CHANGING JOBS:
Sisters reflect on skills shared over four decades
By JOSEPH M. DELEON News-Post Staff
jdeleon @ fredericknewspost . com
FREDERICK — Advances in technology, new training methods and declining work ethics are some of the changes sisters Elva DuVall and Virginia Jenkins have seen over the past four decades. Ms. Jenkins, 68, has worked at Aeroflex Weinschel for 47 years. Her older sister Ms. DuVall, 71, has been with the company for 46 years. They have no plans to retire any time soon.
The company manufactures attenuators, or voltage regulators, for radio and microwave technologies used in the aerospace, telecommunications, military and defense industries.
The sisters, long past traditional retirement age, pass on their technical knowledge to a new generation of workers.
“It's priceless when you have this much retained knowledge intrinsic to the system,” said Robert Stephens, president of Aeroflex Weinschel. “Most of the time, these ladies understand what engineers train hard for.”
Ms. Jenkins was promoted to section supervisor in 1981. It didn't bother her older sister.
“It was fine by me. I don't want to be the boss of anyone,” Ms. DuVall said jokingly.
Triple bypass surgery in 1998 forced Ms. Jenkins to slow down.
“It wasn't easy at first, because I love my job,” she said. “When you're used to being in charge, it's hard to let it go.”
Ms. Jenkins now produces drawings of different components. They record her knowledge, and become training aids for new employees.
The sisters remember in the 1960s, everyone learned by doing. Today, new workers are trained with illustrations and manuals.
“You can write down all you want about it, but you really have to do it to understand the process,” Ms. Jenkins said as she leafed through a folder thick with schematics drawn on grid paper.
Technology such as ceramic coating, microscopes and automated presses have further changed the work environment.
“Back then, we used to use a lathe and a scale to measure everything we did,” Ms. Jenkins said. “Today, we have a much faster process and a lot more demand from the space industry.”
The small scale of the attenuators requires more precision than ever, Ms. DuVall said. “We picked up the skills quickly back then, but today's people are a lot slower.”
Ms. DuVall attributes some of that slowing to learning new technology. However, she suspects much of it stems from a change in work ethic.
“People have different priorities today, and work doesn't mean the same thing as it used to,” Ms. Jenkins said.
Few younger people want to work extra hours, she said, and they both agreed young people today have it too easy.
“Our generation learned to work hard,” Ms. DuVall said. “We had to work since we were tall enough to stand on a chair to wash dishes.”