Post by Applelight Limited on Jun 21, 2014 16:48:03 GMT
So a few weeks ago I applied for a job as a binman (that's a garbage man for you yankees ) through a recruitment agency, and I successfully got the job. In truth there was no doubt of that. I was the first to put their name down on the application list. I also called the agency daily to express my interest in a position. I was also the only applicant with any prior experience of the job. And the head of the council depot I'll be working from is my uncle. So a mixture of experience, eagerness and nepotism got me the job.
Now, training was on the Wednesday before last. I got the call at 11 am asking me to be at the place for 3 pm that very day. So it was a scrabble to get ready, get heavy duty work boots and get down there. I still had a uniform left over from last year so I wore that, but there was little need to really. Training was very very rushed, as the Training Officer was in a rush to get out and it was after hours. So me and the other three guys got a crash course in working the lifters of the garbage truck (or wagon as council jargon describes them), health and safety and banksmanship training (that's guiding a reversing truck). And I do mean a crash course. Bankship training is supposed to be us guiding a truck around the depot and helping to park. This time it was the instructor showing us the hand signals whilst sat down on his chair in his office. Thank god for my prior experience.
The training, despite being rushed, did show me that I'd gotten rusty in the year I'd been away, so when I came back for my first day the Monday after I was a little apprehensive. But on that first day there was little to worry about. As an agency worker, I'm not assigned to any one squad. Instead, I'm more of a reservist who covers for those on the sick or on holiday. My first assignment was the A1 Brown team. That's Area One, Brown Bins, which are the compost bins. They take grass and plant clippings and food waste. Brown bins, especially in the summer, are the heaviest and smelliest bins there are. They seriously stink. And as a hay fever sufferer, they also come with the risk of setting it off, being full of pollinating grass. But thanks to the tablets I take to combat hay fever, my nose is effectively switched off. So I'm unaffected by any of it.
Monday was an easy run. The two guys I was working with were friendly and helpful. The only hard part was the heat and the sun. I got burned, and I couldn't get enough water it was that hot. There was also a little mix up when I was given the wrong number for the return of an assisted lift (that's a list of people, the disabled , elderly etc who we're required to get their bins for them rather than having them leave them out themselves). I was told they where for numbers 7 and 9. It was really 7 and 5. That held us back, but luckily it wasn't my fault so no need for a bad mark. See us agency workers, we're not employed by the council and we're not unionized. So we can be got rid of very easily if we screw up. So you gotta go in with the right attitude and work ethic.
Now, I was initially told that I'd be on the A1 brown squad for a few days. But when I came in on Tuesday I found out that I'd been moved to the Commercial Waste Team for the east of the city. This is were the rest of the week went south fast.
The foreman (squad leader) was off on holiday and the other guy had hurt his shoulder. So it was just me and the squad driver...one of the most irritating people I have ever meet in my whole life. First off, he has a massive chip on his shoulder with nearly everyone in the place, including my uncle. It's very hard to have to pretend that you aren't related to the guy who goes out on a limb to get you a job whilst this guy viciously bad mouths him. He is also the most petty, short tempered sarcastic scrote you could meet. He has a retort for anything you say or do. Anything. He'll tell you where we're going or what we're doing next, and if you dare repeat it back to him to confirm it, he'll snap 'sure didn't I just tell you!', or 'should I draw you a picture?'. You try to strike up a conversation;
Me: Watch any TV?
Him: No it's all shite.
Me: Watching the footie (the FIFA WC)?
Him: No it's crap.
Me: This is a nice neighbourhood
Him: No it's full of capitalist bastards.
And that was when he wasn't shouting 'Wah?!! Wah'd you say?!! You mubble son you know that?!!' Eventually I just gave up talking to him. Which made the run very long. And this also made it hard to do the job, because I didn't want to ask him what was to done next, but I'm doing an unfamiliar run in the side of the city I never go to so inevitably mistakes are made and he then goes on about that too. So it was catch 22. I'll call him 'Wallyman' because he calls Wheelie Bins 'Wally Bins'...and because he's a wally (moron).
