Why do you like being a lineman?

[pre_apprentice_ID]

Explain why you love or hate linework, or the ups and downs of the job.
I'm not a line man yet, I'm a cableman.

I love working outdoors and also like climbing.
I don't like getting a shitty piece rate that gets smaller and smaller every couple months.


Post your opinions or stories.

[Pootnaigle]

1. Because I am well compensated for my efforts
2. Because there is a certain amount of satisfaction in being able to do what
Most would never even try
3.Because I can take pride in my work and often look at it many years later.
4. Because much of what I have learned carries over to things I can do around my home
5.Because there is a better class of Bullshit amongst Linemen and humor is everywhere you look.
6.Because there is an enormus sense of satisfaction in knowing if not for my efforts people would be freezing in the winter or baking in the summer while some malfunction placed them in the dark. ( dont bleve me..... Get one of the hugs from a grateful housewife or a thundering round of applause from an entire neighborhood when you close that switch).Heck Ive seen em cheer when they saw the truck in their neighborhood.
7.Because I can pass what I know on to a younger generation and be assured the lights will always come back on when I am old an feeble.
And last but not least I was too dumb to do anything else.

[knotskeart]

love the work, the brain damaged ****balls that seem drawn to this trade, workin long hours in shitty, crazy weather and gettin paid well for it, not showing up in an office, being able to make my own decisions both with the work and how i deal with those around me, not wearing a tie, the list goes on and on. but..........it was more fun years ago and it seems to be getting worse rather than better.

[heelwinch]

Because less than 50% of the men that try, can't do it. And 30 % of the ones that do, aint worth a shit.

It's a breed, and you either are or you aren't, at least in my book.

[BigClive]

I don't like getting a shitty piece rate that gets smaller and smaller every couple months.

That's how piece rate (price work) works. You didn't think they'd increase it did you? Best response is to say it's being done by the hour now. Safer too.

Once you've shown a company you can do the work in half the time by bustin' your ass and cutting corners, they want it done like that every time. All they'll see is the work took half the time so they should pay you half as much.

[BillyMac]

The outdoors, the comradeship between the blokes, the pay, being at the top of that pole,scratching your name in the pole cap wondering who'll next be seeing it. The satisfaction when the lights come back on, And hell it beats cane farming!:D

[T-Man]

Poot, you said it well and I agree. . . I know there were times I silently said to myself, I should have listened to my Mom and become a Brain Surgeon but. . . I stuck in there. The rewards of getting the people back on in really crumby conditions was what I think we all live for.

The more it rains, thunders, blows and snows, the more valuable we become. Weather is our signal to get ready, there is power to restore. . .every other day is like good practice.

[1st Class Husker]

Poot, you said it well and I agree. . . I know there were times I silently said to myself, I should have listened to my Mom and become a Brain Surgeon but. . . I stuck in there. The rewards of getting the people back on in really crumby conditions was what I think we all live for.

The more it rains, thunders, blows and snows, the more valuable we become. Weather is our signal to get ready, there is power to restore. . .every other day is like good practice.

Poot u took the words out of my mouth!

To be up in a bucket truck 45- 50 ft off the ground with hot phases in your tree looking down over the country side, looking down on your co workers working, You got to think to your self ( I'm the luckest man in the world)!!!!!!!!!!!!

[electric squirrel]

I like it cuz your mom calls me when her:cool: lights go out!!!!

[Edge]

doing what few others can when the storms break all we've done...
and the camaraderie of those few others when it's time to put up or shut up...

seeing those that have to shut up...fall... and those that don't fall... pick up their slack...

those times that separate linemen... from Journeymen...

there is nothing like it in the world...

the best part is just when you think your ready to break... it's time to go again... and your ready... its a gd drug...

for what it's worth...

Edge

[pre_apprentice_ID]

Thats exactly what I expected to hear. Work, no matter what trade, is always fun when your with people that respect and trust each other. Some of my best friends are guys that I work with.

[MI-Lineman]

That's how piece rate (price work) works. You didn't think they'd increase it did you? Best response is to say it's being done by the hour now. Safer too.

Once you've shown a company you can do the work in half the time by bustin' your ass and cutting corners, they want it done like that every time. All they'll see is the work took half the time so they should pay you half as much.

EXCELLENT POINT CLIVE!!:cool:

I like being asked every 5 minutes when the lights will be on!

Being forced to work over BUT NO LONGER THAN 15HRS CAUSE IT'S UNSAFE UNLESS IT'S ON ANOTHER COMPANIES DIME!!:mad:

Watchin how well new policies defeat the whole purpose of doin our job in the first place!

F$ckin with idiots (mostly supervision:D)

Last but not least seein the look on my little boy's face when I back the BIG TRUCK down our driveway when on-call with the lights and back up alarm blearin!!!:)

[loodvig]

Last but not least seein the look on my little boy's face when I back the BIG TRUCK down our driveway when on-call with the lights and back up alarm blearin!!!

You can take a truck home when on call? WOW! That would never happen around here!

