I have a whole new appreciation for the working man. The “blue collar” worker, if you will.
After only two days at this warehouse/factory, I am near collapse. It’s my feet, you see. I’ve been trained on and have been operating what’s known as an “order picker” these past two days, and it’s a stand-only machine that weighs 2 1/2 times more than your car. Most of today I was up, down, and around very, very tall racks of plastic goods stacked 5 decks high, about 30 feet. Guess where I spent a lot of my time? That’s right, lifted 30 feet in the air on this shaky contraption, pulling sometimes heavy boxes off the top shelf and putting them on a pallet for orders.
I would complain, but honestly, in theory this job is not difficult. Pick up shipping slips, find the orders, stack them, bring them to shipping, lather, rinse, repeat. In PRACTICE, however, this is hands-down the most physically demanding job I have ever done in 20 years of working life. My left big toe tingles due to poor circulation, and my feet almost literally creak at the end of the day because of how much I have to balance myself on them to do this job.
That being said, I know pretty much what’s expected of me, I’m learning the layout of the floor, and my bosses seem to like me. Now I have a much-needed weekend to literally rejuvenate and recover, because holy shit do I need it.