I found work

c.leksutin · Tue 27/01/2004 21:38:19

Well, I started work.

My job so far intails printing out some papers with long lists of seemingly worthless numbers. Wandering around a wearhouse looking for boxes containing the same said numbers.
Collecting up a predetermined amout of said boxes, and moving them somplace else.

I can feel your envy from here.

It's not bad, I guess. It will pay the bills and let me save as well, so I cant complain too much. And starting tomorrow, I move to second shift, so I can skip the getting up a 5 am crap.

It suprises me every time I get a job like this, the overwhelming banality of the american place of common labor. 10's, 100's even 1000's of people (in some cases) reduced in function to little more then an ant or a worker bee. Moving this from here to there, putting this inside of that.... and the best corporate and industrail america can do to make these jobs more bearable, is add piles of papers and forms, and develop anti-intuitive systems of management.

Ahh what menial labor will do to jump-start the ambition. And now I face the problem of satying up late tonight so that I can prepare for my shift change. Nice of them to give me some time eh?

C.

Las Naranjas · Tue 27/01/2004 22:05:24

To put a bright spin on it, it sounds like a filler puzzle in an adventure game.

Evil · Tue 27/01/2004 22:37:22

Yeah, we know what "Printing Papers" really means.

TheYak · Tue 27/01/2004 23:03:20

checking the serial numbers against known existing serial numbers to ensure that the "printed papers" aren't detected.

Nine Toes · Wed 28/01/2004 07:02:52

...I'm confused... but anyway....

I know how you feel, Lex.

I hate always having to keep in mind, "this b.s. puts a roof over my head and puts food on my plate"... especially when I'm so fed up with asshole bosses, monotonous & tedious tasks, co-workers who kiss the boss's ass and act like they're boss when the big guy isn't around, having to take the heat for other people's mistakes, and cliques in the workplace... around that time I feel like giving the boss the finger and walking out.

Well, good luck to ya.

Squinky · Wed 28/01/2004 07:35:18

Be glad you don't have my job...

shbaz · Wed 28/01/2004 18:17:47

I had a job at a factory once, fortunately it wasn't as monotonous because I went all over the factory and various facilities inspecting fire equipment. Some people there worked 12 hour shifts and all they did was pack toilet paper into boxes and place it on a conveyor belt. Wow. Talk about non-stop excitement. I believe some of those jobs are disappearing though due to automation, which is unfortunate for Muskogee, OK because that is the only thing that keeps the high school dropouts from working at gas stations at min. wage.

Nine Toes · Wed 28/01/2004 18:50:37

Yeah, I had a job very similar to that. I worked at a plastic factory in Clintonville. For 12 hours, 5:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., I trimmed flash off of the parts as they came out of the machine, and packaged them. I especially didn't like the assembly lines where you had to make hand towel dispensers, t.p. dispensers, or those paper ass gasket dispensers.

It was a very tedious job, and it didn't pay so good, but they didn't even care that I am a dropout. I think your qualifications to work there had to simply be that you were breathing.

rodekill · Wed 28/01/2004 19:47:33

Congrats C.

I used to work in a warehouse and I can honestly say that sometimes while I'm drooling on myself at my desk, I wish I was back there. I think the most rewarding work I ever did was delivering furniture and stuff. Physical work = the shit.

shbaz · Wed 28/01/2004 21:34:07

I liked the physical work, but sometimes it just sucks. I came out of last summer with more muscles and I was extremely fit (those fire extinguishers weighed 45 lbs. apiece and I was always carrying two up and down stairs). The downside was that for about a week I was walking on fire because I sunburned my feet.. I couldn't get out of work because they would have fired me for taking a sick day. So I walked on fire for a week. I came home every night and soaked my feet in saltwater for hours. The pay was great for an internship, but if I would have been seriously ill or broken a bone I would have been screwed. Not necessarily so if you are in data entry or something.

DGMacphee · Wed 28/01/2004 23:58:46

Good to hear you're working again, C-leks.

Doesn't matter if the job is menial -- that often means it's low responsibility.

I've got a menial job, but it means I have the lowest amount of blame if something goes wrong.

Sometimes rock bottom isn't always bad.

Meowster · Thu 29/01/2004 06:16:32

So long as the people you're working around are nice, who cares about the job? When it comes down to it, you're gonna get sick of whatever place you work (Unless it's DOUBLE FINE PRODUCTIONS! Although probably even there, too). The thing that makes a job worthwhile is the people. Or is that 'are the people'? Anyway, congrats

Timosity · Thu 29/01/2004 11:42:39

Good to hear you found some work.

I've just been filling in for one of my mates this week as a Postie

It's a bloody tough job, well for me anyway, I'm glad I don't do it permanently, My friend has a mail contract which basically means he doesn't get any holidays, so I offered to help so he could go away for a week.

Man, the first day it took me 16 hours to sort and deliver the mail, except I don't have a motorbike license so I have to deliver it in my car. (starting at 5:30am when it's dark and finishing at 9:30pm in the dark and with no break) Also the mail has to be delivered, it's like a federal offense or something if it isn't done. I worked 40 hours in the first 3 days.
(note: there's no set working hours, just as long as you get it done, obviously you couldn't work those hours all the time, I've been getting faster each day)

1 more day to go, It also sucks cause it's been really stinkin' hot over 30 C every day this week, quite humid too with occasional thunder storms but not much rain.

The postie run is in a really wealthy area out in the sticks in Sydney and there are celebrities and stuff that I deliver to, but no one really internationally famous. It's like a rural type area, it's like the country in the big city, some fucking huge houses and properties, I'd love to live in a place like that away from everything yet still not too far from the city.

sorry to crap on but I've had fuck all sleep this week and worked my arse off, I'm also semi delerious, sun burned & feel like shit right now and have to be up and do it all again in 6 hours.

Good night everyone

c.leksutin · Thu 29/01/2004 17:31:52

Well, I've switched to 2nd shit and it's a different world!!

Everyone is about my age, there's no boss, the place only runs at 1/2 capacity, and we have a "code of silence"... meaning we do our little bit O work and then basicaly fuck around for the rest on the night.

[singing]ahh the labour life for me[/singing]

To touch on some other statements here:

Rode: Yes, physicall work = the shit, I was self employed as a carpenter for a while this summer. The most satisfying work I know

most job do suck, unless your living out your dream, or simply doing what you love. My father, for exsample LOVES being and engineer and my sister LOVES being a cardiac nurse. So I have not yet resigned my self to a life of total servituted!

C.