#WorkLife #JobStruggles #AsbestosTech #Capitalism
Hey folks, I wanted to share something interesting about my experience as an air technician collecting air samples for asbestos at construction sites. Honestly, the job can be pretty monotonous.
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🥱 Lonely Shifts: I spend the whole day in my car, without any meaningful interaction apart from a nod to the gate security guard. Let’s just say, I’m not exactly making lifelong friendships here!
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🚗 Comfort Over Chaos: The car is like my little fortress of comfort while I deal with the outside elements—rain, heat, or cold. It’s way better than the dilapidated sites we often work at, which lack basic amenities.
- 😲 Ghost Workers: Since air techs are pretty invisible on-site, it’s easy to sneak away without anyone noticing. I mean, who’s really checking in on the pumps?
So here’s where my thinking starts to shift: I’ve been following the rules for a while, but I realized that I could sneak off during my shifts and no one would really know. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I dislike work and would much rather focus on my own passions—if only capitalism would let us! 💔
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🌍 Living for the Moment: I’ve started making the most of my time on the clock. Whether it’s playing video games at the library 🎮 or grabbing groceries during the day, I maximize that time and make strategic check-ins to keep up appearances.
- 🔄 A Pattern of Sneaking Off: This isn’t a new thing for me. I did a similar thing when I cleaned bathrooms overnight at a university. That place was all about chilling after the work was done. I even quit dramatically in a meeting—priceless moment! 😂
I know this isn’t a typical conversation starter, but it’s wild how many of us can get our jobs done in just a few hours and still have to stick around for eight. Why not get paid for what we actually do?
Now I’m curious—have any of you had similar job experiences, or found ways to make work less of a drag? What’s your take on the whole “pretending to work” thing? Let’s chat! 💬
Buy a steam deck and chill with a game 🙂
Sounds like you’ve figured out a way to make a boring job work for you! I get why you’d want to sneak off when it’s so mind-numbing.
How much does this pay and how do I apply?
i didn’t read all that but leaving work or not doing what yr hired to do while on the clock is considered time theft if yr job finds out they can sue you for backpay happened to a friend of mine working door to door sales ended up owing like $3000 not against you but be careful they love to get every penny out of u
**You could make the paid time in the car more productive:**
Earn a degree online.
Learn another language.
Write a book.
Get a remote-work job, and get paid twice!
There are battery backups that you can get to power your laptop. Connectivity via your phone these days is usually pretty good.
As someone that works around asbestos please at least check the levels a couple times during the day cause if you say it’s safe I have to believe you and if you aren’t checking and the area is still hot but yall say it’s not I won’t know and could get the mesothelioma
You gotta be bored. Your post is along ass post. TLDR.
At first I thought you were stealing time from the company lol. You have what’s called a dream job. Don’t screw it up
Get a mobile hotspot and a laptop to do whatever in the car or at a library/coffee shop (though you can use their wifi) but being in the car is a lot easier if caught. I’d use that time to take online classes to advance my career, personally, like getting a cybersecurity degree from the University of Maryland Global Campus, for instance. Also, dip out to the gym for an hour and ay you were at lunch if called oout.
Where can I get this job?
Why are you feeling guilty if you’re doing the work that is asked of you? If you check the equipment every so often then who cares? One thing that I tell people in my field is that I’m not paid for what I do as much as I’m paid for what I know. If you’re taking care of business, then there is no need to feel guilty. Just keep in mind that if the equipment goes down in the middle of a reading, are you close enough to rectify the situation?
It’s the luck of being a 36 year old lady. Nobody expects a woman in her mid 30s to be up to no good lol. You expect it from the young kids and new hires haha. I assume it’s how you always read those articles about how the receptionist or secretary at a local business always manages to embezzle several hundred grand over the course of a few years … who’d ever suspect it from a put together adult lady that seems to have her adulting on point and know what’s going on 🤣🤣
“you have to sit in a little capsule (your car) by yourself and have no human contact your entire shift, you don’t have coworkers, the most you’ll say is a few words a day to a gate security guard or maybe you run into somebody at the office when putting away your paperwork and you say hi how are you. ”
Ah, heaven.
Overnight cleaning jobs are the easiest to get away with this. I had one of these about 15 years ago and was basically a supervisor. Even if a person or 2 called in, I could usually get all of my work and all of their work done in under 3 hours. After work I would just go home and punch out from my phone. Eventually I was able to get it down to basically a 3 day work week without anyone noticing…bust my ass full shift on Monday deep cleaning everything, come in 15 minutes Tuesday to grab garbages and then leave, work an hour or 2 on Wednesday, come in Thursday for 15 minutes to grab garbages, don’t even bother showing up most Fridays (could just blame weekend office workers for there being garbage when they arrive Monday morning). Did that a few years without getting caught and only left it because a rival company offered me more money with benefits
What will you do when the state shows up and asks to see you? Depending on the state, it is required that an Air Monitor be on site during any class 1 work and any class 2 that is considered friable.
You’re a thief. I had someone do this and it almost bankrupted my company. Don’t be a loser, work for a living.
I used to be one of the lab techs who analyzed those samples you collect. As far as I can remember, my boss told the field techs to feel free to read a book or do whatever in that wait time.
The guys doing the abatement aren’t paying you, so they don’t care. Your boss is charging the contractor a small fortune, and knows exactly what you’re doing. He doesn’t care. The only time there might be an issue is if the pump shuts off. But, if that happens, you just mark it as a dud on your paperwork. I assure you, the lab techs don’t care.
The cost of your services is a miniscule line item in the project’s budget, and there’s nobody on site to give you shit. Keep on keeping on.
What is your art and could you turn your vehicle into a mobile studio?
For the love of god other people’s health is reliant on you being readily accessible, stay in your car or whatever but don’t leave the site.
I worked with a guy that used to have a union job in a really big shop in the Midwest think ginormous foundry. The air compressor room was the size of a high School gym. He would sneak up in there to a hidey hole in the machinery and sleep about 3 hours every shift and never got caught.
Lol I would patrol whatever jobsite handing out guff
Man, if this were my job (and I expected to be doing it for a while) I’d get/make one of those vans that you can basically live in. Maybe aside from the toilet/shower unless I wanted to use it for more. Get a big portable battery, get some cellular connected iPads/use my phone’s hotspot, and then I’ve just got a mobile version of my usual setup.
Be careful: If the company gave you a device to carry (pager, phone, pad, computer) or you’re driving a company vehicle, they may have tracking hardware/software installed.
Get another job work em both.
Its just awful that for some employers its not enough that we do the job – we should also me mentally and physically exhausted for us to earn our pay. God forbid we have any sort of comfort while actually doing our jobs.
you are my hero. it would be dumb for you to do it any other way. them making you sit there is about control not some benefit. you could probably set up some webcam to monitor the device and not have to pop back in as much lol