Month: November 2008

If there’s one thing I can do with vigor it’s bleed.

There was one final truck, half full. I went on that with another guy, to blow through it and be done. Turned out it had completely trashed rollers. Not even sucky ones.

We ended up with a swarm of as many as five of us on it, initially brigading past the rollers while someone did a quick repair. It was a rush.

After a while, I notice blood starting to flow between my right pinkie and ring fingers, starting to get on my palm. Looking, there’s fresh blood centered on the middle of the back of my hand, flowing that way to where I finally noticed it. I tend to get cuts and scraps and bruises without ever noticing, and this job is rife with them. Surprisingly common working on computer hardware, too – metal parts and all. My guess is I scraped it on the metal ribbing in the truck.

I washed it off and put on a bandage. It’s a small nick just before the first knuckle at the base of my middle finger. Waaay too small for so much blood, but that’s me. I bleed like crazy. Well, same thing with sweating. I sweat so profusely under exertion, people worry about me.

[Much later, because I have kids and stuff…]

Was I even planning to say anything else?

When I got back to the truck, it was almost empty. I helped with a few more boxes and then left for the day, forgetting to ask about paychecks (despite checking in with the manager), which I thought were in for us to get on Friday mornings, but perhaps it’s actually Saturday. By the time I got to the parking lot, the bandage was blood-soaked. From that tiny little nick! Took all day for it to crust over enough not to want to ooze some blood.

Anyway, there’s the post I tried to write for filler earlier today, longer than expected. Hopefully I can avoid too many injuries. Last night was the “pace yourself and don’t fill the conveyer too much for the people further down to sort” management message. The night before was the “go fast, here’s the impossible spec you all should manage and there’s a prize for the first person to do so but it’s realistic, really” management message. Previously it had been the “be careful not to damage anything or send up anything already damaged, take the extra time to be careful and to put aside QA stuff” management message. At least, on balance, they do seem more interested in safety, mindful efficiency and quality than in raw speed at any price.