10/06/2004 Entry: "my new job"

My new job sucks. It sucks ass. It's out at a seed corn processing plant. I got it through a lab temp service, trying to get a job to pay the bills until I get a real job. Turns out I found the MOST boring job, EVER! It pays 8 dollars an hour though, and I get to play ping pong on during my two 15 minutes breaks (10am and 3pm) and during my (unpaid) lunch.

The general day goes like this: Start at 8 am, work crap job for 2 hours, 15 minute break, crap job for an hour and 45 minutes, lunch for an hour or half hour (depending), work for two or two and a half hours (depending), 15 minute break, work for an hour and 45 minutes, go home at 5.

The "jobs" I've learned thus far I will list below, along with a nice illustration courtesy of mspaint. (!) These jobs are all brainless, often painful due to repetitive motion or grinding of hands, incredibly boring, and are all done while standing. The machinery around often make it too loud for conversation, and usually requires us to wear ineffective earplugs.

Job 1: Cleaning Corn
Cleaning corn is where you quickly go through bags of corn removing moldy and bad kernels from the cobs. It's done in a very rapid manner, usually no more than a few seconds per cob, and if you want to do it fast, which is encouraged, you don't use the "corn pick" that they provide for you (which looks like a bottle opener) to remove the bad kernels, you simply use the strength of your fingers. Any of you that have ever played with corn knows what I mean. Imagine doing this rapidly for 8 hours a day. Whether you use a pick or not your hands are destroyed and bleeding by the end of the day. The job is also done over loud suction machines to keep the corn dust down, so conversation is impossible. This is easily the worst job, as it is very boring, very loud, and very painful. I did this job straight for the first three days I worked there, 8 hours a day.

Job 2: Randomizing
This is my favorite boring job, because it's not loud or painful. It is mindlessly boring but at least I can have a conversation during it. You have a 10x10 box grid and a series of envelopes marked 3-5, 4-6, etc, denoting their proper placement in the grid. I go through a box of 40ish envelopes and put them in their respective grid locations, then I label and put the grid boxes on a shelf. Rinse and repeat for the next 8 hours. It takes about 10 minutes per box. (note, I think this job should be called de-randomizing, for what should be obvious reasons.)

Job 3: Shelling
This job is probably the MOST boring and involves some annoying, blister forming repetitive action, which earns it the spot of the second worst job. I have a shelling machine (a machine that removes all the kernels from a cob) on my right. A box of corn on the left. I put the corn in the shelling machine. The kernels empty into a tray on the bottom of the machine. I put an envelope under a funnel, push a level down, and the box flips up and pours into the funnel. I close the envelope and put it in a box. Repeat.

Job 4: Counting
This is probably the job that takes the most concentration, which is none. I pour an envelope of corn into a tray. I put envelopes under the tray. I hit a button, 44 kernels of corn are automatically counted into each envelope. I staple the envelopes and put them in a box. The only part that's "hard" is keeping the envelopes in the right places and rapidly changing out so the machine is always running so that you get stuff done faster. This job I just learned today, and thus have not learned to hate it, yet. I've only done it for and hour and a half so far, and in that time I filled 400 envelopes.

*sigh*

Oh, and Witch Hunter Robin rules.