Real Work - STFU2: Less Talk, More STFU
Jul. 24th, 2007 09:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyrasantae
The young'un was finally issued his boxcutter today so for the first half-hour or so he was oh-so-entertained with the novelty of having the thing. It's a safety boxcutter so basically the razor is spring-loaded and only pops out when you squeeze the trigger-thingummy on the handle. He whines about the blade only coming out a centimetre, and, like, how he can't stab anyone with it. (Well yeah, duh, it's a boxcutter, not a friggin' utility knife...)
Now, one of our tasks is to replace the kickplates on the wall shelving (that's basically the vertical panel that covers the area between the bottom shelf and the floor, and gives the base of the shelves structural integrity). To remove the old ones, I kneel down and gently lift both sides at once, and it slides smoothly out of its groove. He prefers to kick it so it bends in the middle and dislodges it from the grooves, *then* slides it out. He says my style of removing shelves (full of inventory) is ladylike and that removing kickplates doesn't need to be so. I felt like slapping him... but that's too ladylike :P
Somehow a discussion later between me and him about something leads to me lecturing him on the point of going to university ("you can party and have fun all you want but always in the back of your head there's got to be this feeling that you're there because you're going to learn and get that degree so you can get that nice cushy job so you can buy the nice car you want") and trying to explain how a GPA works (possibly the most important piece of math one absolutely needs to know in university). He then somehow goes off on how the Internet is a place where one can let loose and be barbaric and debate about stuff as much as one wants because no one will ever win or lose (IMO, there wouldn't be "barbarism" if there wasn't a standard of people who live their online lives with dignity).
I think he seriously underestimates me and tattoo lady because she and I are young women. Tattoo lady may be a punk lady, but she's not your typical punk. She knows exactly what she's doing and does a really good job of it. She's strong too, to boot. And she has the same Gerber knife as me. And we both bring it to work :P But she can pick her teeth with it and I'm not brave enough to do that ;)
Oh, yeah, just because you're working in the lingerie section doesn't give you licence to make sexist jokes. Yeah.
Out of our little band of renovation helpers, the four ladies (my supervisor, me, tattoo lady, Lynn) and Alex and the African guy are the only people who actually come to work motivated to do work. The other five young guys (including the young'un) are the laziest guys on the planet. Well, four of them, anyway. It seems like they've sucked the Asian one (he doesn't smoke, I don't think) in to slacking and spending his breaks in the smoking room with the other four. We have all the nylon straps set up to pull one set of racks, and until "three" of the count to three to pull, they'll be just kinda standing around chatting to each other. Every time. And they *so* aren't really pulling at all. These racks weigh several hundreds of pounds and they dig into the floor. We try not to but often fail at not scratching the new flooring. I may not be *nearly* as strong as they are but I try, and the friction from the straps burn my palms and my hands feel a little like jellyfish right now. And they play with the straps and the tools instead of getting them set up to move the next rack.
(Insert 'pulling my weight' pun here)
And if they can avoid actually having to put things back on shelves, they'll avoid it.
My supervisor has definitely snapped at them a couple of times tonight. She confessed to me that she really didn't know what to do with them. For some reason, it's so rare these days to find someone my age (or a little older) who actually comes to this kind of work actually eager to do work.
For goodness' sake, you signed up for a manual labour job, EXPECT to be doing manual labour! They hired you because they need your muscles, not your talk!
I got overtime today because I friggin' deserve it (worked from 2200 to 0718 or so - definitely more than 8 hours in there).
Now, one of our tasks is to replace the kickplates on the wall shelving (that's basically the vertical panel that covers the area between the bottom shelf and the floor, and gives the base of the shelves structural integrity). To remove the old ones, I kneel down and gently lift both sides at once, and it slides smoothly out of its groove. He prefers to kick it so it bends in the middle and dislodges it from the grooves, *then* slides it out. He says my style of removing shelves (full of inventory) is ladylike and that removing kickplates doesn't need to be so. I felt like slapping him... but that's too ladylike :P
Somehow a discussion later between me and him about something leads to me lecturing him on the point of going to university ("you can party and have fun all you want but always in the back of your head there's got to be this feeling that you're there because you're going to learn and get that degree so you can get that nice cushy job so you can buy the nice car you want") and trying to explain how a GPA works (possibly the most important piece of math one absolutely needs to know in university). He then somehow goes off on how the Internet is a place where one can let loose and be barbaric and debate about stuff as much as one wants because no one will ever win or lose (IMO, there wouldn't be "barbarism" if there wasn't a standard of people who live their online lives with dignity).
I think he seriously underestimates me and tattoo lady because she and I are young women. Tattoo lady may be a punk lady, but she's not your typical punk. She knows exactly what she's doing and does a really good job of it. She's strong too, to boot. And she has the same Gerber knife as me. And we both bring it to work :P But she can pick her teeth with it and I'm not brave enough to do that ;)
Oh, yeah, just because you're working in the lingerie section doesn't give you licence to make sexist jokes. Yeah.
Out of our little band of renovation helpers, the four ladies (my supervisor, me, tattoo lady, Lynn) and Alex and the African guy are the only people who actually come to work motivated to do work. The other five young guys (including the young'un) are the laziest guys on the planet. Well, four of them, anyway. It seems like they've sucked the Asian one (he doesn't smoke, I don't think) in to slacking and spending his breaks in the smoking room with the other four. We have all the nylon straps set up to pull one set of racks, and until "three" of the count to three to pull, they'll be just kinda standing around chatting to each other. Every time. And they *so* aren't really pulling at all. These racks weigh several hundreds of pounds and they dig into the floor. We try not to but often fail at not scratching the new flooring. I may not be *nearly* as strong as they are but I try, and the friction from the straps burn my palms and my hands feel a little like jellyfish right now. And they play with the straps and the tools instead of getting them set up to move the next rack.
(Insert 'pulling my weight' pun here)
And if they can avoid actually having to put things back on shelves, they'll avoid it.
My supervisor has definitely snapped at them a couple of times tonight. She confessed to me that she really didn't know what to do with them. For some reason, it's so rare these days to find someone my age (or a little older) who actually comes to this kind of work actually eager to do work.
For goodness' sake, you signed up for a manual labour job, EXPECT to be doing manual labour! They hired you because they need your muscles, not your talk!
I got overtime today because I friggin' deserve it (worked from 2200 to 0718 or so - definitely more than 8 hours in there).
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heh - violence for violence's sake is silly
Date: 2007-07-24 07:09 pm (UTC)Sounds like this guy is 13 years old.
Ah well.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-25 05:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-25 08:48 am (UTC)infact that sounds a lot like what I had been doing on my job
oh well.
We didn't have the luxury of the straps to hold though, things might have gone faster with them
on the other hand we did have the wheel sets to use and the skates,, and all in all i think those are better.
When I have work, I expect to work. I half wish they could fire one of the goons and put me on the job *winks*
no subject
Date: 2007-07-25 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-26 08:11 am (UTC)moving things that never ment to be moved isn't fun
no subject
Date: 2007-07-26 02:10 pm (UTC)If I had it my way and we had the time and space, I'd strip the racks down to their bare frames then easily drag/lift/slide them around.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-27 02:09 pm (UTC)these kind of differnces are rather intersting to me