The Awakening

Receiving Realities

Thursday June 13th, 2024

A Crushing Moment

I worked in the capacity of a receiving supervisor. Many days this position required me to do heavy lifting and unloading trucks on my own. When there were things that needed more than one person to complete the job safely I would have to seek assistance outside of my department as there was typically only one person staffed within that department at a time or if there were two, the other person would be out offloading outside or off to lunch. On this particular day I was the only one in my department,  there were many call outs that day and not many people to assist in any areas of the store. In this time I also carried keys for the store and I would cover as the Manager on Duty when the Assistant Store Manager would leave for lunch. On this particular day it was a perfect storm of destruction,  the destruction of what I had been working toward for a very long time. I had already unloaded a quarter of the merchandise from the trailer of the semi. This particular semi trailer had slats that were in the ceiling that the tie down straps would be used to secure partial freight loads. This particular load was packed full. There is a rule that there should be a certain amount of headspace (the distance between the freight and the ceiling) in this load they had not followed the headspace rule. I was easily able to offload what freight was there until I got to that point where there were appliances stacked on appliance and a flooring underlayment box crammed between the top appliance box and this ceiling with the channels in it. I hopped on the slipsheet (equipment similar to a forklift, with a thinner sheet of metal that slides easily beneath appliance boxes) to offload them. When I slipped the metal plate beneath the appliances, lifted the tip of the plate, and Began to pull back, the appliances began tipping. Knowing that I would get an instant write up if the appliances fell I stopped right there, dropped the slip and pulled back. I reassessed the stacking and recognized that the boxes were catching on those channels. I checked to see if it was possible to pull out the freight surrounding it and the way it was structured would be impossible to remove without causing loose freight to topple. I hopped on the slipsheet again and tried to insert the slip between the underlayment and the top appliance to no avail. I hopped off the equipment and studied the packing of the freight again and noticed the issue with the ceiling tiedown channels. I grabbed the yellow ladder expressly provided for offloading freight and tried to pull the top box off, as it was crammed in there I recognized that I would need assistance pulling it out as doing it myself would be unsafe. I sought assistance from other departments and was on a timed offload so I was also under pressure to get my tasks completed prior to the freight teams arrival. I called the Assistant manager and requested help for safety purposes. He told me that he was busy but would send someone. I had already contacted other departments to request assistance but they were all busy as well and said they would assist as soon as they could. I continued to assess and re-assess what I could move in the mean time to keep my time management effective and could see nothing that would work without causing product damage or creating a safety issue for myself. I grabbed the yellow ladder again and tried removing the box, the yellow ladder had about a two foot by two foot platform with two steps up to the platform. The bottom of the box was at about eyebrow level to me and I had to reach up to be able to even attempt to move it. I tried to squeeze my fingers between the box and the other freight it was crammed between and I again didn't feel safe. I called the Assistant again and he yelled at me that he was busy and there was no one there to help. I told him it wasn't safe, I had tried everything, looked at every angle and that I was going to get hurt. He yelled at me again and said "You're a supervisor, figure it out!" I hung up the phone and went back to trying to get the box out, frustrated with the lack of support when I expressed the safety concern. I climbed the yellow ladder again and thought if did it real slow then maybe it would work, I squeezed my fingers between the boxes again and started inching the box out little by little,  the top of the box kept catching on the channels and I had to bend my knees so I wouldn't fall off the ladder. The as the box slipped free from the bottom the top corner went up into the channel and the bottom swung down hitting me in the forehead knocking me off balance. Instinctively I pushed up with my core to regain my balance forgetting that I had been bending my knees so the box could clear the top of my head. My head went up into the box and it didn't give, my neck did. It felt like a stack of crackers being crushed, I heard it, I felt it, it felt instantly like little shards of bone scattered within my neck, I was positive that my neck had shrunk at least an inch in that moment, my stomach had dropped, I took stock, yes, I could feel my feet, my legs and obviously my arms as I was still holding the box. I was stuck, I couldn't escape the situation unless I got the box out. I knew nobody was going to be coming back to help me. I thought, if I bent my knees a bit more maybe I could roll it past my head and just drop it. I felt very shaky and was just trying to take it slow, as I rolled the box the corner dug into the top of my head, rolling it yet again only pushing it down to the right side, another foreboding crushing sound, panic sets in, in that moment I bent my knees and tried to fling th box over my head and right shoulder, the box had hit my right shoulder and my right hand flung with it flinging my arm back, it literally felt like my shoulder blade scraped the bones of my ribs. Maybe a ripping sensation? I was so stressed about what I felt with my neck. I immediately called the Assistant manager again to tell him that I was injured and he hung up on me, so I called again and he yelled "I'm with a customer" and hung up on me again. I went out onto the floor and found him right away straight down the aisle talking to another Supervisor. I went up and told him I was hurt. He turned around and said "Well, you should have been more careful,  is receiving done yet?" I turned around and went back to receiving, my neck on fire. I started pulling the conveyors out and instantly I could feel the burning of my shoulder, I pushed the pain out of my mind and just tried to finish so I wouldn't get written up. Following, I went home and just went to bed. The next day I woke up and could not turn my neck at all, it was burning worse than the evening before. I drove to work and immediately went to my Supervisor and told her what happened,  she asked why the other assistant didn't fill out paperwork and I told her that I didn't know, I told him, and all he told me was that I should have been more careful. She set about to complete the documention and had listed as a neck strain. I told her, it wasn't an incorrect lift, it was more than that, it was a "crunch" I told her I really needed to go get it checked out. She told me in a sarcastic voice, "oh, you're fine, it's just a neck strain. Take it easy and let your guys do the work" I reiterated that it was much more than that and I couldn't even turn my head, she responded that I had a team that day and I could just sit and do the paperwork. I felt defeated. I told the person that handled scheduling and human resources duties that I really felt like I needed to go to the hospital but I was told that I needed to do paperwork and that just by what happened,  I knew I was going to have to eventually go in.

Sunday July 28th, 2024

Mind Over Matter

Clumsy Me

The lack of sleep I had following this incident,  created hazardous opportunities everywhere! My management knew I was injured and in this time, every single thing was being pushed. I was trying so hard to push through the pain and within that was in a somewhat of a daze. No one cared except to ensure the cog was still turning. There were clues though....my supervisor touching my ear and asking "why is it so red?" Bumping into things constantly,  having things fall on me. I knew I was a liability,  I might have well been wearing a giant target on my back with a beacon straight in the center of it! I was being commanded by my supervisor to "force" ship donation items to our donation partner that were nowhere to be found, literally yelled at, "Just do it". I went to her supervisor expressing my desire to do the right thing and my desire to not be insubordinate. He asked me "what should we do"? I recommended that he call our corporate offices to navigate these missing items as force shipping would be a violation on many levels. He ended taking that over and I didn't have to worry about it anymore. They would try to keep me consistently beyond my hours, I was wiped out and in so much pain. I ended up with a couple more injuries that needed to be reported. My neck would burn so bad it was hot to the touch right along with that ear. I was not a title for tat person, but how does one work for a company for ten years without a single write up and suddenly,  following an extreme injury, one becomes an insubordinate, person whom is written up several times in a span of a few short months? I was a mere number to this company that I poured my heart and soul into. All of my blood, sweat and tears. There are no advocates for those whom are injured on the job, as if we are not worthy of being cared for. We are treated as the enemy, as if we purposefully set out to injure ourself. There were certainly some days that were better than others. Receiving was always over crammed full of stuff and understaffed. There would be staff, but always were pulled away to a different understaffed department or called out and unavailable to work.