Work nightmare

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doogievlg

doogievlg

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I guess this thread is best suited for repair men but I want to here all the service call nightmares. I'll start it off with my last five days.

First night I get a no hot water call, no ac call and a lock out. Worked on those until 11 pm after going into work at 8 am.

Second night: another no hot water call at seven pm. Put a new water heater in and I'm done by nine.

Third night: work on turning a apartment until 12

Fourth night: (Saturday). Go into work at 4 to turn another apartment and I get done at eleven.

Tonight is the fifth night: get a call about a flooded building at 5:30. I show up and there is standing water in two apartments. I repair the leak and I'm done at 6:30. I called for a water extraction at 5:45 when I saw the damage. I have now been sitting in my car since 6:30 waiting on the water extraction and now the company will not answer the phone.

This is over 20 hours of over time in five days. I'm about to fly off the handle and figured I would Vent here.
 
I retired from Verizon, my personal best was 42 hrs OT worked in one week. I was trashed for a week.
 
As long as no more big time emergencies happen then I should end at around 30 hours in seven days. By next weekend though I'll be closer to fourty but that's ten days. On Tuesday I'm paying the boss a visit and making it very clear that I will not be working next weekend, I have been putting off my motor for a month now due to work.
 
20 hours overtime in an economy where jobs are really tough to find and you're mad?
 
RustyRatRod said:
20 hours overtime in an economy where jobs are really tough to find and you're mad?
Click to expand...

No ****. I've put in PLENTY of 60 hour weeks. This was when I was working for Motorola, installing E911 upgrades, and radio / telco gear on mountaintops.

Sun, rain, wind, snow, sleet, bugs, mosquitos the size of of a P-47 Thunderbolt. Stuck in mud, sand, snow, ice. Put on chains in same. Winch? Are you SHITTING me? Hell, we didn't even get a come - a - long, unless I brought my OWN

The age old tower climbing thread:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=174936

Just so we know where I'm coming from, before my days with Motorola, I spent some 12 years or so doing HVAC / R service, maintenance and installs.

This was my second service truck, bought used. I built the vise mount, the ladder rack, and most of the work on the bulkhead separator. The vise unplugs, "hitch receiver style" and you can put a pipe vise on there instead. I carried "a lot of crap" in that truck. I scrapped out a car, and added all the leafs to the rear springs.



 
On call Thanksgiving day around 11 a.m. we had an equipment failure that injected a boat load of mercaptan into the system. Switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree.Ended up calling in all hands still in town as even once you figure out the problem you still have to do a full leak investigation at every call. Finally got home next morning about 8:30 a.m.
 
RustyRatRod said:
20 hours overtime in an economy where jobs are really tough to find and you're mad?
Click to expand...

Indeed I am. I have been a slave to my job before. I was working seven days a week until late at night. I tricked myself into enjoying it until I realized I was going weeks at a time without seeing any friends of family. A pay check may that important to some but not me.
 
I worked 99.5 hours in one (7-Day) week once. By the end I was nearly delirious. I didn't know how many hours I had worked, but ever since i saw the paycheck, I've felt like such a p**** that I didn't just work the extra half hour to make it an even 100.
 
doogievlg said:
Indeed I am. I have been a slave to my job before. I was working seven days a week until late at night. I tricked myself into enjoying it until I realized I was going weeks at a time without seeing any friends of family. A pay check may that important to some but not me.
Click to expand...

I think you have other issues. Either you think you are getting screwed by your company, or something. I have advise. Quit your job Tuesday morning. Just walk right into the boss's office and tell him (or her) to "shove it."

See? Easy.

I'll send you the bill for the consultation fees.
 
I work repairing air pollution monitoring analyzers (typically at power plants Cement kilns and paper mills). It's typical for 25 hours of OT in a week with travel delays and the fact that I have to get the analyzer working so that the customer doesn't get a fine from the EPA for excessive down time. I always say that they're going to have to send the Brinks truck to bring. My pay LOL. Anyway I always say that there are 2 schools of thought when it comes to OT. Some people can't get enough and others would rather swim in liquid dinosaur s**t than to work OT. Sorry that you are getting hosed so badly.
 
67Dart273 said:
I think you have other issues. Either you think you are getting screwed by your company, or something. I have advise. Quit your job Tuesday morning. Just walk right into the boss's office and tell him (or her) to "shove it."

See? Easy.

I'll send you the bill for the consultation fees.
Click to expand...

I have many other issues but not many have anything to do with my job. The long hours I mentioned before were with another job. I enjoyed that job but I took a new one for better benifits. I really enjoy the job that I have now. I just enjoy my hobbies and friends and family more. I guess that could be an issue?
 
before I went in business for myself I worked for a big construction company as a union operator. My crew was working in gas fields installing compressor sites from 6 am until 4 pm. Hunt Oil here in Tuscaloosa had an explosion so when got off work at 4pm we grabbed a bite to eat on the way and then worked from 5 pm until 1 am. Got home, showed and in bed 2-2:30 am and was back at work at 6 am about 30 miles from home. I did this for 3 weeks 7 days a week. Couldn't do it now but I was only about 48 years old then.
 
