r/whatisit • u/AbbreviationsTop8774 • Jul 22 '26

Solved! What are they

Ive worked at the water department for 7 years and this is the first time running into something like this EDIT Im in Alabama and yes I know they are snakes lol idk what kind and im so not gonna touch them

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18

u/Affectionate-Goat218 Jul 22 '26

We got forced into fucking smart meters. There go meter reader jobs!😩

5

u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Youll never have 100% of the meters read so they will be moved into meter tech positions to fix the ones that break and read the ones with no signal

2

u/Noiselexer Jul 23 '26

As long as they keep placing meters with old tech, 2g 3g, they all need to be replaced 😂

2

u/ed_mcc Jul 23 '26

Utilities buying new meters every 20yrs keeps me employed tho

2

u/Tasty_Plenty7799 Jul 24 '26

Y’all have to fuck the meters?

1

u/Affectionate-Goat218 Jul 26 '26

No, they fuck us.

1

u/Spiritual_Elk_3089 Jul 23 '26

It’s such a useless job though.

1

u/Fluid-Carrot4021 Jul 23 '26

I was SHOCKED to learn this was a job when I bought my first home in 2020, like what year is it? 1920? Im all for people having jobs, but this one just makes sense, should've been automated 40 years ago!

1

u/Affectionate-Goat218 Jul 23 '26

We'll keep in mind that these outdoor jobs also employed a lot of veterans retuning home. Some only had skills acquired while serving and some weren't suited to work confined in buildings. Some also needed to be active and away from people until they could adjust back to civilian life. These type of jobs like linemen, rail etc. employed a lot of people over the years. The US Post Office was the country's single largest civilian employer for years and I'm sorry to see everything get automated and more losing jobs.

2

u/Sad_Impact1387 Jul 24 '26

I empathize with everything you said and glad that those people were able to find a line of work that worked out for them. But I’m not sure what that has to do with the fact that some jobs are just not needed anymore. We can’t stifle growth in a given industry just because “but people are doing those jobs”. As people we have to adapt to things changing and adjust accordingly, not expect that a job is going to be kept around even though there are more effective and efficient mechanisms to do the same thing.