Thankful for something I hate

I really hate my job. Ok, just so this is not all doom & gloom, I will try to come up with a few positive things about it. I have a job, there, that's one. I have lost weight, inches and gained more tone/definition, so all the benefits of a gym while working.  I am learning about the lobsters (because that will be so useful sometime in my life?). That's it, I've exhausted the positive aspects of my job.

What is my job? Well, I can't really put a nice name on it, or any name for that matter, nor do I know what my title is, if I had to put it on a resume, because I don't think "crate bitch" or "bug chucker" would look good on a resume. I might need to explain here and now just to clear some things up. I work at Greenhead Lobster, what we do there is buy the bugs (what we call lobster) off the boats and then grade them by size, quality, firmness of shell or just by weight then ship them, well, everywhere. I work in the tank room.

1/2 of the tank

This is where we do all our grading, the tank can hold 534 crates, each crate hold 90-100 lbs of lobster and the crate itself weighs 17 lbs for a total weight of 107-117 lbs each. The tank is kept at about 45*F all the time, which cools the room as well to about 48*F all the time. EVERYTHING is wet, there is NOTHING dry in this room, and its not just water, not just sea water, it is sea water plus! Remember all those 534 crates with 100 lbs of lobster in them? You know what a lobsters favorite food is? Other lobster. And what happens when the bugs eat? They shit, in the water because that is where they live. Sometimes they die in there, sometimes they loose parts in there (legs, claws etc). It all goes in the water, which is in the tank. The water in the tank is always circulating, so there is always water coming in from the sea but all the stuff mentioned above, sinks, kinda, and stinks, like dead fish. Putting the crates IN the tank is not so bad, reaching shoulder deep in to the tank to fix a double stacked crate, sucks. Taking the crates out, usually pulls about 5-6 gallons of water out with it, which is one of the reasons we wear waterproof clothing and boots. So by the end of the day, we smell just like the bugs.  

The Grading area (1/2 of it)

I do grade occasionally, when needed and it really is easy work, also known as being a "bug toucher." This is only 1/2 our day, the next half is especially mind numbing. We pull the crates from the tank (either manually lifting them out or via conveyor). The really fun part is getting into the waders to get in the tank to push all the crates to one end of the tank. Remember the temp of the tank? Remember that it is a lobster cesspool? Ya, we go IN that.

Then the hours, I started there coming in at 10 am, which is wonderful, but not so much when we stay, well, until we are done, anywhere from 8-12 hrs a day, 6 days a week, throwing 117 lb crates around. As I said before, any idiot can do it, and most of the people down there fit that description perfectly. Tired aching bodies, flesh wounds, stinking wet clothes, every day.

I miss having a 40 hr, 5 day a week job where I work with my head, not my back. A man should not have to work so hard 6 days a week that he can not enjoy his only day off.

Then there is the pay, or lac there of, with this job. For as hard as we work, as long as we work, the pay is deplorable, there are no benefits of any kind, no insurance, just pay, very little of it.

Its a mindless job. I love jobs where I make, build or fix something. Here on the coast of Maine, I would love to get into boat building. I think it is something that I would love to do. I get to use creativity (to some degree) I get work with my hands building something, and have to actually think and use complex problem solving. I guess I just really miss my engineering job but the type of engineering I did, there are too few people in Maine who do it.There are plenty of boat yards in the area, it's just a matter of finding one willing to hire someone with no boat building experience. Until then, I toil away 6 days a week making not enough money for the job I do.
I really hate my job.