Here We Go Again

About a month ago, Tommy and I lost our jobs at TS Tech. You know, the one with the bright, bright future and the two weeks' paid company shut downs and immediate one week vacation? The one that would have let us go to Cornerstone? That one.

The cool thing is that now we have all kinds of people from TS Tech coming to our bible study! LOL

But anyways what happened is first I got walking pneumonia and Tommy got bronchitis. We were troopers though, and didn't miss ANY work while we had those. We dragged our butts into work every day, miserable as could be, working and hacking and coughing all day, in a filthy, freezing warehouse. But they didn't care.

Then, I got that "problem" that I fight with. It was the worst it has ever been in my whole life. The E.R. thought I was having a miscarriage for real this time, but it wasn't. I'm still going through Dr's appointments with them trying to figure out what's wrong with me. The good news is that now they have ruled out endometriosis, cancer, tubal pregnancy, and yes, believe it or not with my moodiness - a hormone imbalance. The biggest problem is that there were some minor abnormalities on the ultrasound. They still think I could have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), and/or that John and I have the Rh factor. Both of which are fixable. (Yay!)

One night I had the worst pain of my entire life. I was doubled over at work, screaming - from my "problem". They had to put me on a little cart and drive me to my locker, and then Tommy had to walk me to the van and drive me to the E.R., where they said all they could do was put me on Vicadin and Naproxin.

This is pretty much why I've lost so many jobs for those who are wondering, and with Tommy, it's his really bad asthma he's had all his life.

So - I had to miss half a day for that, and THEN.......we all three got this month-long flu that pretty much everybody in Ohio got right after Christmas. It was really bad with 100+ fevers and everything. We both had to miss a day for that, and that was it. They fired us, doctor's excuse or not, they didn't care.

So there we were - unemployed again, for the past month, running out of food, having things shut off.............BUT GOD.

I felt led to start taking up an offering at Bible study. At least while we're unemployed. It costs almost $100 every week, to do what we do with everybody, between pizza, gas, and everything else (toilet paper, blank CD's, stupid dollar store prizes, game supplies, etc.) So God told me to tithe on what came in. The first week it was $25! Enough to cover pizza for everybody. (We go cheap from Little Caesar's). I tithed $2.50 on it, to our church. By the end of the service, God had quadrupled it. Two different people shoved $5.00 bills in my hand, what I like to call a "Pentecostal handshake", LOL! Since then, the #'s have gone up and this past week I had to tithe $4.00. People have given me gas money since then too.

So now, today, Tommy and I started at a new "temp to hire" job at Seimens Corporation. We thought at first, "Meh - just another $9.00 an hour warehouse job"........until we went through orientation today.

First of all.........we will both eventually be trained to drive reach trucks and cherry pickers. I already know how to drive a standing pallet rider, sometimes called a "walkie", and they have those there, too, and these things sort of like them called "gophers" which are actually easier to drive because you stand facing forward. They're like a backwards forklift.

So yeah we started at $9.00 an hour, right? Well, we get a raise every 30 days, up to about $10.00 an hour. AND WHILE WE'RE STILL TEMPS --- we get ten paid holidays after 30 days!!!

But that's not all.

After we're hired, they start at like 11 or 12 something, and in three years' time we'll be up to almost $17.00 an hour.

IN YOUR FIRST YEAR, you get ten paid holidays, two floating holidays, and 17 days sick/vacation time. You also get "cafeteria style" benefits, which is what people at the Post Office and other government branches get.

We only work from 3 to 11 with no lunch but we get two paid 20 minute breaks...but get to go home earlier that way.

Everybody there was SO laid back compared to TS Tech. I mean, people at TS Tech were nice, but it was really rigid, with a lot of mandatory overtime. At Siemens the overtime is all volunteer.

The best part is, all through training they kept saying, "We're not going to fire you for missing a day or two....just call in! That's all we ask. People's kids get sick, people get sick - that's life". What a refreshing change!

They were like, "If you have a doctor's excuse that's different", too.

I think we're gonna like it there, it reminds me of the plant from the movie Tommy Boy, and everybody picked on each other and seemed really cool.

Sorry this was so long, I'm just trying to show you guys how good God is.

We get paid next Wednesday, too.

Which means no food pantry.

Cool Tonya, very cool. I worked as a contractor at Siemens in Florida. It was a 2 month contract and I was there for 2 years! Siemens is a great company, stick it out!
The no lunch thing seems kinda weird. I thought it was law...

the law is usually you have to have at least 15 minutes off duty for every 4 hours worked. I read all the posters workplace laws, osha and every other posters (that workplaces have to keep up by law in all workplaces) whenever I go onto any place while we're picking up a load.

Well, we're still there!

My production is now at 97%.

Tommy is still down just below 70% so pray that he can get his scores up. They're REALLY patient with people, though.

switchblade you drive a truck? Do you ever come to Columbus????

What co. do you drive for?

We have a friend who drove for Werner.

Our boss at Siemens is REALLY cool though.

I figure if God wants us there, we'll be there. We should be due for a raise this paycheck or next.

rock4king when you worked there did you work for Superior Technical Resources????

switchbladeknitter wrote:

the law is usually you have to have at least 15 minutes off duty for every 4 hours worked. I read all the posters workplace laws, osha and every other posters (that workplaces have to keep up by law in all workplaces) whenever I go onto any place while we're picking up a load.

Ohio is different. We had to check into the labor laws for a problem when I was in management at a huge retail chain. The corporate office had its labor guidelines listed, but there was a disclaimer that these laws were second only to the individuals state's labor laws.

Ohio's labor law does NOT mandate break times. Employers may work their workers, who are over 18, 6 - 8 - 10 - even 12 hour shift with no breaks, AS LONG AS the employee is paid for every single minute worked.

We were SHOCKED. Our problem employee shut up real fast and became quite grateful for the breaks we did give her. (At the time, we only gave 20 minute paid breaks to those who worked 5.5 hour shifts or longer. (We gave a choice, depending on how busy we were - 20 minutes paid or up to an hour unpaid, at the manager's discretion. She worked a four hour shift.)

Here's what is misleading on the labor law posters. Everybody goes to the section where it does state 15 minute break for every four hours of work. What they don't realize, nor did we, is correct and common English punctuation and grammar. The section that says that is a sub-paragraph under the section of UNDERAGE employees - those who are 16 and 17 years of age!

We were amazed that we missed all that - once we looked at the poster again, it was clear as can be.

Tonnenator wrote:

Well, we're still there!

My production is now at 97%.

Tommy is still down just below 70% so pray that he can get his scores up. They're REALLY patient with people, though.

switchblade you drive a truck? Do you ever come to Columbus????

What co. do you drive for?

We have a friend who drove for Werner.

Our boss at Siemens is REALLY cool though.

I figure if God wants us there, we'll be there. We should be due for a raise this paycheck or next.

rock4king when you worked there did you work for Superior Technical Resources????

Yes Tonya, i did work for Superior. One of the best jobs i ever had