Good luck and God Bless to the USIC tech

[Bad Robot]

Folks, keep these fellas in your thoughts and prayers when you can. Some of my best friends are going through hell right now, and there isn't much they can do from what I've been hearing. Thank you.

[yahoo]

good luck to you usic guys!!!!!

[locator00566]

If only you knew how bad it was. Any of you out there thinking of joining us in hell here at USIC, do yourself a favor and don't. I've worked for 4 locating firms and this is by far the worst. They have idiots in mangement who do not give a damn about technicians. My DM tells us "suck it up" when its 100 degrees outside and if idle time keeps being so high , he will take the AC out of our trucks so we won't be tempted to sit in our trucks to cool off. All the time he is sitting at his pool sending emails from his blackberry. I wish for a day theses corporate idiot policy makers would come out into the field and see what we deal with. We are not dealivering packages here. WE are protecting peoples lives!!!. And you put in place all these dumb policies, making our job extremely difficult. What is it going to take to make you idiots in corporate realize this....Someone getting killed? All your senior techs quiting? Are we in business to protect our customers utilities or are we in business to fatten corporates pockets?? If its the latter, you people are in the wrong business.


USIC=USUK

[fish]

well pipehorn i guess i should be glad that i did not go thru with the training class for usic. i do know a couple of senior techs with them, and they said it was much better when it was sm&p.

[big boots mcghee]

I had a guy come up to me last week and ask if we were hiring. It used to be I could recommend this job to anyone and everyone that was interested. Even a few years back, when the bosses started to strip things away, it was still a pretty good place to work. Now that things are the way they are, I'm not recommending this place to anyone. I couldn't lie to the guy. I told him even though we weren't hiring this wasn't the best place to work anyways, but if he wanted to check out the website listed on my truck then feel free.

[sprayandpray]

I basically tell them the same thing as Big Boots and advise them to find a different career if at all possible because, believe it or not, Utiliquest is an even worse company to work for here in Texas.

[RD_Wrangler]

Lol, I don't have that problem at all.

But only because those that ask about the job that seem the type that would make GOOD Techs are turned off immediately by the wages, and those that think the wages are fair, are the type that couldn't figure out how to GET to the online application test, much less PASS it.

[sling'n paint]

I havent posted in a while but have been reading quite a bit. I have to respond to this post because it seems that I work for a different USIC company than they guys on here. I work out of the Raleigh NC office and have to say that my day to day experiences are no where compared to anything said on here about USIC. Our office is union and even though I do not like the union part of the office my supervisor works well with my crew. There are only a few guys that actually pay the union fees so the majority are non union guys. My supervisor is not a gun ho union man and really wishes we could get rid of it. His basic motto is be where your supposed to be and just do our jobs, nothing more. We are not hassled by idle time basically cause we keep our idle times down to an average of 150. Our crew has gotten used to the gps and it doesnt really bother anyone any longer now that we have had them for a while now. When we first got them it took sometime to adjust but after a couple of weeks no big problems. We have 3 way tickets and are required to meet a minimum of 18 tickets in a 8 hr day. The last couple of months the city has been upgrading its infrastructure so 10hr days have been a norm. We have only been mandated to work a couple weekends and only because we had a couple of big projects that needed attention and there just wasnt time during the week. Our vacation time pretty much is approved mostly whenever it is asked for as long as ample time is giving so that the head craft can prepare for it. But there are talks about not allowing a week at a time while we are under heavy load. We are a little under manned and my supervisor is trying to get an experienced locator to come a board. My supervisor lets the head craft handle all issues dealing with the field aspect of the job. Tickets, who works where, contractors, and even damages at times. We have assigned areas that everyone is responsible for and our tickets are automatically routed to us so we are always aware of what our work load looks like for the upcoming days and when someones load is light they already expect some tickets from one of their neighboring locators.

