blog 42

Blog 42

It's dirty, exhausting, and hot, but you'll get twelve bucks an hour. This was the hook that pulled me into the job I had last summer. I worked for my cousin's steel company, Hinton Steel, in the warehouse. This job was grimy, hard work, and difficult, but the pay was great. It was definitely a love-hate relationship. I hated getting up early, the 45 minute commute, and the fairly long days. I loved the money, the guys I worked with, and the accomplished feeling I had that I worked hard to earn something. I worked 40-hour weeks, 8 hours a day. The days were hot and sometimes pretty slow. At the start of the summer, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I had to learn the layout of the warehouse and the technique of pulling, cutting, and loading the steel quickly, but I had the help of my coworkers: Victor, Juan and Jose. All three warehouse workers were Mexican, with heavy accents, and knew very limited English. Victor was a funny guy, and was a little hostile at first, but it didn't take long for him to warm up to me. Juan was friendly from the very beginning, and is incredibly smart and talented at building whatever device is needed for the warehouse. Jose was the difficult one. I spent the most time with Jose because we were both in the front of the warehouse loading cars and trucks, while Victor delivered steel and Juan did fabrications. Jose was hard to impress, and was a touch “miestro”, as I called him. But, with persistence, I got him to accept me and we became friends. This job was a great experience for me. I learned much about dealing with people and coworkers, and the virtue of hard work and the benefits behind it.