Camaraderie

[Highplains Drifter]

I won’t work a job where I can’t have some fun and camaraderie with my fellow co-workers. On wire jobs I love to see the Bull Wheel bets and I like a check pool too. I have seen big enough yards that the weekly check pool was a $1000 a week and of course I hit the first week…:cool:.I was working in a substation and the narrow backs contract said when working over time the company had to issue two checks a week. One for your 40 hours and another for your overtime, that way you took home more money…so we would have two check pools every week and the winner had to furnish ice cream bars for the after noon break all the next week. Was on a crew and every day we would take turns buying and send our foreman to 7-11 for a Slurppie….. And then I do like seeing all the aluminum cans saved from a job and that money sent to the Hall for COPE. …..Remember anther transmission job and on wire pull days, we would all throw the wire foreman some cash and he would get a big pot of “Mulligan Stew” brewing …..when ya got hungry ya just drove buy and got some chow and a soda…… I know there’s more unless you are one of them that hate the folks you work with and can’t get out of the line shack quick enough at sun down. What about the rest of you fellows?

[wudwoker51]

I won’t work a job where I can’t have some fun and camaraderie with my fellow co-workers. On wire jobs I love to see the Bull Wheel bets and I like a check pool too. I have seen big enough yards that the weekly check pool was a $1000 a week and of course I hit the first week…:cool:.I was working in a substation and the narrow backs contract said when working over time the company had to issue two checks a week. One for your 40 hours and another for your overtime, that way you took home more money…so we would have two check pools every week and the winner had to furnish ice cream bars for the after noon break all the next week. Was on a crew and every day we would take turns buying and send our foreman to 7-11 for a Slurppie….. And then I do like seeing all the aluminum cans saved from a job and that money sent to the Hall for COPE. …..Remember anther transmission job and on wire pull days, we would all throw the wire foreman some cash and he would get a big pot of “Mulligan Stew” brewing …..when ya got hungry ya just drove buy and got some chow and a soda…… I know there’s more unless you are one of them that hate the folks you work with and can’t get out of the line shack quick enough at sun down. What about the rest of you fellows?
You are absolutely right Drifter, if you have a little fun on the job sure makes the day go quicker. Have played the "bullwheel game" many times and checkpools also. Worked "out of class" at a nuke plant in the 80's that had two checkpools, one for the area of the plant you worked in ( turbine building, radwaste, containment etc.) which usually ran about $750-$1000 and one for the entire plant which was around $5000. Never hit either myself but had a tool buddy hit the "Big One" once. He had a wad of cash that would choke a horse, and treated everyone that rode together to dinner and drinks. Some of the best meals I've ever had were cooked on the R.O.W. Would all chip in in the morning and the grunt (aka The Kitchen Bitch) would have it all grilled up and ready to go at lunch usually on Fridays.
Camaraderie does mean alot.

[BigClive]

Yeah, a good crew with a screw loose makes work a fun place to go.

I found an American video on YouTube that shows the sort of thing I'm talking about. :rolleyes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUS4a-5x-Zw

Not sure about sticking peroxide in someone's ear though. :eek:

I wonder if Indylineman is on this forum.

[spark and bark]

I work on a great crew. We all jive really well, and have a lot of fun. Tons of practical jokes. As the hot ape, I usually get donuts and redbulls every friday or shut down, and have the old lady make a crock pot of grub. Talk about easy. Just plug in the crockpot to the inverter, and ya got a good hot meal even if you're chasing outages all day.
Worked on a crew that was horrible though. Got in a fist fight with one of the journeyman cuz he thought it was funny to drive a staple IN my skid while we were clipping in 795 on a 70 footer. Got so mad, I left the skid on the pole and climbed down, took off my hooks and belt and waited for him to land the bucket. Ended up breakin my nose and putting 20 stitches in the jmans head. Comraderie and a little jokin always makes things great.

[LostArt]

Whoa. Uh, your username fits there S&B. :D

Good thread starter Drifter.

