Journal 1
I was completely lost when I went inside the factory. I was waiting for my manager to introduce me to the tasks that needed to be done for the day. Instead, I was greeted by other temporary workers to place my bag in the lunchroom area and to retrieve one of the safety hard caps. Then one of the supervisors with an orange hat came and huddled the temporary workers and went over a few general logistics.
My first assigned role was to place the sticker labels on the boxes of bread. The conveyor belt was rolling out the boxes at the speed of light that I was not able to pick up quickly. I remember one of my supervisors told me to not get nervous. Sure enough, I got nervous and ended up making minor mistakes.
Eventually, I got placed in another area that involved the conveyor belt machine. I was placed with two additional temporary workers. Our role was to grab the wrapped bread and place it inside the boxes and shove them back to the conveyor belt to be fully closed and ready for shipment. During this role, some bread fell onto the floor. The supervisors noticed and gave us warning remarks. My coworkers and I started to communicate with each other to prevent mistakes.
My hour of break was broken into two 15 minutes sessions and 30 minutes of lunch. I was able to figure out that those wearing the white and navy blue uniform were the workers hired by the plant.
In my remaining hours of the day, I was unwrapping bread and preparing cardboard boxes. I was already getting burnt out of the day. My arms and legs were getting sore. I was on the verge of tears but made it through the day. I was able to empathize with my family now.
Journal 2
The second day at work was less gruesome than the first day. The whole eight hour shift just consisted of packing muffins into plastic bins and placing them back to the conveyor belt. Thankfully, the anti fatigue mats helped sustain my feet from going sore. On the other hand, the heat of the ovens was overwhelming and was causing me to sweat. Bread crumbs and opened wrappers were falling on the floor, I remember brooming the area. I noticed that the lighting in my job was pretty dim. I wish there was more lighting for me to see properly in my work area.It was at the end of my second day at work that teamwork is crucial to get the job done at the factory.
On this day, I did not bring lunch. I was told that lunch would be provided from the staff.
At the end of my shift, my manager told me to take one of the leftover package breads. It was great bread. I realized on this day that different kinds of bread are prepared on a daily basis.
Journal 3
I noticed that different temp workers would come and go at the factory. Some folks would prefer the night shift because supervisors were not present at that time. I preferred the morning shift. I was already getting familiar as to who was who in my shift. There was a girl that seemed to be around my age that started working at Alpha Baking Co. I felt relieved because most of the workers there are older middle-age people that speak Spanish. I would talk to temporary workers for the most part. I was not too comfortable talking to the permanent workers. For some reason, I was able to sense this strange tension between the two types of general workers at my job. Looking back at it, I wish I could have been more social with other folks. It would have helped boost my self-esteem.
Even though I was doing general labour at the bread factory. There were a few instances here and there of multitasking. In addition to packing and moving boxes of bread, I had to make sure that other materials were available to use. For example, I had to look from behind me that empty cardboard boxes were ready on stand-by for me to grab and place the bread in. It was a bit tedious handling this part because empty boxes would fly off from the conveyer belt because of the fan blowing them away.
Journal 4
The most gruesome day for me was being put on moving semi-loaded boxes of bread to the conveyor belt so that they would be filled with the remaining bread needed. I was not the only one in my section. I was working with two male workers. It required a lot of stamina and upper body strength. By not maintaining proper posture while I was picking up boxes during my shift, I began to feel pain in my lower back. My hands and arms were beginning to sweat and get heavy. They almost felt like spaghetti noodles. All the crouching and lifting made me feel light-headed like I was on the verge of fainting from exhaustion. Looking back at it, there was not a lot of space to move around. The conveyor belt was in front of me and there were boxes around me. The day would have gone smoothly and efficiently if there were not any fully closed boxes taking space.
I found out that there are different sectors in the factory. It is not just general workers and supervisors. There are mechanic repairmen,food quality inspectors, and others that I am not able to identify. There was one food quality worker that would talk to me. I would go to her for clarification. One of the few people that I felt comfortable talking to. Her name was Lesley. I remember telling her that I had completed my first year at UIC. I also remember her picking up leftover bread from the conveyor belt and taking to another room. I am assuming she was possibly conducting trial tests for food consumption safety.
Journal 5
Overall, my experience at the factory was brutal but also interesting. I always hear friends of mine talking about how retail is daunting. Then, I have family members that work in factories, and they also don’t like it. If I could describe what it is like working in a factory in simple terms, it would be gray and gloomy. At first, I felt like my contributions to work were not valued. I felt like a machine that was trying to achieve high quality and quantitative satisfaction. I worried that I would lose a finger or even a hand. I am always reminded of the glowing-red billboard that would count the number of days that passed without an accident occurring. The smell of baked bread would make me nauseous at times. My ears would drum constantly from the noise that would rupture every second from the different machines that were scattered around.
After the end of every shift, I just wanted to sleep and get a massage. My body would be completely stiff. With that in mind, if I could incorporate a possible solution to better improve the work conditions of factory workers is some type of physical or mental relieving practice that could be implemented during break or lunch sessions. I would have slightly enjoyed my job if there was a space where I can practice mindfulness.
Sketches
Extra artifact
This is the code of conduct form that I had to sign before my first day of work. This form is in Spanish. It outlines uniform policy and the don’ts of what a factory worker must follow at Alpha Baking Co.
