Work Place Drama: A Day in the Life of a Factory Worker

By Gabby

Daily events of a female in an industrial setting and the challenges she faced and dealt with every day. The struggles of working with egotistical men and snooty bitches.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663222978

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Copyright © 2021 Gabby.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-2296-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-2297-8 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 08/19/2021

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When I started writing in my journals it was to vent. The language in these journals are very explicit. It was what I was feeling at the time. I was incredibly angry by the things I had to deal with. Later in my employment there I worked for a guy that was so different than anyone there. This guy was awesome. He was simply the best. Love that man. I really can’t say enough about him, he was so awesome.

November 19,2001 This guy on the line called me a bitch today. He really ticked me off. I didn’t deserve that I didn’t do anything to him. He’s such a jerk. When he wants something from me, he’s nice and then he becomes a jerk. Its ok for him to stand around and talk and slow up production but when I talk to somebody, he gets a nasty ass attitude. It seems its ok for other people to make mistakes but when I do people make a big deal about it and makes me feel like an idiot. Nobody’s perfect and yet when I make a mistake, they act like a committed a crime. Why do people always make me feel like I have to be perfect, and people make me feel like I don’t pull my own weight on the line. People stand around and talk about me and then they are nice to me to my face. I always feel like I must pick up where they left off because they are too damn lazy to do it there self and I’m the one who gets in trouble. And if I don’t, they make me feel like a slacker and that I’m lazy. Well since I’m supposedly a bitch I’ve decided not to talk to anyone. A manager asked me how things were going today I told him not bad. I asked him if he talked to the guy and he said he did. I’ll call the guy fat mouth. The manager said he did talk to him. As far as I know that was all that happened, but he did at least talk to him. That tells me that the kind of behavior is acceptable. Although thinking about it now it isn’t acceptable. Enough is enough, I have decided to find something that suits me better. I told another Manager that while I was off for the holidays, I was going to do some serious thinking. I was going to decide if I was going to leave the company. The 20th of November I almost did just that. I can try to start my own business and I’m going to give it a try and see how it goes. People on the next line are always yelling at this guy on my line. But they think he is an ass. My line leader who is genuinely nice occasionally, you can hear her yell at this guy to the tune of Barbara Ann by the beach boys. It is funny. She’s an ok line leader. I have put up with more crap from those male chauvinist two faced backstabbers than I should have to. It’s not just the guys it’s a lot of the people. What the hell is wrong with these people. I have never done anything to anybody. I just do my job And I get treated like crap. They think they are so much better well they’re not. Fat mouth can be as nice to me as he wants but he is wasting his time. He’s not just an ass he’s a #1 prick. I’m not going to go out of my way to be nice to those people in there. They don’t deserve it. I do know if I were doing the name calling the consequences would be much different.

December 11, 2001, I have worked for this company for nearly 12 years and I have put up with more crap than I should have to. I was hit by a person in there although I didn’t say anything because it would have been his word over mine. But two other people saw it and of course they wouldn’t say anything. One day I was talking to this guy in management and it just came out. I had not intended to say anything to anybody it just came out. And besides, it had been 9 months since the incident. He was just about jumping up and down in the aisle.

December 13, 2001 The other day we had a meeting with the boss (if you want to call him that) he’s a first-class jerk. He said that we must start in a different place at the start of the shift so we will be in a different place at the end of the shift. One person does production report, one does scrap report, and one takes the tote back to the crib. He says we are a team. What a crock. Oh, we’re supposed to be. Oh, fat mouth isn’t going to do all the paperwork and take care of the tote by himself. Oh, Waa Waa. Cry baby. It’s really kind of funny, when I first went to this department, he did this, and he did that. In fact, he did it for an excuse, an excuse to get people to do things for him. And then there’s this lady that says she don’t know how to do it. That’s how she gets out of doing things. Anytime something doesn’t work she yells at the leader and he comes over and fixes it. When I ask him to do something, he says FIX IT! What I feel like saying to him is F you. It really bugs me the way these people are nice to your face and then they go to another person who they were just talking about to you. And they talk about you to them. How crazy is that. Better yet how two-faced is that.

Since November 19th fat mouth doesn’t say much of anything to me. Won’t do him any good. He can be as nice to me as he wants to, he’s wasting his time. I’m all done trying to get along with people. I’ve had my share of the crap they dish out to me. But God forbid if you do the same to them. One of these days I’m going to tell those people to take that job and shove it! I’m tired of people treating me like crap all the time. What a bunch of hypocrites. Back stabbers, and two-faced people. I have never worked with people like that. And yet they go on like it’s an everyday thing and they think nothing of it. Of course, around there it is an everyday thing. And life goes on.

