06-30-2004, 09:07 PM
As a college student home for the summer, I am in the ever present search for money. This search has led me to yet another ridiculous job.
I received a call from a friend of mine, who said he had a possible job opportunity. I go to a temp agency and fill out a form, and sign up to work the following day at a Kitchen ETC warehouse. The hours were not bad, 7-3.30, at a decent wage. But due to the commute and having to drive other people there, I have to wake up by 5.30. I found humor in this, seeing that the day before I got the job, I had gone to bed at 5.30 am, and now I had to wake up at the same time.
I conned my best friend into the job as well, and the three of us drove to work at the crack of dawn. We are quite a motley crew together: skinny white kids who used to be scensters (slang for kids emo/punk/hardcore kids who spend their days talking about music, and their nights going to see live music). Between us we have gauged ears (large holes), dyed hair, unshaven stuble, and old half sleeve tattoos (half sleeve means covered in ink from shoulder to elbow).
Occasionally we get to unload trucks by hand, which is glorious manual labor (I actually love doing this). But most of the time my two friends work together gathering 'lists' of items to be shipped, while I work what is the weirdest job I've ever experienced.
There is a carousel of rollers, and 21 stations around this circle. In the middle are two women who walk around, and their job is to 'push' the boxes into the correct station as they move by. Once down a station it is my job to scan the station barcode, and then the box. The scanner is attached to my left forearm, and a cord runs down to my pointer finger. Then I take the box, and stack them onto wooden pallets. I rotate around the stations as needed (as well as 10 other workers) until the pallets reach enormous heights. I then loosely shrink wrap them, electronically 'close the pallet.' and push them up a metal ramp onto the shrink wrap machine (which is a very scary job, the metal ramp does not hit the floor, rather hovers above it, and the pallet trolleys have a bad habit of getting hung up on the ramp . . . which always sends fears of being drown in the large pile of boxes down my spine). Then I go back with my robocop-esq scanner machine and continue for 8 hours. Its rather mindless work, but it feels very surreal. Pacing cement floors for 8 hours without mats, or the ability to sit down begins to mentally fatigue you as well as physically.
All in all its not a horrible job, though I can't shake that 'am I being video taped?' feeling.
My question is what are some of the most/least interesting jobs my fellow lurkers have had?
-Munk
I received a call from a friend of mine, who said he had a possible job opportunity. I go to a temp agency and fill out a form, and sign up to work the following day at a Kitchen ETC warehouse. The hours were not bad, 7-3.30, at a decent wage. But due to the commute and having to drive other people there, I have to wake up by 5.30. I found humor in this, seeing that the day before I got the job, I had gone to bed at 5.30 am, and now I had to wake up at the same time.
I conned my best friend into the job as well, and the three of us drove to work at the crack of dawn. We are quite a motley crew together: skinny white kids who used to be scensters (slang for kids emo/punk/hardcore kids who spend their days talking about music, and their nights going to see live music). Between us we have gauged ears (large holes), dyed hair, unshaven stuble, and old half sleeve tattoos (half sleeve means covered in ink from shoulder to elbow).
Occasionally we get to unload trucks by hand, which is glorious manual labor (I actually love doing this). But most of the time my two friends work together gathering 'lists' of items to be shipped, while I work what is the weirdest job I've ever experienced.
There is a carousel of rollers, and 21 stations around this circle. In the middle are two women who walk around, and their job is to 'push' the boxes into the correct station as they move by. Once down a station it is my job to scan the station barcode, and then the box. The scanner is attached to my left forearm, and a cord runs down to my pointer finger. Then I take the box, and stack them onto wooden pallets. I rotate around the stations as needed (as well as 10 other workers) until the pallets reach enormous heights. I then loosely shrink wrap them, electronically 'close the pallet.' and push them up a metal ramp onto the shrink wrap machine (which is a very scary job, the metal ramp does not hit the floor, rather hovers above it, and the pallet trolleys have a bad habit of getting hung up on the ramp . . . which always sends fears of being drown in the large pile of boxes down my spine). Then I go back with my robocop-esq scanner machine and continue for 8 hours. Its rather mindless work, but it feels very surreal. Pacing cement floors for 8 hours without mats, or the ability to sit down begins to mentally fatigue you as well as physically.
All in all its not a horrible job, though I can't shake that 'am I being video taped?' feeling.
My question is what are some of the most/least interesting jobs my fellow lurkers have had?
-Munk