Choosing Business Goals

Strange Equipment Your Boss Asked You to Bring to Work and Why It Will Make Sense

29 January 2019 by Wade Wheeler

When you are hired for a new job, you have some expectation that your new boss will ask you to bring work clothes or specific equipment with you when you start. For factory workers, this may include face shields and steel-toed boots. For construction workers, it typically means gloves and hard hats. What you do not expect is to hear your boss ask you to bring rain gear for work. If he/she asks you to bring the following rain gear to a meat or produce processing plant, believe that your boss has good reasons. Here are the following items you may be asked to bring to your first day on the job and why.

Rain Poncho

Yes, a rain poncho; and no, a raincoat probably will not work quite so well. The poncho will cover you from head to mid-calf (usually). The purpose of wearing a poncho in a food processing plant of any kind is to avoid getting animal guts, blood, and waste (from a meat packaging plant) or mud and vegetable leavings (from a produce plant) all over your clothes. You definitely would not want any of that on your clothes because it would never come out, no matter how hard you try to scrub it out. If you are also assigned to spray down and wash the processing equipment in the plant, you do not want to get soaking wet on top of everything else to which you would be exposed.

Wellies/Rain Boots

Get rain boots that are at least as high as your calves, although, back-of-the-knee height is even better. If you happen to own hip-high waders, it might be a little much moving around a hot factory, but your lower torso would most definitely be protected. Make sure the boots are completely waterproof with no cracks or splits in the rubber. The boots should also hug the parts of your legs where they hit, so calf-high boots should encircle the calves close to prevent water and other substances from getting into the boots. Boots are essential if you are going to walk through mud, blood, guts, and anything else on the floor of the plant. 

Rubber Gloves

A basic pair of rubber kitchen gloves, even the yellow ones, are sufficient. If you find something else that works just as well, that is fine, too. The gloves will keep your hands dry and prevent chapping when you are constantly spraying down equipment. You will also have to pull stuff out of machinery, and you probably do not want to do that with bare hands.

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