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Man, just when I thought things would start turning around for the better... Been on this new job for 8 weeks now and the wife has already found grey hairs! Literally... I turn 24 this Saturday too, mind you.
I took this job because I have prior experience in it thinking it would be a good avenue to take considering my prior situation before it. I was on the verge of being out of a house. Would have been on the street, pretty much.
So I take a leap, move all my belongings to a storage unit and living on an air mattress in the parents house close to the job. Saving as much as possible and sticking it out without any creature comforts. Doing all that I can do to make sure I can keep this job.
I was told by the owner many promising things about my future employment with him. Lo' and behold, they are empty as homer simpsons head.
The job has no doubt been stressful. The moment the owner shows up on the jobsite my anxiety shoots through the roof. The first day on the job he laid out the ground rules. No biggie. Things such as showing up on time ready to work, no slacking, no cell phones or going to the bathroom and spending a good amount of time in there. Take breaks on time and not making them into lunch breaks, etc.
He wants guys who will work, stay on task, be drug free and get something done. All things I would agree with and are fair to ask for out of a person. But from there it gets more complicated. My trade is glazing. For those who dunno what that is, it is installing glass and window systems.
We are working on a 4-story building that has alot of curtain wall. The owner confided in us that he bid the job 200k lower than the 2nd bidder. He said the job was super tight and there is no room for someone that cannot live up to his standards. He said that if saw us without our tool belts on we couldn't stick around, or if we did not go fast enough. There are other comments he has made to us about things he felt we should be doing in order to keep our jobs.
It started out with just 3 of us for the first few weeks of the job. He is also on a time constraint and the building has to be closed in by Dec. 1st or he will be fined everyday thereafter. He mentioned how he was going to get a crew of 6-8 men on the job and do 2 shifts if needed. None of that happened. Up until last week we were a 4 man crew.
The foreman has been in the trade for 30years and the 3 of us have had no more than 6 years cumulative experience. He is pretty much working with some gringos. It has also been 3 years since I have done anything in the trade and on top of that, the system I'm working on I have never done before. To compound things even more, the building is not a typical building. The floors have switchbacks on them and each floor staggers outwards as you go up. There is alot of weird stuff to it and alot of thought needed to understand on how to tie all of it in.
The owner has been there almost everyday barking orders and rushing us. Its made for ALOT of confusion, because the foreman will tell us to do something one way and then the owner tells us to do it another way. Alot of mis-communication going on. There have been a few times where things have gotten reaaalll sketchy and made me wonder how many times I came close to dying. In fact, I had almost been killed by the owner one day. We were up in a boom lift and he swung us right into the curtain wall. I was facing the wall and it hit me right in the chest and bent me backwards against the basket. The owner got it in the back and was squished into the controls.
That should have been my red flag. The time where you know you oughtta just leave now while you can. After that incident, I have been on the controls if he ever gets in the lift with me. He has been pretty wreckless at times. Swinging into the wall more than once. So much to the point that it bent the metal.
I used to work union and he is the first non-union in the trade. We only get paid a straight hourly wage with no benefits. I mean NONE. Not even a paid holiday or anything. I can let that kind of stuff slide considering what kind of desperation I'm in. But, ever since we started this job, we have only had 1 break a day, plus our lunch.
Now, I'm willing to let that slide as well. But if you think about it, 4 guys on the job, 8 weeks worth of work, those 10 minutes breaks add up. He has been banking this time, when in fact he thinks we have been taking them. I think this is something the foreman has been doing and not the owner. But I think the owner knew abotu it as well.
Well, to cut to the chase, laying out the framework for my reason for whining, it has been overwhelming. Its as if the whole dynamics to the workforce have changed since I last held a steady job. I do the best I can and work the best I can. I do not screw off at all, show up to work on time, and sober too. I take my breaks on time and work at a good steady pace. I even drink less water than I should so I do not have to go up and down with the lift to take a ____.
Now, there have been numerous upon numerous occassions where the owner has come by and lectured each and every one of us about working faster and harder and knowing what your doing and this and that. So much to the point that I feel like I'm being micro-managed to DEATH!!
It even came to the point that he had even threatened me and another guys job because he did not think we were working fast enough. Mind you, I'm inexperienced and so was the other.
So today, he really decided he would tip things over the edge. He pulls me to the side and confides in me about how he is going to talk to everyone individually and tell us how we need to work faster and we need to make it like we work at les schwab. I for one, will NEVER literally RUN for anyone. I have had that engrained in my head to never run, even on a jobsite. Its a safety hazard.
So during this conversaion, he tell me that he is tired of telling us that we need to do this or do that, so he said that next time he is just going to tell us, "See ya later."
Well, I for one personally know that if he fires me, I can safey say with a clear conscience that I never screwed him over and that I worked hard for his money. It CERTAINLY gets me fired up though, when I see one of the new guys.
He's only been in the trade for one year, and the owner treats him like he is his son. Hes always on his phone, standing around and talking. He works slow and does nothing productive. But its just an illusion! He never gets yelled at by the owner and it seems like he can do no wrong. We have all noticed this with him. Come to find out, he may very well be chosen to be the foreman for this job coming up.
This is all going downhill faster than a mudslide. I had so many aspirations. I had hoped this was going to be a turning point for things in my life, but it has become a letdown. It really saddens me. I cannot even be the provider I'm suppose to be for my wife. Now, we cannot even afford a place to rent of our own and having kids is out of the question.
I just don't get people anymore... I hope this was not viewed as a poor ol' me story, but I needed to vent and just get it off my chest. I'm tired of this situation and want out of it. Maybe it will happen sooner than later..
But, this really puts me in a bind now. If I lose this job, I lose my income. Its a crazy feeling knowing everything you pretty much own is in a storage unit and all you really have is this air mattress and your clothes in a duffel...
I'm to the point now though, where I'm getting depserate for work. I'm considering North Dakota for work, or military, etc. I guess we will see what happens...