English is not my first language so sorry in advance.
About 12 years ago, I was a young student looking for a job before starting university. Got hired by a contractor that specialize in machinery cleaning for the pork meat processing industry.
I got there at 10pm for my first shift ever, scheduled to work until 8am.
On arrival, I get a quick breifing with my supervisor. He shows me a yellow jump suit and tells me to get dressed, with some rubber boots, gloves and safety glasses. No helmet, facial shield or mask.
He then guides me on the shop floor, into a room full of dirty machines and 4-5 workers (cleaners) and tells me “This is where you work tonight. Just do the same as everybody else” and quits.
So I get in touch with one of the guys and he is nice enough to introduce me to the cleaning process. Basically, you start by rinsing the machine with a pressure water hose, then proceed with foaming with a soap hose. You then rinse again then foam the machine with “sanitizer” with another hose. You finish with another rinse and you are done. After telling me the process, he heads back to his machine and resume his work, leaving me alone.
I get to work, trying to mimic as best I could the same thing as the other guys. At this point I'm a little worried that no one is double-checking my work to confirm that the machine is cleaned correctly… you know, those machines are used to process meat for consumers after all, there must be some kind of sanitary requirement… anyway, I keep doing my thing.
After a while, I realize that I'm completely soaked. There is water in my boots and in my jump suit. I've got foam in my hair and in my face (remember, no helmet nor face shield). I then try to be more careful with the pressure hoses, aiming to minimize the splashing as best I can.
The supervisor comes and calls lunch time. I must have been working for 4 hours by now. Anyway, I follow the guys to the dinning room and then heads directly to the restroom. I get a glimpse of myself in the mirror and this is when I freaked out.
My skin was peeling.
I was not fealing any pain, but my face looked like a couple days after a bad sun burn. I don't know how to describe it but at that moment, I simply lost it.
I don't have much memory of what happens next. I just remember yelling histerically at the supervisor, heading back to my car and never looked back.
My face went back to normal after a couple days.