I was in a bad way with my boss. It’s was as if every time he came past I was bludging on the job. I’d be leaning against a machine, a coca cola in hand and my butt-crack peeking through my un-belted trousers. He called me into his “office” one day, a windowless shoebox in the corner of the warehouse, to have a chat with me. He told me I better pick up my act or else he’ll have to suspend me. I tried to explain that I actually work really hard it’s just a coincidence that whenever he walks past I’m taking a little break — a usually much deserved break because I’ve just had to pick up about three other people’s slack. He wasn’t hearing it, but then my all the stuff happened with the aluminum ladders saved my sorry behind.
It was just a case of being in the right place at the wrong time. What happened was we were going through our busiest season right around christmas time and it was will hands on deck. My boss was out with me and the boys trying to load up the trucks. We work at a small beer factory where we brew independent beers and he was standing on the top of the aluminium platforms shoveling boxes into the trucks. Suddenly the platform creaked and I just knew what was about to happen. One of the legs collapsed and my boss went flying down under a stack of heavy beer boxes. I jumped in there and grabbed the frame before it crashed on the ground, basically saving the poor bastard. He fell on his backside but my save had broken the fall, otherwise he’d have ended up with a broken everything. We got the platforms replaced because they were so old and clearly not passing the OHS requirements!
It’s pretty hard to hate someone after they’ve saved your life. Ever since then, we’ve been the best of buds. When he catches me slacking off he’ll toss me a coke and say, ‘Good on ya mate.’