of shifts, doing 12 hour shifts on the VC 10 three days three nights on six off was resented by the whole station, the fact we worked weekends and public holidays, plus the first day was spent sleeping off nights and the second adjusting your time clock, and leave had to be split with the off time... still did not wash with them even when the shift pattern was shown that we worked more days than a normal 9 to 5 shift worker.. All they saw was the six days off.