So this is the second diary on my new job.I recently started a job at a meat packing plant and plan to document my experiences there as long as I can keep doing the work but the company that owns the plant doesnt make it very easy to be a long term employee and in fact they seem to discourage the idea completly.They dont seem to find any value in keeping their employees rather they seem to want a endless supply of bodies for their meat grinder almost literally ..It starts with the point system
The point system is a system they use to manage time off. They assign points to circumstances that require a employee to be absent from their job. At first I thought i understood the reasons and system because I had been a manager in fast food in my past life and knew many employees especially kids can and will forgo going to work for abounding reasons many that at times would be even funny had it not hurt the crew that did show up but this plant took those problems and fed them steroids! The only legit reason for missing work are a death of a close relative,a birth,and FMLA ..pretty much that's it.You are allowed 6 points a year over that you get fired.If you are late but call 1 hour before half pt, late but didn't call 1 point ,cant work but call 2 hrs prior with doctors note 1 pt, need time to go to court,school teacher meet up about child , lawyers to close on a house purchase etc 1 pt,get sick at work need to go home 1pt, no call no show any reason 2pts. There seems to be no reason other than they only want hyper dedicated employees for the rest of the folks they are glad to use you till you drop or point out as they say ,they hire 10 to 15 employees a week for a plant that employs 1750 people do the math they seem to anticipate massive turn over and don't seem to care and as times are tuff they got a good supply of folks that would love a crack at a 10 to 13$/hr job with health insurance.The problem is even if you are a good employee but have something really legit to attend to say a wedding of a child or parent teachers conference or any thing really you will get a point or 2 there is no latitude recently a close friend 's dad died suddenly and because he is still on the 90 day probationary period and doesn't qualify for bereavement time they told him they were sorry and the best they could was let him be off for 3 days and as long as he brought a funeral notice and called in every day he would only get 2 points!! he started 2 and a half months ago and the next 9 months will be hard with only 4 points left. Oh did I mention the job starts at 5 am 5 to 6 days a week and ends most days by 5 or 6pm this leaves no time to conduct buisness durring normal buisness hours !This is why unions are necessary !!! we need to support them and push back every time we hear negative things about them! well time to go to bed 4 am comes early i will check in next week end with some more observations thanks for reading