Although my job isn’t a dream job, I’ve enjoyed the work for the last 2 years and 8 months. Like in any job, there are things that an employee will like and dislike. I like working alone, independently, remotely (closest office is almost 9 hours away), getting paid for drive time, and being able to use a rental vehicle or get mileage reimbursed. Some of the frustrations with the job is that, being low on the totem pole, we get paid by the hour. This can be a blessing or a curse. When the times are lean, we can get up to about 60 hours per week for several weeks. When times are rough, you’re lucky if you get 30 hours on one pay check (and this could last for more than one month). Weather conditions can be a downer, but it comes with the work (work outside 100%). One frustration that I have had, along with several other technicians, is that the low-level managers don’t always communicate as quickly as we feel they should.

The low-level managers are always telling us to communicate with them and project managers/senior level management, but they don’t always reciprocate. It’s frustrating when you send an email and you don’t get a response. If I don’t receive an out-of-office reply stating that you’ll be slow to respond or that you’re out of the office till a certain day, then there is no reason to not respond to an email. I realize that not every email requires a response, but the ones that should be getting a response aren’t getting it. There are busier times of the year and at those times, I am definitely a little more patient about response time. In general, if an email is sent Monday morning and you’re in the office, then a response of some kind within 24 to 48 hours is reasonable, right (maybe by the end of the day on Wednesday)? At most, by the end of the day on Friday. It’s frustrating to have to send additional emails and when you finally get a response, it’s a canned response, with a bit of sass. Really? All we are trying to do is to get more information about a particular task (so we can have a hard copy of the info) or we are wanting to find out about any possibilities for potential work as current projects end.

When it comes to new projects starting up, it hasn’t been a problem in the past, as there were new projects starting up all the time. Another technician and I have thought how it seemed odd to hire new technicians to be in our area, when we have repeatedly asked about work. We’ve both been told that we are good workers and keepers, yet work in our range would go to other people. Then the low-level managers would seem to get irritated when we would get frustrated. It’s like, “Dude. What did you expect? You very rarely talk to us. And when you do, it’s never to keep us in the loop about work in our area.” If we are good workers and we’ve been wanting updates on potential work, perhaps you should get a clue and start talking to us.

How can we not question the logic of the low-level and senior managers, when we aren’t given any info? How are they surprised when the good workers leave the company, due to the lack of communication, lack of opportunities for growth, and/or advancement? Now, the company has a lack of work nationwide. Yeah…thanks for listening to us when we told you that we didn’t need anyone else working in the area. If anything, having the extra hands for one to two months was all that was needed. It really gets old being told that more work is coming up and then we’re stuck with part-time work for 3 months straight. Do you even know how hard that is when you’re living below your means “before” the reduction in hours (due to the lack of work)? Yeah…thanks for actually talking to the people who are here doing the dirty work.

So, I’ve been applying to every job that I can in hopes of having a permanent, full-time, salaried position by the end of September, if not before then. I do like the company, but people can’t continue to work this way. As a technician’s last project ends, let them go amicably and and new projects that do come up, go to those of us that are still here, working our butts off.

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