Re: Member Announcements Thread
Heh, should have seen that one coming. Can't really compete with military service I suppose. Well, I think I'm still at the top of stupid work hours for civilians contest at least. I'd still rather have 16 hours in an electronics store than 12 in the pits of Heinz Westwick.
(Warning, long description of hellish old work place. Ignore me if you like.)
When I said hell on Earth, I realised it might sound a bit pathetic to any who have seen real disasters or serious situations, but honestly, this place should not exist. Of course, I've never had to worry about being shot while there, but I'm certain there were enough health regulation failures to warrant danger pay. I believe there are plans to demolish and replace it, but these things take years and large sums of money, and the factory wasn't doing to well when I left it. I wish I had photos to show you of the particular older unit I'm talking about. Ironically and almost too perfectly, named Unit 6, but all the workers call it 666, and no one has ever cared to remove the extra numbers graffiti onto its sign (I only ever got to see units 5,6 & 7. Not sure where the other ones are). The unit was always sweltering and drippingly humid inside, bad in winter, unbearable in summer. The mist was actually thick enough to hide the other end of the large room, making me imagine it went on forever. Lit up dimly with an orange glow from the occasionaly flickering lights above. Literal stalactites and stalagmites of fat, batter and god knows what, as long as a person growing from the leaks and splashes of the machinery. I had to cut them down and take them away in a wheel barrow once. A giant burning oven thing down one end from which you can feel the heat on your face from half way across the factory floor. The eternally frozen over ammonia tank the other end, coated in a foot thick sheet of ice. The swirling vats covered in a horrible brown starchy foam churning a constant stink into the air. A maze of slippery grease coated steel walkways and unknown pipeing, some shooting steam. The floor often covered in slime, foam and the trodden potato chunks that jump from the conveyors
(TL;DR, If I was going to shoot a movie set in hell, this place would be my first choice for location. It really looks like it.)
Everyone there had to wear long "white" coats, hat hats, ear plugs, face masks and often goggles, so you could barely tell each other apart. The noise was constant and loud enough that general conversation was impossible. You either trained yourself to be a robot, or had to make do talking to yourself. My sister worked there a week, then bailed the first day they assigned her to Unit 6, leaving halfway through the shift crying. I kid you not. Deliberately dramatic perhaps, but entirely true.
I won't try to guess the kind of things you might have to do in the military, but at least while on duty there must be some sense of purpose beyond making potato products for £5.50 an hour with down time and breaks not paid for.
Er, I'll stop writing now... '_'
, swanky electronics store or not.
