I worked for a casual labor place, and got a week's job at a place that made asphalt shingles. They have a machine that pours hot asphalt onto a fiberglass substrate, drops the sand on top, then cuts them into shingle-shaped pieces. The cutting piece is big, heavy, and scary; it can cut through a dozen or so shingles at once.

I was given 2 minutes training; my job was to reach toward the cutter and grab the shingles, to put them into a bagging area. In the first two hours, the tip of my new, ill-fitting cotton glove got cut off (due to a half-second's inattention on my part, I reached in too far) and I learned the guy before me had lost a finger to the same machine.

I really needed the money but not that bad. I just walked to the office where the pissed-off-looking boss was screaming at someone on the phone, and gave him my glove. I told him I didn't feel safe at that piece of equipment, and he tried saying that that was the only job they had for me. I just said "Okay." and walked out the door.

I had given a ride to a couple other guys from the same casual labor firm and at the end of the shift, I went back to pick them up - I barely knew them but felt obligated. That's when I learned that they tried to find me and fire me a couple hours after I left, because there was no one in the shingle packing area. I warned them to not take that job.