I Can Feel the Earth Moving! It's Moving Too Fast! Raj! Slow it Down!

My first day of work was a double shift on dirty side dishes both times. On dirty side dishes there is a conveyor belt that carries the trays four high from the eating area to the dish area. Someone then takes the silverware off and divides them up into a tray of soapy water. Someone else takes the trays off the conveyor belt, while the other two dump the food into the pulper and puts everything on the conveyor belt to the dish washing machine. Breakfast shift was nice. There was only a count of around 100 to 200 people, so we didn't have much to do. Every once in awhile there'd be a tray or two and the four of us would take turns cleaning off the tray. While we weren't busy we we played a game where one person asked a question and everyone else answered. Me and one of the other guys both love hockey, so we got along really well. We also did dish room yoga and all did trees. When it got too hot we also had time to put the hose in front of the fan and mist everyone.

Lunch shift, however, was an entirely different story. We had a count of close to 1400 people. I was on silverware duty. There were so many trays that I could not keep up. I stared at the tray conveyor belt for so long that I started feeling dizzy. After two hours, my mind had turned to mush. My entire train of thought consisted of "fork, fork, knife, spoon, fork, too fast! slow down! fork, spoon." We didn't even have time for drink or bathroom breaks. And then once the dining hall wanted to close, people would not leave and we kept getting trays when we wanted to start cleaning up. Cleaning up was also not fun. The floor was super wet and dangerously slippery. I almost fell a bunch of times. And I soaked myself while using the hose to clean everything off. At the end of the day I was exhausted, in pain, and soaked. At least I don't have work tomorrow.