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Well, if you have read my complains about the job position that I had for 4 days, well this is what happened AFTER that.

I returned to packaging on Wednesday. Friday I was working my position when out of nowhere a box weighing probably 20 lbs fell onto my foot and twisted my ankle. I didn't really do anything about it for about 2 and a half weeks except put a brace on it. But it wasn't getting better. In fact, it was getting worse. So I eventually was sent to a chiropractor. Two months later and it's still bugging me.

But that's the least of what I've had to endure. About exactly a month later (Tuesday, December 4th) I was working my position when out of nowhere a box weighing about 60 lbs fell onto MY HEAD. Needless to say, ow. I visited the chiropractor, went to a walk-in, went to the emergency room, and my own doctor within a week. All said the same thing - pulled muscles in my neck and back (although there was some arguments about which muscles stare - and it's more commonly known as 'whiplash') The emergency room doctor was the most help - gave me anti-inflammatories, T3s (which I never used), told me to use muscle relaxants, and informed me that my dizziness was due to fluid in my left ear (which also contributed to the migraine-like headache that I endured for two weeks straight)

So for two weeks I was on super-light duty at work. Being a gray-hat (on probation) I was warned several times that because I'm on light duty that there is a good chance that they'll find any reason to get rid of me. I laughed it off at first, but eventually realized that they were right. Then I contested the fact that most of the other situations were probably highly different than mine because a) my injury was work related, and b) my injury was due to their negligence (boxes have fallen from there many times before - and it's a fairly high traffic spot especially for what I was doing)

After that, because I could finally put my hard hat back on (any pressure on my head hurt - one guy had put a glove on my head as a joke and I almost started crying) I slowly reintroduced myself back onto the floor. I say that because although it was the chiropractor writing the notes giving me my restrictions, he was asking ME what I wanted to do.

This week was my first week back on regular duty. Yesterday they put me onto a different line than what I'm used to - a harder line... and I'm barely in any condition to work my regular line. So I suffered through most of the day. An hour before the day was done I lifted too much and ******** up my shoulder again. I went to the nurse and my supervisor eventually ended up coming and I was sent back to the super-light duty stuff until the end of the day and then was told I had to see the chiro asap (9 am today)

So today I was working my line again for about half an hour, then sent to the box room (my line didn't have any boxes to work with, so I had to help out a different section until the boxes arrived) 9 o'clock eventually came and I went to the chiro. He did, like, miracle moves I swear. Before going to him I couldn't lift my arm above my shoulder - afterwards I had full range of motion. When I came back to work my line was going again, but I got sent back to the line I was working yesterday because they wanted to cross-train us so that we could switch around every once in a while. Thing is, I already KNOW that line - I was there when I first started working there. And they said something about me being too slow yesterday. I so wanted to yell at them something like "THAT'S CUZ I'M ******** INJURED YOU DOUCHES! I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU KEEP UP WHEN YOU CAN ONLY SOMETIMES USE ONE ARM IN A TWO-ARMED ENVIRONMENT!" At least in my regular spot I can easily compensate and regulate what I do with that arm, this new line gives me no choice but to push to limits with almost every movement.

More later...

So... I vented out on my chiropractor... and he figured out the problem, called the work nurse, 'yelled' at her.. and now I've made a deal with my supervisor that I'll work this other line half the day and my regular line the other half until I'm 100%... then back to training on the evil line (there's three lines that we all are 'supposed' to be rotated on... for some reason though they picked me as the guinea pig right after coming off of light duties... instead of, say, going by seniority - which would put me second if we only started with MY line... and plenty far back if they went by seniority according to all three lines. But they probably picked me because I know most of the other two lines, and therefore need the least amount of training - but I can't do the other lines in my condition... somehow me saying 'No, my body is ill-equipped for the job right now, please wait until I'm fully healed' equates to me refusing a job (which gets recorded in my file) This is what I vented about to the chiro and hopefully he fully sorted it out and it's not in my file because it SHOULDN'T be because I WASN'T refusing work - I was following doctors orders).

So far so good with that - although it pisses off the person that I'm switching off with (we switch lines/spots after every break) because he doesn't like the other line (neither do I, but I can't do anything about it and neither can he) and was never informed of the deal. So this morning he was all angry and I explained to him as best I could at the time what was going on and he didn't really get it... and he probably got stuck on the stupid line all afternoon because I went home at lunch because I'm sick. sweatdrop

Today the supervisor for another line (the one I got kicked off of because of him) came up to me today to tell me that my name is being passed on a job posting I signed for (the exact same job as before) because a) they sent me back back in November, and b) I'm still on modified duties.

mad

As of Monday, I'll be on regular duties, but I'd still have to wait a week before I can try out for any positions. However, my bf tells me that my name is almost up for a different line, which should be right on time with when I can try it out. Yays.

