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2003-02-08 - 10:19 a.m.
Big big debt
800 owes me big time!! I bet he is going to be very sweet to me until at least lunch time. Why? Because he answered the phone last nite. He felt so bad afterwards and he deserved to. I had to work another 12 hour shift!!!! We are so shorthanded in the lab on some shifts that techs sign up to come in early and stay late, usually 4 hours. That is what I was doing in November when I blew out my knee. We have to do a 12 hour shift once a week, and several volunteer to do more but not me lately. Only when everyone has offered to stay over several times do I volunteer. For one thng, I do not want to prolong my knee recovery. But the most important reason is because we are enabling the company to put us into unsafe work positions. Running shorthanded and doing this 4 shift plan is burning everyone out and we have had several major accidents lately. It is only a matter of time before it ends up in a fatality. OSHA and the safety folks from corporate are already concerned about this. The problem in the lab is that the work is so technical that several weeks of training is necessary before a new hire is profitable. Add the cost of wages and benefits to that and it is expected that the company is unwilling to stretch itself out any more. But we have to work until closing, perhaps 14 more months, and the present situation can be unbearable. Arrangements can be made ahead of time for people to come in, but if production schedules change and the tech is not needed, 2 hours have to be paid before sending one home. So the procedure is to have a personnel clerk call about 2 or 3 hours into the shift. Naturally those of us who do not want to work just do not answer the phone or else screen our caller ID or phone messager. At least that is how it is supposed to work. Not last nite. And once the office has made contact with a tech, they must come in or face disciplinary action. Refusal to work is not allowed and can endanger unemployment benefits. Naturally one can lie, and say the tech is not home or the tech can say they are too ill to come in, but if ethics are involved, off we go to work. At least I did. At least it was my Friday. But this day needs some special attention that I must rest for first before attempting. Tomorrow is 2s' birthday. He will be 41 and he and the girls are coming over for dinner. 1d and her children are coming also. I want to have an angelfood birthday cake with strawberries and whipped cream, some type of roast and the rest of Sunday dinner fixings. The actual Sunday dinner is not the problem. But I must go out to the freezer and dig out the strawberries and meat---and it is cold out there!!! I need to go to town and get some more whipped cream in the aeresol can too. I like to have lots on hand so the littles can spray all they want.(Within reason, of course. One of them will massively overdo it every time.) I already have 2s' present bought. I am doing books and things of that sort for the boys and grands now. Last year I got Ambrose's book about Lewis and Clark and then had to go and get one for us. This year I found the complete works of Robert Service, the poet who wrote The Cremation of Sam McGee and The Shooting of Dan McGraw among other fine poems. I also found a copy of Trail of Tears by a member of the Cherokee nation. I hope he likes them.
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