This is not the first time I've supposedly been approved for a loan... but it's the first time the approval is legitimate! Allbeit, money is not involved.
I've been loaned to the afternoon shift at work for the next month, until August 15th. This coming on the heels of a seventeen-hour shift at work yesterday, which had its share of drama to be sure.
Word had trickled down that management now had the right to force workers to stay on a 24-hour shift if the need ever arised. Five of us got together in my department and it took but ten seconds to declare that a state law had to prohibit that. Immediately, three co-workers were on the phone with various state government officials in an attempt to prove their theory correct. After all, the old work handbook did state that workers couldn't be "mando'd" more than 90 minutes per day.
The official ruling? Michigan no longer has a rule limiting overtime requests. If the company (or any other company) wants to keep us around the clock, there's no rule protecting worker rights in this case. I knew there had to be a rule in there somewhere, but evidentally, it was quietly struck down and the situation was buried in the back page of the newspaper. You have to wonder if the state really cares about its workers; all the news articles pointing to our bad economy would have you coming up with an automatic "no".
With the work we do, which is very manual-labor-intensive, what's going to happen when we work 100 hours per week? Reflexes are dulled, judgement is impaired, and what happens if we run over someone at work due to those factors and are fired for it?
I can smell a potential lawsuit coming a mile away.
But the supervisors know that 20 hours' work performance per day is beyond my capabilities right now; hence the loan to afternoons. They are six workers shy and they said my moving to the shift would prove beneficial to both parties. I have mixed reactions to the move right now, since this means being outside for two hours at night, which I hate.
You can't argue with Saturday/Sunday off, though. It's as normal a schedule as the airport will allow!
