Workaholic
This week I'm starting a new process up at work. Usually that means weird and potentially long hours. Yesterday I was geared up to work 24 hours straight but an equipment problem shut us down so I was only there 15 hours. No matter how much I work nothing will ever come close to my unbelievable work week of 2001. Here is the story:
The summer after my freshmen year of college I was working at Perry's Party Rental. We set up tents and rented out chairs and tables. My job was to drive the truck and deliver the rentals. This involved carrying lots of chairs and tables from our truck to the customer's back yard.
On Monday I knew I had a long day ahead and worked a solid 13 hours. That same day one of our long-time employees didn't show up so they asked me if I wanted to work a special job Tuesday and Wednesday nights. It was setting up 6 tents, 300 tables, and 2000 chairs on the roof of a parking garage in downtown Detroit for the international freedom festival fireworks. I happily agreed because we got paid a couple hundred dollars extra for this.
On Tuesday I started work at 8 and did a normal 8 hour day of deliveries. Starting at 4 we loaded up the trucks and went downtown to set up for the Wednesday fireworks. It was extremely hard physical labor and we got done at 3:30 am after a strenuous 19.5 hour day. I drove the 1/2 hour home and set my alarm for 6:30 am as I went to sleep at 4.
On Wednesday I again started at 8 and did a normal 8 hour day. We then went downtown and enjoyed the fireworks. As soon as they were done we started tearing everything down and finally got done at 4 am. On the drive from downtown to Pontiac I was so exhausted I fell asleep and switched lanes with a loaded truck. Luckily my boss was in the truck with me and he made me pull over so he could drive (he didn't have his license). I tried to stay awake the rest of the way home to help him out but I physically couldn't. We got back at 4:30 after a 20.5 hour day. There was no way I could drive home so I fell asleep on the shop floor.
On Thursday I woke up at 8 when the other employees came in and figured I might as well punch in. Thursday was busy and I worked an 11 hour day.
On Friday we had all kinds of problems including me getting into an accident. I finally punched out at midnight after a 16 hour day. The accident happened when I backed out of a driveway onto a 2-lane, 55 mph street at the exact same time as a trailblazer backed out of the driveway across the street. My steel step on the back of the truck went through the trailblazer's driver door. There were 7 people in it but only the dad driving got hurt.
80 physically demanding hours in 5 days including working 40 out of 44 hours at one point and 52 hours out of 60.
I'm just glad I didn't die and that was a pretty sweet paycheck, but totally not worth it.
The summer after my freshmen year of college I was working at Perry's Party Rental. We set up tents and rented out chairs and tables. My job was to drive the truck and deliver the rentals. This involved carrying lots of chairs and tables from our truck to the customer's back yard.
On Monday I knew I had a long day ahead and worked a solid 13 hours. That same day one of our long-time employees didn't show up so they asked me if I wanted to work a special job Tuesday and Wednesday nights. It was setting up 6 tents, 300 tables, and 2000 chairs on the roof of a parking garage in downtown Detroit for the international freedom festival fireworks. I happily agreed because we got paid a couple hundred dollars extra for this.
On Tuesday I started work at 8 and did a normal 8 hour day of deliveries. Starting at 4 we loaded up the trucks and went downtown to set up for the Wednesday fireworks. It was extremely hard physical labor and we got done at 3:30 am after a strenuous 19.5 hour day. I drove the 1/2 hour home and set my alarm for 6:30 am as I went to sleep at 4.
On Wednesday I again started at 8 and did a normal 8 hour day. We then went downtown and enjoyed the fireworks. As soon as they were done we started tearing everything down and finally got done at 4 am. On the drive from downtown to Pontiac I was so exhausted I fell asleep and switched lanes with a loaded truck. Luckily my boss was in the truck with me and he made me pull over so he could drive (he didn't have his license). I tried to stay awake the rest of the way home to help him out but I physically couldn't. We got back at 4:30 after a 20.5 hour day. There was no way I could drive home so I fell asleep on the shop floor.
On Thursday I woke up at 8 when the other employees came in and figured I might as well punch in. Thursday was busy and I worked an 11 hour day.
On Friday we had all kinds of problems including me getting into an accident. I finally punched out at midnight after a 16 hour day. The accident happened when I backed out of a driveway onto a 2-lane, 55 mph street at the exact same time as a trailblazer backed out of the driveway across the street. My steel step on the back of the truck went through the trailblazer's driver door. There were 7 people in it but only the dad driving got hurt.
80 physically demanding hours in 5 days including working 40 out of 44 hours at one point and 52 hours out of 60.
I'm just glad I didn't die and that was a pretty sweet paycheck, but totally not worth it.
posted by Randy and Erin at Thursday, August 10, 2006
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