I recently returned from working in West Virginia for an entire week. The company I work for has a tiny branch out there that covers a large part of the state, and easily gets understaffed. Without a doubt, that experience had to be one of the most nightmarish I've had in a while!
I usually don't mind traveling for work, nor do I mind working longer hours, because it pays really well to do both. However, this past week, I worked for over 80 hours! Were the state a little closer, I'd have driven back and forth each day to get an awesome mileage check, but a four-hour drive is too much to make each day of the week for a commute, and I simply couldn't afford the gas. The company put me up in a hotel, which didn't matter much, since I barely had time to sleep! Also, hotels aren't as fun as they used to be. I remember when I was a kid, staying in a hotel was FUN. Nowadays, it comes with a stigma of horrible cleaning service, the fear of walking around the room barefoot, and not knowing what's been in the sheets you sleep in. I'm pretty sure my bed had an overabundance of dust mites, because I returned from my trip with a horrible case of "crud". My throat and sinuses are all jacked up. I think I wanna buy a neti pot just to flush everything out (If you don't know what those are, they're the most AWESOME thing for clearing your sinuses, as long as you can get over the grossness factor. Look them up! 😉 ).
Working in the armored car industry, protocol for customers tends to require recognition of the guy trying to pick their money up. Put simply, if a guy comes to your store and says he's picking your money up to take it to the bank, you'd PROBABLY wanna know who he was! Lack of recognition was the running theme of the week, for me. What should've been work days that lasted from 7:00am until 5:30pm at worst, turned into 7:30pm on Tuesday, 12:30am on Wednesday, and 10:30pm on Thursday and Friday. Many customers didn't know who I was, so naturally, before conducting business, they'd have to verify who I was by contacting my company's branch. I have no problem with this. The ones who upset me, were the banks that ignored the fact that I was bringing them a cart of 30+ boxes of coin, and huge bags of cash. One bank, in particular, made me wait outside (in the open!), carrying all this stuff (The bank lobby was closed at 4:00pm, and I still had other bank deliveries to make before their staff left for the night.), while the teller took about two minutes to look at my badge, head back to check the list I obviously wasn't going to be on, and then return to tell me that I wasn't on the list. As I struggled to hear her through the glass door, I explained through the same door that I am from an out of state branch, and that the armored car branch that services them is very small and borrows personnel from larger branches when they get understaffed. The teller then leaves again for about another two minutes to talk to her supervisor about what to do. She then returns to tell me that they are going to call my branch to verify who I am, and ask to see my badge again. I wait another two minutes. FINALLY, they let me in, and apologize by telling me facts that I already know, as if I didn't already have 30 other customers before them, questioning who I was, repeating the same rhetoric. I remained courteous, but what I WANTED to tell them, was,
Situations like this had us shifting things around to meet contractual commitments before different locations closed, and driving around a lot longer, doing things inefficiently. I'd leave each stop, feeling one step closer to completion, only to have my driver tell me where we were going next, and me realizing that I still had a lot to do. I felt like I was stuck in the armored car Twilight Zone, on never-ending routes. By the time I was done each night, I was no longer hungry to eat the McDonald's I'd pick up on the way back to my room (since McDonald's is the only nearby place that's open 24 hours.), and I'd just want to unwind and go to sleep.
Sleep. When I was done each night, it seemed like as soon as I closed my eyes, my alarm would go off, and I had to stumble around in a zombie-like state, with a dry mouth and cruddy throat, getting ready to do the same stuff again, praying for a shorter day. I never really "woke up" the entire week. It didn't help that I didn't have my coffee and coffee pot available to me (I'm weird. I have to drink coffee in a particular amount. No more, no less, to get my proper caffeine consumption in.).The scariest part was the drive home. I had to stay up late Thursday night to pack so that I could check out Friday morning. Friday, I had to show up at work an hour earlier than the rest of the week. I prayed and prayed for a short day to no avail. Every customer and machine had some sort of problem that I had no capability of fixing, which drew the process out longer. When I was finally finished, clocked out (at 10:30pm), and left, I was driving tensely, deathly afraid of falling asleep at the wheel on one of West Virginia's many curvy highway roads. I eventually couldn't go further and had to nap at a rest stop. I took a two-hour nap, woke up around 3:00am freezing, and continued on. I pulled in front of my house around 6:05am, brought all my crap in, and was in bed by 6:10am.
I can be a workaholic, but even I have my limits! The whole experience was tiring and torturous, and as good as my paycheck, mileage check, and per diem reimbursement are going to be, I don't know if I could do it again!
Aside from the pay, the best thing I came away from West Virginia with is the two twelve-packs of Yuengling I picked up before leaving the state! 😀 Seriously! Yuengling is my favorite beer, and I'm sad that I can't get it in Ohio.
