It was dated back to the year 2014, after I just graduated from my senior secondary school. Since I couldn’t gain admission into the university of my choice, I then thought to myself, Instead of just sitting at home doing nothing but reminisce about the fact that I was unable to get into the university, why not get myself a job?
That's when I started looking for a job. I was lucky enough to meet a friend who introduced me to a factory supervisor. I got on the good side of the supervisor, and the following week I was employed to work in the factory as a casual worker.
The department in which I found myself was the antiseptic department. How do I go about the job? There were good people in that department who put a newbie like me in their care and showed me how to go about the job, things to do and not to do, as I shouldn’t hurt myself.
My first job was to put the empty container inside the filling machine, which will then take the empty container and fill it up with the antiseptic liquid, label it, and move it to the next part of packing and cartooning. During the job, there are two kinds of shifts. The morning and night shifts, which means if you are on the morning shift this week, you will be on the night shift next week. We do wear a cotton glove to pick out the containers, and sometimes when there is a jam in the machine, which happens more often, we would need to put the machine off and remove whatever is causing the jam.
While doing this, our gloves are always socked in the antiseptic liquid, and this always results in the blood cells in the hands running away; sometimes we call it "cooked hands."
picture was taken 2014, I still can believe I found it in my google drive
I left the job in 2015 due to new admission exams that were coming up. I couldn’t continue the job and still had time to read because it was a time-consuming job that left no space for personal development. I left and started studying for my exams.
A funny fact is that, when you are in the company of people who share the same burden as you and you face the same challenges together and overcome them, there is always this sort of family bond and mutual respect they will have for each other. It doesn’t matter the age; if you are useful in an area and you prove your worth, people will respect you no matter the age. This is one lesson I learned from my first job because I was the youngest but was as tall as the rest of them.
If the opportunity presented itself for me to go back to that manufacturing company and work again, I would go back, but not as a casual worker but as administrative head personnel. I would never go back if it were to work in the same place I was before. No matter the bond I have made with friends, I would never go back there to work as a casual worker.
There were good people, and I was glad I meant it and learned something from them.