December 17th, 2001 Today when I went to work, I was where I was supposed to be according to someone. But wouldn’t you know it Fat mouth was sitting on his on the gauge. Oh no he wasn’t about to get up and run the welder. He just sat there on his fat ass. I can’t believe how lazy and two-faced these people are at work. And then you have this lady who claims the guy is an ass and yet she talks to him and is all nicey nice to his face. Really are you kidding me. It just amazes me the way these people are. I don’t talk to most people at work anymore. Course I didn’t talk to many of them anyway. I don’t intend to stay there the rest of my life and put up with their crap. If what I’m trying to do works, it could generate a pretty good income for me. More than any of them would make. They really think they are so much better than me I’ll show them. Oh well and life goes on.

January 15,2002 Jan.14th was my first day back since dec.18th 2001. It was a fairly good day. Since I don’t talk much or at all since Nov. 18th these 2 days were fairly good. Other than the fact that we were down since about 10:00 a.m. All in all, it wasn’t too bad. At least there was no name calling.

January 17th, 2002: Yesterday our line was down, and we had to clean (as usual). And about 7:30 we were sent to other lines until our line was up and running. I got sent to Dept. 12. Of course, we had to rotate every hour. I told one of the ladies that I couldn’t run a machine and she said are you on restrictions. I told another person I wasn’t running the machine until I talked to a manager. The manager I wanted to talk to came up behind me awhile later and he told me to stay off that machine. I knew he wouldn’t let me run this machine because I hurt my hand on it last year. At least not for a while. Today our line ran. Later in the day I don’t know where fat mouth went but that left 2 GO’s and a welder. These people don’t work well together. This one lady isn’t about to do anything if she doesn’t know how to do it. I don’t know what the big deal is about doing the paperwork. She just leaves the line at 2:00 o’clock and leaves it for someone else to do. And I’m usually it if the leader isn’t on the line. I don’t get it; I don’t know what the big deal is. I still think people expect me to be better than I am. And no matter what I do it seems it’s not good enough. Or right, I can’t seem to win no matter what I do. I work with such lazy people, and they’re just crybabies. Other. than the events of the day, it wasn’t too bad. It can always be better.

January 28th, 2002: Today wasn’t a real bad day. About 10:30 we started having a lot of trouble with the bender. That’s never good. We also had trouble with gauge. Before that happened, I was at the end of the line packing parts, the basket was full, so while we wait for the material handler, we keep moving the full basket and for him to bring an empty one. While this was happening, I noticed there was parts still coming to me, however there was not parts coming off the bender. I looked to see if the good parts were still in the tub and they weren’t. There is one other lady on the line besides me and she took those parts off the tub and run them through the line again. Sometimes this person can be dense. It’s irritating because she doesn’t ask if they are good, bad, or rework. I guess she just assumes they are good. That could really kick us in the butt. She’s one of these people that has something to say about everything. I guess she isn’t really hurting anybody. Well maybe she is because what she says usually isn’t good. She’s one of those who is nice to your face and will talk about you behind your back. Beware of smiling faces you’ll get a knife in the back. It wasn’t a bad day though. My Supervisor wasn’t happy because the line wasn’t running well, all in a day’s work. We did get put on a different line, and for a change it was kind of nice. The day went well. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to have a good day.

February 5th, 2002: Today was a long day, the line didn’t run well. Ran 52 parts in 8 hours. Somebody on the line changed the time we took our break. Also, we have a new line leader so the people on the line had to decide who was coming off the line because we have to many people on the line. I was asked if I wanted to go to 31. I was high seniority on the line. I was on the line for 5 years and I put up with the back biting and being talked about and I did nothing to no one. I just did my job. I told the leader if I had to go back to other line, I would quit in 6 months. As far as days go it wasn’t bad it was just long. My Supervisor is in Mexico this week I’ll be glad when he gets back next week Feb.11th.

February 8th, 2002: It doesn’t make sense to me why things must change just because someone new comes to the line. Suddenly, the parts are put in this pail of to cool down differently because supposedly a person said to for some reason or other. Suddenly everything’s changing. It’s beginning to be a big pain in the butt the way the line runs. We must do stupid crap just to get anything done, it’s stupid and it doesn’t make any sense. Today everything and everyone drove me crazy. Guess I was a bit irritable. Then about 10:00 the line leader come and told me that big mouth said for me to go to 46A. He isn’t my boss. If my Supervisor can’t come and tell me then a set up shouldn’t tell me to go to a different line. I never did like someone telling me what to do, and I hate more now than ever. Maybe one of these days I can change my situation to something I like better. It always amazes me how people have something to say when I have a bad day, but when its them I’m supposed to just deal with it. One good thing about today fat mouth wasn’t there.

