if I lived in Siberia....
took all day today to finish on the huge MDF pieces - they weigh around 50kg each - impossible for one person to move, bloody heavy for two. this morning, just as we thought we were nearing completion the boss came down & let us know he'd agreed to send them in protective packaging for an extra fee - damn - packaging them up then took about 60% again of the time and just as much hauling as making them had.
you begin these things by getting quite excited when you're finishing a job. you get some satisfaction that it's done, done well, & you get to see the back of whatever its particular nuisances were. then the next job comes up. and it turns out it's also heavy, or itchy, or it gives you a heat rash, or it's just plain monotonous. but one of the advantages of working in a small, workshop-type factory is that the jobs change reasonably regularly, and another is that they involve a certain amount of (for want of a better word) workmanship, though 'craft' might be overstating the case. and one of the privileges of this being a temporary gig for me is that for now with the new jobs the sense of novelty holds. I like finding the rhythms, the pleasure of making the work much faster or easier just by clicking the techniques into place.
the other thing of interest to me is the reinforcement of a couple of those odd counter-intuitive equations; the bad: the shittier the job, the lower the pay; the good: the expenditure of physical energy leads to the generation of physical energy. I feel great (at least, I do as long as I remember to eat like a horse).
in lieu of Monotonous, here's Eartha Kitt singing C'Est si Bon:
you begin these things by getting quite excited when you're finishing a job. you get some satisfaction that it's done, done well, & you get to see the back of whatever its particular nuisances were. then the next job comes up. and it turns out it's also heavy, or itchy, or it gives you a heat rash, or it's just plain monotonous. but one of the advantages of working in a small, workshop-type factory is that the jobs change reasonably regularly, and another is that they involve a certain amount of (for want of a better word) workmanship, though 'craft' might be overstating the case. and one of the privileges of this being a temporary gig for me is that for now with the new jobs the sense of novelty holds. I like finding the rhythms, the pleasure of making the work much faster or easier just by clicking the techniques into place.
the other thing of interest to me is the reinforcement of a couple of those odd counter-intuitive equations; the bad: the shittier the job, the lower the pay; the good: the expenditure of physical energy leads to the generation of physical energy. I feel great (at least, I do as long as I remember to eat like a horse).
in lieu of Monotonous, here's Eartha Kitt singing C'Est si Bon:
Labels: eartha kitt, factory
posted by jen at 9:12 PM
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