The Shortage Everyone Talks About Is the Wrong One

Georgia, USA, 16th October 2026, ZEX PR WIRE, Every few months another report says manufacturing cannot find enough skilled workers. Edmund Dorsz has heard that line for most of his career, and he thinks it skips the actual problem.

“Companies will post for a CNC programmer with five years of experience,” he says, “but they won’t say who is supposed to teach that person the parts of the job that never show up in a manual.”

Dorsz has worked across CAD and CAM systems including Siemens NX, SolidWorks, Mastercam, and CATIA V5. He says the software is rarely the hard part. The hard part is judgment, the kind that comes from someone standing next to a new hire at a machine and explaining why a toolpath that looks fine on screen will chatter on the actual part.

What Gets Lost When Nobody Is Assigned to Teach

Dorsz says the mentorship that used to happen informally, a senior programmer walking a newer one through a setup, has gotten thinner as shops run leaner and schedules get tighter.

“Nobody decided to stop training people,” he says. “It just stopped being anyone’s job in particular, so it happens less.”

He points to a gap he sees often: new programmers who are strong in the software but have never had to explain a toolpath choice to someone running the machine. “You can model a part perfectly and still hand the floor something that’s a headache to cut,” he says. “That’s not a software problem. That’s an experience problem.”

Dorsz owned and ran Accelerated Precision Tooling Company in California before moving into his current role, so he has seen the gap from both sides, as an employer trying to staff a shop and as a programmer trying to get a part right the first time.

Why He Still Makes Time for It

Dorsz says he takes training requests from coworkers seriously, even when it slows down his own week. “If someone asks me to walk through why I set a part up a certain way, I’ll stop and do it,” he says. “It costs me twenty minutes. It can save them a scrapped part later.”

He is careful to draw a line between correcting someone’s work and dismissing it. “I had people do that to me early on, and it didn’t make me better, it just made me quiet,” he says. “I’d rather someone ask a question twice than guess once and be wrong.”

He also pushes back on the idea that patience is a soft skill that does not belong on a shop floor. “Precision work is unforgiving,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean the people doing it have to be. You can hold a tight tolerance and still be easy to work with.”

What He Tells Programmers Starting Out

Dorsz says the advice he gives newer programmers is less about which CAD/CAM system to learn and more about staying curious once they know one. “Get good at your first system, but don’t stop there,” he says. “The programmer who only knows one way to solve a problem runs out of options fast.”

He also tells them not to treat the screen as the whole job. “The part doesn’t live in the software,” he says. “It lives on the machine. Go stand next to it when you can.”

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About Edmund Dorsz

Edmund Dorsz is a CNC programmer and manufacturing engineer based in Newnan, Georgia. He has worked with Siemens NX, AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Mastercam, and CATIA V5, and previously owned Accelerated Precision Tooling Company in California. He has been with Clayton International Inc. since January 2025.

Veterinarian Dr. Jennifer Creed discusses why everyday experiences with people, animals, and household activity matter when families research how a kitten was raised.

Illinois, USA, 16th October 2026, ZEX PR WIRE, Long before a kitten arrives in a new home, it has already spent weeks learning about the world around it. The people it encounters, the animals nearby, and the everyday activity around it all become part of those early experiences.

Dr. Jennifer Creed, a practicing small-animal veterinarian and founder of Midwest Ragdolls in Elburn, Illinois, believes prospective owners should consider that part of a kitten’s background alongside questions about veterinary care and health.

“My kittens are raised by my family and me and are used to being around kids and dogs,” Creed says. “That is simply part of their normal environment from early on.”

For Creed, the point is not that early socialization can guarantee how a cat will behave as an adult. Every kitten is an individual, and many factors can influence temperament. Instead, she encourages families to ask a broader question when researching a breeder: What has everyday life actually looked like for this kitten?

What Does Socialization Mean for a Young Kitten?

Socialization is sometimes treated as a formal training program. In practice, many important experiences can happen through ordinary daily life.

A young kitten may hear people moving through a home, meet different family members, experience routine handling, or notice other animals nearby. These experiences introduce the kitten to situations it may encounter again after joining a new family.

At Midwest Ragdolls, the family-run structure means this exposure is built into the environment in which the kittens are raised. Creed has no employees at the cattery. Her children help with the kittens, and dogs are also part of the environment.

“Veterinary care is important, but raising an animal involves more than what happens during an examination,” Creed says. “You are also looking at the environment that animal experiences during an important period of its early life.”

Why Early Experiences and Temperament Are Not the Same Thing

Creed cautions against assuming that only early socialization creates a predictable personality.

Genetics, individual temperament, later experiences, and the environment in a new home can all shape how a cat behaves.

Ragdoll kittens are bred for a specific temperament. They are friendly , outgoing cats but the environment they are raised in is very important.

That distinction matters for families researching breeders. Statements about kittens being raised around children or other animals can provide useful information about their background, but they should not be interpreted as promises about future behavior.

For Creed, the more practical question is whether kittens have opportunities to experience normal interaction before they leave.

“You cannot promise that every kitten will respond to every situation in exactly the same way,” Creed says. “They have individual personalities. What you can do is start with a very social breed and  think carefully about the experiences they have while they are in your care.”

What Should Families Ask About a Kitten’s Early Environment?

When prospective owners speak with a breeder, Creed recommends learning about daily life rather than focusing only on a list of veterinary procedures.

Families can ask where the kittens are raised, who regularly interacts with them, whether they have experience around children or other animals, and what normal activity they encounter. They can also ask how much direct interaction the breeder has with the kittens.

Those questions can provide a more complete picture of the weeks before a kitten joins its new family.

This is particularly relevant because bringing a kitten home represents another major environmental change. New people, unfamiliar rooms, different sounds, and possibly other pets can all arrive at once.

Creed says families should expect adjustment to take time rather than assuming that a well-socialized kitten will immediately feel comfortable in every situation.

Socialization Continues After a Kitten Comes Home

The breeder is responsible for only the beginning of a kitten’s experiences. Once a kitten leaves, its new family must continue that process.

Creed encourages owners to allow kittens to become familiar with a new home gradually. Introductions to unfamiliar people, pets, rooms, and routines do not have to happen all at once. Paying attention to how an individual kitten responds can help families decide when to move forward and when to give the animal more time.

The same principle applies to children and other pets. A kitten having previous experience around children or dogs does not mean every future interaction will automatically be comfortable. New introductions still require supervision, patience, and attention to the animals involved.

That continuing process is one reason Creed believes prospective owners should think about socialization as more than something a breeder completes before a kitten goes home.

“The early weeks matter, but they are only the beginning,” Creed says. “Families continue building on those experiences once the kitten becomes part of their home.”

For Midwest Ragdolls, that beginning takes place within the Creed family’s own environment. More than three decades after the cattery was founded in 1993, kittens are still raised with direct family involvement and regular exposure to children and dogs.

The approach reflects a simple idea: veterinary care provides important information about a kitten’s health, while everyday experiences form another part of its early development. Families researching a kitten can benefit from asking about both.

About Midwest Ragdolls

Midwest Ragdolls is a family-run Ragdoll cattery based in Elburn, Illinois. Founded in 1993 by practicing small-animal veterinarian Dr. Jennifer Creed, Midwest Ragdolls raises purebred Ragdoll kittens for families primarily throughout the Midwest and across the United States.