My supervisor told us when we first got the gps that as long as we are where we are supposed to be, doing what we are saying we are doing and being honest about our work then there will be no problems. Yes there were a few bumps at the beginning as expected when something new is introduced but we all got used to it and now no real big issues. Every so often a I guys idle time may be higher than expected but there are good reasons for it and nothing else is said about it.

There is more that I can go on about but I was just trying to get the point across that not all offices are bad. I dont know where some of you guys are located and Im glad that the office I work out of is no where close to being what you guys describe.

Pipehorn you say you work out of NC and Im real curious if you work out of the Raleigh or Wilmington office. I know Wilmington is really under manned as we had to send some guys down to help out...even a few supervisors went down to run tickets. If you work out of the Raleigh office I'd be curious as to who your supervisor is. I do know that a couple of the Raleigh supervisors are much more strict than mine but with the crews they have to deal with I can see why they are the way they are, they have no other choice. What you said about the DM saying to "suck it up", even though I havent dealt much with Robert I can't see him saying that as it doesnt seem to be his type of personality. Now will he say it in a different way, yes, but not just bluntly suck it up. This is from my personal experiences and observations with Robert. Now on the flip side I know Robert isnt perfect and at times I wonder about it his reasonings but he is the DM and I have to respect that as he has a better view of the bigger picture than I.

Now if anyone is sick of there office and would like to relocate to NC the raleigh office could use some good locators. All we ask is do what is expected of you and there will be no problems.

[gogo49]

you do work for a "different company" if you are union. I'm not generally pro-union, but in our case, that being the contract locator, I think unionization is long overdue in our industry and should be embraced. Don't rely on what someone else tells you, do the research and get the facts for yourself. Unions are there to protect a workers' rights and protect them from abuses like the ones happening now in our industry. I know everyone won't agree with me but this only MY opinion. And remember, management personnel are not allowed to belong to unions.

[sprayandpray]

I just love USIC - your idle time is 150 and acceptable. Our goal is 60. I believe these rules are DM driven and that's why we haven't actually seen a directive from corporate regarding Idle Time.

[paintdown]

sling n paint? what would you do if you were required to work every weekend,at least 10 hrs a day, 22 tickets per 8 hr day

[orangeboots]

How do you count a ticket a 4 utility locate is 1 ticket or 4? elm had gps idle time speed reports etc etc for awhile didn't bother me at all did what i was supposed to when i was supposed to no problems. only aware of 2 problems out of 60 man crew one guy took his company truck to a bar at 2 am 40 miles from home and one took his to a lake boating for the day {pulling the boat} both have new careers.

[sling'n paint]

sling n paint? what would you do if you were required to work every weekend,at least 10 hrs a day, 22 tickets per 8 hr day

I would do what is required. Every state is different as is every office. I can only speak on behalf of the crew I work out of and my supervisor allows the head craft to decide how to get the work done. My head craft pushes us to do our best and we try to help each other when possible. We all work hours based on ticket volume, here mostly its been 10hr, a few 8 or 9hrs. I myself have worked 10 hrs the past 2-3 months on my own based on the work load that I see myself, even pulled 2 11hrs days. But these were my choice not managements. I average around 30 tickets, some days I'll get around 28-30 and on easier days I'll push 40+. Like I said my supervisor has only mandated 2 Saturdays to clear up large projects that had been sitting in guys queues waiting to get completed. Thats one thing I like is that our supervisor allows us to make decisions ourselves instead of forcing shit down our throats, as long as we make good business decisions.

Im not trying to paint a rosy picture here as there are other stresses that we have to deal with on a daily bases but its not from the added GPS, auto eclipse, or mandated hours. It the normal everyday routine that any locator goes through, bs tickets, contractors not willing to work with you, etc etc etc.

[sling'n paint]

Shouldnt have said that one of the daily stresses is mandated hours as we dont have mandated hours more or less meant long hours but again they are our choice.

