Perhaps they're bedtime stories, I don't know..
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Grub Story 1 - Nike factory
When the Grub worked in a Nike factory...
Before the Nike factory the Grub used to work in a warehouse next door to the Nike factory as a store-man, actually he started off as a delivery driver and ended up working in the warehouse after one of the other workers quit (not so much quit as had to leave because he had a disagreement with the manager over working on weekends which the Grub didn't mind doing) so the manager asked the Grub if he wanted a job in the warehouse which he did so he was hired but he never really fit in because he always had attitude and kept getting pis$**d off at the ineptness of the other warehouse workers though he still hung out with them at smoko which is when he would to talk to the guys from the Nike factory (well they call it smoko but it really was just morning tea and it was a good chance for everyone to hang out and catch up on the latest news).
Anyway, they were having smoko and he was talking to one of the guys at the Nike factory because he needed to get new shoes and was hoping the guy from the Nike factory could get them for him with a staff discount. Turns out they couldn't really get much of a discount, sometimes the sporting goods stores sell it cheaper than the staff can get it at because of their buying power but he did say they give you free work shoes if you work for them which interested the Grub because he needed heaps of shoes because, well he was a grub (with many feet) and he hated having to fork out for so many pairs of shoes, actually he didn't mind that but he did mind paying for shoes that were over-priced and would break down prematurely, specially he didn't like the adhesives shoe manufacturers tended to used because they always seemed to fatigue first and end up with the shoes falling apart even though they were only a few months old, so he thought it would be a good place to work and he could wear his work shoes around everywhere, he didn't much care what people thought, as long as they were comfortable shoes which he didn't have to pay for he would be happy.
But I digress, the grub worked for a while at the Nike factory, his job was to glue on the shoe soles, which is a little ironic seeing as that was his biggest gripe about shoe quality and longevity, and there he was responsible for making sure the glue quality was high, eventually he worked out that there were many factors in the successful joining of the glued surfaces including the initial temperature and humidity – they worked with a neoprene based contact adhesive, but for some reason excess humidity seemed to interfere with the bond strength – he'd get statistics from the QA guys on how many 'failures' they had on batches of his shoes, which is how he was able to determine the best temperature and flow rate settings for the glue guns – actually it wasn't so much the flow rate, but the application rate after some time he was having much less than a one percent failure rate, so that's pretty good.
The Grub wasn't a bad employee but his focus was definitely on his own time and space, he didn't much like being watched over – there were a few occasions where the Grub nearly got in to a fight with someone in management or one of the other workers, but that's just because he was generally surly and everyone thought he was pissed off at them (which wasn't necessarily the case, except when some of the other staff were not towing their weight or were saying sh** about the grub) – which meant when he finally got a promotion to shift manager there was some tensions with the other workers. There was one time when they were all going out for drinks after work, they usually went to the local pub, but this time someone suggested they go to a titty bar which was just in the next suburb over (actually it wasn't a proper titty bar, it's just that the waitresses were topless, there wasn't any pole dancing or anything like that, and the drinks were reasonably priced so it wasn't a bad place to go) they caught a taxi over to the bar because they were going to have some drinks and while the grub didn't drive, it was easier than walking (it wouldn't have taken long - probably only like 15-20 minutes to get over there - but the weather was somewhat inclement and the Grub was already having a bad day so he just went with them) and it meant that he could get stuck in to a few drinks with everyone else and not be left on the outer because they'd started before him (it's not that he liked to drink a lot, but he did enjoy it on occasion, only rarely did he get very drunk, but that was when he was working for a financial planner and they were always going out to have drinks with the clients. This one client would always shout them drinks if his portfolio had gone well - which the grub felt personally responsible for (seeing as he did the stats on the returns for each of the companies they were investing in) the last time they went out with the client, they had managed a 40% return for the year, which was huge considering the client was leveraged to the eyeballs – I think in the end everything went south, the guy ended up biting off more than he could chew when the financial planners recommended he dive in to a huge IPO for a cosmetics company, but that was after the grub had quit that job because they were trying to wrangle him out of some of his commission – Anyway, so he does drink but these days he takes it pretty easy, usually just a few beers or a glass or two of wine.
So this time when they all went out and they were at the titty bar, the taxi had just dropped them off and he had just found a seat (the Grub was pretty particular about the seating arrangements because he's got so many legs, and sometimes he likes to cross some of them and getting comfortable isn't all ways that easy) and offered to buy the first round, and when he got back there was someone in his seat and they had a bit of an argument but it turned out ok because the guy let the Grub have his seat back but there was always 'something' between them after that which was difficult because the grub had to manage that guy on his shifts occasionally.
In the end he ended up leaving the Nike factory because one day when he was trying to fix a broken gluing line, he accidentally sprayed one of the other workers with the glue, and while it's not particularly dangerous stuff the guy ended up getting in to a fight with the Grub, and the management decided to side with the guy, and they told the Grub he had to go on a training course so he refused and quit.
He didn't mind that job, and he still had quite a few pairs of sneakers.
He'd tell them that he'd lost them or that they'd worn out and they'd give him a new set, but he kept them at home.
Once he managed to get two sets in a week because they uniforms lady didn't have all the paperwork with her and said she'd organise it later, but she went on leave a couple of days later and they had some temp guy helping out that just gave the Grub a new set.
He still wears the shoes often.
He took a couple of sets with him when he went backpacking through Europe.
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I've posted more grub stories on a google site (nothing dodgy just somewhere to put my writing: http://sites.google.com/site/grubstories/)
