Shop Floor Experience

1/20/2024

6:42pm

Its so god damn cold out here

After training, Boeing threw me out on the flightline. At first, I thought that the flightline was inside some sort of hangar, but my clueless ass was wrong. They decide to cram everyone in a small portable building and make you work outside in the elements, regardless of the weather.

As a guy who enjoys staying inside most of there day, you can see how I have a slight issue with that. As of lately, its been extremely cold and wet out here. They offer all employees a free hi-vis windbreaker jacket, unlimited hand/toe warmers, balaclava, and warm winter gloves. It's nice that they offer that but those will only help you so much out here in the freezing cold, It's really all up to you too have the mentality to keep working regardless of weather conditions.

It's crazy because in the factory, Temperatures are crazy high regardless of the weather outside. Many inside the factory preach staying cool because there is a HUGE risk of having heat stroke in there for some individuals.

things out in the flightline are much more relaxed and chill though. There is alot more downtime in between jobs, so you have time to take a breather and wait for QA to come and check on your job. In the factory, things are alot more punctual, formal, and "to the book" (as far as I know). Many people from the factory that get loaned out to the flightline tell me that you have one assigned job every day, and once your done with it, your pretty much free to do whatever until your shift is over. That sounds nice, but you need to get the job done before you free roam everywhere. On the flightline, you can do that without even getting your job done lol.

Out here in the flightline you really have to try to look busy. I remember in training, One of the veteran employees told me that the looking busy is the "Boeing way". I heavily preach this too all new hires that get thrown out here after training, Because they dont give you shit too do until your manager thinks you are ready to do your own job. (which takes months to get to that point)