Just like "bakery speak", the industrial world has a foriegn language all of it's own.
Returning to the cereal plant was kind of like going home for me. It has been about a year since I've been out there but most of the people are the same and I remembered them... and I was surprised as they remembered me.
The temp service has not changed a bit. They always.. always... freeking ALWAYS... give you false information, and the wrong directions... haha!! If you do temp work you just must be prepared for surprises! I've just gotten to where I grin and bear it because... well?.. That is what it is ALL about! ... Being flexible beyond the point of breaking. If you REALLY want to work... you WILL put up with an incredible amount of CRAP, just to WORK... And THAT is what it's all about. They want people that are SERIOUS about wanting to work... it stinks.. but that's the way it is.
I knew how to get to the plant. I was instructed to wait at the door, because they'd changed the way you enter. I was to show up ten minutes early and wait for a supervisor at the door that was to assign me a slide badge to get in and out. (They used to have a keypad lock on the door, that I knew the combination for.)
I showed up early, and waited by the door.. and waited.. 20 till, 15 till, 10 till... no supervisor. At that point one of the employess came up to me and let me in and I went back to the supervisors office. I wasn't issued a badge... My shoes weren't checked to see if they were non-skid. (thank goodness! Because I have burned all the "skid" off of my non-skid shoes in the rack oven at the bakery!)
I was greeted with familiar faces and friendly welcomes. The supervisors remembered me.
The morning meeting began promptly at 7am. We were told what we're producing and what stage it's run is at and who is in each area. There are three Triangles, an Eco-pac line, the bar-line, a bulk-pac line, the proctor, the extruder and the areoglide.
Yeah... it all sounds like Greek huh?
The plant runs 24-7. The shifts are 7am-7:30pm, and 7pm- 7:30am... the 7-7:30 is when the shift fazes in and out. You go in to take their places so the lines never stop... then at the end of your shift you cannot leave until the next person comes in to take your place.
When I first went back in I thought... Holy crap! How much has changed? Will I be OKAY here?
Then the morning roll-call started and we were briefed and I was the the first "temp" called upon. "Kim, have you worked the extruder before?"
"Yes sir," I replied. "Okay then I want you at the end of the cooling tunnel," he said...
I nodded... Got it.
Then I was thinking to myself... gee, I actually know exactly what he's talking about.... I guess I DO remember this.
I was really hoping to be put on the areoglide... as I was just starting to train on that before... or a Triangle, yeah, I don't mind working on the Triangles.
Being put on the extruder is okay though. I've never been put on the front end of it, but yes, I have been at the end, at the cooling tunnel... that's fine. I know what I'm doing.
The extruder makes "puffed" cereal... sometimes corn puff balls, sometimes puffed rice.
In this case it was puffed rice. I was stationed at the end of the cooling tunnel where all of the puffed rice is coming out. I make sure there are "totes" (big boxes lined with big plastic bags) ready to catch all of the puffed rice coming out of the cooling tunnel. I have to measure the bulk density of the puffed rice for each "tote" and mark them appropriately, then move them using a pallet jack to another area where my driver (fork lift) will pick them up. Then go get another tote.. The totes are 4x4 and 3 foot deep.
I have to go quite a distance across the plant to get another tote to bring back to the cooling tunnel. Usually by the time I got back the other tote is about full and I had to reverse the belt to the other side of the cooling tunnel to dump into the new tote I'd just gotten there.
The bulk density is important as different ones are used for different products and if you make a mistake, the weights will be wrong for the products. So, I was surprised to be given a rather important job.
Also if the density starts running too high or too low you must go tell the operator so he can adjust... Just saying... this is a constant job that is rather fast paced. If something goes phooey then you really have to hustle.
It's not so bad though... the 12 hour shift... you go early, basically start in at 7-7:30, get a break at 9, a half hour lunch at 11, a break at 1, a half hour at 3, a break at 5, go home at 715-730 when your relief gets there. And you get paid for 12 hours... so yeah, it's not so bad.
Actually what I consider to be the WORST part of it?.. Is.. wearing earplugs... Isn't that silly? I HATE the earplug thing.. it messes up my ears for weeks. My ears ring. I cannot hear. I hate it.
I did leave there tired... yes.. sore hands from the contant use of pallet jacks, tired feet, and I used some different muscles (and wore them OUT haha!)
There was also an accident on our shift, on our machine, which was upsetting.
I guess it's part of industrial work, but geez... I'm still trying to really wrap my head around what happened... I don't get it... Appearantly, one of the doors blew open on the extruder ( the baking, "puffing" part of it) as this gal was going around to gather up crumb buckets. It hit her right in the face and the steam coming out... omg... she had 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her face and neck.
From what they said she also insisted on driving herself to the hospital... which makes me think that it was worse than what we'd thought.
My point being... 1st and 2nd degree burns are very painful... 3rd degree burns, although they are the worst, are not painful, the deep tissue, the nerves registering pain have been burned away. The pain starts as they heal.
The lines kept running... they have to keep running... just gotta go on. You gotta be tough. If you aren't tough.. get out... there is always someone to replace you. Do you wanna work or NOT?
Well... I want to work.
I had worked from 1am to 6am baking at the Twilight Zone... changed clothes then reported to the cereal factory where I worked from 7am - 7:30pm... I walked out of there feeling like I was leaving a trail of cereal dust poofing out behind me, just like Pigpen on Charlie Brown. But it wasn't dirt, I was completely covered in cereal dust and feeling devastated...
I was trudging my way to my car mulling over the days events and feeling a sense of dread because my workday was not really yet over... I had to be back in at Twilight at 2am.
Will this freeking day ever END????
Sooooo Freeking tired!!!!!
Why ME??? Why frikking ME???
I was starting to feel so very, very sorry for myself...
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