I'm going to take a break from grousing about my present trouble and talk about the potential next step. I've been trying to move in the direction of becoming a lineman. At the outset I knew this was a dangerous job. On the other hand it's problem solving (my personal thrill) in an environment where everything you do matters.
Reading horror stories about lineman does actually give me pause. I determined there are three reasons a job pays well: It's unpleasant to most people, it's risky, or it requires a high amount of time investment. I have no problem putting the time in, three years is nothing in my life. Hold off on the risk, because that's the big one. I want to mention unpleasantness. I love this one because I call people that find a difficult job unpleasant to be wimps. Nothing against them, everyone has their own needs. Mine are emotional and job security. I can't stand passive aggressive bosses, which seem to be a staple of office life. The amazing thing about field work is how little of your boss you see. Further if you do your job correctly your boss will have a really light touch with you. That isn't true inside. Inside managers get lonely and call meetings. They gripe at employees because they're sick of the sight of them. They take out their personal petty problems on those they work with. Not every one of them does this, but enough have done it to me to make me especially unfriendly to sitting at a desk. I'd rather face an angry dog (which I do almost every day) than an unfriendly boss for a simple reason: That angry dog doesn't control whether I get a paycheck. Heck an angry customer doesn't control if I get a paycheck. That's the gold standard of jobs there. When you have a job where the customer can throw the biggest tantrum they can manage and your boss compliments you for enduring a hard job.... I can't stress enough how little that happens in the private sector.
Which brings us to risk. Risk comes in all shapes and sizes. In business class one of the first lessons I was taught was that risk is proportional to reward. What that means is that there are things that are easy to do, and things that aren't. The less easy they are to do the more money can be made doing them. In math terms the best example is gambling, which I am currently playing a hunch on. I placed a bet that Bernie would win the election, a 20 dollar bet I made 4 months ago. I get day by day updates on what other people will buy me out for. Currently I would still break even because people still don't appear to believe that he can win. That's fine for me because I'm playing a long game. If he wins I get 175 dollars. I took a 30% risk on 20 dollars.
Risk works the same with other things. Sometimes what you risk is reputation and career. When I worked at the mental hospital there was a constant very high risk of being taken down for a little mistake. If I was lucky I might have just been fired and reported to DHS. More often I was threatened with being taken away to jail. This threat was not based on controllable factors. For example a coworker could make a mistake that leads to prison for me. That was an unacceptable risk. That alone is why I am no longer interested in health care as a profession.
With lineman the risk is different. The risk is injury or loss of life. It's the biggest risk I've faced, but it's not the first time for either. I face both every day. Some research has revealed that the type of risk is the same: controllable. What an individual does is controllable by that individual, everything else isn't. Taking safety precautions is part of the job for most industrial or technical jobs. That doesn't scare me. I know how to listen to my gut and value safety over speed/convenience which is all most safety precautions are. I understand the effects of complacency.
To anyone who still thinks lineman is too risky I return to the lines so wisely said in the Super Chicken theme:
"Fred, if you’re afraid, you’ll have to overlook it.
Besides you knew the job was dangerous when you took it."
Reading horror stories about lineman does actually give me pause. I determined there are three reasons a job pays well: It's unpleasant to most people, it's risky, or it requires a high amount of time investment. I have no problem putting the time in, three years is nothing in my life. Hold off on the risk, because that's the big one. I want to mention unpleasantness. I love this one because I call people that find a difficult job unpleasant to be wimps. Nothing against them, everyone has their own needs. Mine are emotional and job security. I can't stand passive aggressive bosses, which seem to be a staple of office life. The amazing thing about field work is how little of your boss you see. Further if you do your job correctly your boss will have a really light touch with you. That isn't true inside. Inside managers get lonely and call meetings. They gripe at employees because they're sick of the sight of them. They take out their personal petty problems on those they work with. Not every one of them does this, but enough have done it to me to make me especially unfriendly to sitting at a desk. I'd rather face an angry dog (which I do almost every day) than an unfriendly boss for a simple reason: That angry dog doesn't control whether I get a paycheck. Heck an angry customer doesn't control if I get a paycheck. That's the gold standard of jobs there. When you have a job where the customer can throw the biggest tantrum they can manage and your boss compliments you for enduring a hard job.... I can't stress enough how little that happens in the private sector.
Which brings us to risk. Risk comes in all shapes and sizes. In business class one of the first lessons I was taught was that risk is proportional to reward. What that means is that there are things that are easy to do, and things that aren't. The less easy they are to do the more money can be made doing them. In math terms the best example is gambling, which I am currently playing a hunch on. I placed a bet that Bernie would win the election, a 20 dollar bet I made 4 months ago. I get day by day updates on what other people will buy me out for. Currently I would still break even because people still don't appear to believe that he can win. That's fine for me because I'm playing a long game. If he wins I get 175 dollars. I took a 30% risk on 20 dollars.
Risk works the same with other things. Sometimes what you risk is reputation and career. When I worked at the mental hospital there was a constant very high risk of being taken down for a little mistake. If I was lucky I might have just been fired and reported to DHS. More often I was threatened with being taken away to jail. This threat was not based on controllable factors. For example a coworker could make a mistake that leads to prison for me. That was an unacceptable risk. That alone is why I am no longer interested in health care as a profession.
With lineman the risk is different. The risk is injury or loss of life. It's the biggest risk I've faced, but it's not the first time for either. I face both every day. Some research has revealed that the type of risk is the same: controllable. What an individual does is controllable by that individual, everything else isn't. Taking safety precautions is part of the job for most industrial or technical jobs. That doesn't scare me. I know how to listen to my gut and value safety over speed/convenience which is all most safety precautions are. I understand the effects of complacency.
To anyone who still thinks lineman is too risky I return to the lines so wisely said in the Super Chicken theme:
"Fred, if you’re afraid, you’ll have to overlook it.
Besides you knew the job was dangerous when you took it."
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