@eltrut: I was near the top of my class in high school. I participated in academic clubs, social clubs, sports, and the theater department. I got a 32 on my ACT (the equivalent of a 2210 on SATs according to one second of Googling). I went to a good private school with stellar medical, theater, business and journalism programs. I hosted the premier talk radio show at my university. I co-managed and co-founded a small start-up student-run publishing company that became profitable under my leadership. I was a member of a fraternity. I was a part of a number of volunteer groups, teaching video editing to at-risk youths, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and Best Buddies (Big Bro/Big Sis for the mentally handicapped). I graduated and immediately started working for an engineering/architectural company. About a year and a half later, the country went to shit and I got laid off.
I couldn't find a job for over a year after that.
When I finally did find a job, I was working in a cold storage warehouse that was an hour and a half drive from where I lived. I worked in a freezer that was around 0 degrees F; I could spit and it would turn to ice as it hit the ground. I drove a forklift for 10 hours a day. There were massive amounts of mandatory overtime. I was regularly working 60-70 hours a week. I wasn't told about overtime until it was time to leave. Imagine getting changed and walking to the parking lot at the end of a long day of work, unable to feel your frozen fingers because the company didn't provide you gloves, and being told, "Come back in, you're working another 6 hours". Did I mention that my shift also meant working nights and weekends? I didn't see my friends more than once or twice the entire 9 months I worked there. The company had no respect for your personal life or your time. They didn't have to warn you of overtime, and they didn't let you take off on a busy day no matter how far in advance you requested or what your reason was. One of my co-workers missed his brother's wedding because they said they'd fire him if he took the day off. Another risked being fired to see his father on his deathbed, by taking a half-day. If you punched in a minute late, you were docked 15 minutes. If you were a minute late (even if you were in the building, dressed, and ready to work) when you punched in 5 times in 365 days, you were fired, no questions asked. Driving 1.5 hrs to work in the middle of a Chicago winter can be a bit "unpredictable". I had to drive 90 miles an hour on sheets of ice just to get to work on time. Once I got in a car accident, made sure the other guy was okay, and immediately sped off to make it to work on time because they accepted "no excuses" for punching in 1 minute late. They didn't even give breaks for a long time until someone threatened to sue the company. If you took more than 10 minutes of personal time (phone calls, bathroom breaks, smoke breaks) in a shift, you were warned on a 3-strike system. That's regardless of how much overtime you had. If you used 8 minutes of personal time in your regular shift, and they made you stay another 8 hours... you had better make those 2 minutes of personal time count. Mind you, I was basically an ideal student and potential employee with a college degree. And this was my life. I finally got out and found a better job in February.
Cry me a river.
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