February 13th, 2002: Man, what a crappy day, we had to run service parts (that’s always fun) and as usual the line didn’t run well and if that wasn’t enough someone had to bitch about the gloves. I was wearing gloves for the job I was doing; I have been wearing vinyl gloves for years and now out of the blue it’s an issue. I’m sure it’s not over yet. Why the hell can’t people leave me alone and let me do my job. Nope can’t do that. I don’t bother anybody, I don’t call people names, I just do my job, and wouldn’t you know it somebody has to find something to Bitch about. They must make an issue out of something. Maybe in a while thing will work out and I can quit. I’ve had more than I can take from people in here. Got to see if I can change my situation. Then we’ll see what those smart asses have to say.

January 15th, 2002: Today started fairly good. Our line didn’t run so we painted lines around the machines. It’s about 5S, you go through 5 stages and when you get to the 5th stage your line should be clean, organized, and sparkle (or shine), anything that shouldn’t be there should be gone. Anyway about 6:00am. The manager sent me and big mouth down to 84. It was going well until about 11:00. A lady got some flowers and a card from a family member. What he said did not make sense to her. She got the card and flowers February 14th. I don’t know when she found out the meaning, but her son had passed away. My day went to hell quick. Of course, there was talk about what had happened. I never did ask her what happened. I had a lousy day the rest of the day. So, for 2 days I had a crappy day. The lady was off work for a month.

February 21st, 2002: This day was a bad day. These people have done so much work on the line to make it better. If they keep going, we’ll have to pound the parts on the fixture, which we do anyway, not supposed to we’ll never get the damn things off. People can’t leave anything alone. Things that were never an issue before is now suddenly an issue. I wish people would leave me alone and mind their own business. New line leader and everything changes. Up until 2 weeks ago we didn’t have a line leader and things were just fine. I’m tired of dealing with all the crap. Got to get out of here, there’s to many chiefs and not enough Indians. Not dealing well with things at work. My emotions are all over the place, this time it doesn’t have anything to do with work, but it doesn’t help being there to deal with things not related to work.

March 3, 2002: March 1st it was brought to my attention that when I come off the welder, I had to go to the gauge instead of to etch and pack. The reason because it gave him more freedom to move around. What a bunch of bull shit. Again, it seems to me that if other people are not doing what I am someone makes a big deal about it. God forbid I am doing something different then everyone else. I wish people would just leave me alone. I don’t bother anybody; I mind my own business and do my job. There is always someone who bitches about everything and anything. I should have quit November 19, 2001. It’s just a matter time and I’m going to tell them to take the job and shove it.

March 13th, 2002: Surprisingly today and the past few days it has well. Ai have been having good days and time has went well. Fat mouth asked me if I had any extra energy that I could give him, I said what makes you think I would give you some if I had any. He said I know you can be nice, well that was before he called me a bitch. I won’t deliberately be nasty to him and call him names either but I’m not going out of my way to be nice to him either. I don’t talk to many people anymore, and the people I do talk to are nice to me, they treat me with courtesy. I guess that eliminates a lot of people. If I’m able to leave, there are some people that I will miss. One gentleman I will miss.

March 14th, 2002: Had a really bad day at work today, and it started last week. Should have seen it coming, should have stayed home today, and since I didn’t, I should have been working by myself, but that didn’t happen either. Just my luck. I like working by myself that’s when I do my best work. I was thinking about my granddaughter and my grandmother, so I didn’t sleep well. And my exercise routine suffers. Surprisingly, the day went well.

March 22nd, 2002: My day did not start well, was irritated before I left the house and it followed me to work. It was one of those days I should have stayed home but we only have four days this week because of good Friday. This guy at work seems to make more work for me. The way he does things really irritates me. I’ll have to watch and see if does it to just me or if he does it to everyone else or if it’s just me. Maybe tomorrow will be better or not.

March 27th, 2002: I am amazed at these people at work, it just never stops. After work I went to see the Business Unit Manager and asked him if he would let me know if the 3rd shift Supervisor needed someone to come in early, he asked when and I told him whenever she would need the help. He said he knew on Sunday night they always needed the help. I had asked the Supervisor on 3rd for weeks if she needed help and she always say no. I have always done good work, but she obviously doesn’t want my help. Her loss. One of these days she’ll want my help and I won’t need the overtime, so they’ll have to find somebody else. Yesterday a guy came on the line and said to the new line leader oh you’re the new chick on the line, and you’re even blond. I don’t know how she took it, maybe she told him to go to hell. I am trying to have a better attitude at work, but people sure don’t make it easy. Whoever the guy was he is a slob and he make my skin crawl. He thinks he’s so much better because he sits on his fat ass in front of a computer.

March 28th, 2002: What a long day, and its finally over. Three days off work. Yes!! For a guy who supposedly thinks he knows so much he’s dense. Set up run a part off the bender, cut it and sized it. Then he took the part and checked it in the gauge, then brought it back and gave it to big mouth to run it through the welder. He proceeded to put it the saw to cut it. Which didn’t make any sense because if its cut again the part would be too short. He looks at set up and said did you cut this. Duh Hello. I looked at set up and he looked at me and shook his head. Then big mouth took the part and sized it. I just stood there looking at set up and shaking my head and thinking oh brother. Thank god the day is finally over.

