Industrial Technician Lifts 30kg for €1,200 Monthly

Twelve hours away from home for €1,200 a month

How much can one endure before salary and body say enough? A 27-year-old technician with higher vocational training in industrial fields detailed his day without embellishment: he wakes at 8:00, starts work at 9:00, travels across the province in a van installing mechanical systems, and returns home at 22:00. Ten hours daily, loads of over 30 kilos, and €1,200 a month. His conclusion, according to his own account, is that under these conditions anyone ends up thinking about taking civil service exams.

The numbers of a schedule that doesn't add up

The sequence he describes rests on stubborn arithmetic. Wake up at eight, clock in at nine, return at ten at night. The gym he wanted to join closes at 23:00. Between one thing and another, there is just enough time to fall asleep on the sofa with the phone in hand, which is exactly what he says happens to him.

• 8:00 — wake up to start the day
• 9:00 — arrival at work
• 22:00 — return home
• 23:00 — closing of the nearest gym

Here appears the first clash of the narrative: the workday not only exhausts, it also empties the afternoon. And in that empty gap fits both the complaint about hours and the feeling—repeated throughout the conversation—that the effort translates into nothing. Neither in pay nor in personal time.

Is a senior industrial engineer the same as a higher vocational degree?

Much of the discussion went down this path, and it is no minor detail. "Senior industrial" can designate two very different things: a university-trained industrial engineering degree or a higher vocational training (FP) qualification. The sharpest response, repeated sarcastically, argues it is the latter: "It will be an FP in industry, not an industrial engineer."

Underlying this is an uncomfortable accusation made explicit by several messages: many people with education, languages, and higher qualifications end up accepting precarious jobs in the private sector. The title, regardless of where the acronym comes from, protects no one against a payroll of €1,200.

Engines, shouting, and the toll that doesn't appear on the payslip

The account describes the first day of work as a risky scene: carrying heavy equipment in arms up some stairs, nearly falling, and receiving a scolding from a veteran colleague because the installation wasn't to their liking. He also claims they threw a wrench at his head and that the company owner laughed at the situation.

These are facts supported only by the writer; there is no formal complaint or version from the other side, so they are read as what they are, a testimony. What does have general significance is the pattern he draws: scoldings, crying, and other people's anxiety crises that, he says, ultimately fall on him. Other people's workplace tension becomes his daily burden.

The thesis that 50% of the country lives off the other 50%

From there, the text jumps from the job position to the structure of the country. It argues that half the population lives at the expense of the other half and focuses on those who, in his view, do not work: young people sitting on benches and adults who, he assumes, live off public employment or benefits. This is the most debated part and generates the most heated responses.

Against this reading appear two counterweights. One quantitative: it is argued that millions of people are willing to do this same work for the same money, with the alternative being precarity or misery. Another more uncomfortable: that the person who endures ten hours of physical load and then looks for time for the gym might not be a victim of the system, but the author of their own decisions.

Civil service exams, changing sectors, or enduring: options on the table

The concrete proposals that emerge are four. The first, civil service exams, with examples like teaching mathematics in vocational training. The second, healthcare training, a professional certificate to care for dependent persons which, it is assured, pays similarly without wearing out the body. The third, climbing the ladder: languages, more studies, changing companies. The fourth is not an exit: it is a warning.

That warning says the problem isn't outside. That some denounce the system while simultaneously maintaining the habits that perpetuate it. The gap between those who see a victim and those who see an excuse runs through the entire conversation and doesn't close at any point.

With €1,200, ten hours daily, and 30 kilos per alucinación, the question of whether this is life admits few neutral answers. The most honest perhaps is the one nobody wants to hear: it depends on how much longer one is willing to call it that.