boy oh boy
Posted on 2008-Feb-4 at 10:20
The boy has been living in Vancouver for a month now so I thought I'd do a bit of an update as to how life is going for him in lotus land.
It would be a serious understatement to say he is not thrilled with this position. For starters his commute is an hour and a half each way... bus to skytrain to bus... leaving him no time on weekdays for anything other than eating and showering. I told him to shit at work to save time. The job itself has been one trial after another. His direct supervisor is an idiot. He is also Asian which does not necessarily contribute to his idiocy but it certainly adds difficulty with the language barrier. The majority of the people working at the research facility are either Chinese or Korean so nobody can even pronounce anyone else's name let alone communicate in an effective fashion. The Boy says some days it's like a comedy of errors watching them all duke it out in argument after battle after spat when it turns out they are all wanting to get the same point across.
My boy is a pretty bright biscuit but the supervisor treats him like a mentally challenged monkey. He tells my boy to research things and then tells him he is wrong when he doesn't like the results. He has no concept of Google, he told my boy to call SFU to see if they has some machine and the kid did as he was told but the university did not own such a machine. When my son told his supervisor this he 'tsk'd' my kid and got all annoyed and typed SFU and the name of the machine into the search engine. Of course there were hits but they were all for SFU's that are not Simon Fraser University "See," he said "It says they do have it, now call them back!"
My kid is not one to get his panties twisted but this supervisor has already managed to get him to raise his voice...I told him next time a fist might be appropriate. The boss is a bully and a racist. He talks down to everyone, he bitches about Canada incessantly, he hates the price of things, he says our government is cheap (despite the millions in grants he's been given) he says the people are stupid and he even bitches about the weather. My boy finally asked him, "If you hate it so much why did you come here?"
"Because Americans are fat!" he snapped.
Last week was hell week for my boy... like it had been so pleasant to that point. He has not yet been properly trained in the lab but he has been thrown into the deep end. This is not the place to adopt a sink or swim mentality, it's a lab for fuck sakes not American Gladiators! His first incident was the spilling of nano-particles. It was an accident (obviously) but rather than explain to him what he did wrong and how better to handle it next time the supervisor just got pissed off and told him to clean it up. I keep forgetting to ask my boy how one cleans up nano-particles. A nano is one billionth of a meter, dust would be boulders in comparison.
The next day he was told to pour liquid nitrogen from one container into another.
"Should I wear gloves?" he asked.
"Yes, but not latex."
The only other gloves were insulated work-type gloves and since liquid nitrogen is -70C it made sense to him to wear them. What my boy was not told is that when you pour liquid nitrogen it is similar to pouring a slurpee. Have you ever tried to drink a slushee without the straw? You put the rim of the cup to your lips, tilt the vessel toward yourself and sploosh, you get a face full of sticky sweet ice. Apparently liquid nitrogen works the same way.
He tipped the full container toward the empty one and the entire contents blooped onto his hand and down into the glove. He dropped everything and shook the glove off but it had already been held against his finger long enough to burn. He said his index finger was yellow and he watched in pain as first one blister then another and another popped up until his entire digit was one big blister. The first aider was more concerned with filling out the incident report than actually administering first aid. Nice.
It was near the end of the day so he went home. I happened to be online (big surprise) when he came on msn.
"Hi Mom."
"Hey Buzz (his nickname) what are you doing home already?"
"I had an accident."
I couldn't close my connection and get his number dialed fast enough. He answered the phone with, "I'm ok, I didn't mean to freak you out."
He told me what happened and I gave him my best advice as to how to treat the burn. He went to the doc the next day and was told the exact same thing... apparently I missed my calling.
He told me last night that it looks pretty gross but it's not hurting anymore at least. Poor kid.
To add insult to injury (literally) his supervisor asked him later that week to do something on some machine (he told me the details but it's all way over my head) but the machine would not work. His boss got all pissed off at him and said "Why do you have to break everything you touch?"
I want to smack that fucker right upside the head...with a baseball bat.
Beyond the job he is enjoying his stint in Van. He's been doing a lot of touring and exploring on weekends, he volunteered for an Alzheimer's walk and he is looking into getting a part time job at a sport's bar in his neighborhood. He loves living with my mom's cousin, she's a few years older than me but she's lived a somewhat sheltered and privileged life so my boy gets a kick out of her naivite. My boy knows how to shop sales but the cousin buys what she wants without concern for cost. He saw that chicken breasts were on sale in the flyer so he was going to pick some up. She asked if he had to show the cashier the flyer so she'd know that he wanted the sale price.
While I certainly feel for my kid I keep reminding him that he's only got a couple more months there and that even the bad stuff is a learning experience. He'll know how to handle nano-particles and liquid nitrogen next time although he says ultimately he does not want a lab job. I am thankful for that and also extremely grateful he's not dealing with explosives.
