Real Life 'Sweat'


    This week when watching the play 'sweat', the talk they had about the work they did on the floor of the factory reminded me a lot about the work I did over the summer. In the play, the characters talk about how they are starting to suffer, their bodies are starting to ache, they can't preform normal tasks anymore because the work they do is taking a toll on their body. Over the summer I work at a place called TDIC, TD industrial coverings. Here we made cloth and fabric coverings that protected industrial machines necessary for making the cars. When working here, I looked around to see many old ladies, who looked miserable, tired, and sore. At first glance, when walking in, I turned and whispered to my brother "Dada got us a job at a sweatshop". Each old ladies we encountered told us the same cliché, "focus on your school and studies so you can work with you brain, not your bodies" they said in their thick European accents. The ladies, who knitted and sowed cloth 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, looked so miserable. As a part time teenage worker, I dread work, and thinking back on it I get PTSD, although I only worked 3 days a week, 2 and a half months. When talking to my manager Fred, who told me he's worked there ever since he graduated from high school, he told me about migraines, back aches, and illnesses he started to frequently experience. This was my real life 'sweat' experience.

Comments

  1. Joseph LindholmOctober 27, 2024 at 7:51 PM

    The point the old ladies bring up is a very good point. Being able to work your brain and not your bodies, i beleive that this is all our dreams. None of us want to work in a factory, we all wanna become engineers, lawyers, doctors, or some other type of worker who uses their brains. I also relate to your story a lot, not my self but my entire family. You see my dad owns a landscaping company and works his ass off, however when ever you look at his hands they are throughly destroyed and you look at him you see how tan he is. This man, my dad, works through thick and through thin always using his body to get the job done.

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