The End?

[locator_smbk]

How many of you out there in "locator land" have ever felt that you are at the end of your career?

With the way things have been going lately, that is the way I have felt.

The following is some of the crap I am tired of dealing with on a daily basis:

- doing multiple miles on one ticket and only having the standard notice
- constantly locating both sides of the road for a "possible road bore", spending 2-3 hours on said ticket and then checking the job out after the work is completed to see no road bore had been done
- constantly getting harassed by management about production goals when I have nothing but large tickets (see previous 2 items)
- paint cans you have to shake for 10 minutes and still can't get all of the paint out, then get bitched at by your sup for wasting paint
- Supervisors that move your first ticket of the day to another locator just before you clock in and then don't tell you about it, then you find out you drove 30 minutes to get there on YOUR OWN TIME, when you had a ticket less than 1 mile from your starting point.
- contractors that think they are the only ones digging on the face of the earth at any given time and think you have to go to their job site at the drop of a hat (see the first 2 items on this list as well)
- utility companies that install miles and miles of fiber in the ground, then do not install any access points for direct connection. you can only ring clamp it and your signal dies out within about 100 feet, but the job site is over 1/2 mile away
- utility companies that have said fibers in the ground that do not know which fibers are dead, and you spend 4 hours locating a dead fiber that hasn't been used in over 10 years (this one has access points ever 1/2 mile though)
- Computerized dispatch systems
- Company laptops that have crappy ticket management software that is constantly having problems and never works like it should. It sometimes takes 20-30 minutes to download your tickets in the morning.
- Supervisors that think they are God and act like the locator is their bitch. They never answer their phone when you call, and when they are supposed to meet with you or call you, they are 2-3 hours too late and want to meet with you while youre in the middle of a large job, causing you to slow down
- Dumba$$ drivers on the road that drag along well below the speed limit,and then when you get to the next job, your drive time is 10 minutes longer than what the "computer" recommends and then your sup is all over you about it
- One call centers that preach this and that and promise everything under the sun, and then allow callers to request an EMERGENCY or RUSH for a freaking fence install, or 3 miles of locating on one ticket when they clearly state no more than 1/4 mile per ticket
- My company phone ringing at any time of the day
- Pretty much everything else not listed here related to the locating industry with the exception of the FEW contractors out there that I work with that try their best to look out for us, and will help you out any way they can.

Thats enough for now. I am ACTIVELY searching for other employment. I am at the point I don't care about locating anymore, mostly due to the reasons above and the company that I work for, as well as its upper management and field supervisors.

There is more than one way to get out of this job. Some are pleasant and some aren't so pleasant...which way will I have to go to get out? No one knows.....

[FiosKing]

sounds like you are working for the wrong company lol... sorry to hear that man hope things get better for you

[Mke]

Hey SMBK, there is a promise land out there for locators. Its harder to get now, but it is still there. The hardest part is trying to find a job that will pay you this much, its hard to find now. other then being muddled where your at, the only choices is going to effect your pocketbook. You can't go back to school for retraining because of the work schedule. The other option is to be a locator else where, and you are probably competing with 60 other locators for the same position.

I'll give you a hint, cities still hire locators...... they just don't call them locators.

mke

[ProfessionalLocator]

I too have been in such a situation and felt the same. I have taken breaks between locator jobs in other fields. The term Job Burnout applies to utility locating. I tell people that it's psychical demands are not high but it's stress level is high.

You got some good advise from the others to consider seek being a locator somewhere else. It is very true some municipalities, and even counties and state governments, have positions open that require a locator. Search for these positions and when they come up go for it.

The locatorjobs.com site is good but not all firms advertise there. A good search engine for jobs is simplyhired.com which searches across a number of sources. Still it does not get them all so also try careerbuilder.com or wsome others as well. In the search box use " to set for a specific phrase like "utility locator" as well as the variants like "line locator" , "utility marker" and so on.

So you do not like your present employer? So keep the job and use it's income to support you until you get the job you want.

[yahoo]

hang in there buddy!!!! tomorrow is a new day! it will work out eventually! there's a reason why there are sunny days and rainy days and both are good...just try to find out the reason why all these rainy days you are having are just so bad.......Godspeed to you!!!