Mine is a pretty tame example: I never minded the smell of garlic was fine around it… but I took a job for DHL and they had these large tubs of garlic for horses that had to go out to people. There were about 10 of them coming down the belt.

Now I can’t stand it. I’m just reminded of how strong that smell was I was actually gagging. The tubs were heavy, the handles were feedble. Some of the tubs were damaged so I got a bit on me.

I stunk of it for the rest of the shift. It wasn’t even a normal garlic smell it was just so powerful and nauseating.

    • Nepenthe
      11•1 year ago

      Yes? Although I should back up and say that for retail, those are holiday hours. My normal hours were like…16 per week, tops, and that’s all that was available in the area. Because as long as my total hours per week are kept just barely under 40, I don’t get to have healthcare!

      …So we just played russian roulette with the bills and I had to quit when the stress combined with simply not eating began to impact my health at work. Being unemployed did not improve the situation.

      I don’t know if you’re aware that full-time often goes to 60-80hrs+ per week, but that works out to about the same. I’ve only very recently persuaded a roommate to stop pulling all-nighters on a salary. They were literally going all last week surviving on naps, but eventually admitted that they almost never actually hit the cash bonuses they were aiming for having dangled in front of them anyway. So hopefully I can keep them to that.

      These are extremely common tactics, as is any job from a temp service having an employment policy that resembles a revolving door, wherein no matter how hard you go, they are going to fire you just shy of a month or two, after which they would have legally had to hire you and give you super gross things like benefits.

      By the time the French revolted, their peasants were eating grass to survive. Most of us are still at least eating food for humans. We’re probably going to ride this to collapse.

    • XIIIesq
      3•1 year ago

      In the UK, there is a working time directive that prevents a company from asking you to work more than 48 hours a week / 13 hours a day, but any company can just ask you to sign an agreement to waive your rights which makes it totally pointless.

    • @[email protected]
      2•1 year ago

      My last job before my current one, I would routinely work 20 hour shifts, with 4 hours off, followed by a 20 hour shift. Normally would do that 4 days, followed by 4-5 normal 12 hour shifts with a 12 hour turn around.

      Security jobs can really suck.