This is a close up of a concrete pump in Shanghai, in front of a new gargantuan shopping mall under construction along the Bund. I had never seen a Putzmeister until then, and so I assumed that Putzmeister was a Chinese company that made cheaper versions of Caterpillar equipment.
"Putzmeister is considered world-wide as the pioneer for equipment plant and systems for concrete, mortar and high-density solid pumps", but the one thing that sticks out to me about this German company is its name. I know nothing about German except that:
"Jager" = "Hunter" and
"Meister" = "Master",
therefore, "Jagermeister" = "Master Hunter".
In this vein "Putzmeister" means "Master Putz".
I am guessing that "putz" is an onomatopoeic word, roughly equivalent to "putt" as in the sound that a running engine makes. If this pump does belch out the greatest of the putts, it must sound like all of the Titans letting out trouser-ripping farts in quick succession. I'm just trying to say that I think that Putzmeister has a nice ring to it, in a German-ish sort of way.
This is what I know about Putz; it's better to see one than to be one!
Taken from www.freedictionary.com/putz:
putz:
Pronunciation: pŭts
Noun 1. putz - (Yiddish) a fool; an idiot
Yiddish - a dialect of High German including some Hebrew and other words; spoken in Europe as a vernacular by many Jews; written in the Hebrew script
fool, muggins, saphead, tomfool, sap - a person who lacks good judgment
2. putz - obscene terms for penis
pecker, cock, dick, peter, prick, tool, shaft
penis, phallus, member - the male organ of copulation (`member' is a euphemism)
dirty word, vulgarism, obscenity - an offensive or indecent word or phrase
yomama said it better than I could have.
I am not Dieter.
Open Letter To Putzmeister
Hello Kathi:
My views may not even reflect the same views that your previous employee believes in.
Sorry to bug you but I have a question. I may not even be asking the right person. I chose this email address because I believe I am writing to someone the works in the HR department. Hopefully I am not just writing to someone that will not just delete this email.
What are you supposed to do if you are attacked at the workplace in order to prevent yourself from being fired? We already know that using your size advantage and holding your arms out to block the person is not the right answer. Doing this would be against your no tolerance policy. Please explain to me what you would do. What if the the person attacking you had a knife.? It is no secret that many people of Hispanic origin have been known to carry knives. I also realize that every race including Caucasian has people guilty of the same behavior. This person did not have a knife, but you never know what kind of wackos are out there.
Let me ask you how you would feel if you were trying to do your job and you were attacked?
Please tell me why you guys do not file a report when a employee is a victim of assault and battery? I realize that you have a no personal phone call policy, but calling the police should be an exception.
I understand the need to bring in more economical labor, but you also need to try and take care of the consequences. I personally do not think that it is fair and or professional to be letting the your employees be harassed by others just to take advantage of the lower cost labor.
I also realize that WI has an “At-Will Employment” status. Knowing that you can legally fire someone for no reason makes me think that maybe I am just wasting your time and my own. I just felt that it would not hurt to hear what your business expects someone to do that is being attacked. My views may not even reflect the same views that your previous employee believes in.
I am not going to pretend like I know the laws because I am in no way a lawyer. Just being a concerned family member of someone that you guys walked on in order to maintain your new addiction to lower cost labor.
I happen to be a programmer in a office environment. I have also worked for a company called Color Arts while going to school. I know all company policies are different, but my experience at color arts is that management has always done their best to make sure that the employees working in a friendly environment. Color Arts went out of business so you could arguably say “I guess doing that was not very productive.”
Why didn't you just lay him off before something like this had to happen if you needed to maintain you addiction to lower cost labor? Maybe it is a good thing. Hopefully he will find a job with a company that actually cares about the safety of their employees.
Thank You,
Jeff
My views may not even reflect the same views that your previous employee believes in.
also Putz mens something like render in german
Hey,
'putz' is the german word for render or finery on a wall or something - but the other meanings you guessed are pretty good, too:-)
I got behind one of the Putzmeister trucks one day and took a pic with my phone. Putzmeister mean Plaster master.