Finally found an amazing opportunity! Physically cannot do the job.

Chest is tight because of how much i’m dreading my next shift. I thought I was just sick because my interviewer had a cold, but on my second shift I exhibited signs of heat exhaustion to a T and had to step out early for the second day in a row. After paying 150$ without insurance bc i havent had the job long enough for it to kick in, I got a total of one day off and am going in tomorrow. I’m so worried that I’m going to get exhausted again. I am completely unused to wearing extensive PPE and the amount I have to wear for my most-likely-soon-to-be previous job is so much more than I have ever worn before. I am a big person, and overheat quickly but can manage very well in temperature controlled environments— or so i thought! Turns out, if every single one of my arteries are covered and my skin has no way of expelling heat, the plastic smock, steel toe boots, lab coat, anti-cut glove, lowest possible quality face mask, hairnet, and plastic gloves will cause me to overheat faster than the 30° ambient temperature can cool down! I thought I’d be okay, I saw other people of similar sizes to me doing the same job, but I puked the first day from the heat. I’m so sad I thought I finally had a job that paid well and gave me all the benefits I needed but I just can’t get my shit together long enough to cut vegetables for a few hours.

I’ve worked a total of 2 hours here to date and fully expect to be let go tomorrow if I can’t muscle through it. I’m going to try wearing a short sleeve shirt under my lab coat this time (first day I put on a sweater at the advice of the person showing me what to do, second day I just wore a long sleeve tee) and try bringing my own, still sealed in package KN95 masks to use so maybe my breath won’t just be funneled directly into my glasses and brow line after it gets nudged slightly. I might try to beg for an office position because most of their cubicles were empty when I went during the day. Typing this has made me a little less scared but I’m so not ready to go back to begging for employment.