I worked at Heekin Can Company for two summers (1974/1975). My mom was VP of purchasing there. Heekin hired employees’ kids for summer help. Some of them were, uh, less than capable.
I drew the short stick during cherry can season (12-hour shifts, 7 days/week, for 3 weeks) and was stuck with him on the palletizer.
Cherry cans (held 30 pounds of cherries) would come down the shoot. He and I would stack them on a cardboard pallet. When the pallet was full, we would move the pallet to a station to pull a huge, shrink-wrap bag over it, glue the bag in place, then shove it into a huge oven.
To put it in the oven, all we had to do was put the front end of the pallet on a chain conveyor belt and push the start button. Simple. Right?
Remember: Nothing is fool-proof because fools are so ingenious.
So, I showed him the whole process on three pallets so he saw how the whole thing worked. The best way to do this was for one person to fill the pallets, and the second person to pull full pallets out to go through the shrink wrap process. If one were to hit the STOP button for the cherry cans coming down the shoot, then one would receive a visit from the supervisor and usually the plant manager, who would then instruct the one pushing the button on the folly of doing that ever again.
Co-worker managed to put the pallet on the chain conveyor cock-eyed and it jammed. He just stood there staring at it. Didn’t even try to straighten it.
I looked at my pallet. I looked at the cans backing up in the shoot. And then I did it. I hit the STOP button.
I ran down and straightened the pallet. However, the conveyor already ran its cycle and I had to push the pallet into the oven. No problem.
So, there I am, standing in the oven with the pallet. I turn around to exit said oven only to see the door come down. Idiot decided to push the START button.
157°F for 45 seconds. It seemed like an hour. The door opens and I see the idiot, my supervisor and the plant manager standing there looking at me. The oven contained no emergency STOP button on the inside (who in their right mind would even envision needing one). Idiot did not think to press the EMERGENCY STOP button on the oven. By the time management arrived the door was opening.
My supervisor looked at me and said, “Why don’t you just go home, Steve.”
I took that advice. I don’t remember the drive home. Idiot always seemed to be assigned several floors away from me from then on.