HOWEVER, there's a curveball. My bf is moving to a different city sometime in the really near future and I obviously want to move with him. He's being really vague with the details ("Going to live with batman and work at same place only in that city instead") and when I press for more he basically says "I'll be looking for a more permanent place for us." ... that could be days, weeks, or months! scream

I hate his spontaneous desire to run away. stare

Well, we had planned to move their in the spring. He just can't stand my parents anymore and is moving this weekend.

We work at the same place.. well, until friday... then he'll be working at the plant in that city instead.

Yeah, he's gonna go live with his friend. If he can't find a place within a month, that friend's roommate is moving out at the end of February at the latest and when he goes I can move in.

But back to bitching about ******** I hate the line they put me on today. I've never liked it. I was happy that I hadn't been on it for 4 months. In one spot I had to constantly over-extend my elbow, so it was in seering pain until just recently (4 hours after the fact). Plus I kept mashing bone into my fists, so my fingers are all angry at me. Plus the box chute is just slightly to high for me and so I probably will gain a bruise on my forearm from mashing it into the chute while over-extending my elbow to get the goddamn boxes. mad

What really sucks is this is where they want me to be 'trained' - again, I did this line 4 months ago, so really it's just a 'refresher'. They want me to know all three lines of my section of packaging, and this is the 'last' one. I still need some work on one part of a different section (I don't have the speed to box for 3 people, just 2... and a half lol) They actually want us ALL to know all three lines so that we all rotate... I guess weekly? It just REALLY sucks because I know I'm leaving there within a month but I can't quit because I need the money so that I can get a place in the other city when the time comes and I still have bills to pay here (plus my mom just bombed me with a $855 bill last night due at the beginning of March evil ) So I can't quit, I just have to suck it up. My only way of staying sane is knowing that I'm next on a lot of postings for different jobs in the plant - I really just have to get through this week because I'm finally officially back on regular duty and they don't let you try out new postings until a week after to make sure you don't injure yourself again.

^^ lol. Me not moving, me must suffer. Bf and I are no longer together.

But anyway. So here's what happened today:

There's this shortcut we take when we go for our breaks. It's not actually a shortcut, just the shortest route from a to b. Well, we were told we could no longer go that way, we must go the long way around. I got pissed and yelled "Then I'm actually going to TAKE the 15 minutes I'm SUPPOSED to GET!" and went for break.

Later, my trainer comes up to us and reminds us, so I again get frustrated and explain I have no problem going the longer way - but I want a full break. She tried to explain to me how breaks work, and that we all get screwed. I told her I understood how it works (15 minutes from cut stop to cut start again), and that we get screwed MORE than everyone else. She told me to take it to the supervisor, I said I would. Well, lucky for me she went and got the supervisor, so I continued my rant with her not 10 minutes later. She too tried to explain to me how breaks work, so here's what I told her "When cut stops, I look at the clock. From that, I add 10 minutes, and THAT'S when I have to head back here. TEN MINUTES!" She went on and on and finally said she'd check it out.

Not but 10 minutes later the mini-supervisor (he's a supervisor in training) comes up to me and asks me to explain the situation. After a bit, I repeated exactly what I told the first supervisor, and he took it a little more seriously - but again felt it necessary to explain how breaks work. So I told HIM "Yeah, to suit all lines' definition - break is 15 minutes from when you step off the stand to when you step back on. We get 12 at most, and usually there's already stuff coming down the line. The person at the end ALWAYS has a pile waiting for them" So he finally understood (because he's seen the pile), thought it was bullshit as well, and went off to talk to other up-there's to find out why we're being scammed out of minutes. He came back with no real conclusion but said he'd try to time our breaks to see if we were really being scammed.

One thing that caught my funny bone is the fact that he tried to contest that we have to be READY 15 minutes after cut stops. I said I know, I worked on *other* line where I had more stuff to put on in order to be ready, and almost got ******** a few times because I wasn't ready on time. Where I work now we have to put on three pairs of gloves - not much time needed for that. (Oh, and yeah, three pairs - it's damn cold where we work and the product is cold and wet, so we have two cotton, and one rubber glove per hand. The order in which they're worn differs from person to person though lol.)

Funny thing is, because he talked to the lines that give us our stuff - at last break we actually got our 15 minutes. So it appeared that nothing was amiss. Hopefully it stays that way.

Side note - he also asked me in place of a different supervisor if I was still interested in a job posting I signed back in November. It's for a position that gets paid dollars more an hour than where I work now. I said yes, and so he'll get back to me with when I start and such. WEE!