8 Life Lessons I’ve Learned While Bottling Hand Sanitiser At The Warehouse
Out of all the things that I thought that I’d be doing in 2020, this wasn’t one of them.
At the warehouse, most of us are ex-hospitality staff who lost their job because of COVID-19.
A month ago, I was struggling with an idea that I’m still a bartender and was enthusiastically planning a career change.
Now I’m wearing a high visisbility vest at a warehouse.
Life, eh?
During the daily 8 hours of putting labels on glass bottles, my new found passion, there are many things going through my head.
Stages of despair?
Meditation?
Questioning my life choices?
I guess you could call it that.
There are interesting things happening in your head while your body is condemned to do repetitive manual motions that don’t require thinking for 8 hours a day.
The main 8 things that working at the warehouse have reminded me of are:
1. Stay Humble
This is my number one coping mechanism I use every time I’m in a situation that is not pleasant for me.
For example, when I stayed at a terrible hostel in Sydney where the kitchen was so disgusting that I couldn’t use it, I thought, this is good, it’s keeping me humble.
It’s a dangerous road when you start thinking that you’re too good for something.
In real life, most people avoid uncomfortable situations. It’s good to remind yourself that they exist.
And rather than running away, it’s good to endure them as a reminder to stay humble.
I’m not a fan of judging other people based on their status, on how much money they have, on what car they’re driving. A lawyer is not better than a cashier at a supermarket.
But ego often gets in the way. Some people think that just because they have a platinum Amex, they can’t stay in a cheap hotel or fly economy.
At the warehouse, most of us are ex-service staff who lost their job because of COVID-19.
And if today, you spend 2 hours folding cardboard boxes, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a bartender, an events manager, whether you have a university degree.
You’re folding boxes today, stay humble.
2. If It’s Depressing, Just Reframe It In Your Head
I like to think that events in your life are not inherently negative or positive within themselves.
They are positive or negative depending on how you frame them in your head.
You can either complain that the job is too boring or you can be grateful that it’s not too challenging.
You can either complain that you have to wake up before 5am or you can be glad that you have evenings off.
You can be either annoyed that it takes you 1 hour to get there or you can be happy that there is public transport and you don’t have to pay for an Uber every day.
You get the gist.
How do you frame your story every day?
3. Crying (Always Only On The) Inside
Sometimes, things happen that kick your morale in the nuts.
Like when you do 1000 bottles of hand sanitiser and then get told to redo them all again because they’re all missing 10 mililiters of liquid.
That’s when you cry a little bit inside.
Always only on the inside.
On the outside, it’s important to keep your spirits up.
4. Let’s Talk About Anything Else But The Coronavirus
The first day I tried listening to music.
The second day I tried listening to podcasts.
On the third day I realised conversation with others was the most rewarding.
In the beginning, we’ve talked about our thoughts on the global apocalypse happening right now.
Talked about our struggles with paying rent.
But once we got that out of our system, we realised there are so many things we could talk about that would make this more bearable.
We spent one day doing riddles.
The next day we tried to think of most interesting random questions to ask each other.
Like “If you were a cocktail, what would you be and why?”
In a world of pointless quick entertainment, it’s amazing to see how entertaining human conversation can be, if you really try, and if you have no other option.
A question for you, “Would you rather inject heroin or sleep with someone who has AIDS?”
5. People Actually Do This In Real Life?
No disrespect but I can’t imagine how someone can be doing this for months or years and not to lose their mind.
I’ve only been doing it for a few weeks and I feel like I’m already going nuts.
And the challenge is not the boredom or the difficulty of it or the fact that the job would be shit.
The challenge is coping with the fact that you’re spending 8 hours of your life doing something that doesn’t spark anything inside your soul.
I understand and I agree, money is important and essential but I believe people have to have their minds stimulated to be happy.
And as much as I’ve tried to see sticking labels on hand sanitiser bottles as a new creative outlet that I’ve found, it just ain’t cutting it for me.
It made very clear for me how much different does “work” feel when you’re enjoying it.
How lucky we are that we can normally choose the job that we enjoy?
6. Teamwork Feels Good
Luckily, most of us are ex-bartenders who are not strangers to teamwork.
And working together on the same objective, helping each other, being nice to each other just feels good.
And it is the main reason, I think, why you fall in love with bartending.
Because the level of teamwork you have to muster when shit hits the fan at the bar is next level.
Anyway, I digress.
7. How Long Until Lunch Break?
Even though all of the aspects of the job are physical, all of the challenges happen in your head.
A lot of self-talk, a lot of life questioning and a lot of watching the clock happens while you’re packing cardboard boxes for hours.
And having a snack at 9am or having a lunch break finish only with 2 hours of work left to go makes a big difference, I’ve found.
And sitting in the sun for 30 minutes while eating your salad makes you appreciate life on a different level.
8. Everything Is Easier When You Know It’s Temporary
It’s crazy how much easier it is to cope with things when you know they are only temporary.
If this was my long-term job, this would suck but for a few weeks? That’s fine, I can handle that.
The most interesting thing is when you realise everything is temporary.
Where you live, where you work, the people you meet, everything will come to an end at some point.
We just don’t act like it will.
The good things we take for granted.
The bad things we get upset about.
None of it will last.
The highs, the lows, the beautiful, the ugly.
I’m grateful for the reminder to stay humble.
And saving the world one bottle of hand sanitiser at a time.
How do you frame your story?