[A Laska Lineman]

Worked on a camp job years ago, here in Alaska, where most of us hands were getting per diem and staying in a nearby campground. Wasn't any comaraderieship until I came up with a S.H.I.T( Sure Happy It's Thursday) Day party. Thursday was the day before payday and I figured everybody was broke, Friday most would head back home for the weekend, Monday would be a day of rest. That only left three days to do something and Thursday seemed the most logical. So our first SHIT Day party, we had homemade chili w/fixin's, beer, soda and of course a bonfire. That event brought everybody out of their campers and gave the hands and their wives something to look forward to. So every week after that, when Monday rolled around, plans were being made for the next SHIT Day getogether. We were soon eating steak, ribs, shrimp, wild game etc. It made the job fun and the weeks moved along a lot quicker. A good time was had by all.

[Highplains Drifter]

Was on a job and every morning the GF would get there early and get some wood burning in a barrel…we would have our tail board standing around the fire…….of course after work we would set around a fire and tip a few…….love the smell of that wood burning, last fall when it started to get cold we would get a small fire burning all day at the job site so every once in awhile you could go and get your hands warm…

[Lizzy Bordon]

Wow, great subject. I just left a job which was a nightmare. I went from having fun, tons of friends, practical jokes made the day go fast and you looked forward to going to work. I filled a foremans truck with tons of soda cans for locking me out of mine to get even. I put a street light head full of scummy water in the passenger seat one time so the short cheif lineman got his, it was great he went to pull it out of the truck and all the scum water all over his head. He used to call me on the radio, ask me to meet him at a job just so he could drive by and wave. The lineman used to leave me every stray pet they could find from kittens, birds nest from street light heads, electrified squirrels. They brought me a baby grackle one day in a box that sat at the job site all day with them. I had to take it to a wild life sanctuary. I would try to hide to catch some zzz's while on knock off on storm duty only to find the line trash piled behind my truck. I had to pick it all up and put it in the truck and take it back to the shop. Imagine pulling that stuff today.

I stenciled Robin Hood on the front of one of the line trucks.....He took from the rich and gave to the poor!!

I was just in a horrible suit job, not by choice, no talking...death sentence for me....no jokes, cant ask if someone is OK if they are sick, no phone calls. Do not even think of passing out a joke or telling one. I was stuck with all these fake wanna be's and guys who wore their polyester pants to high like Ercle placing judgement on the lineman. I wore work boots into the building one day in an ice storm, I got looked at like I had six heads. They had no brain cells and hid behind their tacky clothes trying to look intelligent. I used to hear them whine how the foreman would not show up at their meetings....probably scared shitless because your a guy wearing girlie polyester pants Erkle.

It's a Line Shop not a Work Region you dumb ass!! So glad to have my life and mouth back again.......yee haw.

[hdmagnum]

yeah, nothing like a good days work and fun in the sun. just came from a job where they put paddle grease on my windshield wipers the morn'n of a drive'n snow storm. had the foreman call them (it had been escalating, so i new who it was) and tell them i was on the freeway when i turned them on. couldn't see, spun out and landed in the ditch (not really, found it when i was still in the yard) it was great watching them squirm all day waiting for the "big investigation". payback was triple strenth skunk oil in their heater vents. ended up smelling like someone opened the door and took a big piss instead of a dead skunk. they detailed the truck, power washed it and never could get rid of the smell. turned out better than i had panned :D

[hotwiretamer]

There is always a practical joke in the works at our shop. We only have about twenty guys, most can take it. There were days in the past where there were men there with no sense of humor though! (There in management now.)
Here is just a few pranks that have been pulled:
Glove Dust in A/C vents, (or hard hats!), Quick foam in tool buckets, water jugs propped against the door inside linetrucks, copy toner on the ear piece of the shop phone, Changing out all the H-tap connections into the wrong boxes, resting the staple can up against the door inside the bins, "I love men" signs on the back of trucks!

[woodhooks]

MY Favorite. Disconnecting the electronic gas pedal. They can push on it all day long but it is only gonna idle. Frustrates the hell out of 'em. Turn the truck off, back on, put in reverse, shut truck off, disconnect battery, turn truck on etc.

Works best at the end of the day when everyone else is leaving.