No Joy in Maryville (Re: Yesterday's Bearcat Game)

Hey all,

It's another weekend in Maryville here. Some more details on the work uncertainty referenced in the last post: I'm still employed at my temp job at the local Energizer plant, but the assignment that I've been doing at the plant will likely be going away in several months at best, several weeks at worst. Apparently, an administrative decision was made that they are going to replace the temporaries on the cleaning crew with full-time staff due to the amount of turnover among the temporary cleaners and (my best guess) because of end of budget year shortfalls ... they've had to pay a lot of overtime for weekend spill cleanups over the last four/five months, and that's likely depleted their maintenance budgets. I should note that this change was completely unexpected and we had no warning this was coming, as usually cleaning jobs are the most stable temporary assignments at the plant, but that is unfortunately going to change for the long-term.

What it means for me is ... well, I'm not sure. As of last week, they were mentioning the possibility of confined space training (specialty training for working in confined/narrow spaces within the plant), which could mean travel to another Energizer plant for that. So far, no word on that at all.

At best, we think it means they'll give some of us that are being displaced a new assignment elsewhere in the plant, which means for me, the possibility of working on the main floor again and getting out of the dust, noise, and excessive heat from the current work location. So far, the temp agency keeps promising that they'll find us alternative assignments, and I have to trust them on their word, but it also means that I have to keep searching for a better job, putting out applications, and hoping something better comes up in the meantime. I have some possibilities, none of which I can discuss yet because they're only possibilities so far, but I have my fingers crossed.

FYI, if you have access to cable and get The History Channel, an episode of Modern Marvels coming up later in the month talks about the history of alkaline battery making. For background, a film crew spent some time at one of the Maryville plant's sister plants in Asheboro, NC. I believe the episode is showing on Wednesday, September 19th, at 8:00 Eastern (7:00 CST), so if you want to find out what my current work environment is like, feel free to watch.

The title for this entry refers to last night's NWMSU football game vs. University of Nebraska-Omaha, which unfortunately, due to injuries to key players, including our starting QB and both starting wide receivers, and a good opponent, resulted in the first regular season loss for the team since two years ago. While they were undefeated last year until the championship, it looks like it's going to be a tough year for the Bearcats this year. Oh well ... it just means that this year's matchup between the Bearcats and Pitt State should be interesting, to say the least. Last year's was a blowout; this year, I'm not so sure.

Anyhoo ... apart from the chaos, it's been a good week so far. Lauren's birthday is in a couple of days, but we've started the celebration a little early with a trip to our favorite Japanese restaurant in St. Joe. She's already gotten her birthday gift (a roll-up floor bed so she can take her daily nap at work), but I may be able to find something for her at the KC RenFaire next weekend, too.