@89ute commented in the KFC thread about working at KFC in his youth and how shitty a job it was. That got me thinking about the hardest job I ever had.
Summer of 91, I just graduated and was about to go into the Army but my dates got pushed back so old man Nacho set me up with a job at Gai’s bakery (now Franz bakery) in the sanitation department.
A couple of chinteresting tidbits: mom, dad, both brothers, an uncle, and 2 cousins all worked at Gai’s bakery at some point over the course of 50 years. I don’t think I had a job in high school that wasn’t set up by one of my parents.
On to the story....
My first day at work was a Saturday in August starting at 5 am. I was hungover from a party the night before and had no idea what this job entailed. I arrive and meet the other guy on the shift; he’s going to train me and today is his second to last day before going back to school at UW.
First part of the job, go into the basement of the giant factory bakery were there are 30+ mini dumpsters full of yeast infested dough that has fallen on the floor during the baking process and take a shovel to scoop up anything that’s fallen out. At about 7am, a dump truck arrives and the 2 of us are pushing these dumpsters in front of the truck to get emptied.
Let me tell, you don’t want to walk into a room of 30+ containers of yeast infested dough when you’re hungover from drinking Olde English the night before. Those 2 things don’t mix very well.
Next part of the job, go through the bakery with a shitty flat bed cart to collect barrels of discarded product that’s fallen off the assembly line. (The barrels were probably 55 gallon capacity) The flat bed part of the cart was about 18” off the ground and the barrels had no handles. Then tar the cart with barrels to a dumpster shoot. Lift the barrels off the cart over a 4 foot wall to empty the contents but not drop the barrel. Repeat this process 30 times.
My second day was Tuesday (the bakers were off Tuesday and Saturday which was when we worked). Show up expecting another day with the UW guy only to have my supervisor tell me UW guy decided to quit early and that I’d be on my own for an hour but a new guy was coming in and I’d be training him.
Thank God I left for basic training 6 weeks later.
Summer of 91, I just graduated and was about to go into the Army but my dates got pushed back so old man Nacho set me up with a job at Gai’s bakery (now Franz bakery) in the sanitation department.
A couple of chinteresting tidbits: mom, dad, both brothers, an uncle, and 2 cousins all worked at Gai’s bakery at some point over the course of 50 years. I don’t think I had a job in high school that wasn’t set up by one of my parents.
On to the story....
My first day at work was a Saturday in August starting at 5 am. I was hungover from a party the night before and had no idea what this job entailed. I arrive and meet the other guy on the shift; he’s going to train me and today is his second to last day before going back to school at UW.
First part of the job, go into the basement of the giant factory bakery were there are 30+ mini dumpsters full of yeast infested dough that has fallen on the floor during the baking process and take a shovel to scoop up anything that’s fallen out. At about 7am, a dump truck arrives and the 2 of us are pushing these dumpsters in front of the truck to get emptied.
Let me tell, you don’t want to walk into a room of 30+ containers of yeast infested dough when you’re hungover from drinking Olde English the night before. Those 2 things don’t mix very well.
Next part of the job, go through the bakery with a shitty flat bed cart to collect barrels of discarded product that’s fallen off the assembly line. (The barrels were probably 55 gallon capacity) The flat bed part of the cart was about 18” off the ground and the barrels had no handles. Then tar the cart with barrels to a dumpster shoot. Lift the barrels off the cart over a 4 foot wall to empty the contents but not drop the barrel. Repeat this process 30 times.
My second day was Tuesday (the bakers were off Tuesday and Saturday which was when we worked). Show up expecting another day with the UW guy only to have my supervisor tell me UW guy decided to quit early and that I’d be on my own for an hour but a new guy was coming in and I’d be training him.
Thank God I left for basic training 6 weeks later.

