Chat Job stories!

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Pangaea, May 22, 2017.

  1. Pangaea

    Pangaea Forum Moderator

    It was suggested to make a new topic for job stories so here we are! This thread is to share stories from your work experiences. No job is too small or too big. Past jobs, present jobs it doesn't matter! You could talk about what your duties were or how one of your coworkers always smelled like cheese. It should go without saying but do not share sensitive information! If there are certain secrets from your job(s) then don't talk about the specifics, especially if you signed any kind of legal non-disclosure agreement!

    To start things off I'll post here what I posted in Hel's chatroom ...

    I was a mechanic in a factory that made electronics for vehicles and taking care of moulding presses was part of the job. Injection moulding presses do exactly what they sound like they. They clamp down two moudling plates and inject material (plastic is a common one) at high temperature. Each plate is pretty heavy because they're usually made from solid steel to withstand the heat and pressure involved in the process. Switching out plates and tearing apart the table to clean and re-grease it were common tasks as a mechanic. Also adjusting the position and clamp depth of the plates to reduce flash and ensure the material got to where it needed to go (fill the moulds). Some plates have pneumatics to push the components out or water cooling attached. Those were really interesting to work with because you had to hook up the hoses correctly. Another task was maintenance of the presses. This included cleaning the joints of excess grease and wiping down the outside to clear it from oil and dirt. Most tasks involving the moulding presses were very dirty. There were times when, after working on the presses, the front of my shirt and jeans would be covered with grease. A lot of my work uniforms ended up stained (from this and other things). Oh, and also sometimes I had to use a big ass wrench (8 - 10cm) to tighten the nuts that keep the top and bottom parts of the press together.

    So, do you have any fun work stories? Share them here!
     
  2. LyricLyricandmoreLyric

    LyricLyricandmoreLyric Phantasmal Quasar

    Just two weeks ago I was mowing a lawn for 24$, it started getting darker out and clouds rolled in so I starting going faster to try and get done in case it rained. I got about 2/3 done before it started sprinkling, and I figured I'd just get done as it was only a little bit. No sooner than I had thought that did it start POURING. And it was POURING! I drove full speed into an open shed and crashed into some other equipment and hid in there for about 15 minutes before I found a tarp and ran inside, tarp overhead
     
  3. Surenu

    Surenu The End of Time

    I told that story months ago, but here it is again:
    In the army when I was stationed in Munster (northern Germany, home of the not-so-fabled 1st Tank Division) it was usual that each morning the entiry company would stand in the courtyard to receive daily orders (Tagesbefehl in German). One day after the obligatory greeting the company commander goes "Men! Logistics XY is missing a Marder engine. Does anyone have any information about its whereabouts?"
    Now, to understand why it was sheerly impossible for us to keep up any sort of military decorum or discipline for a while, these things are large and heavy, basically something is impossible to lose. It was later found by the way - it had been shipped somewhere because it was needed for urgent repairs someone in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern but noone bothered to actually tell anyone.

    Oh and another one:
    My very first job was as a dishwasher in an italian restaurant. It was hard work because I've always kinda tall so I had to work all hunched over and often got my hands scalded, but pay was very good, especially since I was, like, 16 years old. Anyhow, one faithful night I was asked if I could work a bit longer and I said sure, extra hours are extra hours. My boss' son then told me, and I quote: "Just focus on your work, keep your eyes on the sink. I'll buy you a couple beers later." (this is legal because legal drinking in age for beer and wine in Germany is 16).
    Long story short: The longer hours were because of a bachelorette party, which are good money for a restaurant. I actually didn't have all that much to do because they were drinking more than they were eating (which made me glad because screw cleaning those lasagna forms or salad plates). I hear a bit of cheerful screeching, you know the type, office ladies in their thirties who get to feel like they're 18 again. I take a small break outside to catch some fresh air, and suddenly a completely ripped, naked dude walks past inside by the backdoor and I was completely dumbfounded.
    After that, "Giovanni there... there's a stripper in the kitchen." became a running gag at work.

    Considering the sheer amount of jobs I worked and my tendenc to attract crazy stuff, I'll probably post some more later.
     
