Posting here since r/jobs just hides my post…
Questions for you at the bottom of the story.
I have worked at a gun modding shop (we don't do retail like sell fire arms) for a month and a half and I am over it. I only work two days a week – Wednesdays and Fridays – for a total of 14 hours, and only those days and hours because that is when they need me. I am a full time college student studying engineering so I am already very busy outside of work. My job pertains to me sandblasting the coating off of weapons, whether they be parts to a firearm or blades or axes. These sandblasted weapons are then customly painted.
This job is not what I initially signed up for. I applied with the intentions of advancing my knowledge in firearms like dismantling, cleaning, and putting weapons back together. But in order to do that, I had to first start out sandblasting (which is basically a machine with a hose inside and you operate with gloves to blast the finish off whatever your blasting) and gain some experience and build some confidence in the staff before they would let me do the other jobs I wanted to do around the workshop (according to the owner). Well anyways here I am and still nothing has been delivered. I have only worked on one weapon my whole time working there so far, and I have brought up my aspirations of doing the things I want to do a few times with the owner who hired me, only to be basically told the same thing I said above (experience and building confidence). The day I cleaned someone's rifle my manager told me I would be doing things like that (what I want to do) more often while he focuses on other things – this has yet to happen. Like I said I have only done something other than sandblasting ONCE my whole time there.
So that is my biggest gripe. Then we move on to the smaller things. Wednesdays are known as the “hard days” because Thursdays are painting days, so the manager expects me to get a lot done. This mostly consists of blades which is truly banal. If I am lucky, I can sandblast some gun parts on Wednesdays. Just for some clarification, we get “shipments” of blades and axes from a company, I sandblast them, they get painted by a crew that comes in on Thursday, and are sold back to the company or elsewhere. These “shipments” can range from 50 knives and axes (in total) a day, to 250+. Fridays are known as the “easy” or “relaxing” days where I just sandblast whatever needs to get done. But my manager still somehow receives these “shipments” from the company and once again I am stuck with sandblasting knives and axes which are #1 priority over gun parts. So this pisses me off since I get sick of blasting melee weapons all day. But even then sandblasting firearms is tiring as well and I get sick of it all together. I am literally just standing there for hours operating a machine with gloves inside and blasting the coating of weapons away.
I got really ticked off yesterday because I was just taking my time blasting whatever needed to get done and my manager throws me for a surprise and drops a box of 250+ knives in front of me, smiling, saying “We just got these!” I felt like blowing my brains out. And it is a Friday too. Not a Wednesday. It took me 2-3 hours to get through the whole damn box. It was slow and dreadful and depressing. And of course, I never got to finish everything I wanted to do. This happens every single time. My manager coincidentally receives a “shipment” and plops it in front of me on Fridays. This is also why I will never get to clean and put together firearms in the first place – I am stacked with so much crap every week that I never have time for anything else other than blasting. When I was nearly finished with all the knives, he comes over and says “Wow you're almost done? This sucks cause I thought it was going to be a no knives day!” Or something along those lines, smiling of course. This pissed me off even more. I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic.
Additionally, it seems none of my coworkers know my name, but I know theirs. Every time I greet them when I get to work I say their name, but they don't say mine. They don't even acknowledge my name even when they're trying to get my attention. They're just like “hey” or “hey dude.” It really aggravates me because I have been there for a month and a half and no one has had the decency to learn and say my name when I have done the exact opposite.
Also, the sandblaster is a pretty hazardous environment. The left glove in the machine has holes everywhere in it, so sand ends up getting blasted through the sleeve and outside the machine, flying into my eyes and sabotaging my vision or making me dirty. Operating the whole machine is dirty in general, I am always covered in dirt/dust/sand at the end of my shift – arms are grey/black as goes for my legs. My body hair as well as my head hair is GREY from what I am working with. Crap is flying everywhere and I end up breathing so much of this shit in that my boogers/snot is BLACK. Yeah, BLACK. It is like breathing in the cancer after the towers fell in 9/11. I am literally breathing in metal. It is NOT healthy at all. Further, I am just standing there on my feet for hours, so my feet are constantly sore.
I have spoken to some friends and family about it and they are definitely most concerned about the health hazards I listed – plus saying college is back in session and school should come first, not work. The owner (who also hired me) lives out of state so I would just have to text him telling him I resign.
Some questions: 1) I was told not to bother with a two week notice. Thoughts? 2) Is it bad that I am quitting a job after only a month and a half? The last job I worked was for 2.5 years. 3) Should I not include this job on my resume since I barely stayed?