Wallyman is a complete jobsworth and very petty. Now on every run the foreman is given a list of where and what the squad has to do. They write down the number of collected bins for each address to keep a record of what is done and to give the managers the info needed (like if an address might need another bin). I, the guy on the job for two days at this stage, was given this important task to do because this guy refused point blank to do it, despite his years of experience. First off, I get into the lorry and ask to use the pen in it...that's my pen he said. I genuinely thought he was joking and laughed. Fuck did that make it worse. He was seriously arguing over a 20p plastic pen. He made a big song and dance over it it then finally agreed to give it to me, all the while chastising me for not bringing one of my own and repeatedly telling me not to lose it. He also kept banging on about why he wasn't doing the list. 'Not my job! I'm not trained to know the run! I'm not payed to do it! etc etc'. That was when he wasn't having a go at me; 'two days on the job and already a foreman well didn't you do good? Still I'd have thought a uni graduate could have done better. You better not fuck that up or you'll be out etc'. I was just had to sit there listening with gritted teeth.
The next day, something very interesting happened. I got the list again, and this time I did bring along a pen. Suddenly his attitude completely changed. He was quiet but still sullen. He also snapped the list off me and started to do it himself without a word. That was when it hit me...the refusal to do the list, the big song and dance over a pen...that was all a big act...to lord it over the new guy. Try to scare him, intimidate him, put him down. I knew there and then I was dealing with a bully. The one who uses physiological abuse, the worst kind. This was confirmed after we did the job at the police station. As I was first back into the truck I made a note of what was done. That made him fly off the handle. He went back to sarcastically calling me the 'expert', seriously asking me if thought I was better than him them forced the sheet back into my hands...for making a tick in a box guys. A normal person would probably go 'oh OK, thanks' and leave it at that.
Friday couldn't have came fast enough. I delivered the list back to the office, and I meet my uncle there and he actually apologized for sticking me with that 'asshole' in his own words. He explained to me that since I was the most experienced agency worker there he felt that I was the only one up to the job. He also didn't want to expose one of the newer guys to him for fear of losing them there and then. He said this guy actually had made people walk off the job before, and that if it wasn't for unions he'd have been sacked years ago. He also said that he was leaving soon, so they'd be shot of him forever.
That was my first week back on the job. This initial entry was a big longer than I intended. But I wanted to do a blog about this job on account of how interesting it is; the people, the places, what happens etc. Like Wallyman here for starters.
Now, training was on the Wednesday before last. I got the call at 11 am asking me to be at the place for 3 pm that very day. So it was a scrabble to get ready, get heavy duty work boots and get down there. I still had a uniform left over from last year so I wore that, but there was little need to really. Training was very very rushed, as the Training Officer was in a rush to get out and it was after hours. So me and the other three guys got a crash course in working the lifters of the garbage truck (or wagon as council jargon describes them), health and safety and banksmanship training (that's guiding a reversing truck). And I do mean a crash course. Bankship training is supposed to be us guiding a truck around the depot and helping to park. This time it was the instructor showing us the hand signals whilst sat down on his chair in his office. Thank god for my prior experience.
The training, despite being rushed, did show me that I'd gotten rusty in the year I'd been away, so when I came back for my first day the Monday after I was a little apprehensive. But on that first day there was little to worry about. As an agency worker, I'm not assigned to any one squad. Instead, I'm more of a reservist who covers for those on the sick or on holiday. My first assignment was the A1 Brown team. That's Area One, Brown Bins, which are the compost bins. They take grass and plant clippings and food waste. Brown bins, especially in the summer, are the heaviest and smelliest bins there are. They seriously stink. And as a hay fever sufferer, they also come with the risk of setting it off, being full of pollinating grass. But thanks to the tablets I take to combat hay fever, my nose is effectively switched off. So I'm unaffected by any of it.
Monday was an easy run. The two guys I was working with were friendly and helpful. The only hard part was the heat and the sun. I got burned, and I couldn't get enough water it was that hot. There was also a little mix up when I was given the wrong number for the return of an assisted lift (that's a list of people, the disabled , elderly etc who we're required to get their bins for them rather than having them leave them out themselves). I was told they where for numbers 7 and 9. It was really 7 and 5. That held us back, but luckily it wasn't my fault so no need for a bad mark. See us agency workers, we're not employed by the council and we're not unionized. So we can be got rid of very easily if we screw up. So you gotta go in with the right attitude and work ethic.
