I got fired from my new job

[Skittlebisquit]

You might be really surprised at how well paid janitors and custodians are, it's actually a great skill to learn. Especially nowadays, folks want everything super clean.

The work is not difficult really but it takes a while to learn how to do it all. You mostly work nights though to start, or swing shift, which is like 4:30 till midnight or something like that. Just running a vacuum wearing headphones, listening to your favorite tunes!

It's a real trade, transferrable skillset, decent money, little social skills needed, little public interaction, low risk, no multi tasking at all, the bigger outfits have a company van sometimes, and it's actually kind of fun.

 

[SDRSpark]

Another issue I had was doing multiple tasks. I would be working on a project and the supervisor would interrupt me in the middle of the assignment and tell me she wanted me to sandblast some items. I would do all the sandblasting and come back to continue work on my assignment but would forget some of the steps that I was supposed to do and make mistakes

I had a manager like this. It drove me up the freakin' wall! I'd be getting a head start on prepping for the lunch rush at around 7 am...plenty of time, it needed to be done by 10 am. She'd tell me some other task (like checking in a truck) was more important, go do that and come back to my prep. Then she'd have some other task - go do THAT and come back to the truck. Then some other task, do that, come back to the task before, come back to the truck, come back to prep.

10 am would come around and she'd be demanding to know why I didn't have the prep work done yet.

 

[Suzanne]

Never could work in such an environment. First, I would make a lot of mistakes due to being supervised and cannot cope with the cut throat situation.

 

[paloftoon]

This job you struggled with, it was a success in that you always tried to learn and do a good job and you got experience. Keep looking for things that are a better fit. Maybe this change will help you do certain things faster without needing the guidance. Unfortunately, sometimes we need to go through some of these awkward, painful times to find other things that will work better for us later on.

 

[Ken]

While your job environment was probably not sustainable for you, there are a few things to keep in mind going forward:
In any kind of business, the product must pay for the business to exist. That means selling the product must exceed the employee’s pay plus the employers tax requirements for the employee, the energy and property costs of the facility plus all the other required facility maintenance and administration costs. Running a business is never cheap. That means every employee must be productive; must produce a minimum quota of product.

An employee requiring help is very expensive. During the help, the product cost is at least double because two people are spending time producing one persons product.

Regardless of being watched or any other uncomfortable social difficulties, turning out less product than the required minimum for all other employees is not sustainable.

I’m not blaming you. I have been in that exact situation myself. It results in a panicky feeling for me. I never asked for help, however, because of my social anxiety. I am never a good student. I learn much better on my own. Yes, I got fired from that job. While I didn’t know it at the time, it was a good thing.

My fix (on subsequent jobs) was to stay or come in after hours – off the clock – to educate myself. I did best after everyone else left where I could study and practice the job quietly and alone. I studied all the documentation, manuals, books - everything I could find. This is not always possible. I had one job where you are not allowed on site if not clocked in. But having learned that way in previous jobs carried me thought in that one. For me, the after hours self-education was my saving grace. I am also a slow worker. Completing work after hours also helped me meet and exceed quotas that I could not do in a regular work day – especially in a crowded work space. Crowded for me is any number greater than me.

My best jobs, the ones I excelled in, were jobs where I worked alone. It took me years to finally figure out what type of environment I required to succeed. When I did, my career exceeded my expectations - and dreams. The first one I learned was that I cannot work in any position where I meet customers or deal with the public. I can do that for a few minutes to about an hour, but never for a whole day. I end up feeling paranoid, frantic and trying to find a hiding place.

I’m sure you are a true winner and certain to enjoy a very successful life. Your only requirement is to learn what type of work and work environment you need - and enjoy. It may require a few more failed jobs, but each one is an added education. Never a disappointment.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

You might be really surprised at how well paid janitors and custodians are, it's actually a great skill to learn. Especially nowadays, folks want everything super clean.

Be careful about that. More and more costodial staff are being forced to be contractors to firms when the well paid in-house staff were jettissoned and the function is outsourced. Pay cut, loss of health insurance, no paid time off are the result of private equity firms telling those contractors that they are responsible to pay themselves for time off as well as health insurance. They become the working poor.

 

[Andrew206]

I've had a high pressure job like that before. I was working in a cleanroom assembling guidewires for angioplasty. It probably is as high stress as working in aerospace.

The wires are the width of a human hair. They start out as tiny, tight coils, about 1cm long, or less. You sit over a scope for ten hours a day, cutting them with a scalpel.

If the QCs discover any flash at all on even one of the hundreds of coils that you've cut, they throw it all out, and everyone in the department gets mad at you.

The reason being, that even the tiniest burr will cut up someone's artery. You must be precise.

Next, there is a production line where the coils are soldiered together into even longer guidewires. Then the six inch to one foot wires are soldiered together. There is lots of grinding and coating in between those steps as well. It's an amazing process. It all must be so exact that it is a seamless, beautiful chain, where you cannot see the welds.

You end up with these really long, three to six foot guidewires. All as wide as a human hair. If you pick them up wrong, they kink. If you drop them, they are unsanitary and have to be thrown out. They are works of art that save human lives.

The last stages are some of the most stressful. You sort of polish/sand each one individually into a beautiful rounded tip without any flash on the end. You work on hundreds each day, maybe thousands. If the QC finds even one out of your massive lots that has even a speck of flash still on the end, or a pointy tip, they all get thrown out and the entire department hates your guts, royally.

After they're grinded, the tip goes into the end of a machine that kinks them a specific way. I don't remember what this is for. Maybe the balloon goes on this tip? Maybe it's what the doctor starts with. It was too long ago. Anyway, if you hold the wire wrong, it gives it too wide a kink, and everything was all for naught.

It was so high stress. Good pay, great benefits. But man, you had to be precise. Any screw up and it would kill a heart patient.

It's amazing, the skill that these workers have. How clean and microbe free the clean room really was. The dedication is incredible.

I’ve had a few high pressure jobs before. One of them was washing dishes for a fine dining restaurant during weekend brunch. I also had to help prep food, then wash another large pile of dishes. And I had to take out trash and clean the floors. I was criticized for being too slow. After two months, I was fired. Doing all that work, especially on the weekend, was stressful for me.