Monday, July 21, 2008

The Great Hansard Avalanche: Value of a Reliable Work Surface


Folding Tables will never be the same for me again.


It was the early ‘90s and I had unearthed the perfect summer job to fill the two-month span before the start of Grade 12. Working as a collator at Can-Pac Document Services was the perfect slacker job for a still-at-home 17-year old who was looking for little more than some spending money and to appease my parents’ wishing to see me as an “industrious young man” or something along those lines.


Working 10-3 Monday to Friday in a rented storage room with five other youth, the job was as monotonous as it gets. We were collators; we’d show up in the morning and the “boss” would meet us outside in a huge van full of boxes upon boxes of papers. We’d load them into the room and he’d leave us to it with the expectation they would all be sorted, filed and re-packaged by 3pm. The room was empty save three long and well-used folding tables placed to form a “u” towards the back wall, a portable stereo and a large circulating air fan. It was ideal – No uniform or dress code, we were free to crank up the tunes and were out of the hot summer sun. After a while it became unconscious, the identical repetitiveness meaning you’d do it without giving it any thought and I enjoyed that.


Every Monday, we would collate the Hansard – a detailed transcription of the minutes of the Provincial Legislative Assembly for the previous week and accordingly an extensive and paper-voluminous task. I imagine the Hansard was one of, if not the, most lucrative contracts Can-Pac had acquired as our boss would stress the paramount importance of completing it flawlessly every Monday and it needed to be submitted before 4pm that day.


This Monday was like any other. We set up our stations and began to regimentally collate and pass along our components of each package, knowing that each second up to and following our 30-minute lunch break must be used effectively as it always took at least 4 hours to do the Hansard each week. By 2:30, the two of us at each station were flanked by roughly 5’ high and four wide / deep stacks of completed Hansards and the end was in sight. I likely was looking forward to riding my bike out to the lake to meet friends in about 45 minutes time, as was the norm most days.


Everything happened so fast and loudly it was hard to process the information. If it had been the outermost leg of the right table that had collapsed the results would have been less calamitous, but we were not so fortunate. For reasons we never really knew, the innermost leg of that table gave way and the roughly 60 pounds of stacked booklets wasted no time in taking out the hinge middle table on both ends. Table 3, the right table, was where the booklets were stapled. Those stacked high on the middle table were AWAITING stapling. ‘Nuff said I imagine. Big Mess.


We all just stood there dumbfounded, staring at the wreckage. Needless to say, I worked more than a little overtime that day and I wonder how our employer explained to the Parliament mail room that the Hansard wasn’t there for circulation on time.


Moral of the story? Be pro-active when it comes to ensuring the sturdiness and reliability of heavy-duty work surfaces whatever your business entails, and you’ll be well on your way to avoiding the tirade of profanities Mr. Can-Pac needed to vent his seething frustration on that summer day so many years ago.


Now that you’ve been forewarned, Cymax Stores is very much a recommended starting point for such pro-activity. With an excellent selection of work tables available and the convenience of online shopping meaning you can re-fit your office without having to leave it, dropping by www.cymax.com could be a decision you’ll be thankful for having made in the future.


Boss Blow Molded Folding Tables are an economical means of providing a rigid and dependable work surface for any office or home task. Rigid impact plastic construction ensures these tables do have the same warpage risk that wood tables do and accordingly the mounted hardware is not provided with any “give” that can lead to collapses.


Basyx are so confident in the rigid and quality construction of their work tables that they offer a 5-year performance warranty, and encourage you to put their products to the test with any volume of weight and expansiveness.


For those with decidedly smaller tasks or even those looking for a top-quality and dependable home work surface for artistic pursuits, a dress-making room, model construction, etc., why not consider an Urban work table? The full width of their one-piece steel leg and apron assembly pairs with top quality hardwood table tops to offer a sturdy and dependable surface, and you can’t beat the price.


Don’t allow even the possibility of having all your hard work come crashing down around you, and replace your load-wearied work tables at Cymax Stores.

1 comment:

my blog said...

I want some table which covers less area in my room.


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