April 3rd, 2002: Today when I went into this guy on the line said what are you going to do when your buddy leaves the line, I said what! I didn’t know who he was talking about at first. He said he’s leaving, I really like this guy, he was one of the few that was nice, and he was nice to me. My day just kind when downhill after that. I hated to see him leave. I broke one of my rules where he was concerned, I got close to him, he was easy to talk to and so nice. And very good looking. I didn’t plan on getting close to him it just happened. I felt like he was one of my angels he was there to talk to me. He always took the time. I missed him terribly. He was one of the few people I could talk to. He always said hi to me and he treated me with respect. He was a wonderful man. It won’t be the same with him not there. Change is very hard for me to deal with. And this is a change I don’t want to deal with.

March 5th, 2002: My what an interesting day this was It was just me and big mouth on the line, he doesn’t say much to me since he called me a bitch and that’s fine with me. I guess today because there was no one else he decided to drive me crazy today. I wish he would have just kept his mouth shut. He’s worse than a woman he never shut up. I guess since it was just the two of us, we didn’t do too bad. About 1:45 the manager called him and said he wanted to see me. I guess he was acting leader today, he thinks he knows everything but if you ask him something his response is, I don’t know. I think people think that damn line can’t run without him. Anyway, the manager tells me I’ll be going back to 31, worked on that line for 5 years and now I must go back. His reason was good, and he had good intentions. The only good thing about it is the overtime. He is so two faced just like most of the people.

April 9th, 2002: Today we were told all the GO’s had to rotate on the all the jobs. I now must lift parts that weigh 50lbs. For people that seem to be so smart they sure do stupid things, they say it is a trial run. If they can’t look at someone and say (or think) this person might not be able to lift those parts. Someone is going to get hurt. I know I do want to quit in a year. Even in the early years I wanted to leave this company and yet 28 years later I was still there. I hurt bad from lifting those parts today. (guess those smart asses with the college degree are not as smart as they think they are) my hands will hurt the most. They really don’t seem to have much sense at all. I would have to look elsewhere for work if they expected anybody to lift that much weight who is not physically built to do so.

April 12th, 2002: Today I left work at 12:30, I was tired and feeling down. A manager has the left the company today was his last day. Will miss him a great deal. It feels like losing a best friend, only had not known him long. He was that kind of guy. This guy is one in a million he will be hard to replace but they will, I let myself get close to someone in the workplace should never do that. Never saw that coming. He was there a year and a half, he helped get through a difficult time. It was a situation that just happened. I was lucky to have this man be a part of my life however temporary it was, I kind of think he was there for that reason and then it was time for him to move on, but I miss him tremendously.

April 16th, 2002: The other day I had to work with someone who has always irritated me. I don’t know what it is about her, but she just irritates me. She’s the type of person who if you do what she says everything is fine, but if you don’t, she doesn’t like it very well. If she can get someone to do the work, she slacks off. She works but she is real bossy. My gram used to say monkey see, monkey do. We were working together, and we were not very busy, it was slow, and we had to wait for parts, I really hate that. We come back from lunch and I pretty much had everything done that could be done with these parts, tags were on and ready to go. Yep there is an uh oh coming. The leader come back from lunch and said don’t put that tag on there we have to look busy. Oh, really and how are we supposed to look busy. She’s good at looking busy. Must be nice to appear to be busy, and how do you do that. I’m not good at looking busy. She didn’t know why people didn’t like working down there, and I don’t know she likes to look busy. She likes working down there because she doesn’t have to do much. She lets somebody else do the work while she looks busy. She wanted to know what the one thing was that I wanted to do I told her I wanted to work for myself. She said you already do, I said no don’t I work for this company. She said that’s not going to happen unless you win the lotto. She asked what else you would like to do, I said quit working here. She just stood there thinking and looking irritated with me. The people there won’t change their situation because they are so negative. Maybe I won’t ever get to work for myself but at least I think outside the box and think I could. There’s a saying you can’t soar with eagles when you work with assholes. The people I work with won’t change their situation because they think they can’t. At least I think about it, it may not happen, but I think about it and want to do something better. They will stay bitching and complaining about the same thing over and over and never do anything about it. I’ve heard it for years and it won’t stop. Maybe I won’t be able to change my situation but at least I’m going to try, which is more than I can say for them. And when I do, they’ll still be there complaining about the old crap. Besides if I must stay there at least I’ll be able to say I tried to change my situation which is more than I can say for them! I am thinking about asking the manager if they could keep us separated especially in containment, I would rather work by myself. This woman just irritates me. The manager told me everything irritates me. Well not everything but a lot of things people do does. I’ve changed so much this year it made me realize that I need to do something else.

