I used to work in a mixing desk factory
I'd have to take the end-product of a manufacturing process - populated by underpaid and semi-skilled folks who really didn't care about the job, just getting paid enough for a night out on the town every week and a fortnight in Benidorm once a year - and basically have to rectify everything that had been mis-built or untested, i.e. components in backwards, ribbon cables offset by one row, switches standing proud of the PCB and so forth.

I was very hard up, recently separated and getting divorced and having to pay mortgage for my ex's place and rent on my own. Originally I was paid the same as the people whose job was to put the rotary dial knobs and switch caps on (LOL! their occupational description was 'Knobber and Capper') but begrudgingly they agreed to pay me £5 an hour (this was before the Minimum Wage)-the only fringe benefit was that they didn't mind you listening to walkmans all day.

So I looked around for better paid work and the only stuff that suited me was at a company in Cheshire, some 340 miles away. I applied for an interview and got an invite to attend on Christmas Eve. As it was a regular factory I was due to be in work that day but we always got half-a-day off and the afternoon was a company meal at a nearby hotel. I asked for the half-day off (unpaid) so I could get to the interview (it was at 9:30 in the morning) but was told I had to fulfil the quota for mixing desks for the month and it had been planned that I would finish 2 desks in that morning (48 channel mixing desks, bloody hell, it took a day to do 3 so this was a bit of a feat to pull off).

The only way I could have te day off was if I finished the allocation for the month. This was impossible, even if the next few desks were completely flawless- so I said- OK, I'll come in on the night shift and finish them. Left work at 4pm, came back in at 10pm and worked through to the early hours of the morning to finish the last two desks. Drove to Cheshire, arrived with no sleep and wired on Coca Cola and cigarettes (I didn't smoke but I needed the stimulant to stay awake while driving with no sleep) half an hour before the interview and muddled my way through it.

Got the job! Handed in my notice at the place and trained up my replacement as well as listing every failure I could recall (it was 110 items long) and left without a flounce.

But I did come back two years later driving the Jaguar XK8 I was testing at the time (I had a job at Jag after the one in Cheshire), went round to see some of colleagues that I'd enjoyed working with and THEN flounced out, fired up the big V8 and roared off without a backward glance.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Sun 25 May 2008, 17:43, Reply)