Now, I was initially told that I'd be on the A1 brown squad for a few days. But when I came in on Tuesday I found out that I'd been moved to the Commercial Waste Team for the east of the city. This is were the rest of the week went south fast.
The foreman (squad leader) was off on holiday and the other guy had hurt his shoulder. So it was just me and the squad driver...one of the most irritating people I have ever meet in my whole life. First off, he has a massive chip on his shoulder with nearly everyone in the place, including my uncle. It's very hard to have to pretend that you aren't related to the guy who goes out on a limb to get you a job whilst this guy viciously bad mouths him. He is also the most petty, short tempered sarcastic scrote you could meet. He has a retort for anything you say or do. Anything. He'll tell you where we're going or what we're doing next, and if you dare repeat it back to him to confirm it, he'll snap 'sure didn't I just tell you!', or 'should I draw you a picture?'. You try to strike up a conversation;
Me: Watch any TV?
Him: No it's all shite.
Me: Watching the footie (the FIFA WC)?
Him: No it's crap.
Me: This is a nice neighbourhood
Him: No it's full of capitalist bastards.
And that was when he wasn't shouting 'Wah?!! Wah'd you say?!! You mubble son you know that?!!' Eventually I just gave up talking to him. Which made the run very long. And this also made it hard to do the job, because I didn't want to ask him what was to done next, but I'm doing an unfamiliar run in the side of the city I never go to so inevitably mistakes are made and he then goes on about that too. So it was catch 22. I'll call him 'Wallyman' because he calls Wheelie Bins 'Wally Bins'...and because he's a wally (moron).
Wallyman is a complete jobsworth and very petty. Now on every run the foreman is given a list of where and what the squad has to do. They write down the number of collected bins for each address to keep a record of what is done and to give the managers the info needed (like if an address might need another bin). I, the guy on the job for two days at this stage, was given this important task to do because this guy refused point blank to do it, despite his years of experience. First off, I get into the lorry and ask to use the pen in it...that's my pen he said. I genuinely thought he was joking and laughed. Fuck did that make it worse. He was seriously arguing over a 20p plastic pen. He made a big song and dance over it it then finally agreed to give it to me, all the while chastising me for not bringing one of my own and repeatedly telling me not to lose it. He also kept banging on about why he wasn't doing the list. 'Not my job! I'm not trained to know the run! I'm not payed to do it! etc etc'. That was when he wasn't having a go at me; 'two days on the job and already a foreman well didn't you do good? Still I'd have thought a uni graduate could have done better. You better not fuck that up or you'll be out etc'. I was just had to sit there listening with gritted teeth.
The next day, something very interesting happened. I got the list again, and this time I did bring along a pen. Suddenly his attitude completely changed. He was quiet but still sullen. He also snapped the list off me and started to do it himself without a word. That was when it hit me...the refusal to do the list, the big song and dance over a pen...that was all a big act...to lord it over the new guy. Try to scare him, intimidate him, put him down. I knew there and then I was dealing with a bully. The one who uses physiological abuse, the worst kind. This was confirmed after we did the job at the police station. As I was first back into the truck I made a note of what was done. That made him fly off the handle. He went back to sarcastically calling me the 'expert', seriously asking me if thought I was better than him them forced the sheet back into my hands...for making a tick in a box guys. A normal person would probably go 'oh OK, thanks' and leave it at that.
Friday couldn't have came fast enough. I delivered the list back to the office, and I meet my uncle there and he actually apologized for sticking me with that 'asshole' in his own words. He explained to me that since I was the most experienced agency worker there he felt that I was the only one up to the job. He also didn't want to expose one of the newer guys to him for fear of losing them there and then. He said this guy actually had made people walk off the job before, and that if it wasn't for unions he'd have been sacked years ago. He also said that he was leaving soon, so they'd be shot of him forever.
That was my first week back on the job. This initial entry was a big longer than I intended. But I wanted to do a blog about this job on account of how interesting it is; the people, the places, what happens etc. Like Wallyman here for starters.