Small quirks can have surprisingly long-lasting effects.

In this story, a man was tasked with standardizing thousands of CAD drawings across multiple manufacturing plants.

He discovered that one series of drawings was flipped in a unique way, and no one knew why.

When he finally learned the reason, he was caught by surprise.

Check out the full story below…

Because we’ve always done it that way.

In the 80’s, I was working in engineering, doing tech support for the CAD system.

Basically, I was the system operator for the IBM 4381 that the CAD terminals ran on.

I was handling plotters, data transfer, etc.

I’ll try to keep this simple.

This man volunteered to work on a project.

I got volunteered to work on a standardization project, making everything consistent as we put it all into CAD.

A typical product unit took about 30 to 40 drawings in about 20 categories. And there were thousands of units created over a 30-year time frame.

Standard parts, but assembled differently for ending up in 20 different U.S. states.

He noticed that all dimensions were from right to left, except for one.

All the drawings were dimensioned right to left—bottom R to L, right side R to L, top R to L.

Except for the interior series, which were LEFT to RIGHT.

Then it flipped back to right to left for the rest.

So why?

He asked around why this is, but no one could answer him.

I asked the drafting engineers. No idea.

I asked the architects. No idea.

I asked production. No idea.

Finally, I talked to an engineering manager who had been there for over 25 years.

And he laughed and laughed.

Turns out, it was the work of a one particular employee.

Because 30 years ago, when the whole operation was just getting really running well, that interior series was built by “Good ole Russ.”

Russ was cross-eyed, and it was easier for him to read this way.

So 30 years later, literally thousands of drawings, five huge manufacturing plants, and thousands of employees…

We were still catering to a good ole boy who had retired decades ago.

Let’s read the responses of other people on Reddit.

A draftsman shares a valuable lesson they had learned.

It’s interesting to hear stories like this, says this person.

This user makes a valid point.

Finally, here’s an honest opinion from this person.

Some habits really do outlive the people who started them.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.