April 21st, 2002: Today I worked the first Sunday I have worked for in a very long time, and for the most part it was a pretty good day. Time went well, but like most days there, there is always somebody who must be a pain in the ass. The one person who irritates me came over on the drills and telling people what to do. I just ignored her and besides the way she was working she could have run all the machines herself. She makes me feel lazy and like I’m not doing my job or that I don’t know how to do my job. When we were on our second break, I went upstairs in the break room it’s not something I normally do. Wasn’t up their very long and someone was talking about something or someone. I’m sure by the way she was acting she was talking about someone. She put her hand alongside of her face so whoever she was on her left couldn’t make out what she was saying. She is such a gossip. I’ve heard her talk about people, and I’ve been told she talks about me. Well good for her if she is talking about me, she is leaving everybody else alone. It amazes me that people don’t have anything better to do than bad mouth people. They seem to thrive on it that’s why I don’t have any more to do with them than I do. I prefer to be around some of the people in management. Not many of them they are positive and can be upbeat about things. The one person I liked to talk to is no longer there and I miss him. I’m not sure yet about this one manager. I’m not sure who I could talk to if I wanted to. So, I just keep quiet and do my job. It’s been a couple weeks since the guy left, and I find myself looking for him. It’s hard getting use to him not being there. It’s just strange with him not there.

April 24th, 2002: Today we had employee meetings, the plant manager said you don’t talk to me anymore so I told him I would come and talk to him. A person on the line seems to enjoy telling people what to do and she can certainly find a way to avoid helping someone else. She must not be a line leader or maybe she is. Funny how some people are good at that. She’s a slacker and people do not care to work with her, she can be lazy. Every day and on every break, people leave the line 2 or 3 minutes early. I couldn’t do that. They are asking for trouble and when that happens, they’ll be mad, and they will have something about it. And they will be mad at management. The only time they don’t leave the line early is at 2:00 o’clock. That’s because management is out on the floor. It’s just a matter of time. They will get in trouble and I’m going to laugh they know they aren’t supposed to leave the line early. We’re supposed to work buzzer to buzzer, but they don’t do it. They push it to the limit and when management has a meeting with them reminding them, they are to work buzzer to buzzer then they are mad and cussing management for something they are supposed to be doing in the first place. One day a while ago I was in the tunnel talking to somebody and a manager went by and the guy called him a prick. The person said hi to me. I said that wasn’t nice. He made some comment and left, and I thought wow. I don’t understand why people are so nasty it just doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t understand why. Maybe someday I will. Occasionally, people ask me what I want to do and they never like my answer so they should quit asking me. It would be nice to do something else and not have to work with these nasty people. It’s depressing and I can’t wait to leave at the end of the day so I can get away from them. If the plant manager can’t talk to me today, I’m going to try and find somebody to stay over and work for me if not I’ll stay until 4:00 o’clock.

