Stress

**Goldenboy** · February 19th, 2011, 08:07 AM

I've noticed alot of posts about the stress that this job puts on all of us. I see it daily how different locators deal with stress. There are some locators that will freak out and go crazy if they have too many tickets or get pulled in too many directions at once.

I personally don't let it bother me. I get done what I can and I make phone calls on the others. I know my first few years I let things bother me and I'd worry at night about a big job due the next day but after a few years I realized putting that kind of unneccesary stress on myself was counter productive.

I guess what I'm saying is this job is extremely stressful during the day to me but I just let it go when I'm done working(Southern Comfort).

**ProfessionalLocator** · February 19th, 2011, 10:50 AM

Stress is an emotional reaction and dealing with it is to do "things" that promote a good feeling that is not stress.

In this industry stress is significantly lessened if the locator feels in control of their situation. Planning the work for best efficiency and getting it done right as fast as possible reduces the feeling of impending doom that we all face, time limits to get the tickets done. If at the end of the day you feel that the results are favorable in that you do not face an impossible situation tomorrow greatly reduces stress. A big part of this is to get ahead in your work load and have nothing due by the end of that day and if possible go into tomorrow with nothing due by the end of that day either.

While getting your work done and getting ahead in your workload demands results in less stress this can produce the opposite, more stress. It is inevitable that someone around you will get behind due to being overloaded, absenteeism, whatever. Occasionally we all have to help out, occasionally is not a problem. If your co-workers have chronic absenteeism, continually fail to put in the effort or whatever reason are unable to complete their workload themselves creates a problem. This results in you being the person sent into another area with a bunch of tickets, some of them very difficult marks, all due by the end of the day. Getting a bunch of tickets due by the end of the day around noon, or later, is sudden stress and if continual burns out the locator. The feeling of control is lost and the feeling that putting out a good effort results in being put in a precarious situation, facing having late tickets and the possibility of damages, and stress levels rise dramatically.

Still I have to say stress is greatly reduced if you get your work done ahead and feel in control of the situation.

Management can add to the feeling of control by prioritizing it's support activities that involve locators. For example the equipment manger orders everyone into the shop without pre-notice to inventory the equipment. The same week the fleet manager brings everyone in to do something with the fleet, again on immediate notice. (Seen those last two at one place I worked, in the same week!) Someone in the company decides their paperwork is critical and must have it signed by the locators that day and everyone is called in to sign some document. Here the employees have planed their work and suddenly their plans, which they are told are part of their job, are trashed. To limit this effect management must insist that the various managers coordinate their contact with the locators and pre-schedule events that would pull locators out of the field, and then enforce the policy. Think of it this way if one does not want to consider employee stress, pulling these employees out of the field means lost production and often increased overtime.

**Mke** · February 19th, 2011, 11:33 AM

I'm with GoldenBoy. I've come to terms with being able to only get done, what I can get done. The stress of pending jobs doesn't effect me. With that being said, I do tend to think about them, and how I am going to attack the situation, but those are just random thoughts I toss around in my head while my wife goes on about whatever her mother has said to piss her off that day.

I think my highest level of stress comes from knowing the fact that "we" as locators, cannot locate everything. I have accurately located job sites and still have been called back because I "missed something". Those pending situations always happen. And for those of you who have been in those situations know that its everyone against you. Even if you are 100% correct, it will still be a battle to convey that to the excavator, or job superintendent. I hated when I was with a contract locating company and we had a "damage investigator" go to those calls. Most of the time they would not back you at best they would meet the contractor half way.

As for the stress the companies put on their employees..... all companies do that. That is one stress that needs to be understood and dealt with accordingly.

Mke

**sprayandpray** · February 19th, 2011, 11:24 PM

When I think I'm stressed I remember an interview of Lee Trevino's. He had just won a playoff for several thousands of dollars and the Reporter asked him how he had handled the pressure His reply was ""You don't know what pressure is until you've played for $5 a hole with only $2 in your pocket."

**fiberlocator99** · February 20th, 2011, 04:55 PM

i guess you only have stress if you work at usic. production x3 yikes. maybe if people were paid better for how hard they work, there would be little less stress. compensate for all the hard work and effort locators put in from day to day(and night to night for oncall) geez

**yahoo** · February 20th, 2011, 09:49 PM

stress is at all jobs and will eventually take your life if you don't get control of it!

**Goldenboy** · February 21st, 2011, 07:08 AM

It's Yahoo............... Welcome back.......Long time no see.............

**RD_Wrangler** · February 21st, 2011, 10:25 AM

From a biological stand-point, "Stress" in males is the result of the gradual depletion of the hormone Testosterone in our bloodstream. The male body utilizes this hormone (along with many other areas) in the brain to aid in the correlation of past memory triggers with current obstacles being observed through outside sensory input. Basically for every problem we solve, the body uses up a little more testosterone. The more problems or obstacles there are to overcome, the less testosterone we have to utilize, the more stress we feel.

This becomes exacerbated by dealing with multiple problems at once, as frankly the male brain hasn't been programmed to deal with multi-tasking (unlike the female brain which HAS evolved to handle multiple issues at once), we have been programmed by thousands of years of evolution to focus on one thing at a time (get food, get fire, get shelter) and to prioritize these things automatically in order of most to least important, handling each one by one. In todays world, where one can have 10 problems thrown at you, with little to no variance in how it should be prioritized, our brains most cope with the added problem of how to prioritize multiple items that should all be a priority and how to handle these things all at once (something we just aren't designed to do).

In professions such as ours, with multiple issues arising hourly, constant priority shifts due to new problems arising, and the need for our brains to un-naturally attempt to multi-task, the testosterone depletion in our bodies is extreme. The only way to counter-act this frankly, is to shut our brains OFF (no jokes please), by disassociating from the world for a time and interacting in some enjoyable past-time that requires no thinking. I know it sounds like a bad joke, but the truth is, if you begin to feel stressed out and tired to the point where you can no longer function (again this is the male brain, female brains handle stress in a different way), take a break. Read for 30min., find a restaurant with TVs and watch the news for 30min....just sit and do NOTHING. This will actually cause your body to produce replacement testosterone enabling you to get through your day and that 30min break will actually make you MORE efficient so you can get MORE done than you would have without it.

I look forward to the jokes I am quite sure this post will inspire.

**locatethis** · February 21st, 2011, 05:15 PM

I would try to respond in a jokingly manner , but I'm too stressed and I shut my mind off !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**scap** · February 22nd, 2011, 05:21 PM

Once you've fallen below where you once were experiencing stress in a certain job for example, you can actually remember those immensely stressful moments and relish them, remembering things about your past you missed so much.