This is a story of a 42 year old woman that is not scared of working hard. Her name is MaryEllen, she is a 42 year old sanitation worker for the city of NY. Ive been working alongside of her for 5 years now and when i tell you, i would never ask or could never ask for a better partner, i mean it.
About 6 years ago, MaryEllen was an xray technician, planning her future with the hospital she was working at, pumping money into her 401K and living check to check while bartending on the weekends at a local bar.
She was engaged to be married thought she had it all planned out, then a curveball was thrown at her. The city of NY called her about a test she had taken a year earlier to be a Sanitation Worker for the best force in the country, the DSNY (Department of Sanitation of NY).
Well, she wasnt prepared for that call and spent the next few days thinking,
Could i do this job?
Is it a womans friendly job?
Do i have the power to lift up garbage like the men on the job?
Do i wanna leave my current xray tech job?
How great was this job that everyone talked about when she took the test? She had heard its the best job in NYC up there with the likes of being a fireman. She had heard the starting pay was not that good and she would be taking a pay cut starting the job, but, the big picture was 5 1/2 years down the line when she would reach top pay.
Top Pay as a sanitation worker in NYC is 79K a year, before overtime, snow days, holidays, working days off. She had heard most regular sanitation workers earn over 100K a year at top pay and she said to herself "I can do this job, i think i can do it better than any men and if i cannot, i will give it my best to prove myself"
And that she did.
MaryEllen left her xray tech job at Bellevue and accepted her DSNY job as a NYC Sanitation worker. While going through the hiring process, many supervisors and chiefs had approached her and said to her, "ya know, this job is very tough for a female, maybe you can get a spot in mechanical broom, or and easier task not doing as physical work.
She just laughed and said "keep it moving buddy"
She went through a 30 day inteo class at Floyd Bennett Field with DSNY and 30 days later was placed into an actual garage to tackle her duties of picking up garbage. Luckily for her, she ended up as close to home as possible, so it wasnt as strange as it would have been being sent to a garage where she didnt know many people, she knew alot of guys from the garage.
Within that first year, MaryEllen encountered alot of judgemental people, people that seen her and thought, she cannot handle this job just based on her size, but, what they didnt realize was, MaryEllen is a hardbody. Under that uniform there were muscles on top of muscles, a 6 pack abdomen, and bodybuilder type of features.
She went out and killed the routes, loading garbage faster and harder than any other person in the garage.
Shortly after she bagan, hurricane sandy came through and demolished the area she lived and worked in and she kicked it into high gear. This is where i come in. Myself and Maryellen became partners through the Sandy Cleanup and i ciuldnt have been luckier.
We worked together everyday for the next 6 months and developed an unbreakable friendship and bond.
Its said that, this job takes a toll on your personal life, breaks up marriages, relationships etc. Well she fell victim to that, her marriage ended shortly after her beginning the job.
She still worked everyday as hard as anyone and knew that moment she got weak, the job would overpower her.
Well....months later, myself and Maryellen, after workibg with each other for many months and days fell for each other. We figured well, if a regular relationship has complications, what about a work relationship where both people do the same job.
Its now 4 years later, myself and MaryEllen still work together, date each other and live with each .
I couldnt have been luckier to end up with a girl that is such a hard working person.
As you can tell by her pictures in this post, she takes care of herself, works out daily after she does a 13 ton route everyday in Far Rockaway, NY.
Maryellen is now at top pay and in her 6th year andi am also at top pay and in my 10th year, we get to retire after 20 years of service, we are planning our futures as well as possible and working on our retirement value everyday.
Since she has been on the job, she has encountered alot of prejudice just because shes a female. Comments from guys regularly about her being a garbageman. People that dont know her think she cant do the job, until they see her running through a route like the Tazmanian Devil. Lol
She was deemed Sanitation Barbie by the NY Daily News and stiries have been done about her being a female in a mans world.
She has absolutely proven her worth, proven that she can do whatever any man can do on this job and most times do it better.
I commend her for her work ethic everyday, shes unbelievable.
meep
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