When I went to work for this company in 1990, I had no idea what I was in for, I had no idea how these people would be, I found rather quickly they could be nasty and talk about people. My body also took a beating I was walking into things and getting bruises. I would walk by a container and hit my hand. I got my fingers pinched in machines. I had never worked with these kinds of machines before it was totally new to me. I worked 2nd shift for about 3 months and then went to first shift. The overtime was unreal, you could have as much as you wanted, of course it was a new facility and there was a lot to be done. We painted machines and cleaned. In 1993 on January 11th I was running the vertical eagle and the machine come down on my hand, the set up guy back there was working on something and I finally got his attention, when he realized something was wrong he came over and released the machine. He didn’t go around the machine he jumped over things. The control panel was just out of reach or I could have released it myself. The first responder was notified and then it went through the plant like crazy. I was taken to Prompt care. Nothing was broken just about broke the skin. It was bitter cold that morning to. The thing was the line leader on the line said it had done that with her, but she didn’t say a word. One of the manager’s in the office told me when he heard that I got my hand in that machine he was pissed. The machine was shut down immediately. I came back to work and the plant manager at the time came out and said he told someone that I came back to work like a trooper, he said most people would have went home. He asked if I was ok, I told him I was. My hand hurt bad and it hurt for days and the cold temperatures did not help. Where I worked it was called the back corner because it was in the back corner. In 1994 I’m not sure how this happened but there was 3 or 4 of us talking and the one guy hit me. The other two just stood with a shocked look on their face. I told the guy stay the hell away from me and don’t talk to me, he said likewise, I said no problem. I don’t remember when this was but one day this same guy was sitting on the edge of a blue tub, he must have said something I didn’t like I turned around and pushed him and he fell back into the tub, he was ticked and his face was red, and the team leader was laughing. She couldn’t believe I did that, and neither could he. There were parts in the tub, so he didn’t fall all the way in the tub. Another instance was where this other guy was always going up to us girls and getting in our face, and if we backed up, he would keep coming toward us. Well he did that to me one day and I suddenly stopped, and I pushed him hard on the shoulder, and I said what do you want. He was so stunned he was speechless. Well he never did that to me again. Another time he said something off colored to me and I had these plastic gloves I wore, and I hit him with them. They were plastic didn’t hurt him just surprised the hell out of him and it was the first-time guy was speechless. He left me alone after that. Back then I didn’t go to the boss about those things I took care of it myself. They left me alone to. Another time a maintenance guy walked by me and I was sorting parts in a tub and when he went by he touched me on the butt, I turned around and threw one of those small bushings at him, don’t remember if it hit him but the next time he came by their he was on the other side of the aisle. Throwing that small bushing at him was a reflex reaction, he touched me I reacted. Another time I was running one of the bushing machines and he came up behind me and touched me, I swung around so fast he almost fell off the platform, I said don’t ever touch me again! In 1995 I went to a new line. Needed a change, had no idea what I was in for. When this line was close to getting up and running there was people in their to help us get the new machines up, and the bender guy and I was talking he didn’t hear what I said, and he said you got your hand in a bender, I said no, he said I was going to say if you did you are very lucky to have your hand. We had very nice setup guys on the line to help us and I must have been trying to move something, he said Kathryn you don’t have enough ass behind you, all I could do is laugh. The poor guy had no idea how I was going to react. When I laughed, he laughed? These guys how I was I was. He looked a scared I guess you say. When this line did get up and running it was a nightmare, they hired so many people. They had Managers in there from other plants and they pushed us hard. I think the worst was the breaks. It was unbelievable. Another time on a different line I’m not sure exactly what happened but this said Kathryn will you turn around and I knew he was going to cut loose with nasty language, and he did. Another instance was (again this was a different line). One of the guys on the line was always picking on me, he shut off the machine and he would do other things another guy told him one day, you better quit picking on her or she’s going to kick your ass. Didn’t stop him though. Another time on this line one of the guys said something to another and guy and the second guy said I got pull and he did a hand gesture and about that time I turned around, he said you weren’t supposed to see that. I didn’t think I was.

April 25th, 2002:

Today it seems that a lot of people were not having a good day. I was on the final gauge the parts were always fitting, so I asked the leader if she would help me with them. It seemed to me that she didn’t want to do that. It seems to me that people don’t want to help anybody, she acted like it was beneath her to do that, she was slamming those parts around. I worked next to her on another job and she made me feel like I wasn’t doing a good enough job. I felt like I was being rushed, I don’t work well in that kind of situation, wasn’t comfortable working with her. There’s another person on the line that makes me feel that way, like I’m not good enough apparently, the way they see it I’m not. It may be just me, but I don’t think so. The 24th of April I had a very near miss, it could have been a serious injury. About a week and a half ago I had a minor head injury. This one guy on the line, he was working with me, he was running the other bender, and I was on the sizer, every time I turned around, he was right behind me. That’s an injury waiting to happen he was beginning to tick me off. I don’t like people doing that. Some people don’t mind that, but it makes me uncomfortable. Maybe I should have told him to back off. He’s a touchy, feely person some people don’t mind that, but I don’t like it. People need to keep their hands-off other people and keep their distance.

May 3rd, 2002: What a day! It started at 6:00 a.m. I was put on the on the pup convertor welder. First off it wouldn’t run. The team leader said to get setup, he came over and got it running, he is such a pain in the butt. He acts like it’s a hassle, he sees you coming, and he keeps going, he doesn’t stop, and he asks you what you want. He won’t even acknowledge you. He really ticks me off. I was running the welder and about 7:00 o’clock the team leader puts me on the convertor line. It made me feel like she didn’t have confidence in me to do the job. I wasn’t fast enough, so she put someone else on it. Something else irritates me is when I say something to someone, they act like they don’t hear me. So, they just ignore me. It’s like I’m not as good as they think they are, so they ignore me, and go on like I didn’t say anything. I’m tired of people treating me like I’m a nobody. My line leader is really pretty good to work for. We are supposed to rotate every hour and yet there are people who get to work wherever they want. They rotate but they don’t follow the rotation either. I guess that is up to them but it’s not fair to everyone else. Different rules for different people. Today when the manager gave me my check he said when we get 500pcs. We could go home. Just before 2:00 o’clock this person said he better not put us on another line. I said he told us we could go home when we got out the 500 pcs. She said well he better not tries to pull anything on us. And what was she going to do about it if he did. These people are a bunch of complainers. We were told when we come to work Sunday not to bring a lunch. Some guy said we should have lunch because we worked our asses off today. Then he said they should buy us lunch all weekend. I said let’s not be greedy. These people don’t appreciate anything. Maybe they should buy a lunch all weekend, but it probably won’t. Whatever the company does there’s always somebody to complain about something. These people amaze me.