  4. Katkill

    Katkill Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I was working at aluminum factory like a year ago, I was operating a saw and sometimes packed aluminum parts in a box.
    The only thing that can be interesting is that I was kind of drunk most of the time. I bought a few small vodka bottles, hid it in my jacket (I took it off because it was hot as hell, but I kept it near me all the time) and drank them in a bathroom. I stood with my back turned to the camera so nobody can see it, put a bottle in my pocket and went straight to the shitter.
    No one really cared, even my shift supervisor was fine with it.

    My other job was a street sweeper. No street swiping trucks, just a broom, shovel and a barrow. The kind of job that you take for a month or two because you have no other option. I was slacking off as all hell because, well, F that job. Some people were sent to do this because they committed some petty crime like stealing a bike. They were sent to public works instead of prison. And man, holy shit, I've never saw so many people that are DESPERATE to show how much of a hardened criminals they are. They were just regular lads who tried to steal a bicycle and got caught, but they were telling some insane bullshit stories like "I was smoking weed while driving 200km/h without driving license". Listening to this childish crap was absolutely dreadful. Fun fact - the only guy who actually was in jail never even mentioned it.

    I went for basic military training when I was 18, I was also a butcher and now I'm a welder. Nothing really interesting or unusual happened there or I forgot about it.
     
  5. Pangaea

    Pangaea Forum Moderator

    There were cameras in the bathroom?!
     
  6. Waffle-Chan

    Waffle-Chan Guest

    Huzzah, a new and great thread has arrived!
     
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  7. RogueZephyr

    RogueZephyr Subatomic Cosmonaut

    Walking back to the warehouse at the back of the store and I saw this lady empty a whole box of crisps onto the floor just so she could take the empty box. After I had gotten the box back off of her and put the crisps back inside it, I mentioned it to my manager who said he had caught the same lady trying to hide behind in a cage in the warehouse (think Solid Snake being controlled by a three-year-old and you will have a good idea of just how bad her attempt was). Apparently, she was looking for a very specific size of box and had failed to notice the "staff only" sign on the door.
     
  8. Pangaea

    Pangaea Forum Moderator

    So, I was a mechanic for about 6-8 months before I had to train a partner (my previous partner was caught sleeping on the job). One of the first things we do is clean the solder pot one the solder conveyor. The solder conveyor is basically just a long machine that the operator puts parts into. It runs through a flux station, goes over a solder pot, and returns to the operator via a conveyor belt. The solder pot is basically what it sounds like: a large pot full of liquefied solder at about 260°C (~500°F) that has a pump in it to push a flow of solder up to solder circuit boards en masse. Because of the nature of solder, there is lots of build up of dirt and impurities (I think it was a tin/lead solder but I don't remember for sure). So, we had to clean it out and put new solder in to replenish what was taken out. So, anyway literally the first thing I was training this new partner on was cleaning the solder pot. She immediately splashed some solder on my arm. By accident of course. I still have the scar.
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2017
  9. RogueZephyr

    RogueZephyr Subatomic Cosmonaut

    Ouch.... I can't imagine how much that hurts.
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2017
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  10. Pangaea

    Pangaea Forum Moderator

    One word posts are kind of against the rules. Just something to consider.

    Anyway, yes. It hurt and she was sort of freaking out but it was honestly only a small spot right where the elbow bends. It didn't bother me that much because I have a high pain tolerance and I was used to working around the solder pot and getting burns through my own mistakes.
     
  11. The Purple Dragon

    The Purple Dragon Master Astronaut

    I used to work in a small Chinese shop (two rooms, two cooks and me, also the cooks were the owners), and when I had told someone at school they told me that the owners son (and previous counter worker was a stalker. Not really the funny things other people are posting but I felt like sharing.
     
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  12. RogueZephyr

    RogueZephyr Subatomic Cosmonaut

    No worries. I've edited my reply and won't do that again :)
    I think the worse pain I've felt from a work-related injury was when I crushed my finger in between two cages, which crushed the ring I was wearing into my finger. I then stupidly tried to pull the ring off which created a large patch of red raw skin underneath it.
     
