Well, I applied at Westinghouse and after providing some semi acceptable answer to the obligatory "where do you see yourself in five years?" question I was hired on as a conveyor attendant.
This was a pretty easy job with a number of fringe benefits. You had to pretty well work steadily on the day shift but there were large leisurely gaps in the line on afternoons and at night there was only about two hours of work to do.
We kept ourselves busy nevertheless by playing cards on afternoons and seeking semi respectable sleeping accomodations on the night shift. The thing that bothered me about the night shift was the incessant pounding noise that emmanated from the press shop. How was anyone supposed to sleep with that going on?
On Christmas Eve, 1975, we built a little fort out of refrigerator bodies and sat around getting paid to drink whiskey and play poker. It was one of the very few times I actually won at poker.
This job, it turned out, was too good to be true and sure enough, about three days before my probation was due to end I was laid off.
Job 11 Summer 1976
Westingouse Canada - Stove Crater
The company rehired me late that summer. This time I was crating stoves. This too was a great job. About eight stoves at a time would come down the line. We would rapidly build the shipping crates around them. We had a strong incentive to complete this task as fast as possible. The faster the crates were completed the more free time before the next eight.
I managed to read several of the Reader's Digest condensed novels in the two and a half weeks I worked on this job before I was once again laid off.
Job 12 August 1976
Westingouse Canada - Fridge Line Assmbler This job was a bit more intense than the others. That line kept you moving. Every night I would dream of a continuum of slow moving frigdes - and no overtime was paid for this task.
Unfortunately, just prior to being rehired at Westinghouse I had enrolled in the Chemical Engineering Technology program at Mohawk College. I knew I would only be on the job for three days but I needed the money so I worked the three days and then quit without notice.
In retrospect, I did nothing different than what they had done to me in terminating my job with only a few hours notice the two previous times. However, I understood I would probably never be hired back at Westinghouse.
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Fall 1975 - Winter 1976
Westinghouse Canada - Conveyor Attendant
Well, I applied at Westinghouse and after providing some semi acceptable answer to the obligatory "where do you see yourself in five years?" question I was hired on as a conveyor attendant.
This was a pretty easy job with a number of fringe benefits. You had to pretty well work steadily on the day shift but there were large leisurely gaps in the line on afternoons and at night there was only about two hours of work to do.
We kept ourselves busy nevertheless by playing cards on afternoons and seeking semi respectable sleeping accomodations on the night shift. The thing that bothered me about the night shift was the incessant pounding noise that emmanated from the press shop. How was anyone supposed to sleep with that going on?
On Christmas Eve, 1975, we built a little fort out of refrigerator bodies and sat around getting paid to drink whiskey and play poker. It was one of the very few times I actually won at poker.
This job, it turned out, was too good to be true and sure enough, about three days before my probation was due to end I was laid off.
Job 11
Summer 1976
Westingouse Canada - Stove Crater
The company rehired me late that summer. This time I was crating stoves. This too was a great job. About eight stoves at a time would come down the line. We would rapidly build the shipping crates around them. We had a strong incentive to complete this task as fast as possible. The faster the crates were completed the more free time before the next eight.
I managed to read several of the Reader's Digest condensed novels in the two and a half weeks I worked on this job before I was once again laid off.
Job 12
August 1976
Westingouse Canada - Fridge Line Assmbler
This job was a bit more intense than the others. That line kept you moving. Every night I would dream of a continuum of slow moving frigdes - and no overtime was paid for this task.
Unfortunately, just prior to being rehired at Westinghouse I had enrolled in the Chemical Engineering Technology program at Mohawk College. I knew I would only be on the job for three days but I needed the money so I worked the three days and then quit without notice.
In retrospect, I did nothing different than what they had done to me in terminating my job with only a few hours notice the two previous times. However, I understood I would probably never be hired back at Westinghouse.
I was becoming an expert at self termination.