May 8th, 2002: Today started out pretty good, I was put in containment. That means a customer found some questionable parts and we must go through them no matter how many there are. I was there all by myself for 2 hours. Yes! It was nice. I miss working by myself so much however it is becoming a thing of the past. Changes. Things have changed so much their and there will be more to come. At 8:00 o’clock I went back down to the line and asked the line leader where she wanted me. At 9:00 o’clock I was on the dunk tank. It’s a leak tester. A person that irritates me was on the table. There’s a lot of people there that do that. About 8:30 I saw her talking to someone and she was complaining to this person about me not thread checking the parts.

She wasn’t doing anything so I thought she could do it. Not a good idea. So, the next time I did the thread checking and gave her the part. What I should have done was thrown it at her. You did that on purpose she said, I said I did not. You did to she said, I said up yours. It’s funny how the bitch can stand there herself and not do anything to help but when it’s done to her, she doesn’t like it. Turnabout is fair play. Let’s say when she must do something someone else isn’t it’s a different story. If she would have said one more thing to me today, I would have gone home. I can only put up with so much crap in a day. I will deal with whatever crap I have to because I have 11 more months. I hope. So, I’m just going to try to deal with things the best I can. Its people like her that is going to make it hard. She can work when she wants to but if she can get out of it or get someone else to do it for her, she will. Just so she can be a slacker. There’s a guy on the line who is a person who fills in when someone is not there, he’s a negative, crabby, cry baby. He doesn’t seem to care about anything, which is not good. He has problems at home and he apparently bring them to work. If you can’t find anything constructive to bitch about and you don’t like the situation at work either shut up or get the hell out and quit making everybody miserable. Go someplace else instead of complaining about everything. Maybe they have a reason to complain, but in the twelve years I’ve been there so why bother. So, shut up or get the hell out of there. Quit making other people miserable by their petty whining. I think people thrive on making other people miserable because of their own situation. It’s always the same crap. Oh, poor me, if a person thinks they can’t change their situation they probably won’t. These people never cease to amaze me. They need to get a grip I sure hope tomorrow is a better day. I sure miss the manager that left the company a while ago he was a positive person and he made my day. He made me smile. Not many people can do that here. He made getting through the day easier him being here made a difference.

May 14th, 2002: People are always going to the job they want to do instead of following the rotation, well good for them if they can get away with it I couldn’t. The line leader doesn’t always follow the rotation either. Line leaders are supposed to lead if they don’t lead the people on the line won’t follow. She’s a pretty good line leader but she does have her favorites and they all do. I like working for her she’s funny. Like all leaders what’s said in a meeting is always different out on the floor. I can see why the line is in containment. I don’t understand why they must push us so hard. I’ve been off this line for over a year and it was always like that. No wonder we’re in containment. Line leader came over on the drills to help catch up which was fine but it’s the attitude I see. I could be wrong, but they are so indifferent to certain people they act like we don’t know how to do anything. Being helpful is one thing but when you bring the attitude with it it’s not right. Some people get to do the same job more than once during the shift. It is the leaders call. One person made a comment about a guy who was taking pictures of things on the line. She always has something to say too bad it wasn’t something constructive. We’re supposed to check these parts for defects, but they push hard it’s hard to catch them. Some people don’t look at them anyway. I know because I see them. Management says we must do a five-piece flow through the line, won’t happen because those idiots on the line don’t have enough sense to stop and then there are supervisors who come on the line and says fill the rack. The managers need to get their crap together and get on the same page. The most of them are so full of crap you don’t know who to listen to. Something that has not changed since I was on the line before. The back stabbers and it will never will. I have never worked with people like this. It’s unbelievable.

May 18th, 2002: Today wasn’t too bad a day. Things were going pretty until I got on the leak testers. This woman was on the pup convertors and she came over there and started running her mouth. Basically, she said thread checking parts is not a job, well it goes along with the job. Oh, cry a little more. This guy said she would complain if she was with a guy. He said she needs get laid. Oh boy not going there at all. The new lady on the line told me if I would thread check she would run the leak tester. That was nice of her to do that. Awhile later the line leader came over to the converter line, said she needed one person to go over and run the flare welder, I offered to do it. I went over and told the operator that the line leader told me to come over and run this job. She said I just got over here, I said I was told to do this job. She said will you go and ask her what she said, I said no. What a bunch of damn crybabies. I wish they would grow up and shut up. The other lady I can’t stand her, wish they would put her on a different line so someone else could deal with her. What I would really like to do is punch her in the face, she drives me crazy. That aside it wasn’t too bad of a day. I’m’ glad we don’t work tomorrow I really need a day off from these people.