[MI-Lineman]

Last but not least seein the look on my little boy's face when I back the BIG TRUCK down our driveway when on-call with the lights and back up alarm blearin!!!

You can take a truck home when on call? WOW! That would never happen around here!

In our smaller headquarters we have 1st and 2nd responders so we can take pickups or buckets home. I usually take a bucket home so I can get to a job quicker (like a fire call or car pole).

[neil macgregor]

when folk ask you what you do for a living

then the look on thier face when you tell them

hanging about 100ft in the air

blowing sh!t up when youve got spare gelignite left

driving big feck off vans

driving diggers

[BookII]

One of the best things about line work is watching all of the homegrowns stick their heads in the sand after you just got done telling a hotshot, ball washin', bag lickin', just topped out diaper lineman company suck of a GF, AND his foreman buddy where to stick it when nobody else had the balls to do so! Then drag their dumb asses!!!

To see the look on ALL of their faces is PRICELESS!!!!:D

And the thing I really hate about this trade??? Is seems like there are a lot of young bucks out there that have topped out within a year or so that think all of the sudden they're foreman or GF material!!! It's a bunch of BS!!!! And it seems like it's a growing fad with these contractors! I just amazes me to see some 30 year old KID that just took his JL test hop in a foremans pick-up and go out and try to prove how awesome he is?!

[cantwait]

MI my boys love it when I bring "daddys big truck" home!

[MI-Lineman]

MI my boys love it when I bring "daddys big truck" home!

Yea I don't know what it is with mine but everything that can move forward he ABSOLUTELY HAS to see backup?:D Trains, trucks,my tactor, our dog, our horses, etc. It doesn't matter what it is! He can't talk so I we don't know why he gets a kick out of it but if someone visits he's happier to see them leave!:o

Took the family to a monster truck show last night and we sat right infront of the cars they were crushin, the trucks would line up and roll forward into the cars then backup 4 or 5 times before their run! Funny as hell to see him get a kick out of it!:D

[MI-Lineman]

One of the best things about line work is watching all of the homegrowns stick their heads in the sand after you just got done telling a hotshot, ball washin', bag lickin', just topped out diaper lineman company suck of a GF, AND his foreman buddy where to stick it when nobody else had the balls to do so! Then drag their dumb asses!!!

To see the look on ALL of their faces is PRICELESS!!!!:D

And the thing I really hate about this trade??? Is seems like there are a lot of young bucks out there that have topped out within a year or so that think all of the sudden they're foreman or GF material!!! It's a bunch of BS!!!! And it seems like it's a growing fad with these contractors! I just amazes me to see some 30 year old KID that just took his JL test hop in a foremans pick-up and go out and try to prove how awesome he is?!

I hear ya! Sh!t I tell all our apes that's the scariest time, when ya first top out! I like it when 1st yr Cocky Balboa gets in his first real bind cause he didn't listen!:D

Happens here at the utility also though Book! Usually after a year or two they become stupervisors!:mad: Never ran a single crew longer than a week but all of a sudden they can run a whole service center?:rolleyes:

[cantwait]

Yep, I tried to explain to the guys who were just topping out that's when the learning started. Sooner or later you will be out on a call and look around see your bucket is wedged and weaved thru all sorts of wire and equipment and think "how the hell did I get in here and how do I get out?" To the man they all came to me after topping out and said yeah its happened...still learning...

[pre_apprentice_ID]

I've been wondering why some your post are written in the past tense. Why don't you do linework anymore?

[cantwait]

Hey swamp you'd love the "challenge" of the bucksqueeze! what a piece of shit the thing is, it is like giving Lance Armstrong training wheels. The powers that be have taken alot of the fun out of linework, but luckily they cant take away the comraderie and the BS. I have yet to meet a lineman who wasnt full of BS....other than myself of course.:rolleyes:

[compression]

Bein able to piss, fart, burp, cuss, yell, do cartwheels, and throw rocks whenever ya want is kinda nice - cant do that in many office settings.

Job challenges change everday and then throw in Storms, and the thanks and admiration you get from the public, its definitely the best job in the blue collar world..... and better than a damn lot of white collar jobs.

[jasonthelineman]

Not a lineman yet... but I already have the mindset.. I have climbed poles, and have worked in the elements, and I love it! weather... Bring it!!

I am also someone that has had that job of working behind the desk in a suit and tie... Is fun for a while, but truly your heart yearns to get some freedom...and get the hell out of the office and get some fresh air and fart or burp or something.. The freedom to not be micromanaged, and limited to your desk, period. That really sucks.. I am so stoked to get back outside, and crank up a new career into the Lineman Brotherhood.. I have been a member in good standing with IBEW, and now I get to take it to the next level.

Working Hard, Dedicating myself, my time, and commitment for safety at all times. These are key. Not to mention with my higher power watching.. I serve him! And I will be another top 2% successful lineman! for him, myself, and my family. This is truly an industry that you can determine your outcome by how hard you work.

Here's to you boys!!

P.S. I just interviewed today with the NWJATC and it went very well... So excited to be joining you all so very soon... See u at the top!!!

Jason