Quote:
Originally Posted by Rathji
Meat cutting is my back up job. As long as people eat beef, I will always have a job.
|
Eh, when times aren't the best, or when you're in school, a job's a job. Again, I tip my hat to you. Lots of people would be too squeamish or lazy to work in a meat packing plant.
Story time:
An old friend of mine, an Iranian fellow I met about 10 years ago, worked at Cargill. I met him because I was working at a coatings manufacturing plant. I was the guy that ran the plant, and he was the FOB that had a BSc in chemical engineering and had learned fluent English and French, plus payed off his student debts in Iran for both himself and his wife (who had an arts degree), plus banked $10,000 - just to qualify to immigrate to Canada. By far, the hardest worker I have ever met.
He qualified to move to Canada after accomplishing all the things I just listed. But those weren't the only hurdles. He had to come here by himself and find a job within a few months, or else he'd be sent back to Iran. So he did. He got off the plane, took a taxi to the hostel downtown, and promptly went to the Harry Hays building to look for job postings. Cargill was hiring, as they always are, and so he went to work there. Within a couple of months, he applied for his wife to join him, and was accepted because he was working maximum hours, and had found an apartment to rent.
Not entirely happy working in the plant, but knowing that he couldn't just quit his job, he approached the company I worked for and respectfully requested a few minutes of the chief engineer's time. He proposed that he work for free for two months, part time, to prove his worth to the company. If after that time they wanted to hire him, they could, and if they didn't want to, no obligation. Just a recommendation letter to other potential employers.
Needless to say, he was hired. And much sooner than two months. Him and I became pretty good friends, albiet "work friends", but friends nonetheless. He told me about Cargill. The job, the commute, the turnover, the demographic. And to this day, I have huge amounts of respect for the folks that work there and in places like it. Not because it's some over the top awful job. It's a job. But it's generally not a job that you grow up wanting to work at "one day".