I worked for the largest contract manufacturer in the world – Foxconn. Imagine a football sized structure with thousands of work bees on production lines churning out the iPhone corded earphones.
It was mind blowing.
Yes UPS was a kick ass, bust ass job. In my youth I liked it, I was ‘working out’ while also getting paid a decent wage.
But it was also a reminder for me to stay in school and get my degree so I wouldn’t have to do hard physical labor later into my elderly years
My brother did some driving of the brown package cars. He said that was stressful. His supervisor couldn’t understand why he wasn’t getting more done. My brother is a hard worker and one day the super goes along with him, sees all that he was doing and said he was doing a good job and to keep it up. But, yeah, that was fast paced too.
Now fast-forward to another job when I worked for the postal service. The USPS. I sorted mail and packages.
Whereas at UPS we could never throw a package, we’d get in trouble if we did, at the USPS they encouraged us to throw packages. At one point it was like basketball — different carts for different cities and we’re talking jump shots with the packages into the carts.
Oh and after the hustle of UPS, at the USPS people kept telling me and my friend to slow down, you’re making the rest of us look bad.
I hated that USPS job. I quit after about 4 months. But I loved that UPS job. I did that job for about 3 years.
By any chance, Foxconn in Mt. Pleasant WI, near Racine?
I grew up in a rural area that grew corn and took part of the rite of passage called “detasseling cord for Pioneer Seed Co”. What a fun teen job! Get to the fields at the break of dawn, climb into baskets and spend the next 10 hours in 100 degree weather pulling corn tassels as fast as you can, all while making far less than federal minimum wage (I think I made $1.35/hour).
Best job I ever had as a kid. I got a great tan, hung out with scantly clad country girls and was in great shape. Cold beer, hot nights!
And yes, you were constantly moving and pulling tassels as you walked the endless rows.
Your experience sounds completely different than mine. We were in the baskets show in that picture and they drove fast enough that we could barely keep up (they had a watcher to make sure we weren’t missing any). We were also dressed to protect ourselves since corn leaves will cut you when driving through them. It was very hot and we got the legal minimum breaks to drink water and use the very hot porta-potties. I was 14 and 15 during the two summers I did it so beer drinking wasn’t on my radar. And the super-low wages wasn’t great either. I made far more at my other farm and ranch jobs.
No, thank god. I managed the microsoft relationship and reported into one of the EVP’s in HQ, so technically the CEO was my skip level manager.
I ask because Terry Gou, the founder of Foxconn, was a major investor of a company I used to work for and there was a big ceremony when that location opened. My CEO and Terry Gou met President Trump at that ceremony. I didn’t get to go but I have a picture of that.
Oh, I know all about that. Scott Walker also joined in the fun before his political career imploded soon after. Thank goodness I managed to keep from getting sucked into that goat rodeo that went nowhere.
I schlepped Terry Gou around the Seattle area a couple of times and we’ve met with Satya Nadella, Jeff Bezos and the Costco president.
Favorite story: Terry’s first wife passed, and his second wife was his dance partner. They have younger kids, and the youngest was 5 on the last pre covid trip to seattle. I’ve got 3 girls, so before I went to meet the entourage when the private bombadier jet landed, I grabbed a slightly used Hello Kitty toy roller bag, filled it with some kiddo healthy snacks and fruit, and also washed a used booster seat. On the way to the private airfield, I thought to myself I prolly should have gone by Target and bought a new toy instead.
So, the next morning, multi-billionaire dollar founder CEO of a $150billion revenue company Terry looks me up to thank me as his daughter loved the Hello Kitty bag. 
Nice story.
My company’s CEO is (or, was; I’m no longer there) a neurosurgeon whose robotic device treats brain cancer. That’s the connection with Terry Gou. And his first wife.