It would be a serious understatement to say he is not thrilled with this position. For starters his commute is an hour and a half each way... bus to skytrain to bus... leaving him no time on weekdays for anything other than eating and showering. I told him to shit at work to save time. The job itself has been one trial after another. His direct supervisor is an idiot. He is also Asian which does not necessarily contribute to his idiocy but it certainly adds difficulty with the language barrier. The majority of the people working at the research facility are either Chinese or Korean so nobody can even pronounce anyone else's name let alone communicate in an effective fashion. The Boy says some days it's like a comedy of errors watching them all duke it out in argument after battle after spat when it turns out they are all wanting to get the same point across.
My boy is a pretty bright biscuit but the supervisor treats him like a mentally challenged monkey. He tells my boy to research things and then tells him he is wrong when he doesn't like the results. He has no concept of Google, he told my boy to call SFU to see if they has some machine and the kid did as he was told but the university did not own such a machine. When my son told his supervisor this he 'tsk'd' my kid and got all annoyed and typed SFU and the name of the machine into the search engine. Of course there were hits but they were all for SFU's that are not Simon Fraser University "See," he said "It says they do have it, now call them back!"
My kid is not one to get his panties twisted but this supervisor has already managed to get him to raise his voice...I told him next time a fist might be appropriate. The boss is a bully and a racist. He talks down to everyone, he bitches about Canada incessantly, he hates the price of things, he says our government is cheap (despite the millions in grants he's been given) he says the people are stupid and he even bitches about the weather. My boy finally asked him, "If you hate it so much why did you come here?"
"Because Americans are fat!" he snapped.
Last week was hell week for my boy... like it had been so pleasant to that point. He has not yet been properly trained in the lab but he has been thrown into the deep end. This is not the place to adopt a sink or swim mentality, it's a lab for fuck sakes not American Gladiators! His first incident was the spilling of nano-particles. It was an accident (obviously) but rather than explain to him what he did wrong and how better to handle it next time the supervisor just got pissed off and told him to clean it up. I keep forgetting to ask my boy how one cleans up nano-particles. A nano is one billionth of a meter, dust would be boulders in comparison.
The next day he was told to pour liquid nitrogen from one container into another.
"Should I wear gloves?" he asked.
"Yes, but not latex."
The only other gloves were insulated work-type gloves and since liquid nitrogen is -70C it made sense to him to wear them. What my boy was not told is that when you pour liquid nitrogen it is similar to pouring a slurpee. Have you ever tried to drink a slushee without the straw? You put the rim of the cup to your lips, tilt the vessel toward yourself and sploosh, you get a face full of sticky sweet ice. Apparently liquid nitrogen works the same way.
He tipped the full container toward the empty one and the entire contents blooped onto his hand and down into the glove. He dropped everything and shook the glove off but it had already been held against his finger long enough to burn. He said his index finger was yellow and he watched in pain as first one blister then another and another popped up until his entire digit was one big blister. The first aider was more concerned with filling out the incident report than actually administering first aid. Nice.
It was near the end of the day so he went home. I happened to be online (big surprise) when he came on msn.
"Hi Mom."
"Hey Buzz (his nickname) what are you doing home already?"
"I had an accident."
I couldn't close my connection and get his number dialed fast enough. He answered the phone with, "I'm ok, I didn't mean to freak you out."
He told me what happened and I gave him my best advice as to how to treat the burn. He went to the doc the next day and was told the exact same thing... apparently I missed my calling.
He told me last night that it looks pretty gross but it's not hurting anymore at least. Poor kid.
To add insult to injury (literally) his supervisor asked him later that week to do something on some machine (he told me the details but it's all way over my head) but the machine would not work. His boss got all pissed off at him and said "Why do you have to break everything you touch?"
I want to smack that fucker right upside the head...with a baseball bat.
Beyond the job he is enjoying his stint in Van. He's been doing a lot of touring and exploring on weekends, he volunteered for an Alzheimer's walk and he is looking into getting a part time job at a sport's bar in his neighborhood. He loves living with my mom's cousin, she's a few years older than me but she's lived a somewhat sheltered and privileged life so my boy gets a kick out of her naivite. My boy knows how to shop sales but the cousin buys what she wants without concern for cost. He saw that chicken breasts were on sale in the flyer so he was going to pick some up. She asked if he had to show the cashier the flyer so she'd know that he wanted the sale price.
While I certainly feel for my kid I keep reminding him that he's only got a couple more months there and that even the bad stuff is a learning experience. He'll know how to handle nano-particles and liquid nitrogen next time although he says ultimately he does not want a lab job. I am thankful for that and also extremely grateful he's not dealing with explosives.
15 comments :: post a comment ::
link
