“It’s driven me before, and it seems to have a vague
Haunting mass appeal
But lately I’m beginning to find that I
Should be the one behind the wheel” –Incubus, “Drive”
* Some names have been changed.
Losing a job is a different kind of loss. It doesn’t quite hit the same as, say, a bad breakup, but it is a loss nonetheless. When I lost my job a couple of months ago, it really messed me up. Especially because I really liked that job. And to just have it taken away from me over some bullshit was really upsetting. And with the job market being the way it is nowadays, I wasn’t sure I’d find a new one so soon.
Well…I started a new job today. And the first day was…not great.
It’s another test driving gig. This one is a smaller company with two locations in Michigan: one roughly an hour away from me and one about 45 minutes away. The one closer to me is where they do their Level 1 (L1) testing. It’s a small proving grounds facility, so it’s all closed course. The other location is where they do their Level 3 (L3) testing, which is all public roads. The position I was hired for is for the L1 testing on second shift. However, because training is done on first shift, so I’ll be working first shift the next couple of weeks and then the third week, they will switch me to second shift.
So, today was day 1. I had received an email from HR last week telling me to plan on showing up at the proving grounds 15 minutes before my shift starts. Because my shift is supposed to start at 9 AM, I showed up at exactly 8:45. I pulled up to the security guard and the guard called my supervisor (who I’ll just call R*) to let him know I was here. I could barely hear the conversation from my car, but from what I could hear, R. apparently had a new contractor also starting today and he had to supervise them for whatever reason, but he told the guard to have me wait in the parking lot and R. would meet me there and we’d walk into the building together. So the guard pointed to the lot across from the gate and told me to park; I did. I waited. And waited. And waited. 45 minutes later (why did I even bother showing up 15 minutes early?), R. finally pulls up and we walk into the main building together. We walked up to the security operations desk inside the main building, which was huge. I’ll never understand why a damn security desk needs FIVE people behind it. Anyway, one of the guards (a younger guy named G.*) hands me a form and tells me to sign it so that I can get my ID badge. He then took my picture (I never smile for ID pics, because what’s the point?) and printed out the badge.
R.* then took me to the main garage that our team works out of and introduced me to the rest of the guys on said team in the conference room located within the garage. The team, if you can even call it that, only consisted of 3 other guys: B.*, the main technician; and K.* & S.*, two other test drivers. S.* was the oldest of the guys; B.* and K.* were both younger guys. Eventually R.* left the room (way to ditch me like Denzel did Ethan Hawke in Training Day, fucking asshole) and the other two guys were working on a vehicle, so it was just me and S.* in the room. I started asking him about the job and whatnot. He told me he’s only been there 6 months. He started explaining the job and everything that it entails. Apparently it varies wildly from job to job, but currently they’re testing durability by running laps on the part of the testing track called the Rough Road–it’s exactly what it says on the tin. But because there’s only one test vehicle, they share it between the 3 of them. Drive for an hour, swap drivers, etc. The reason they hired me is because there’s going to be a second test vehicle arriving at some point, which is when they will switch me to 2nd shift. Seems easy enough, I guess. Eventually the other 2 guys finished whatever they were doing and entered the conference room. K.* was a gamer–I instantly noticed his Steam Deck sitting on the conference room table–so we talked games and anime for a minute. I told him I play Cyberpunk; so does he. Told him I’m on my 5th playthrough; so is he (did we just become best friends?). He said I should check out Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the Netflix series based on the game. I told him it’s on my list–it’s been on my list for months. Then B., who I guess is technically my trainer, gathered my PPE that I’m gonna need for the job: racing helmet (hate it), steel-toe shoes that he had to order from Amazon which have to be Electric Hazard certified for whatever reason, safety goggles, and high viz safety vest. The goggles and vest only have to be worn while in the garage and when I’m driving a test vehicle I can swap out the steel-toe shoes for tennis shoes, if I want. I decided to just wear the steel toe shoes while I’m at work though, because I’m not lugging a whole ass other pair of shoes to work every damn day if I don’t have to.
From that point on, all I did for the rest of the day was sit in the conference room, bored as fuck. I can’t be certified to drive until I’m trained to do so and my information isn’t even in the proving grounds’ online employee portal because R. was too busy doing whateverthefuck to do it himself. Anyway, at 1:30 PM, I went back to the security desk at the front of the building to do the track orientation, which consisted of G. (same guard that gave me my ID badge) giving me and 3 other guys–2 of which apparently do motorcycle testing(?!) a tour of the facility, followed by a rundown of the rules and a drive around all the testing roads. After orientation, we went back to the security desk to sign an acknowlegement form and the guard said I was free to go. I attempted to walk back to my team’s garage without asking for help and got lost. Ended up in a completely different garage. My team is in garage 4, but I ended up in garage 1. So I walked outside the building and towards garage 4. One of my coworkers drove up in the test vehicle and asked if I needed help, so I hopped in the back and we drove back to the garage, since that’s where he was headed anyway. I went back to sitting in the conference room doing fuck all while my coworkers did whatever.
Then R. showed up again, admonishing me for walking outside of the main building and through a different garage instead of the correct one. I told him I got lost because 1) nobody told me where to go, and 2) the garages aren’t exactly well marked, there’s literally only one sign for each garage and they’re fucking outside. He didn’t care. Yelled at me and accused me of cutting him off. “I JUST NEED YOU TO LISTEN RIGHT NOW, OKAY?” he yelled. He’s lucky I didn’t fucking smack him in the face. Right on cue, the other guys showed up in the conference room and R. started explaining how training was going to go over the next few weeks. Then he asked if a guy from HR got in touch with me about showing me how to do my timecard. I said yes, he’ll be onsite tomorrow. R. said good, he can get me registered on the online portal and show me how to do my timecard. I’m sorry, weren’t YOU supposed to do that? But I said nothing and just nodded Finally, at 4:00, R. let me go home. Said to be at work by 7 AM tomorrow.
Yeah…so far, I’m not impressed with this place. The guys were cool for the most part, but R. just treated me like he’d rather be doing literally anything else except showing me around and telling me what I needed to know. And if B. is supposed to be my trainer, he’s even more hands-off than R. I sure hope things improve and soon. Because I could use the money, but not if it means I have to put up with shit like this every day.
Thanks for reading.
Song of the Day: Your Old Droog feat. Wiki – RAINDROPS
You heard what he said.
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