Log 5: Seating Plan
Crisis. One of the engineering guys, Chris, has commandeered my rusty folding chair. Now what am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to rest? While I can certainly respect a fellow “sit down” individual, based on chair availability, there really just isn’t room for more than one of us here. But what can I do? Ask for it back? Chris is using my chair to sit while he does actual work in the saw room. I just use the chair for sitting, and while that is it’s intended purpose, it doesn’t make for a very good case to get him to return it. Without a chair, I did what I had to do to make it through the day. The way I saw it, I had two options: sit on the floor, or remain standing for the eight hour work day. At first, choosing to sit on the floor felt like a total layup of a decision. But as I more closely examined the floor seating options, reservations began to form. The main issue is that the warehouse floors are not very clean. They’re generously coated with sawdust, bits of metal and paper, forgotten screws, and extension cords. I carefully weighed the options before me: 1) sit on the dirty, concrete warehouse ground and walk around with a resultant brown dust stain on the back of my shorts for the rest of the day, or 2) abandon the integral role sitting down plays in my life. Really, this is just the long way of saying, I sat on the floor.
Luckily, I was invited back to the air conditioned fabric transfer room with Tom and Jeff a few hours after I clocked in, and while the work they do doesn’t involve any sitting, it promised to be a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, today Graeme was trying to get the Agrify exhibit shipped out, and therefore, had an unusually hefty workload for me. By lunchtime, it was clear that I would not be spending time in the fabric room. Instead, I would spend the majority of the day lifting and packing heavy chunks of metal. Ugh.
Highlight: Perhaps the biggest milestone of today was that I operated the forklift! If I’m completely honest, the forklift was stationary and I really just toggled the lift up and down, but it was definitely a highlight of my experience thus far. There are a few reasons why the forklift is exciting. First, the forklift is powerful, and I felt powerful pulling its levers and lifting heavy things high in the air. Second, I know that there is some kind of certification required to legally operate a forklift, and I don’t have it.
Third, the forklift, I discovered, happens to have the comfiest seat in the entire office. Forget the brown metal folding chair - Chris can have it. I’ll be sitting in the parked forklift from now on.
