I work in automotive parts manufacturing. We make car parts and deliver them to the car manufacturer just down the road from us.
I have been there six months.
I used to love it. Great pay for the area, last two weeks of December off (and a week in mid-January). I was hired at the very tail end of September and went through two weeks of training.
Then, around November, they started announcing changes they were making to the plant – we would have to work faster and harder. This caused several people on my shift to quit and we had trouble filling the vacancies.
I had a verbal confrontation with a coworker after I was tired of her putting parts down on my hands (I was an inspector for her line) because she hated the job and would constantly complain. I told her off and she said she was going to get me fired.
Obviously, I was not fired. I was instead moved to an area that I am unable to do easily because of my height (4'9″). I can do the job, but not as quickly as they need it done by. But still, I've been in that position since February 5th or so. I'm unable to move the storage mods like everyone else who can just reach in and pull them. I have to walk around to the back of the conveyor, in the forklift lane, and push them.
Which takes longer to do than, you know, just pulling.
I've mostly gotten used to it now and can generally keep up, but sometimes the person picking up the parts I'm making comes and brings me a new case to fill every 5 minutes (supposed to be every 15 but it's usually closer to twelve). Since I don't have it done, I have to put her behind in her work. They sent me home on an unexcused absence two days in a row a month ago because I was “refusing” to work – I didn't want to get written up for what I COULDN'T do. (I did, eventually, get written up for performance)
I've asked for accommodations according to my height, but was never formally diagnosed with dwarfism (everything's proportionate, I'm just short, but apparently that still counts). My boss even told me “I don't think you're doing as much as you could, I think you're taller than you think you are”. Until I get accommodations, which my PCP isn't willing to sign for because she's 'not qualified to diagnose dwarfism', I am stuck in this position. I know my rights according to the ADAAA and have an appointment in May to speak with the EEOC. I have also been yelled at by my manager for not going fast enough when I am literally going as fast as I possibly can.
It's anywhere from a 40-50 minute drive from my house to my work, so I'm gone for 10 or 11 hours out of the day, and then I sleep for nine or ten hours because my job is so exhausting. I pretty much go straight to bed after I get home (I might eat or surf the web a little but that's it), and then I wake up crying because it's time to do the same thing again.
I have no hobbies anymore. I can't tell you the last time I spoke to another human being face-to-face where the subject wasn't work or unimportant small talk. I live alone except for my pets. I barely eat because I just don't have time to, and when I do eat it's usually a pack of Pop Tarts from home or a couple of bags of chips from the vending machine at work.
I want to quit my job so badly, but I have a trip in July that I planned before things went south, and I still want to go.