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Happy Saturday, friends! This morning I am off to my eye doctor appointment for my annual vision examine, but first I wanted to check in with everyone regarding my new job at Alcon Labs. I started this past Tuesday (the day after Memorial Day) for a four-day orientation at the main facility for about four hours in the morning then another new hire who will also be working in the same department as me (different shift than I however) as an Operator in the Probes department drove over to the building where we will be working our permanent shifts. We both began our training at the same time with three experienced professional trainers. Next week we will begin working our designated full-time shifts and complete our training there as well - I will then be second shift and she will work third. 

The Alcon facility located in Sinking Spring (PA) where I attended my orientation this past week. The building where I will be working in is only a couple of miles away from this one.

So far, this job has been quite the challenge as there is SO MUCH to learn it is overwhelming! But thankfully, the trainers on first shift were excellent and I only hope that the second shift trainers (and co-workers) are equally as pleasant and patient to work with. If I can grasp all of the various job tasks, I think I will be fine and really like this job a lot - of course it has not even been a full week yet. Unlike me, there were a lot of people hired through temp agencies which is unfortunate because a) they are not hired as permanent employees until after their contracted waiting period is over which means b) they do not get paid as much per hour as the temp agencies take their cut of these guys pay checks - all temp agencies are a complete rip off in my opinion. I used to work for/under several of them just before I was able to get my last job on my own at Travelers Insurance. In my experience, these temp agencies were nothing BUT a colossal waste of my time and I always ended up back to square one still having to look for a permanent job after all was said and done.

I got hired for my present job at Alcon by attending one of their company sponsored job fairs. Because it is a health safety controlled environment due to working with and assembling surgical needles, eye solution products, probes, and all sorts of equipment for various eye surgeries, most of us are required to wear hair nets, blue lab coats, and depending upon the particular task surgical gloves and/or finger tip gloves (cots) and/or goggles, no make up, no cologne, no socks below the ankle, no open-toed shoes, no jewelry except for a wedding ring if you wear one, and we must also use the provided hand sanitizers before entering our work areas. As strange as this may sound, I really like working under those conditions and I am very comfortable around it. 🔬📋💻💿📛

(Photos courtesy of Sofiya Silfies)

One last thing I would also like to mention is that yesterday one of my job trainers worked her last day after three years as she will be starting a new job closer to home. She is a very nice Ukrainian young lady who is also a figure skater. Thursday night, she requested me as a friend on FB which I thought was so very cool of her and I was able to see her beautiful skating photos and personal performance videos from some of her competitions - she is really talented and such a lovely skater to watch perform. I am so happy to have had the chance to met her! Her name is Sofiya (pronounced Sophia) and if you would like to meet her, I also found an interesting news clip on Google from a few years ago where she was interviewed by a local reporter regarding her family in the Ukraine - (please click on this link to watch it). 👍⛸

Well, that is about all for now - hope everyone is well! Have a great Saturday!