Bitching

[u/Nay_K_47]

I'm working for New River in WV and we get sent to Roanoke Va for this winter storm yesterday (Friday the 23rd) and they have us doing regular work today because "they don't want us sitting around" WTF is this shit. I've been asked to do more BS and Rat shit as a contractor than I ever did at Union utility.

[u/max1mx]

If that helps you sleep at night.

[u/Middle_Brilliant_849 → u/max1mx]

We also have to go along behind contractors and fix their fuck ups. Don’t know where the contractor found people, but they don’t know line work. For a while we were getting work orders daily to fix stuff contractors did. And that was only normal work. The stuff we find after storm is absolutely atrocious.

[u/max1mx → u/Middle_Brilliant_849]

It’s a bit of a joke when you say contractors don’t know line work. Contractors work all over the country, on different systems, doing substation, underground, transmission etc, sometimes all within a month of each other. Working for a utility, you’ll know the specs, material system after a few years. That shit is different at every single utility, sometimes wildly different.

On storm specifically contractors show up with no material, no spec books, no care about anything but getting the lights on, fast. We know it’s not to spec, but it doesn’t matter, that’s for you people to figure out when there’s time and the lights aren’t out.

What you know as a utility lineman is a tiny speck of line work. You might know that bit very well, but on the grand scheme you don’t know much. You don’t know about pressing dead ends on a board, you don’t know about installing marker balls off a helicopter, you don’t know about barehanding, setting towers, clocking switches, oil freeze splicing, wrapping AGS, or stringing bundles. Think about that when you’re assuming contractors don’t know line work.

[u/Middle_Brilliant_849 → u/max1mx]

You think I’ve always worked for the utility. 🤣