Written and edited - May 24th, 2017 - 12:51 p.m. to 1:03 p.m.
Edited - June 20th, 2017 - 5:12 pm to 5:34 pm
Edited - July 10th, 2017 - 10:24 pm to 10:29 pm
Too Tired for this Job
One of the temp jobs that I had was loading and unloading tires on a truck when we were shipping them out and receiving them. I think it was on the edge of Durham on the way to Raleigh, North Carolina.
I did this with about two or three other men. And they were showing me how to do it, what the best way to load and unload the trucks were. I remember at least one of the guys had a real science to it and he was very proficient with it. He showed me that there's a certain way to lift the tires and carry and set them down so there wouldn't be as much wear and tear on our bodies and we could load and unload them on the trucks faster.
I think I only lasted about a day or part of a day on that job. And there really was a science and art to it. There was a science and art to loading and unloading the tires on the truck because of their weight and shape. And I think it was a little bit easier to unload the tires off of the trucks then to load them.
Loading the trucks involved more thought, awareness, strategy to fit alot of them on. Unloading the trucks involved rolling the tires from the trucks to a place in the warehouse.
But it still took a physical and mental toll on me.
Also, in a bigger picture, that experience intersects with class and race. I think the reason I was strained was because it was work that I wasn't used to. I think with more time to practice with strategy I might have been able to be better at it. And if I remember correctly, we weren't given that chance.
My coworker told me that we have a very limited time frame to get the job done.
And I don't think I felt it came from a mean spirit from him individually. But rather from a work cultural pattern that I saw many other times as seeing people as just workers or producers, but not human beings. And it seems like alot of times it's marginalized people, including people of color who tend to do alot of this physically, labor intensive work. At least the way I see it.