Working with Good men

[bobbo]

Building 345 switches that I have never built before. My groundsman knows a 1000 times more than I do, because he built a 1000. My first day was a mess, frustrated that I wasn't at the ability or knowledge of the guys that I was working with. I was embarrassingly slow and not knowing the details. Took us half a day to do one my first day. Then the next day it went do smooth cause I asked a lot of questions and learned from my mistakes. I never was one who thought I was better because I have higher classification and better pay. Why I am learning so quickly is my groundsman most, foreman and fellow lineman is training me, because I am not a ****. I have worked with career groundsman a lot. The guys with ten or twenty years know more than green lineman. I think the quality of not being a **** will make more knowledgeable lineman. I don't think many people I have met would have the humility to learn because they know it all. And that's sad.

[rob8210]

When I started in to the trade I worked with a couple of rbd operators that knew how to set poles and rig better than most lineman I have met. I do not judge a fella by is pay scale or title. You never know what knowledge a fella has stored away. I do watch how fellas work and some could use some coaching and get upset if you try, those fellas I back away from. There are so many different aspects to this trade that I would be surprised to find someone that has truly seen it all. Not very many days go by that I don't learn , or see, something new!

[Hebrew]

You are a good man yourself,Bobbo.Most guys wouldn't admit their shortcomings.The longest journey starts with the first step,you have taken yours!

[polehiker]

When I started linework back in 1962, I had the privilege of working with 2 different full time groundmen . Neither had ever been a lineman. These 2 men taught me so much about the work and how to get along with those ornery old linemen that were in the profession back then. From them, I always learned to respect no matter what the pay grade. I,m retired since 1999, after 38 yrs on a crew and as a lineman. I still think of Ed and Dave and cherish the time I spent working with them.

[Lineman North Florida]

I used to work with a truck driver who had been in apprentice school for a couple of years until there was an electrical contact that turned into a fatality within the company and he decided he didn't want to do it anymore, super nice guy and hard worker, anyhow we had an outage one day after lunch and we were shorthanded myself another older lineman the foreman and the truck driver and we had 5 poles to climb with a pretty good bit of work to do on each one, any of you that have worked in Fl in August can appreciate it when I say how hot it was that day, my jeans from the knees down were white with the salt that I was sweating out, we both had climbed 2 poles and there was 1 left to catch it was a service pole with 4 house services on it , as I came down from my second pole and headed down to step up the last pole I saw the truck driver going up it, he felt bad for us he said as hot as it was and said he wanted to help, I always thought a lot of him but after that day I thought a lot more.