Gluing Magnets on Beds!
For anyone who has even done manual agency work, exploitation is the name of the game!

I did a number of filthy, degrading jobs when I was in my teens and this was by fair was the worst.

The company I worked for was making beds for the NHS alternative therapy section… or something like that. The idea was simple, magnets increase your blood flow... apparently, so installing them en-mass inside beds would be beneficial to people suffering from circulation problems.

Mad? It most certainly was! My job? I had to glue these shitty little magnets into the foam of these magic beds. Can you imagine standing for 8 hours a day picking up magnets the size of a penny coin, covering it in nasty, foul smelling glue and forcing it into the little recesses of a foam mattress, gloveless!

One very unpleasant aspect of this job was the glue sticking your fingers together, gloves where not an option as they apparently would melt if they came in contact to the glue, hmmm I bet it was great for my hands then! The solution to this sticky finger problem was to spray your hands with silicone (I am sure this was poison as well) spray. This nasty combination of chemicals left my hand smelling like I had them stuck up an Elephants anus for 8 hours a day… the smell was also relentless in its resistance to any form of cleaning, in fact, the only time my hands smelt ok again was just before I started work the next fucking day… nice!

So all in all, £3 an hour, making beds that cost about £12 in materials and £10 in labour per bed, knowing that the company was selling them to the NHS for £1200 per bed, also knowing that part of the taxes I paid on my wage went towards the NHS buying these fucking things!

Yes I felt little exploited!
(Minty Hit, Thu 23 Feb 2006, 11:15, Reply)