  13. Surenu

    Surenu The End of Time

    When I was working in a convenience story the vast majority of our regular customers were the local alcoholics, so after a while I knew them all on a first-name basis. One of them would often send his 19 year old son to get beer and cheap wine for him. One night, said son was asking me a couple questions about cheap wines since he had no idea about them - he didn't drink alcohol himself. Suddenly, he drops a bottle and falls to the floor - I half-caught him before he could bash in his head on a cooler at least. He started convulsing and my coworker Jacky freaked out so I shouted at her to "get a damn ambulance". Turned out to be an epileptic seizure - good thing the nearest hospital was only three streets away. The ambulance comes, they load him in and I prepare to close the store since we were way past closing time anyway - yet people still kept coming in to get more booze. I finally manage to get the last customer out, close and lock the front door and call the boss about what happened. Thank god she allowed us to not clean up and leave it to the morning shift. Suddenly, I hear a kick against the door, but due to the darkness outside I don't recognize the figure so I shout something along the lines of "Buggr off!", turn off the lights and go to the back office to count my register and finally get home to sleep. Turned out it was the father of the boy, and he came back in blackout drunk a few days later to complain about me - ironically during my shift. I gave him the number of my boss and I don't know what she said, but after that call he looked like a little boy who was scolded for something. He apologized and came back a few days later to invite me over for beer. I declined.
     
  14. RogueZephyr

    RogueZephyr Subatomic Cosmonaut

    I used to work in a store like that. I used to live in a country town which had about 5 pubs in the center and not much else to do. Every time the local drunks got kicked out of the pubs they would come over to us and try to get served. I learnt that there were only so many ways you could politely say no to a person in that state before threatening them with the police.

    Was his son ok?
     
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  15. Surenu

    Surenu The End of Time

    Yep. Got hospitalized for a few days, but he turned out fine.

    Same job: One day I stand behind the register just at the beginning of my shift and see someone go to the booze shelves which I have a very good view on because of shoplifters. He seems to examine some bottles and didn't carry a bagpack or something and wasn't wearing loose pants with many pockets, so I didn't find it suspicious - the liquor shelves were stocked with some pretty good stuff after all, and he looked like he was going to a nice party with friends and tried to figure out what to bring. Suddenly, I hear breaking glass and what do I see? A couple of bottles knocked over. Not good, because that was top-shelf stuff. I assure the man it's all gonna be fine, we'll clean that up, we'll just have to call the boss. She says we need a copy of his ID because his insurance has to pay for the damages which were, as we later calculated by counting the bottle necks, in the hundreds of euros. He declines, so I say we have to call the police then, to which he said "Fine" and gave me his ID which I then copied. I sent him on his merry way, asked my coworker to work the registers while I cleaned up (I was actually sort of shift manager, but I did much prefer cleaning over working the registers).

    Three days later, on may day off thankfully, he returns and says to another coworker "I did it once and I'll do it again" and smashes his arm right through the top booze shelf, easily knocking over a third of the merchandise. My coworkers, one of them a man easily twice my weight back then, have had enough that time because they knew it was intentional, call the police and stop him from leaving the store. When the police and my boss came he was shouting at her that he didn't have to take any shit from a woman. He was arrested and placed in a mental institution for a while. Damage was in quadruple digits that time.

    Last I heard of him was that he was suspected of having travelled to Syria to join ISIS.
     
  16. RogueZephyr

    RogueZephyr Subatomic Cosmonaut

    Wow... that's insane. I hope those suspicions were unfounded but still...

    I remember one guy coming up to the tills and asking the girl next to me for smokes. She asked him for ID and he then spent the next 15 minutes arguing with her and trying to get me to put through the sale without IDing him. As we were getting to the end of our tethers with him, he suddenly calmed down and gave us his ID. It checked out and we served him just so that he would go away
     
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  17. Surenu

    Surenu The End of Time

    I bet you all the money in my wallet (which is... 23 cents right now) that that guy had a warrant on him.
     
  18. RogueZephyr

    RogueZephyr Subatomic Cosmonaut

    Wouldn't surprise me at all. He was a nasty piece of work and no mistake.
     
  19. The Purple Dragon

    The Purple Dragon Master Astronaut

    At my job in a Chinese restaurant (the owners/cooks spoke mandarin, by the way) a man came in to the restaurant complaining that he was hungry. Half way through ordering he pulled out his phone and started talking to someone, complaining to them he was hungry. Half an hour later he was still on his phone and my shift ended. The next day the owner said that he complained about me walking out half way through serving him. The worst part is that he was entirely sober.
     
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  20. Pangaea

    Pangaea Forum Moderator

    Hearing all these stories makes me eternally grateful that I've never had to deal with the public in my jobs!
     

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