h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Got to go to the new job this afternoon.
Apparently my only qualification is that I am too stupid to take one look and run screaming from the place.
It is a post-industrial revolution hellhole of bad smells, tremendous heat, slippery floors and cheap metal, liquid and otherwise, everywhere.
And the noise!
Nobody lays anything down. They flang it, with a clang! Whack!

$8.00 an hour, twelve hours a shift, Mon thru Thurs.
The only thing that keeps it from being a Dickens nightmare come to life is that there are no children...

Just a lot of greasy adolts.

I am working through a temporary agency. Apparently the turnover at this place is tremendous.

Do you get ear defenders?

One hopes. In any case, I am taking my own.
But, with the noise level in there, if someone is yelling at me and I can't hear them...

Traveller in Time playing (man with headphones)
"Two hopes. Do they also provide firedragon suits? "

As a matter of fact, I did see some coats made of a shiny material on a rack yesterday on my whirlwind tour through the plant.

Hmmmm well it's a job.
I immediately pictured Nicholas Cage in the oven scene of the movie Moonstruck.

I hope all that the noise becomes a sort of bland new silence and all of the fire and metal stays where it belongs

The heat would defintely be the worst overload to me.
Can you attach a water bottle to yourself?
Zarquon had an excellant point about drinking lots of water

I read your older posts about safety in workplaces so I can only imagine how much this place could get under your skin
All the more reason you deserve lots of credit for accepting it during this difficult time.

I hope taking this job will present more opportunity for other offers as it often does. Nobody considering you for employment could claim you are lazy or afraid of hard working conditions!

Be safe as you can

Thanks, all. Me try.
I did look up the company website.
Although poorly designed, it did comfort me with the fact that the firm is owned by a family and it only has two plants in the world, so it may not be as corporately distant as some I have toiled for.

BTW, I called up my poopervisor at the part time job yesterday afternoon to let him know what was going on and to tell him I might be available to continue to help them out on weekends.
He essentially said don't bother.
He did say,"Thanks for helping us out through this crunch we had, but I don't think we'll have anything more for you. Besides, you will need your rest, I know that place."

Okay.
So, maybe he was doing me a favor. Maybe I was doing him a favor.
Maybe I'll send him a thank you card.

Thank goodness for small favors and comforts.

Strange irony here. It sounds a little bit like the places where I get my fulfilment.
I don't actually work in a hot-metal-hell-house. I just work for a company that designs and supplies the instruments of torture used by same.
What is this outfit making, exactly?
It probably seems perverse to say it, but some of the most satisfying moments of my life have been seeing metal-bashing equipment finally work, just as me and the guys intended, in its frenzy of noise and sh*t and flame.

C&H Die Casting makes light alloy castings out of some kind of zinc and magnesium mixture, I think.
My job this shift was to help load the casting machines with a big crucible or bucket. We filled it from a furnace with a trough and moved it around the plant on an overhead rail. It had a compressor-powered pulley that we used to position it over the loading troughs on each machine's mini-furnace.

Was it OK to work there? Why is turnover high?

I liked it. It was nasty, mean, hard, hot, disgusting, painful and by the end of the night, I was not only tired, but I was stronger!

It has a high turnover, particularly in my position, because most of the weenies that are sent to do it by the temp companies are addicted to air conditioning, pleasant smells, comfort and clean clothes.
According to the two children I worked with last night, several folks have left the job in the midst of a shift, never to be seen again.
One of them even threw up on the floor before absconding.

I, on the other hand, lost whatever sense of smell I had left while working the last two months with the floor crew. Senor Blessing in Disguise.

>>Not only tired, but stronger<<
I know what you mean.
Maybe everybody should work with hot metal, just the one time, so that they learn where the plenty around them comes from, what their ancestors aspired to, and how most of the world works (when it works at all).

Your take on life is always an education, tr, often uplifting, sometimes a cause for pity. There's nothing pitiable about a meltshop, though. You clearly know it already, but this experience will stand you in good stead.

Keep at it, teech.
Pin

That's exactly what my father and a good old friend from church said.
Most peoples don't know wheres anything comes from... and many couldn't care less.

My father said that my willingness to work, show up for work dressed for work, and inability to stand still while others are goofing off will probably impress me bosses.

I think it already has for one.

Meanwhile, the the children I was working with are confused by the concept of a "work ethic".

Nice to be of help, Penniped. Me try.

"sometimes a cause for pity"

I hope that's a translation glitch.
Pathos, Portholes or Aramis, maybe, but "pity"?

The tragi-comedy of life is a tree whose roots crack the sidewalks in everyone's lives.
Me is only kvetching about the poking roots in my sidewalk!

Crazy paving?

Sorry if Pity isn't appropriate, or appreciated. You've been going through some heavy experiences of late. There are a lot of us feel for you in that.

It's infrequent, this Pity. Maybe that makes the sentiment more acceptable. I don't feel sorry for you on a continuous basis, and I don't suppose others do either. It's just that one or two of the recent twists seem a bit unfair.

If you're one of those rare people who never feel sorry for themselves, regardless of what happens to them, then there's another blessing.

I'm off to see a hot-dip galvaniser next week, so we'll be smelling the same smells, I guess.

Does a sidewalk count as pavement? I thought that was only kerbs and road surfaces.