I have dealt with instability my whole adult life. My first hubby was often between jobs after a layoff or just being let go because there was no more work with a two-bit employer. He was in the trades, and could always find some side job just in time to buy food and pay the bills. With second hubby, there is a whole new dynamic. He grew up with a war, and with older brothers, and not a lot of self-confidence. Still, we have met all our bills 100% on time. He is a hard worker, he likes to work, prefers 10 or even 12 hour shifts, nights. Excessive paperwork is not his strong point, nor are a lot of technical details that are easy to mix up.
Helgesen was perfect. He did it well, and the shift premium raised his pay to a very comfortable level. Standard Iron ruined that. We had hope with Nestle Purina, but he was not chosen to move forward, we suspect because he wears glasses, which for some mysterious reason, seems to be grounds for instant rejection. We think it's because glasses fog up in the cold, and they wanted to start him on the meat cutting line. They asked if he can see without glasses, he said yes, but not tiny details.
For now, he has a job that he likes. If you ever wondered how they make plastic bags, they start out as a bubble. It's called blown film extrusion. Each machine needs two people to run it. There are specifications to set up, customer orders needing particular plastics, paperwork to be filled out, hoppers to be filled, measurements, how wide, how thick, things to check on all levels of a three story tall machine, etc. He is training on what the company calls the Legacy machine, which is another word for old and needing constant checking. By constant I mean every 10 minutes with complete setup every half hour (no time for lunch on a 12 hour shift).
The bad news is that recently they told him when he finishes training he will be running the Legacy machine by himself. When he hired in they told him he will never be working alone, and they would move him over to one of the new machines. They failed to tell him that on the night shift, only one person runs the Legacy machine and all of them have quit. The only comfort is that because these machines are complicated, training takes quite awhile. One good thing is they will train him on forklift. Hubby is upset and feels they betrayed him by telling him one thing and then another.
Blown Film Extrusion
So, we were hoping he was set in a job he liked but now there is just uncertainty. I told hubby, for now, just try to learn as much as he can, get the forklift training, and in January or February we will see what becomes of this job.
2 comments:
If all the other people quit and he's the only one who knows how to run that machine - sounds like job security to me, even though it's not ideal. It could give him some breathing space as he continues to look for another position that he might like better. Crossing my fingers for a great job very soon. :-)
There are currently three people running that machine, hubby and another new person and the trainer, who has been there 20+ years. Hubby cannot run the machine by himself.
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