/workrant
I usually don't mind traveling for work, nor do I mind working longer hours, because it pays really well to do both. However, this past week, I worked for over 80 hours! Were the state a little closer, I'd have driven back and forth each day to get an awesome mileage check, but a four-hour drive is too much to make each day of the week for a commute, and I simply couldn't afford the gas. The company put me up in a hotel, which didn't matter much, since I barely had time to sleep! Also, hotels aren't as fun as they used to be. I remember when I was a kid, staying in a hotel was FUN. Nowadays, it comes with a stigma of horrible cleaning service, the fear of walking around the room barefoot, and not knowing what's been in the sheets you sleep in. I'm pretty sure my bed had an overabundance of dust mites, because I returned from my trip with a horrible case of "crud". My throat and sinuses are all jacked up. I think I wanna buy a neti pot just to flush everything out (If you don't know what those are, they're the most AWESOME thing for clearing your sinuses, as long as you can get over the grossness factor. Look them up! 😉 ).
Working in the armored car industry, protocol for customers tends to require recognition of the guy trying to pick their money up. Put simply, if a guy comes to your store and says he's picking your money up to take it to the bank, you'd PROBABLY wanna know who he was! Lack of recognition was the running theme of the week, for me. What should've been work days that lasted from 7:00am until 5:30pm at worst, turned into 7:30pm on Tuesday, 12:30am on Wednesday, and 10:30pm on Thursday and Friday. Many customers didn't know who I was, so naturally, before conducting business, they'd have to verify who I was by contacting my company's branch. I have no problem with this. The ones who upset me, were the banks that ignored the fact that I was bringing them a cart of 30+ boxes of coin, and huge bags of cash. One bank, in particular, made me wait outside (in the open!), carrying all this stuff (The bank lobby was closed at 4:00pm, and I still had other bank deliveries to make before their staff left for the night.), while the teller took about two minutes to look at my badge, head back to check the list I obviously wasn't going to be on, and then return to tell me that I wasn't on the list. As I struggled to hear her through the glass door, I explained through the same door that I am from an out of state branch, and that the armored car branch that services them is very small and borrows personnel from larger branches when they get understaffed. The teller then leaves again for about another two minutes to talk to her supervisor about what to do. She then returns to tell me that they are going to call my branch to verify who I am, and ask to see my badge again. I wait another two minutes. FINALLY, they let me in, and apologize by telling me facts that I already know, as if I didn't already have 30 other customers before them, questioning who I was, repeating the same rhetoric. I remained courteous, but what I WANTED to tell them, was,
"I understand where you're coming from, but if I was going to rob you, I wouldn't bring you a cart full of heavy-ass boxes of coin and a huge bag of cash. That would be the dumbest cover, ever. It wouldn't be worth the effort, because I could just keep what I was trying to bring you."
Situations like this had us shifting things around to meet contractual commitments before different locations closed, and driving around a lot longer, doing things inefficiently. I'd leave each stop, feeling one step closer to completion, only to have my driver tell me where we were going next, and me realizing that I still had a lot to do. I felt like I was stuck in the armored car Twilight Zone, on never-ending routes. By the time I was done each night, I was no longer hungry to eat the McDonald's I'd pick up on the way back to my room (since McDonald's is the only nearby place that's open 24 hours.), and I'd just want to unwind and go to sleep.
Sleep. When I was done each night, it seemed like as soon as I closed my eyes, my alarm would go off, and I had to stumble around in a zombie-like state, with a dry mouth and cruddy throat, getting ready to do the same stuff again, praying for a shorter day. I never really "woke up" the entire week. It didn't help that I didn't have my coffee and coffee pot available to me (I'm weird. I have to drink coffee in a particular amount. No more, no less, to get my proper caffeine consumption in.).The scariest part was the drive home. I had to stay up late Thursday night to pack so that I could check out Friday morning. Friday, I had to show up at work an hour earlier than the rest of the week. I prayed and prayed for a short day to no avail. Every customer and machine had some sort of problem that I had no capability of fixing, which drew the process out longer. When I was finally finished, clocked out (at 10:30pm), and left, I was driving tensely, deathly afraid of falling asleep at the wheel on one of West Virginia's many curvy highway roads. I eventually couldn't go further and had to nap at a rest stop. I took a two-hour nap, woke up around 3:00am freezing, and continued on. I pulled in front of my house around 6:05am, brought all my crap in, and was in bed by 6:10am.
I can be a workaholic, but even I have my limits! The whole experience was tiring and torturous, and as good as my paycheck, mileage check, and per diem reimbursement are going to be, I don't know if I could do it again!
Aside from the pay, the best thing I came away from West Virginia with is the two twelve-packs of Yuengling I picked up before leaving the state! 😀 Seriously! Yuengling is my favorite beer, and I'm sad that I can't get it in Ohio.
/workrant
It was very vivid and detailed...