June 13th, 2002: Today was a pretty good day, but yesterday someone went and squealed about some people not wearing there clips the company invested in, they keep our sleeves up. So, the line leader came around and told us we had to our clips. Its too bad people can’t mind their own business. They know we’re supposed to wear them anyway. They are tattletales. The manager came around and told me I had to wear leather gloves instead of the vinyl gloves while handling hot parts. He had a point. The leather gloves dry out my hands and they stink. Vinyl gloves are a safety issue. I’ve worn the vinyl gloves for years and they fit better. For the most part the guy is a good supervisor. They are pushing things but it’s his job. The plant manager lost his father 2 weeks ago, guess he had a stroke.

June 18th, 2002: Today at work the line leader came and asked me if I wanted to work in containment today, I told her I would. When I got over there, there were no parts to check so I told her there wasn’t any. She said get a broom and sweep, I said you took me off a job where I was busy and now you want me to clean. I told her I wasn’t going to sweep. It really pissed me off. She left me alone, it was the first time this leader made me mad. She’s ok most of the time but today what she did just didn’t set well. I really don’t know why they have her on the line she’s not a line leader, our line leader does just fine without her. One of the set-up guys on the line used to be a leader, I don’t know they have this lady on the line our line leader knows her stuff, she gets the job done and she’s funny to work with. She always gives us an extra 5 for breaks.

She allows the people to have food on the line which is not allowed. She’s lenient with us as long as we do our job, but she can be a bitch when she wants to, that’s what the talk is anyway. I’ve never heard anyone call her that. So far, I like working with her. A problem is there’s just too many people telling people what to do. Other than the altercation this morning it was a rather good day.

June 22nd, 2002: Same thing people are always complaining about something. July 1st GM shuts down and most of the lines will be down 1-2 weeks. During our second week off Truck and Bus must come on Friday the 12th and someone is bitching about having to come back for one day. Some say it sucks, I guess it does, the reason we must come back a day early is because on the 15th we have parts that must ship. They can complain all they want it’s not going to change the fact that we must ship parts. The company has no control over the schedule GM does we are the supplier we do what they say, or they will find someone who will. That SIMPLE! That’s just the way it is. There is another side to this, they could just have the 4th off instead of the 2 weeks. So, they can gripe about this all they want to its not going to change. No wonder manager gets ticked off at the people on the floor, I don’t agree with everything management says or does, but the employees probably shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

June 24th, 2002: People ought to mind their own business, they seem to think if you don’t talk, you’re in a bad mood and they want to know what happened. They can’t leave you alone. Anybody that has worked with me a long time ought to know that I’m very quiet, I don’t talk to many people, don’t care to either. One guy came over and put his elbows on the table and just looked at me. He’s nice most of the time but today he wouldn’t leave me alone, he eventually did but today he ticked me off. People are so nosy. Got told about the clips again today, I wish they would take clips and stick them where the sun doesn’t shine. I know it’s a safety thing and I get that. It’s easy for management to make these rules but they don’t have to wear them when it’s 100 degrees in the plant. We must wear the sleeves if we are handling hot parts, it’s for our protection I get that. It’s not fun getting burned with parts that 400 degrees. It’s painful. During the last hour of the day I was running the gauge and this person had a part and turned around and almost hit me in the back of the head. The parts are big and heavy, and I’ve been hit in the head before. People don’t watch what they are doing, people get hurt that way. I hate it when we have line meetings the guys (usually) talk dirty. Most of the people thinks it’s funny I think it’s disgusting. There’s a time and place for everything.

June 25th, 2002: Today we had a line meeting and this guy has a nasty mouth, he says nasty things and of course everybody laughs at him. They encourage him when they laugh. The line leader asked if there was anything we needed and to write it down so it would be done during shut down July 1st- July 15th. One guy said he wanted a prostitute in his weld booth. Somebody mentioned someone and he said I wanted a prostitute not a whore. A few minutes later a Manager came out to the meeting and it went on for a few minutes, the guy spoke up and said something else and the Supervisor said now you can go back to work. I walked by the manager and said he is so disgusting, and he makes me sick. Supervisor just looked at me and didn’t say anything. It’s the same thing everything every week, we have to listen to his dirty mouth nobody says anything about it. It seems to me he could at least keep the dirty talk for when he is around the guys. There’s no place for that in a meeting.

July 22nd, 2002: Saturday we had to work and there was only 10 of us there, it was a slow day. There were problems with the air pressure, and we didn’t get started working until 7:00 or 7:30. At that time I went up to the new bender and there were problems with that. At 7:45 I went over and asked the lady why the flare welder wasn’t running, she said it wouldn’t weld and I guess setup knew and so did the line leader. Heck everybody knew it. I asked her if the Supervisor knew and she didn’t know. These people are such morons they stood there for an hour and talked. Didn’t clean, just stood there and talked. Guess no one was concerned about whether or the line was running. I said maybe you should tell him. The other person didn’t like my response. You would think someone would