| WEDNESDAY..... 2007-11-07 14:13:30 ET |
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Almost the end of week two at the new job. Monday sucked ass. The new assignment was in Sac city(*42 miles ne of me). Another hospital! This time surveying a hillside to put in industrial sized storm drain pipes(20 in across and 8 feet long and concrete).Need less to say, Monday it was 23 degrees and with 50 mph winds, knocked the tempreature down to about 8 degrees. Of course it was outside. Outside for 12 hours digging trenches with a heaterless back-hoe.The asshole who drew the project put the slope at 6.5 degrees from the existing hospital floor, which made the initial 42 inch high manhole entry at 11 foot 4 inches below the ground!!! I feel bad for the suckers that have to do all the grading of the soil afterwards!!!! Anyhow. So far 98 out of 150 feet of pipe has been laid down. The soupy mixture of frost mixed with the varying layers of soil, have been less then fun.After this portion is done. There's another 225 or so feet to install. And no plumbers crack yet.......
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| Week one..... 2007-11-02 05:22:26 ET |
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Finished my first week sucessfully. We have Fridays off, unless otherwise approved by a leadman for overtime.43 hours in four days. Have to get use to this new schedule! I like it though.
Scrambled yesterday to finishe off the new triage and ambulance bays at Guthrie medical centre. Still have to go back and finish up some small stuff. Since they were up in arms over the colour of some of the installed counter tops. Got home at 6pm, started at 6am. It always takes longer when your thrown into the end portion of a job! Met the coolest old man yesterday. He was part of the construction crew that did the overall interior of the unit. He told one doofus that was driving a truck, that he was an overall lame ass, and that we should watch out while the doofus was backing up the truck. And that the doofus couldn't ram a wedge up a dead dogs asshole! I spat out my coffee. I wanna be that grumpy colourful metaphorically inept old man:)
Day one of training was 7 hours of lame looped old VHS recordings on safety. I was asked how the movies were. I replied," More fun then a barrel of lepers!" Got 5 new work shirts, and given a catalog with 125 dollar allowence to get more work gear. I mainly ordered cold winter gear. Since winter gear tends to be expensive.
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| Samhain... 2007-10-31 12:39:57 ET |
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Happy Samhain to everyone. Survived the day of days yesterday.Got sent to re-plumb a hospital! Not like I wanted to on the anniversary of my fathers death.40 hours so far this week. Busy is all I can say. I am allowed all the OT I can handle:) So I may be at 55-60 hours by Friday. Hope everyone is doing well?
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| Halloween 2007-10-28 08:00:34 ET |
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Halloween is almost at hand. I should be happy that I finally have someone to spend it with, for the first time in three years! I should be also happy that it is the celebration of rebirth, and those that have suffered in some form or another are not anymore. Yet it haunts me, that it's another year since my father passed due to complications of cancer. This time five years ago, I was scrambling to get home to southern Florida to spend as much time with him as possible. Then two days later he flat lined while speaking with him:(
So you know old man. You are far from forgotten. As always a candle will be put out for you, so you can find your way home to a nice shot of scotch whiskey waiting for you at home.
Love ya dad.........RIP.......
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| Job 2007-10-28 06:09:27 ET |
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They say 3's a charm. So here goes attempt number four!
Resigned from my machinist job due to a whole bunch of crapola .Gave them a two day notice. Under normal circumstances I would have given a two week notice. I had been looking since June. When there’s a difference in your paycheck of about 600-800 a month. And your daily work tasks are finished by 7:30am(*clock in time is 6am), so your left sweeping till 2:30pm. Did I mention the health issues too? Read on......
Last week our plant manager and owners decided to take each department up to the conference room to discuss health issues. And let us know that our insurance policies would be null and void, unless we re-chose a new one! Basically less benefits and more money out of our pockets. Rates went up an additional 6 bucks for non smokers, and even higher for smokers. Plus the company wanted the eradicate smoking in their plant by May of 2008. We were asked to decide if we wanted to quit smoking, sign a contract, and given 6 months to quit. Our total time to decide was about four hours. Stonewalling at it’s best!!!! Legally you can’t make someone sign a contract, due to unforseen circumstances! Since I was leaving to a better job. I was denied attending a cessation class(*been thinking of quitting), though I had signed up. Another strike on the company, since I was technically still an employee.
Anyhow....During the meeting, the veiled gossamer of bullshit kept rolling .A big tax break for the company on overall insurance, and extra tax breaks at the end of the year for their so called program! The plant manager asked if anyone had any questions. I heard an employee mumble that I would probably fuck them with one of my whopper of a questions. And I did.....Literally!!!
Plant manager: Any questions?
Me: Raises hand. I hear you stressing about health. And it sounds like an after thought. Due to the fact, that the companies new 280 grand machine is spewing out a lot of metallic particles into our workspace. What are the findings on that?
Plant manager: Well. We had a test done. And all levels seem okay. Except for the Barium content. Barium seemed a little high.
Me: What would you define as high?
Plant Manager: High would be above average..
Me: I see! Above average. And no consideration to the employees on these findings until now? It’s been 3 months since that machine was hooked up.
Me: Are you familiar with Barium, and it’s affects?
Plant manager: Mmm.... Sort of.
Me: You do realize that Barium is what companies use is the process of plating chrome, it’s found in thermometers, and can be used as a radioactive isotope in doing medical GI tract testing. And the possible short term and long term effects weren’t taken into consideration. And your concerned about smoking? Have you ever taken a good walk around this factory?
Plant manager: Of course!
Me: hen you do know that the welding copper spools that the welders use for tacking truck bodies together, have the same warning labels as a ack of cigarettes do!
Factory owner: That’s a grey area!
Me: Grey area? You think the overall well being of your employees is a grey area? People seem to forget that, We the employees are the ones busting our asses on that factory floor on a daily basis to build your product to the best of our abilities, under the current conditions. Though our health is on the line each and every day. Employees are the ones that make or break a company. And all that’s mentioned is a grey area!!! What’s going to be done about this health situation?
Plant manager: Were working on it?
Other employees: “I’ve had severe nose bleeds!”, “Muscle spasms!”’,” Nausea and vomiting!”
Plant owner: I had never heard of this!
Other employees: “ Well. Maybe you should pay attention to the safety logs a bit better and open your eyes!”
Other employees: “So when the test was done. Was the machine actually turned on?”
Me: Since Iowa publishes everything and anything as public knowledge, from traffic violations to minor offenses. Will this incident be published as well? And if so. Will we get copies?”
Plant manager: We’ll have to end this meeting now!”
When everyone returned to the work floor. I had dozens of co-workers and lead men thank me, for bringing stuff up.
One of the reasons I resigned, and looked for a better job!
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