What's the worst job you ever had?

[Fish]

Worked shift work at a fiberglass insulation plant in McPherson during the summers when I was in college. Outstanding pay, but it was pretty tough. Worked 6am-6pm for a few days straight, then a few days off, then a few more days working 6pm-6am. The ovens that melt the glass were always running at around 3000°, so it was very very hot in the plant. And the fiberglass insulation would get in your pores because you were sweating so much, the itch would be unbearable for the first few weeks. And every once in a while, we would have to do an oven cleanout. Which required us to bundle up head to toe and crawl inside the ovens and scrape off the baked crap on the oven walls with a hand jackhammer. It was like being inside a ventilation shaft that was about 140°. Hot, dark, and claustrophobic. Awful awful work. But it was incredible motivation to finish college.

[KC Jones]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

Worked shift work at a fiberglass insulation plant in McPherson during the summers when I was in college. Outstanding pay, but it was pretty tough. Worked 6am-6pm for a few days straight, then a few days off, then a few more days working 6pm-6am. The ovens that melt the glass were always running at around 3000°, so it was very very hot in the plant. And the fiberglass insulation would get in your pores because you were sweating so much, the itch would be unbearable for the first few weeks. And every once in a while, we would have to do an oven cleanout. Which required us to bundle up head to toe and crawl inside the ovens and scrape off the baked crap on the oven walls with a hand jackhammer. It was like being inside a ventilation shaft that was about 140°. Hot, dark, and claustrophobic. Awful awful work. But it was incredible motivation to finish college.

Heh - my father in law was a top engineer there and my wife did those jobs too.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by KC Jones

Heh - my father in law was a top engineer there and my wife did those jobs too.

Inspector Packer. Whoohoo.

[KC Jones]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

Inspector Packer. Whoohoo.

Was that the job where you had to just sit and watch the machine and stop the line if it started to **** up? She said that was just mind numbingly brutal.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by KC Jones

Was that the job where you had to just sit and watch the machine and stop the line if it started to **** up? She said that was just mind numbingly brutal.

That job had lots of responsibilities. Normally you were catching insulation rolls off the conveyor, and packaging it with different machines. The rolls of insulation varied in size and weight. And no, you couldn't just stop the line. It didn't work that way. If the conveyor stopped, all hell broke loose and people and clamp trucks were hauling ass everywhere. They would lose lots of money when the conveyor stopped. That was a no-no. There were some easy parts of that job too. Sometimes you'd get the machine where all you did was guide the packaged insulation into a machine sitting in the same spot. Barely had to touch anything. Never let the summer hires do that one though.