Posted by "The Swingset Scene" at user27.net761.nc.sprint-hsd.net on July 21, 2003 at 16:07:30:
In Reply to: shhhh they'll hear you... posted by on July 21, 2003 at 15:46:10:
: : 7) Ever snap at someone or tell off the boss or do anything to demonstrate that you are a human being and not a mindless worker?
-Freakin A... This one summer out of the three that I worked at a Vinyl Siding plant loading boxes of the siding on tractor trailers. Ok, first off, this is hard hard hard work. The boxes weigh like 100lbs+ and the trailers get like 130 degrees and you breathe forklift exhaust all day. Anyway, I was doing this during the summer to give myself perspective, and by the third summer I felt like I had a good understanding of all the workings of the docks, then trouble arrived...
This lady got promoted to a job she shouldn't have had. Her obvious mistakes cause us direct pain. She could take no suggestions. One time, we loaded a 35,000lb truck, only to find out that SHE put the wrong slip on the wrong truck. Then, instead of changing the PAPERWORK on the trucks, and contacting the carrier service to inform them of the change, she has us UNLOAD the whole fuckin thing and put it on another truck. In case you don't know, unloading anything is worse than loading it. Especially these big boxes of siding that we wedged into this truck. Probably took 2 or 3 hours... So, these mistakes add up and add up, and our overall productivity was sliding. And, see, I had been there for 3 summers, and I was obviously working harder than ever before, so I knew what the problem was.
We had these little meetings before work in the morning and she berated us for about 15 minutes this one day about how we weren't working, and we weren't trying hard enough, and we did this, and we did that, and I had E-fuckin-NOUGH! I called her out in front of everybody, and wasn't polite at all. I told her "IT'S YOUR FAULT!". Because I was there for the summer, I didn't have anything to lose I wanted to stand up for the guys who would still be there after I left, but still. And I didn't lose my job, but the rest of the summer was even harder for me, personally. The trucks were rated by height, like a 5-high to a 10-high. I got all the big ones after that. I was glad to leave that place, and got the perspective I sought.