During the summer of 2017, I had to get a job to help my mother pay for my room and board expenses. I was able to get a job the day after classes ended in a Dental Factory in a suburb of Illinois. My first expectation was that it was going to be difficult especially since I had never worked in a factory environment. My first day was probably the toughest. My task for the day was to pack toothpaste in boxes and seal them. Even though this may sound easy, it was not. I was under a lot of pressure since I had to unfold the boxes first, then fold them into a box shape, check that the toothpaste lot number was correct, place the toothpaste facing the same way, and then pass the box through a sealer. During this time, more and more toothpaste was coming out, so I had to hurry, to not let any of them pile up and fall.
Moreover, I had to follow all safety rules and regulations, including cGMP and EHS guidelines, to ensure product quality and consistency. As well as maintain line speed and packaging standards including bottling, capping, labeling, and packaging products into shippers and forming pallets. Other tasks included weighting products and counting containers to ensure proper fulfillment of each order. Overall, I had a painful and challenging learning experience.
Overall, I didn’t like my experience. Some days I had blisters on my fingers and suffered from back pain due to bottling and capping different types of mouthwash. However, I did learn a lot about the manufacturing industry and all the work it takes to make a final product. In a bigger perspective, it made me reflect about how I only had to do this during the summer but that most of the workers there had to do this to make a living (or try to). Hence, my experience made me appreciate my education even more because possibly with an education I don’t have to work as physically as other people do. My summer job experience also made me appreciate the work it takes to make a product.
Overall, my job experience made me become humbler and more understanding of what factory workers go through to be able to get a paycheck. I’m glad that I worked there, even if I didn’t like it, because it made me more humane and knowledgeable about factory working conditions. Hence, working at a factory led me to achieve the SUMMIT learning goals of being exposed and gaining an appreciation for different cultures, critically examine the relationship between marginalized cultures and their work environments, probe a fundamental question of value and meaning, develop effective time management skills, identify and asses one’s own values and abilities, and construct a personal definition of human rights.
Credit: “Illustration of a factory” by “