I have been in this line of work for 5 years and have noticed a recent decline in quality help! Now I am one of those young punks (23 yrs old) that everyone talks and talks about. I do think that I have earned some healthy respect from some great lineman and have a decent name. I work in Savannah, Georgia (for those who have worked there you know what I mean) and it's been a pleasure working with some great guys and good teachers. But since I have made lineman it seems that good help is REALLY hard to come by. We have had several guys come out of those lineman colleges but it just seems like nobody wants to work.

What do yall think?

This should be interesting...

No Question you are right, teens and early 20's are spoiled brats now a days because of all the bleeding hearts who say you cant disc1pline your kids anymore. They are glued to thier text messageing and facbook and all---they can't even imagine what hard work is really like.

I once had a rookie (21 yrs old), tell me when he was going to take a break, while I'm up on the pole, just swapped the lasher and yelled GO LASHER! He starts walking back to the truck, I get him back over here, and he says, "I gotta text my girl. Besides, I just did it for like 3 spans." My next words to him, "You're fired." I made him find his own way off the jobsite and back home too. This was at 9am, btw.

Good show lashdawg, I bet you felt like kicking his to the next county. We have a guy at our shop who will take 2 hours to find a way out of a 10 minute job, like I said in another post--- 2 things I hate ---STUPID & LAZY.

Seems to be the new way of doing things.. I know I'm young but I enjoy taking pride in my work and getting the job done. It's just crazy how my generation is going about things and it's really scary to know they can have that kind of attitude in this line of work. I was told when I started that my habits on the ground will directly affect how I was in the air and I am a firm believer in that! And all these new lineman don't even want to put on a pair of hooks, hell that's the only way I could get up a pole and prove my worth! Just sickens me being a young lineman to know that my age group reflects me in a general way....

One of the contractors I sub for has some union guys in-house, and use a lot of non-union contractors. So, these guys are in-house, naturally they have to have work before it comes to the contractors. One of the PM's sent them out to do 800' of strand and cable, half bucketable, half not. They left the shop at 8am, got there at 9:15am, and spent until 12:00 coming up with reasons why they couldn't do the job. Then they told the PM they couldn't start it because they had to be off by 3 per union rules. He yanked the job from them, gave it to me the next morning, by 11am we had the entire job hung, spliced and activated.

Just go do your damn job.

Amen!

There is still some hardworking kids out there It is just harder to find them
Lashdawg, I have sent many guys packing back in the days when I was a contractor.
Since I have went inhouse 9 yrs ago It is a dif story when it comes to running them off
I use to tight lash everything and make them quit

WP

I know a lot of guys, both older and younger than me (I'm 27), that don't want to put on a set of hooks. I love doing it because it's a skill that not a lot of other cable guys have. I had a job last year where I was left to go do a bunch of splicing because the guy who they gave the job to doesn't hook, and these were 40' poles in rear easement. He spliced what he could reach from the bucket and left me to do the rest.

I'm 27, I own my company, I own all my own equipment (5 trucks, 2 directional drills, reel trailers, trencher, plow, got 2 aerial crews that work for me who are completely setup with lashers, rollers, benders, everything they need...as well as splicing tools, sweep meters, TDR's, etc...) I've worked DAMN hard to get where I am today, and even though I've got crews that work for me, I'm still in the field EVERY DAY humping poles, pulling the lasher, swapping the lasher, digging pits, operating the drill, locating, whatever has to be done. I still bust my ass every damn day. Get up at 4:30am, work until 6pm most days, drive home - usually get home at 7 or so, get up and do it all again the next day.

You get out of it what you put into it. If you're a lazy motherfucker who expects everything to be handed to you, you're not going to go far. If you're willing to put in the blood, sweat and tears that go along with a hard days work and you're not afraid to get the job done then the only person thats telling you how far you'll end up is yourself.

Had somethng the same happen back when I was a transmission lineman, we had to build a new 69kv H structure and tear down another for a new 4 lane highway.

Super pulled in at 10:00am and asked what the hell we were doing sitting in the trucks, I said going home for the weekend----if you look we are done. Myself and another lineman built the new structure in an hour and 1 lineman tore down the other by himself with a groundman at each structure for us.

That's pretty impressive..

I don't know where you're at, but here it gets pretty damn hot and humid in the summer. I love to get all the really hard work done in the AM before the sun gets to be a sunofabitch.

That sun can be a sumbitch! Especially down around the sac.. Sweat be building up and you can feel it roll down the back of your leg... I hate wet nutsac...

That's why I like doing maintenance in Florida at 30' the wind still blows and it is a bit cooler..

You will never here me complain about the heat I can deal with it

olo131

It gets humid here in TN.. You'll be wringing wet.. Good fat burner though..

oh jeeesh......