When I left broadcasting almost six years ago for a career change, after becoming burnt out over the preceding 22 years, I took a job literally minutes from home. Less than a year at the new job I was successful in beating out 28 other people for a posted position within the plant. This position was a relief position with the promise of eventually becoming a full time position as others left the department. Over the past 4 1/2 years I have spent less than 20% of my time in that position and the rest of the time spent being a slave to the machines on the production floor. That came to an end the end of last week when I worked my last production shift and was granted a full time position in my department known as wire and die. We maintain, clean and change all the molding dies and wire screens associated with producing molded fiber products from recycled paper. No more being a slave to poorly running machinery and crappy breaks. Now the machinery is ready when WE are done with it and breaks tend to be a little longer at our own discretion. Also no more working split weeks, it will be a straight forward two days, two nights, and four days off without fail. Oh, and the extra $2.50 an hour ain't bad either. It's been a long time coming but I finally made it to where I want to be. 
