Let's share the worst things we've had to endure as employees. I'll go first:

Teenage, food service, pizza. The AC breaks in the middle of a California summer, easily 110°f outside, 115°f inside the store (verified), with 500°f open-ended ovens running nonstop. Then the makeline which holds ingredients breaks. The cheese melts into clumps. We stay open, business as usual. Also, no breaks, ever. Pay: $8.50/hr.

Adult, teaching, high school. No in-class heat for four years. School provides one basic 11" fan heater used to warm small bedrooms. My class ceilings are at least 12ft with tons of windows. I developed a routine of showing up an hour early, turning on the collection of heaters I'd acquired (including several from home), and get the room up to a sweltering 62°f by first period. I also figured out which electrical items can be plugged into which outlets and how to reset the fuse panel on a moments notice. I have photos of my students huddled around an oil-radiator with their hands out, eager for even a semblance of heat.

Your turn:

  • Mrtryfe [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    We had one of those ‘days without injury’ boards, and the job was fairly prone to injury

    Similar to this shit when I was working as a package handler for a pretty famous parcel deliver service. That number never went past 6 days in my 2 odd years working there. It was a fucking joke especially because most of the work got done overnight, and the warehouse was full of teenagers, people down bad, immigrants with a questionable status citizenship wise, and a whole lot of dudes first day out of county or prison. Ridiculous amount of turnover, and there were few people that had any sort of normal sleeping habits. You'd only ever get 20-25 hours a week, and they worked you to the bone. Because of the large turnover and people missing days all the time, you'd have instances where boxes would be piled high across platforms and some workers would climb over them to get to other areas, mainly because you couldn't load the packages faster than they were being sent down.

    That job is always my first example when it comes to explaining how bullshit wages are relative to the work being done.