Tales From Produce (A)Isle: The Box Compactor

 We have a fairly small amount of equipment we use on Produce (A)Isle.  We have small two level/four wheeled carts we use for our general activities (top shelf is for produce, bottom shelf has a small metal box for water/wipes/bags and a space for a cardboard box for culls) and longer six wheel carts called "U-boats" that hold the bulk of the produce in boxes for wheeling in and out of the walk-in.  Occasionally we make use of a pallet jack.

And then, there is the Box Compactor.

The Box Compactor lives at the end of the back-end wall behind the main store, at the corner of the building.  It probably 8-10 feet long, blue, and 8 feet or so high.  The theory is that one puts the puts one's cardboard into the chamber.  At some point it is full enough that one pulls down the outer cage door which is engaged by a magnetic lock and turns the key.  A giant orange plate descends from the top and compacts everything into below it, then slowly comes up.  The cardboard is crushed and one can add more.  At some point (seemingly undefined; there is no mark in the interior of the unit nor is there a picture anywhere) the unit is "full" and as such, needs to be bundled up.  There is a list of responsible departments by day of the week for performing this task.

The unit has a lot of capacity but not endless capacity.  And people keep adding cardboard to the compactor.

I am sure you can see where this is going.

At some point, the unit is simply "topped off" and no more cardboard can reasonably go in.  But no-one shows up to take care of the issue.

I suspect everyone finds work arounds.  We do.  We flatten the cardboard, stack the cardboard on carts. Others will drop the cardboard off by the the unit, as if to leave a visual hint that it is full.  

This is one of those odd things that I am not sure what the protocol is on it.  There are no instructions for who to contact in the vent it is full other than "department"; and I am pretty sure the new guy popping in and asking about if cardboard is going to be pulled out is as welcome as being the closing manager suggesting there are just "a few" more things to do to get done before closing time.  

There is a system and an order to all companies, a system which is beyond the training one does upon arrival:  it is the secret system of "the way things actually work", the observed portions of human behavior that are not formally written down anywhere but are incredibly relevant.  These are the pecking orders and rituals and daily routines of the workplace that act as the social lubricant to make things work and get things done. It is the hidden codex, locked away that no-one sees when they first show up - like any good game, one has to find it through one's own adventures and missed guesses.

And so I continue my trip back to the corner, cardboard on my cart, wondering before I arrive if I will find a compactor empty or full. It may not be world ending suspense, but it certainly makes every trip back there something of an adventure.