Factory Work

SharpshooterTom

Anyone here ever worked in one?

Was unemployed for a number of years after caring for my parents (father had cancer and passed away, mother had cancer and is in remission). I have BEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree (plus an Msc), but didn't work much after graduation as I didn't like the job.

Went on the dole their earlier this year and now working in food/pastry factory minimum wage (£8.91) 40+ hours a week for past two months.

Its a tough slog, my body is aching come friday, not allowed to sit down outside of tea breaks. Factory work and the like is often looked down upon but people work so hard here, even line leaders or team leaders are only paid an extra £1.50 an hour with all the added stress and paper work.

A lot of people don't want to do it, our factory is badly understaffed. Many just quit within 48 hours because they can't hack it. About 25% of the workforce is Polish, they too work really hard.

Piriz

fair play to you.. hard work is great when you're young and starting off.. good to get a physical work out during a days work.. but it can become too strenuous, too boring and too low pay.. this signals the need for change if you can create opportunities to do so.. maybe it's time to have another look at the engineering OP... ?

AckwelFoley

Work is work. You're educated so you have choices. But there's nothing to feel poorly about.

SharpshooterTom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118068316#Comment_118068316

I'll probably only stick at it for a year or two. I'm planning long term to change career possibly actuary/medicine/dentistry/pharmacy etc if I can, so I might go back and do another degree, but just trying to save up some money in the mean time.

kirving

You should walk into an engineering job with that degree + MSc. Particularly now, very many places are short staffed and looking for engineers.

Where in the country are you based?

Depends on what kind of factory work it is I guess. Years ago when I was a young mother I had a handy number working two twelve hour shifts for a large pharmaceutical company. It was perfect because it was weekend work which meant child care wasn't going to be an expensive issue. For those two days I earned apx 16euro an hour, and then time and a half overtime plus whatever for night shift and Sunday extra. I used to walk away with close to 600 euro before tax and then had the entire week to relax and be with family.

(I had qualification in social care at the time and earned less for a 40 hour week, in much more stressful environments with children with disabilities.)

igCorcaigh

Smacks of 19th Century to me. All factories should be unionised to get better conditions for workers. Good on you OP, and your colleagues, for doing the hard work; you deserve more money.

DarkJager21

I used to do 12 hours x 4 in the Dell plant in Limerick. I cursed it at the time but I was young and stupid and just wanted to party - was making nearly 2k with overtime every fortnight. Now I analyse data and bullshit for much less, and I’d give anything to go back to that “headphones on, work away” vibe again

YFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118068369#Comment_118068369

Medicine in UL off the back of your previous qualifications. Otherwise you will need some ridiculous Leaving Cert points.

nj27

You really get paid a hard earned quid in a factory, best of luck to you. I worked in a shoe factory as a kid, my dad's friend owned it and me and my brother were basically in indentured servitude. My dad thought it would teach us about "the real world", something I have yet to encounter. It's a tough gig and I'd get out of it as quick as you can, but there's a certain amount of craic in the routine if you spend a long time with the same bros.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118068791#Comment_118068791

It was the best job I ever had. It had a comparatively flat hierarchy so most people were laid back people to work with. So little stress, we had breaks every four hours and the time would fly by. Spent most of the night accumulating vast quantities of money playing drug lord on the work pc.

YFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118068791#Comment_118068791

Money for Newtown Perry.

SharpshooterTom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118068795#Comment_118068795

I was actually interested in Dentistry but saw the points for TCD and UCC this year were 625* and still went to a lottery. Insane.

I could go and do Dentistry abroad but there is a stigma attached to people who study medicine or dentistry abroad and I'd worry about potentially getting a job with a foreign degree.

c.p.w.g.w

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118068424#Comment_118068424

Stryker?

techman1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118068316#Comment_118068316

Well the unintended obvious change is that factory work needs to be better paid with better conditions and non factory work needs to be paid less, it's coming anyway as the west has realised that it is too dependant on China. In the future more stuff manufactured in Europe again, but higher wages, higher costs and that new guy inflation, it's back to the 70s baby

techman1

But the green wave and cuts to carbon of 50(% are not happening if manufacturing returns to Europe, my bet is that the carbon targets will be binned

YFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118069359#Comment_118069359

Yeah your right with dentistry in Bulgaria or Hungary. Probably UK be your safest option.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118069378#Comment_118069378

To be replaced with a move to Mars?

