Here was my day today:
7am:
Went to a meeting we have once a week about participants where we talk about the problem children and how to deal with them with new people and share any knowledge we have about whats going on in their lives that could have suddenly made them seem more difficult or explain any odd behavior.
My favorite couple has apparently broken up. I noticed Sandy flirting with a few young line guys at the beginning of the week. She was waving all the time and I guess she walked up to one guy and started rubbing his shoulders. His reaction was "What do I do? I dont want to get her upset but...ahh!"
We had to put her on the other side of the production floor away from her eye candy and 2 female line leads are trying to steer her back to being with Gary.
I have noticed poor Gary has been down all week. I said, "So thats why hes been so quiet! My poor Gary!" The person in charge of participants said, "Oh no, there is more going on with him but that doesnt help."
Eric has been acting out. Nothing I would consider crazy considering we have participants that get violent for almost no reason. He just took back his chair when the new guy took it away after he kept falling asleep at his table. He never does that. Person in charge of the participants said, "Yeah, he doesnt do well with change. I just hope he doesnt lose his pants. (Que questioning looks from those of us who havent been around for more than 4 months) Oh yeah, years ago we had a major manager change like we are about to have and he just pulled down his pants to the floor and started peeing. They had no idea how to handle it and ran to us (she meant her and the one other person in the room who has been there for years) screaming "HELP! WHAT DO WE DO! HES PEEING EVERYWHERE!"
8am:
Thats when participants come on the floor and if I havent watched the clock and hidden myself somewhere by my desk or in the warehouse get bombarded with at least 6 participants wanting my attention.
Participant 1:"Can you write this down for me mama?"
Me: "Sure. (On a good day its one sentence... today she started singing.) Hun, I have things I have to get to. Can we shorten that?"
While Im writing, Participant 2: "Hey Niki!" (Thats not my name, not even close but thats just what he likes to call me.)
Me: "One sec."
Participant 2: "Nikiiiii! Nikster! Nikkiiiii!"
Me: "Whats up?"
Participant 2 tells me all about what he did last weekend for the 15th time while I try to look interested and answer everyone else.
Participant 3: "Where am I today?"
Me: "Your on batteries."
Participant 3: "I cant do clack?"
Me trying to answer everyone at this point: "We dont have any orders for clack. Hi Debbie! Oh yeah, you dads picking you up today. Cool!"
Participant 3: "Can I pull the fire alarm?"
Me: "No, you still cant pull the fire alarm."
Participant 3: "Did you flush the toilet?"
Me: "I hope so. Hi Ron!"
Participant 4: "You like my tie?"
Me: "I like your tie Ron."
"You like my shirt?"
"I like your shirt."
"You like me?"
"You know I like your Ron."
This is inevitable really considering I have to check on how every participants work is turning out anyway Im one on one with every with them at least once a day. Its just less overwhelming if I dont get caught in the wave of them all heading to the floor. It also avoids repeat stories. Once I had to hear about a woman finding a cat 4 times because that day every manager that needed to talk to me had to do it within arms length of her. Im not totally convinced that they didnt do it on purpose.
10am:
I go to check on a line that I might as well live at considering how many problems the machine has. I was informed by people Monday that they saw one guy drinking damaged goods and hiding it in a trash can behind the machine. I found an empty bottle. They again told me as soon as I got over that they saw him do it again the day before. I did a "why is the machine acting up?" walk and looked in the trash, nothing there. I went back about an hour later and found 2 empty bottles of a product we haven't worked on in over a week in the trash can hidden under film that was pulled out during the many fixings of the dumb machine.
Here is the thing with that:
1) Even if the production big boss said "Sure, take the damages." (Which I keep telling people who eye them or just ask me, if he is in a good mood and they dont take advantage of it, he will!) Its NEVER OK TO DRINK THEM ON THE FLOOR! Thats a health code violation.
2) There are cameras. Oh there are fucking cameras. And Ive noticed over the past week that the bosses LOVE watching them. I think they are after one person but people are getting caught in the cross fire. Hiding behind a machine to take a drink will hide you from people ON the floor...not from that camera over there dumbass.
So I narced. The guys on the line know I only narc when I think someone deserves it and this guy totally deserved it. Hes being lazy as fuck and chugging multiple bottles in front of everyone else keeping their noses clean like hes sneaky... nuh uh.
Usually I just walk up to people and say "Stop it." to whatever rule they are breaking and they do. He bypassed that with me after I watched him go up to the line and stare at rejects like they would get up on their own and walk into a bin off the belt. I was standing in front of him on the other side of the belt grabbing rejects watching him not move a god damn muscle and said "Fuck it."
Him: "What?"
Me: "Bucket. Can you get me another bucket?"
12:10pm:
Before everyone can go to lunch they have to do stretches. I usually make sure Im by my desk at that time so I can snake my way out the side so no one sees me go outside to smoke. I dont need to stretch, Im running around all day, Im bending over, Im lifting, Im smushing myself between things like Elasticgirl to do counts. A neck role and wrist twist isnt going to help me. I want 2 minutes of silence before I get people coming out for lunch updating me on anything I may have missed during my constant tour of the floor.
I was staring off into space at a picnic table when two very large black men who also escaped the stretches off to my right smoking and talking by the air conditioner suddenly jumped and ran over to me (one actually jumped ON the table.)
"JESUS! DID YOU SEE THAT?!"
Me: "No."
"THAT WAS A FUCKING BADGER!"
Me, getting up slowly and sitting on the table: "Awesome."
1pm:
All the mangers have gone missing. A new line lead who cant multitask for shit is freaking out because 2 of her participants are MIA. Somewhere around 9am I was asked by a manager to make sure she stays calm and to help her however I can because her freaking out gets everyone freaked out.
Me: "I'll go find people."
.....I found someone but not the someone that I wanted. "Where is X or Y?"
Him: "They are occupied there was a...." Then he got grabbed by someone else who needed him to step in.
Meh, there was a....
I will find out soon enough.
1:15pm
Answer to "there was a....."
Over lunch a few people went to a restaurant and out of the blue a female line worker started punching a male line worker.
There was much MUCH more detail but honestly there are holes in the story big enough to drive a MAC truck through. I just let one person involved vent to me and said I wouldnt say anything. Which I didnt. My mouth hasnt opened about any of it.
This is normal. Very stupidly normal.
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