posted
I was really bummed out the past few weeks because my temp agency wasn't able to get me any clerical work. I was working in a warehouse packing boxes and I figured that I couldn't make enough money to pay rent at the Y next fall/winter with the sporatic hours my supervisor was giving me when, all the sudden, my Manpower lady calls me up and says there's a job for me for the rest of the summer.
The good: it's 9.50 an hour, and I'll definetely be able to buy my entire contract at Glenwood next fall by the end of July.
The Bad: It's at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, an army base where they make things that blow up.
I had to see the video--they make lots of different colored smoky things, and stuff (bombs, maybe?) with white phosphorus. They're also on a mission to destroy old chemical weapons that is several years in the works.
That's where I come in...sort of. They sub-let to civillian companies at the Pine Bluff Chemical Demilitarization Facility, and one particular company needed a clerical helper to file and collect signatures and stuff. Yay for me! I get to file! And sort! And work for the government!
The thing is, employees have to have protective equipment at all times. Hard hats must be worn outside, and escape masks must always be within an arm's length away. I once stood outside of a room with diluted serin, and if that stuff ever got out then everyone needed their masks on within something like fifteen seconds.
Since I'm a temp, I carry around a special green badge that says I don't need one of these escape masks. What I haven't decided yet is this: Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I think it's bad. They've decided you're expendable. Be prepared to strangle someone for their mask in case of an emergency.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I'm reasonably sure that, by OSHA regulations, you do in fact need proper training and protection to work in any job where exposure to toxic chemicals is considered likely. Even as a temp.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I agree with Tom. What does it say to you that everyone else has to have the saftey gear? It should say that you need it too. This isn't like high school chemistry where you don't want to look dorky in your goggles. Talk to someone TODAY about getting you the proper protection. What good is the paycheck if you end up injured and unable to spend it?
Posts: 1294 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
You guys, temp agencies suck. Big time. If you can avoid one, please do. I understand if you have bills to pay, so you have to do what you have to do, but let me share a couple of personal experiences.
I have worked for temp agencies before, meaning for the agency itself, not doing the temporary jobs. I did the interviewing and the data entry. I'm not going to name them here, but suffice to say that I worked at most of the big names you've heard of.
They are very, very corrupt. I quit the last one I worked for because they wanted me to erase a man's files and get rid of all evidence that he had worked for us, because our temp agency never did his criminal history or drug testing and he was arrested on the job. Then my boss got on the phone with Home Depot and told them that we had never heard of this guy and didn't send him there.
This was a common thing I ran into at many of them. I can't say that they all did this, and I'm sorry if someone out there works for a good one, but in my experience, I haven't found a good one.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Having occasionally temped, during lean times, I must say that I agree; I've never EVER worked for a decent or honest temp agency.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Is this Pine Bluff Arsenal in Pine Bluff, Arkansas?
If it is, the escape of some of their chemicals into the air may finally explain the inbred hillbilly rednecks from the Gomer and Goober state!
Sorry to the state's natives onboard, but the worst ten years of my life where the nine months that I spent in Arkansas (actually, there are probably few on here as that would require the ability to read!).
Posts: 279 | Registered: May 2004
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posted
I DO have safety equipment that was issued to me the very first day-- a hardhat and safety glasses that MUST be worn whenever I leave the building. I'm also required to wear leather close-toed shoes, long pants, and shirts with sleeves.
quote: Is this Pine Bluff Arsenal in Pine Bluff, Arkansas?
If it is, the escape of some of their chemicals into the air may finally explain the inbred hillbilly rednecks from the Gomer and Goober state!
Unfortunately, there have been inbred hillbilly rednecks from the Gomer and Goober State for far too long to use the arsenal as an excuse.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Don't know about the particular place in which you are working. But in similar facilities, having a similar card means that your normal working area is far enough from the danger zone that any harmful substance that might leak out in any foreseeable accident* either: will never reach you before you can be evacuated; or will be so dilute that it doesn't pose a risk of significant**injury before you can be evacuated.
Make sure that you know the areas in which safety equipment is mandatory for regular workers, and that you use/carry such equipment if you must enter the area.
* Doesn't include deliberately destructive behaviour, or some idiots deciding that they don't need to follow the standard safe-operating procedures.
** Certain companies are known to go through temporary agencies to hire short-term employees to clean up eg nuclear reactor cooling tunnels, etc. In the process, exposing temp-workers to the maximum allowable yearly radiation dose in as little as an hour or two. When a regular employee's dosimeter indicates that the total of all of the doses s/he has received has reached the maximum allowable yearly radiation dose, s/he is no longer allowed to work near radiation sources: neither at the reactor site, nor at any other job that would expose one to penetrating radiation (such as near an X-ray machine). At which point, the regular employee must be either be assigned a job away from such exposure -- or given disability pay -- until sufficient time passes that the cumulative total radiation is less than the maximum allowed within the time frame. Temporary workers who receive such doses are paid for only the day(s) on which they worked. Saving the company the expense of transfering a regular employee to another job or paying disability compensation. Though unfair, such practices are legal.
posted
I wonder what the MSDS for Serin looks like. I don't see why the temp help business would be any more corrupt than, say, an institutional daycare. Didn't you cynics see "Dave"? That guy was all about helping his little old ladies. Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
you nailed it, aspectre. Technically, the office I work in is a lab, but the office is completely seperate from where the agents are kept. I don't even have the code to get into the office, and there's a completely seperate code for the other area. I had to have an escort when I went into that area to get stuff from the supply closet, which is where I saw the room that contained serin.
I just recently found out that my friend Greg (from Los Alamos) has to drive through the old nuclear test site on his way to work at the lab there.
posted
I had the opportunity once to work for Pantex. It is an underground facility outside of Amarillo, Texas where they do disassembly on all of the old nukes (ours and the Russians).
Even the most menial job at the plant paid $19 and hour (ten years ago).
As I did not wish to glow in the dark, I didn't take it.
Posts: 279 | Registered: May 2004
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