Only 20 hours overtime in a week and you are complaining? You must not have a family that needs shoes, clothes, medicine, food and essentials in life. When my family was growing up and I was self employed a 60 hour work week was a short week. A normal work week was 80 hours up. My crew and worked 41 hours straight to get an order out because it was what the contract called for.
 
Wow,
Guess I'll just shut up, working in the oil business ya have to make hay when the sun shines but its been shining for a long time now. Used to work seven days a week about 70 hrs. A week. Dropped Sundays and was at 60 per, then dropped Saturday and at about 50. Still work about three Fridays a month averaging about 52 per week. The older you get the more precious and valuable your time becomes and lifestyle is all relative anyway cause if ya make more ya spend more so your always still broke anyway. For the folks that have to work themselves to death to make ends meet, well then god bless em and I hope for better days for em. I happen to work with a bunch of guys that are just plain greedy, they have no hobbies and would rather be at work then at home. May gods grace grant us all happiness (better then $$$) and may the bluebird of lottery tickets grant us the time and $$$ to finish all our projects. Yes, all of them. Then we can start some more hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
 
When I was at my last job before I got hurt, I enjoyed workin like that. I would get there about 7AM and stay often until 8PM or later. Usually 5 hours on Saturday. The paycheck was all I gave a damn about. lol
 
I work 14 days in a row on night shift, 2 provinces from home, and have 5 days to recover. 84 hour weeks, which is 168 hours in 14 days. 5 days at home sounds great, until you have to catch up on all the maintenance you didn't do for 2 weeks, pay the bills, try to convert back to a day shift routine, and try to get time with my family on all that. Going on 6 years of this **** now. I'd love to have a normal work week at home. Too bad jobs are scarce.
 
Your TRADING hours of your LIFE for CASH and BENEFITS.

If you guys believe your life is better spent working
so you can buy something that nobody will care about
or remember when you die, I feel sorry for you.
If you can't buy what you need in a forty hour job
you need to do something different or work smarter.
I worked several jobs that required massive overtime,
until I was injured and they showed me how important
I really was.

Work less enjoy life more.
 
When I'm in the "busy" season I work about 70 hrs. a week. Normally my work week will consist of 4 days and home for the rest.

Maybe you need to find a job that you can knock down 1000 to 1200 in two or three days and you still have "you" time.
 
I set my work life up (self employed) where I make a lot per hour, but don't work a lot of hours.
My actual on the job hours per week are about 10-12 average, but sometimes I take more if I need the extra money.
Also I don't work before 9am and I'm usually home before noon. :)
That's one of the reasons I'm on FABO at any given time during the day (because I'm not on a job at the time) :)

It is this way because I set it up this way, it's not by chance and it took 10 years or so to do it.
 
None of us here really knows the other guy's situation to say....fact is most of us know the feeling of being pushed hard like the OP is and it helps to vent.

I just finished 6 days straight of long shifts without ever sitting down, running back and forth serving dinner to rich people on vacation, of course I b*itch about it but then remember I live in the greatest country and have so much, most people on the planet have it a lot worse.
 
Trading time for $ will get you pissed off fast. Take that same time and work for yourself. Then at some point you will be able to take time off whenever you want to. The thing is you will need to learn to turn off that light switch..... I know cause I have done it. I work hard for myself and take off whenever I feel like it. My schedule may be a little different. Work 12 Hours for 4 Days, take off 1. Work 20-14 hour days in a row and then take off 3 days or work 4 hours one day and take the rest of the day and next morning off. Whatever I feel like doing is what I do.
 
the balance between life and work is impossible for a rail road signal maintainer. we work 11 days on 3 days off. on call for those 11 days, that means do not plan anything just be ready for work. i work with a few guys that have 380 hours of overtime since jan 1. no time for life. i work a 10 on 4 off with on call, working 4 pm to 2am not good to plan anything.
there are about 125 signal maintainers in my district, last year 22 quit because they were tired of the hours and wages.
 
longarm said:
Your TRADING hours of your LIFE for CASH and BENEFITS.

If you guys believe your life is better spent working
so you can buy something that nobody will care about
or remember when you die, I feel sorry for you.
If you can't buy what you need in a forty hour job
you need to do something different or work smarter.
I worked several jobs that required massive overtime,
until I was injured and they showed me how important
I really was.

Work less enjoy life more.
Click to expand...

A person definitely doesn't need to be married to their job for life. Success all depends on how you use that cash you make. I was absolutely flat broke when I started my business at the age of 26. After 12 years of busting my *** I sold the business and then sold the real estate that went with it. Before I sold the business the debt load was zero and I flipped it all in to residential rental property. It was a good thing I sold the business because when I got hurt in a car wreck it would have ended my ability to do the manual labor that I did in the business.
 
...almost 36 hours straight working on a catastrophic server crash in a hospital. Still have to be at work 8:30 on Monday. Oh, no overtime. I was management... but it was a job...
 
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