[RD_Wrangler]

I would do what is required. Every state is different as is every office. I can only speak on behalf of the crew I work out of and my supervisor allows the head craft to decide how to get the work done. My head craft pushes us to do our best and we try to help each other when possible. We all work hours based on ticket volume, here mostly its been 10hr, a few 8 or 9hrs. I myself have worked 10 hrs the past 2-3 months on my own based on the work load that I see myself, even pulled 2 11hrs days. But these were my choice not managements. I average around 30 tickets, some days I'll get around 28-30 and on easier days I'll push 40+. Like I said my supervisor has only mandated 2 Saturdays to clear up large projects that had been sitting in guys queues waiting to get completed. Thats one thing I like is that our supervisor allows us to make decisions ourselves instead of forcing shit down our throats, as long as we make good business decisions.

Im not trying to paint a rosy picture here as there are other stresses that we have to deal with on a daily bases but its not from the added GPS, auto eclipse, or mandated hours. It the normal everyday routine that any locator goes through, bs tickets, contractors not willing to work with you, etc etc etc.

Lol, and you said you work in a 3-way area? I'm guessing a large part of this is aerial phone and power? Lotsa alleys and green-belts? Cus I know damn well you aren't pulling 30 tickets in a 3-way area with direct bury, in zero-lot-line rear easements! (For those not familiar with this concept, it means that they have done away with county/city maintained easements such as alleys and greenbelts. You have properties that run back to back with nothing but a fence between them and ALL the utilities buried on either side of the fence. Service crossings going back and forth, and culdesacs/tie-ins can be an absolute nightmare.)

I work a 4-way area (phone, power, gas and CATV), almost all rear-easement zero-lot-line, ALL buried, bust tail ALL day and am lucky to avg. 17-18 ticket per 8. I've seen 15-year vets from out of state cry and vow they were NEVER coming back to help here again. When it was 3-way I hit 20 or so, but I aint buying that your doing 3 hook-ups with services branching out at each ticket and doing 30+.

In either case, the problem isn't really GPS (I personally looked forward to it's arrival, FINALLY gonna catch the gold-brickers and slackers, right?), the problem is a lack of RESPECT. I'm a seasoned vet with a 10k+ damage ratio (and it's that low only because I ate a couple for the team), and now instead of using the system as everyone had hoped, the first thing they want to do is institute an idle limit, at a time when temp indexes are hitting 112 outside and 160 INSIDE the trucks? Some chump in front of a computer in his A/C'd office wants to call my boss and ME and ask why I was clocked in on THIS ticket, but my truck was 2 miles away for 50 minutes (I was responding to an ongoing project and had to re-mark 1/2 mile of HP to keep it from being cut and stayed on the ticket I was on to account for time.)? I'm productive, I'm damage free, I'm damn good at what I do, and obviously it's not something Mr. GPS watcher has ever done...and he wants to question MY actions? I think not. The type of individual that you would want to MANAGE an area and make it his own, isn't the type thats going to stand for constant questioning of his activities. Particularly when they take extreme pride in their work, and their performance shows this time and again.

Get it? It isn't the GPS, it's the disrespectful method they're using it. Trying to save the immediate dollar, regardless of the added stress it places on the field technicians that keep this company running in the first place. It's about RESPECT. We've never gotten it from contractors or customers, but we DAMN sure deserve it from the people dependent on OUR work for their jobs (whatever those may be).

I'll deal with the loss of income from on-call pay, loss of bonuses, piss-poor raises, etc. But I'll be damned if I'm going to work 45 minutes in 4 overly-landscaped backyards for a fence job in 100+ degree temps, and come back to a truck that has hit 145 degrees and fight with a computer thats locked up because someone didn't have the foresight to spring for decent heat sinks before instituting this wonderful idea. It's STUPID, and I won't take part in stupidity. They can fire me for not following it if they prefer. Put one of their low-paid brainless wonders, with NO concept of what locating is in this area and watch the damages rack up the millions. I'd enjoy watching it actually.

The basic gist is, if you treat your employees as mediocre, eventually that's exactly what you're going to have - mediocre employees. Which seems to be the going trend.