Job 7

Summer 1974

Rheem Canada Inc.

Despite my experiences at Stelco, I had not yet decided to dismiss a career in manufacturing entirely. Many of my high school friends had accepted employment at Rheem Canada where they built steel drums and water heaters.

I decided to submit an application and after the interview (where do you see yourself in five years?) I was hired at less pay than my previous wire drawing job. I was hired to work by the "Furnace." I later learned this was the most notorious job in the plant.

Talk about going from the frying pan into the fire! At least at Stelco you got two coffee breaks. At Rheem there were no coffee breaks... just a twenty minute lunch break.

My job involved gathering up the internal cylinders of water heaters as they came out of the oven where the inside was glazed. I would remove each unit from one conveyor and "walk" it over to another conveyor where it would be carried to the next step in the process.

The thing I really learned to hate about this job was that the second conveyor was almost always stopped. Once it was fully loaded I would have to park the cylinders on the floor between the first conveyor and the second.

I would be running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to find a place to put all these god damned fucking cylinders while the guy running the second conveyor sat around socializing and eating sandwiches.

I would be dripping in sweat and cursing non-stop. My safety glasses were a touch too large and kept slipping down my nose. A friend of mine who worked there at the time used to joke with me about how funny I looked always adjusting those stupid glasses while frantically scrambling around trying to find space for those cylinders.

Day Four

I was walking down King Street on my way to work when I ran into one of my co-residents from the rock commune going in the other direction. He was not a roadie or a musician. He was a bit eccentric and I never did figure out how he got connected with the group at the house. He didn't even drink or smoke pot. He reminded me a lot of the Caine character in the TV series "Kung Fu - The Complete First Season"

Recognizing each other we stopped for a brief chat. I told him I was on my way to work at Rheem and that after only three days, I already hated the job more than I could say.

Phil looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face. Then he simply asked me, "Why don't you quit?" Never in my life, before or since, have I experienced such clarity of thought as during that brief moment. Here was a bit of ancient Chinese wisdom I could make full use of.

I did an immediate about face. Phil and I ambled back to the commune on Erie Avenue.

[next]

Joe Schlockenblock explains, How find a job and Get off Welfare.

last modified:Monday,June 9, 2008 at 04:21