Ash.J.Williams

You should be running the place

padd b1975

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118068791#Comment_118068791

You'll probably have to wait until Ruth Coppinger is Taoiseach for that.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118069373#Comment_118069373

Well, yes ideally workers in manufacturing would be paid more, but the question for most companies in the so-called 'advanced' economies is 'What manufacturing workers?' The sector has had a problem attracting workers for a long time and the pandemic has made it many times worse. I do think more stuff will be manufactured in Europe, but more and more of the labour will be performed by robots.

OP, your manufacturing experience would really set you apart from a lot of engineers if you decided to move into robotics.

Oranage2

Thing about working in a factory you get low wage (11-13e) for very hard work, if you could get onto a building site you could earn a bit more (17-18e). But for the op, there's so many jobs now you should really chance your arm at something better.

listermint

Assuming the OP is from Northern Ireland access to Irish university is that as easy . Is it not Erasmus ? In terms of earning potential you have more in you. You ditched engineering role after only a short time. When engineering isn't just one career it's thousands. I think you need to examine what you actually want rather than throwing more courses at the wall tbh.

Mister Vain

I did factory work in my 20's. It's tough going, even when you're young and fit. I remember the hot summer months were particularly brutal. Was some good craic too but I definitely regret not changing jobs sooner.

Tom Mann Centuria

Worked in a few different food production factories for agencies for a couple of years. The smell, the cold, the clothing you had to wear. I wouldn't recommend it, in fact I walked home 6 or 7 miles when I quit one of the factories (lightly coated in curry sauce I'd spilled on myself) rather than wait for the agency provided minibus to bring me home.

Wanderer78

sounds like a fairly normal factory job op, tis a fairly sh1t life nowadays, i suspect it was better before, but nowadays, its generally dreadful, share holders living off the backs of others, what a sh1t world we have created!

Mister Vain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118069779#Comment_118069779

Why would you assume it was better before? I think the conditions are generally better nowadays with a lot of places semi automated. I remember back in the day I had to wrap pallets by hand. You'd be dizzy as fúck after it. Most places use machines for that now. There's much more emphasis on health and safety now.

DoctorEdgeWild

I work in a workshop/factory, really struggle to get good guys in. Very tough, physical work, a lot of sheet metal, everything is heavy, hot or sharp, or if I'm really lucky, all of the above!

Proper graft, never a day without sweating right through. As much as I know there will be a price to pay in later years (if I make it that far!), I could never do an office job. Just different types of people I think.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118071179#Comment_118071179

elements of factory work are definitely far better now, as you explained, but labour share of wealth is declining, and fast, precariousness of employment is rapidly increasing also

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058214603/factory-work

What do you mean by "didn't like the job"?

Engineering is so broad, hardly two jobs are alike. With that education you could probably walk into a minimum 40k a year job.

c.p.w.g.w

Currently working in a factory, it's a manual job...but it's a lot easier than my previous 14 years in retail...

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118071389#Comment_118071389

id say retail is off the walls, absolutely sh1te pay, and even worse treatment, from both employers and customers

c.p.w.g.w

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118071398#Comment_118071398

Genuinely, after leaving retail and working on a factory floor...I only just realized how sh!t retail really was...and they pay was awful... currently earning 47% more with health insurance and a pension a top...and I just listen to music or podcasts and do my work and typically finished with 2 hours to spare most evenings

Mister Vain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118071200#Comment_118071200

I know what you mean about getting good workers. I used to train the new guys in my last job and most of them wouldn't work in a convulsion. One guy could hardly move and kept checking his phone all day. Another yahoo decided to go into the label store, print off a load of "No Parking" sheets and put them on peoples car windows outside. We got one Polish guy who was a great worker but had a bit of a temper and would often lash out at people so they had to let him go.

blueser

Factory work is tough. I've been in the same place for over 20 years now. Doing two mens' work, not even on a good wage for one man (11:50 ph). 9 hour day with two unpaid breaks (20 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at lunch. On my feet all day. Bosses that don't give a toss about their workers. No union, the company won't recognise them. I must have applied for 50 or 60 jobs in the last year, one return call and one interview. That's what you get when you're in your late fifties with the UK equivalent of a junior cert education. Seems that being a hard grafter isn't enough these days. And it's not like I'm applying for jobs where you need to be academically top drawer. It gets you down, a lot.

SharpshooterTom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118071789#Comment_118071789

Feel for you man. My breaks are unpaid as well.

I worked in production for two weeks, got injured after the first week and decided to work through the injury for the second week, which made a muscle pull into a minor muscle tear and put me out for three weeks, got called up a few times by hr demanding why I was taking so long to return "we really need you down here were struggling!" Im like yeah well Ive got grade 1 tear on my right side how do you expect me to return only after a few days? I got no sympathy though, just disappointment. I work in a different department now which is less physically intense but equally stressful.