I ended up taking a position from a local manufacturing company as they were looking for "IT support", however it was given to me by a temp agency, but I was still looking forward to it. My first day there, I was met by the HR manager who gave me my site badge, showed me around the plant, the database room where I would mostly be, and where to find him or the other manager I was assigned to. I arrived around 8am, and by the end of his introductions it was around 9:30am and as I got settled I was approached by a manager from another department, whom asked me to take-over temporarily while one of his employees was out on emergency leave... I figured I shouldn't question someone in charge so I followed him, however I called the HR manager first and asked him and he told me to just do it for the maximum of the day and it'd be over.
He brought me to a room where there was a lot of old machinery, and it was pretty hot even though they had a couple of old loading doors open. It was technically one giant room, but split into three different "sections". They manufacture golf balls, and he told me my job now was to make sure three or four different machines remained operational, while also moving 90 pound barrels of golf balls onto pallets and then using a machine to move them onto a loading dock... I was running around from about 10am to 3pm doing all of this and was just drained by the end of my day.
On my lunch break, a younger employee who "trained" me on how to maintain the machines, laughed and told me the department manager lucked out with me because he had me doing three guy's jobs at once, for $10 less an hour than they would be getting paid. So, I went to the HR manager's office and asked him where I would report to the following day and he told me to go back to the same department for the next three weeks as the employee who left on emergency leave needs surgery and they have no one to replace him... So I mentioned how I was supposed to be there as IT support and he said they could manage that until the other guy gets back.
Now, at the end of my second day doing this, at the very end of my shift, I was approached by an older gentleman who asked who I was and to see my badge. I showed him, and he told me to follow him to the HR manager's office. I was confused, because he kept saying I wasn't supposed to be anywhere near there and that it was illegal and a very dangerous threat to my health, etc. The HR manager told him to take it up with that department manager, so we went to his office next. The health inspector chewed the department manager out and told him to completely remove me from that area and to put me where I was supposed to be. He agreed with the health inspector, however once the health inspector left the area, he told me to report back to his office the next morning at 8am anyway... and put me back in the same exact area.
Anyway, fast forward about two weeks, I got severe chest pain from just breathing or hitting bumps in my car. On the second day of experiencing it, I decided to see my doctor for it, and he did a few tests and scans and said it looked like my lungs were irritated and the inner lining wall of my chest(?) was inflamed. I asked what could cause it and he said it's most likely from breathing in toxic fumes, and asked if I was anywhere like that recently. I already knew and had suspicion once I had pain breathing, so I brought it up to the temp agency and both the HR manager and department manager at the plant. Both managers from the plant completely ignored my calls after that, and the temp agency just asked for the medical paperwork, which once I brought them copies of all the results, they no longer picked up my calls or returned my messages.
Thankfully I'm at the end of the medication the doctor prescribed me, but now I'm looking for other employment at least until classes start up again...
