Long enough pretended to be a software dev. This is what I really do in daily life: https://devrant.molodetz.nl/2025061...

I destroy electronics for recycling.

Also, oftem have to destroy brand new stuff. https://devrant.molodetz.nl/2025061...

"True wireless" :p. I destroy around 60 electronics per hour. Also iPhones often. Today THE classic iPod almost. But someone stole it. It's such environment.

So, the guy in front of me was telling how well paid job he had and shit. Then steals classic iPod :p Haha, ik not crazy, that guy will never have a good job. He wannabe gangster type.

Such a waste, but looks so much fun! Is it viable as a side hustle, aside from the cool pastime?

I looked around to get my Samsung S9 Edge (released 2018) broken screen fixed but the cost is higher (250€) than buying a refurbished one (125€) and the same as the new lower-end A models that already have double the RAM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Are you wearing gloves when dealing w/ that stuff, I wonder?

Unless I'm mistaken, that stuff is from returns etc, so 2nd hand... some of that may be _very_ dirty.

Definitely wouldn't be surprised, thus gloves would be very nice.

@webketje hmm, actually it is fun for a few days but it's kinda the same electronics that you're continually smashing and it's not very skilled work. I mean, I'm only thinking about what I'll he programming at the evening and these days I've quite done some reasoning before I start programming. So it helps me. No, it's not a side hustle, I am a developer but I got convicted by a judge to do this for 160 hours :p Well, for a punishment, it couldn't be better. It is very inspiring to work at a factory for once as "bottom employee". When the bell goes, one minute later you're working. You do not put your overall during company time, you do it in your own time. You have to be ten minutes early in the morning. You do not spend a minute longer on your break than is allowed. You do what the boss say with no counter proposal and they don't give a fuck your opinion. And you know what? Fine by me, let's introduce this shit in office. It gives a lot of guidance. Everything so clear.

@webketje we do recycling for fabrics (grondstoffen?) and not recycling of the products. Because of that, I often have to smash brand new stuff, we want dem chemicals. In exception of game controllers btw! Game controllers are big business. They're very often broken in a way that it's very profitable to repair them (I am told). And game controllers have amazing build quality, the game controllers that we get look often brand new. I do not know whats broken about them tho.

@D-4got10-01 oh yes, gloves for sure. This work is kinda aggressive and more than once I stabbed my hand with a screwdriver. Without gloves it would have gone right in. And yes, many electronics are very dirty. Also, you often do have to cough when you're doing this work. Not sure what it is exactly, maybe it's just the dust. It's a miracle that we're all doing this without eye protection. It depends really on material, but some thinks like hard plastic almost explode when you smash with a hamer on it. Same for glass.

But this work, if we want to have batteries from a remote control, we not just remove it the normal way since that's annoying and takes time. We smash literally the battery lid of with hammer, smash the control on the iron table do the batteries fly out. At a certain point you have many batteries on your table and we sort them by type. We throw them in a very weird gold stuff. If your battery touched that, it's empty. It's against fire. Often throw burning one.

@retoor Good about the gloves.

But it sounds like you should have the eye protection, as well as a protective mask for that dust or whatever crap it is that causes the coughing.

We should compare notes.

/jk

I spent some 6 months in similar work a few years back.

No testing jobs at the time, so I had to grab anything available, or risk becoming homeless.

@D-4got10-01 doing this job is by far not the worst thing in the world. I mean, I would prefer it above many other jobs. The eye protection is really a thing, if I was owner there it would be a rule a guess since you're responsible for employees. It happens almost daily that some plastic from you or someone else flies against your head. We always laugh about it like "wow" but it has to go wrong some day if it's so frequent. Masks would be very annoying and as long law doesn't demand it it's ok, but I do think the company should offer those for people who want. I can understand both people, the ones who do it, and the ones who don't. But that's the problem of this kind of work. They don't give a fuck about you, bad pay, hierarchy, hard work. It's like all those things together. I mean, whet if it would just pay bad, that would be the biggest problem. But also I things together. I mean, everything about the environment says to you, you are worth nothing.

@D-4got10-01 I don't care, I'm some privileged developer doing this job because they judge said so and will be done in a few months and will go back to my luxory life where my opinion is valued, I get to chose my own time, that pays more than I can waste, your manager is kinda your bitch often (dutch has barely hierarchy, only on production floors like I described above is still they hierarchical).

Many people working there do criminal things like selling drugs / sigarettes or have some other with the law or whatever. But that's so understandable, if you know nothing else than such environment, I would also be like "fuck the world, I gonna do whatever I want, no one cares". Because in their case, it's really true. Extra frustrating is smashing brand stuff that you can't afford that others just didn't want anymore. So, you are aware of the different world. You know they half the country is rich and you not. As a Dutch I'm sensitive to the topic because equality is real thing.

@retoor > 'equality is real thing.'

Equality, sure.

Just !the pay.

@D-4got10-01 nah, tbh, not even salaries are that far from eachother. In netherlands you get so hard taxed as employer by giving big salaries that they rarely do it and everyone understands.