how is it stuck? Is this one of those things where letting air out of the tires would unstick it?

This thing has the hard tires. Plus, I've got it stuck right at the beginning of an aisle, so I can't crawl around to get in front of it to see what it is catching on. From the vantage point I have of inside the cab, it shouldn't be sticking at all, it's at the normal spots for the wheels to go in order to move down the aisle (the aisles have guardrails of a sort to keep the lifts going straight and not into the shelves).

And now the delivery dude is late. I'm heading back to try and do some more manuevering.

May the force be with you! sperose! sperose! SPEROSE!

Can ya get the delivery dude to help?

I wish. He isn't supposed to drive the things (and in a super-technical way, neither am I since I'm not certified, but considering the fact that even the head dude isn't certified, and he's been here the longest, it's not something I'd quibble about).

Ah, speaking of, he just showed up. I think I'm just going to leave early, considering I got the damn thing stuck and now I can't really do anything else. I'll just organize the books in the 'to-be shelved' piles so when I come in tommorow, I can just get right on that.


Now comes the email to the head dude. He'll probably laugh at me.

I bet he'll say, Oh is it this? That's happened to me a million times!

as far as work fuck ups I've done, I'm sure there are more, but I did email this bozo accidentally, thinking I was forwarding the damn thing. That was good and foot-in-mouth ish.

Yeah, the girl who was working here for about a year said it would a miracle if I made it through my first week without getting it stuck. Damn, and here I was, hoping to break a trend.

At least I only got it stuck at the very beginning of an aisle, and not in the middle of one. If I'd done that, I would've had to climb over the back of the cart and walk my ass back down the aisle.
Gr.

I have some fuck-up stories for you.

At my current job, I send letters to family members letting them know where the tissue their deceased loved one donated has been transplanted. It's a very rewarding part of the job because families are so excited to know this information. Except when I send Donor A's letter to Family B by mistake, and then have to explain to Family B why they got the wrong letter and that, in fact, Donor B's tissue was all rejected for transplant because of xyz. It was terrible.

Even worse was when my coworker Jeff had been emailing snide comments to another staff member about some persistent and annoying caller. The caller had wanted application information, and when he mailed her the packet somehow the printed email messages joking about sending her arsenic got folded up with the application. She was understandably upset and has ties to the president of the board as well as being instrumental in getting the original funding for our organization. She is currently a board member, and he feels like shit every time she comes in.

At my last job, I approved a proof from the printer for newsletter masthead and didn't notice until we had 10,000 pieces sitting on our shelves that the front and back pages were reversed. That was not fun to own up to.

I'm trying to picture what kind of place it is that you work. The image that comes to mind is the warehouse at the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.

Thanks rhapsodie. :)

Essexjan: I work at a giant warehouse for books that aren't needed by Hopkins, but are too important to be gotten rid of. It's awesome. I

Oh way to go me, fucking up my things.

I [less than three] this new job. I get some seriously awesome perks.

I work at a giant warehouse for books that aren't needed by Hopkins, but are too important to be gotten rid of. It's awesome. I

You trailed off, sperose. Tell us the lift didn't fall on you.

No worries. Everyone gets the lift stuck at your job, so it sounds like its the fault of the lift, the aisles, and/or other things management should change.

I'm sure I've screwed up at every job I've worked. I'll think of the more embarrassing stories as soon as I'm offline.

I wish I could see what's going on. Then maybe I could give advice. It's a lift or an actual towmotor/forklift?

You work in a bookstore? It's obviously time to kick back, not worry, and read a book. Seriously. After many many years of experience, that's what I would do were I in your shoes.

Not my job fuckup but one I was left picking up the pieces on.

The law firm where I used to work had a big funeral director for a client, with branches all over the UK.

Two young men had been murdered in Cambridge. Their bodies weren't released for burial for a while because there had to be autopsies and, because it was a murder investigation, there were apparently tests done by both the police and on behalf of lawyers acting for whoever it was who'd been accused of the murders. Eventually the release was signed and the funerals could go ahead.

One family was using my clients for the burial (they were Catholics and intended to have the full Requiem Mass followed by a burial). The other family was using a different firm of undertakers, a small local firm.

The local firm came to collect their boy, and he was cremated a couple of days later. My clients came to collect their boy, checked the name tag (which the other firm hadn't done) and realised it wasn't their body. He'd gone off with the others, and by the time the mistake was realised he'd been cremated.

The family was very very upset because they didn't believe in cremation. But it was a done deed and he couldn't be reconstituted like a Pot Noodle. So they went ahead with the burial, and only the family knew that it was a coffin filled with sandbags containing the urn of ashes that was buried.

They wanted to sue my clients, but it wasn't their fault, it was the other funeral directors' fault for not checking the name tag when they collected the body.

Oh, and there was the time the gravediggers made the hole too small and when the coffin got stuck they jumped up and down on it, causing the lid to fly off ...

Here's two pictures, one of the height of the shelves and the other of the goddamn lift (before it got stuck):

≡ Click to see image ≡
≡ Click to see image ≡

Apparently, this is the new building with new lifts. The old lifts would get stuck every few feet in the old building.
Jesus.

All I can think of is that maybe the wheels are stuck in a tight turn. That would cause the lift to stick till the wheels are pointed forward.

Impressive huge shelves! Full of books, no less!

I'm trying to picture what kind of place it is that you work. The image that comes to mind is the warehouse at the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.

Heh. Looks like you weren't too far off in that guess, jan.

That's what I think might've happened. There's little tracks on the sides so in theory, if you get the lift within a reasonable shot of straight, the tracks are supposed to catch the lift and get it going straight down the aisle. I tried wiggling the steering in order to straighten, but it wouldn't budge.

Books, microfiche, handwritten ledgers, maps, and student records.
All sorts of goodies. :)

Aha! The wheels are supposed to run in tracks down then aisles? That's probably it. The wheels bind up against the sides of the tracks unless you're traveling perfectly straight. And if you accidentally turn the wheels too tight, they probably wedge sideways inside the tracks.

The tracks are supposed to make it foolproof but instead they do the opposite. They'd do better without tracks, just training everyone properly on driving a lift.

Well, it sounds like a cool job anyway. You're not busy all shift, and they allow you Internet access? That's getting rare these days, heh.

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out, eh?

That's probably what happened. I'm going to watch the unsticking process tommorow done by a professional (the head dude) so I'll have a better idea of how to do it myself.

It's a seriously exciting job. I only have to work 5 days a week, and I'm getting a paid half and full day vacation for New Year's. And I just started this gig on Wednesday. Yay.

What a cool job! Books, AND machinery!!

Update for anyone still reading this:

The head dude called this morning and had a good giggle about me panicking on getting the lift stuck. He also gave me the day off (so I'm off today and tommorow!) because the main road is apparently too dangerous to drive on because of the icyness. And since it's just him and I in the office now, he told me that he can't afford to lose any more people.

Haha, I'm glad it all worked out. Yay for cool bosses!

cool, sperouse!

wow, i've done too much labor in my life. i have this incredible urge to travel to the warehouse, break in and play with the lifts till i know what makes them stick, just to settle my curiosity and see if i was right. sick sick...