The Factor

I met The Factor at one of Bill and Dave's manufacturing plants a few weeks before leaving TDS. She had scheduled an appointment with me to discuss my living arrangements and transportation once I arrived in Spokane. It was exciting, I was being given a corporate credit card, a company car, a fully furnished apartment rent free, maid service, and a per diem per day. I was being paid for my inconvenience of having to work far away from home (poor me). The Factor had to go over all the options with me and I would have to make some tough choices before flying to Spokane.

She said the appointment would take a couple of hours, but the whole thing took me about 30 minutes once we sat down. The Factor was completely scattered and her head kept bobbling about as she spoke to me. I told her I had to have my own apartment and car while I was in Spokane, no exceptions. I was not going to be room mates with strangers or share a car. No thanks. She attempted to entice me into sharing an apartment and a car by saying the per diem per day would be significantly larger but I didn't take the bait. Then she showed me the floorplans of a number of apartment complexes the company was putting us up in. I didn't want a long drive to the factory there so I asked which complex was the closest to work. The Factor told me which one it was and that's the one I took. Simple as that. She commented how easy I was to get through all this stuff and I thought all of the other people she had helped get set up for the transfer must have been stupid, or were just wasting time on the company clock. Maybe it was a mixture of both.

The Factor has some problems. She's an older woman, very unattractive with a huge beak on her face. Her hair is black with loose curls and she wears skin tight tube tops and spandex shorts like she's still some eighteen year old high school girlie. I think she's actually in her early 50s and I left the building with severe eye burns after having to look at her for a half hour. I think she must have done alot of Meth or Speed or Crank in her day because she's totally fucked up. All twitchy and shit. Luckily since I arrived at the Spokane site I haven't had to work with or be near The Factor.

I've been hired back in as a Material Coordinator. It's basically a desk job and I will be responsible for the product line's parts supply. I'll have to manage databases and accounts and keep an eye on inventory levels while making sure the line gets all it's supplies in a timely manner. I have to ensure there's no parts shortages that might keep things from running smoothly. A tall order, but I can handle it. For now though I have to become familiar with the products and to do that I'll be training on the line with the assemblers to learn the instruments from the ground up.