Talking and… Softeners are…

Talking and …Then listening

We’re generally pretty loquacious creatures. After all we do talk to make our living – or at least we do so to initially get the business that we then spend a lot of our technical skills to keep. So at our hearts we are pretty talkative and generally that’s downright essential to our success.

But there’s one place where we can get sideways with too much chatter. And that’s when interviewing that prospective hire. There we do want to be open and make certain that we explain the job, your organization and anything else the candidate needs to know to be a real participant in the conversation.

But unless we can get the person we’re interviewing to talk, we won’t learn much. So this is the time to ask serious probing questions and then really listen to the answers. Additionally we need to be ready to ask follow-up questions. For example if the candidate says he’s mechanical, we can ask him exactly what sort of hands-on tasks he’s done in the last month.

Finally, to get that person to talk openly we need them to relax. You might tell them that you understand that they might be a bit nervous and that you are too. Or maybe you start by telling them that you’re not a professional interviewer and ask they bear with you. Regardless of the approach used to get them to open up, the real secret is listening.

Next up: The other time to listen.

Softeners are…Well, different

We usually think of our chemicals as working in a solution. After all if that detergent didn’t dissolve creating a homogenous mixture with the water, cleaning wouldn’t happen very well. Nope. Cleaning requires the water and detergent to form a solution. And that’s pretty much the rule 99% of the time. Except when it isn’t.

That pretty much singular instance is when we’re injecting a fabric softener (or soft sour) to the wash wheel. Softeners are chemically classified as “oils”, and as such they do not like water. Technically speaking they’re classified as hydrophobic (water hating) and will float on top of the final rinse bath just like a drop of motor oil does in a water puddle. That feature results in the formation of coated fibers delivering a fabric that feels soft (and dry) even through it’s actually “wetted” with that softeners’ oil.

That’s also why we calculate the amount of softener on the volume of fabric versus the quantity of water. And that low water level used allows for a higher ratio of softener to water promoting contact with the fabric’s weave as the softener on the surface passes through the fabric.

Next up: Getting to the right pH.