Toyomafia - The Clubhouse. 151.880

There’s no doubt there’s a lot of quid pro quo, involved. We have various life experience and expectations. I’ve had decent bosses and bosses from hell. I would never trade “fair” for “generous”.
Give me fair and honest any day. It’s better in my opinion to make a little less money but be working for people I can respect, than work for the guy who takes you to dinner or golfing but you know is an immoral lying cheat with no moral compass. When I found myself in this spot, I let it clearly be known, that I would prefer a rectal exam to spending 3 hours golfing with the prick.

 

In the modern world - unless you own your own business or have unfettered access to those with real control you better be jumping around.

 

Sadly, pretty much the truth

 

I have had a couple of second phone interviews recently where one of the first questions asked is where do you see yourself in 5 years. Clearly they have not read my resume. If they had they would know In 5 years I will be retired....

 

No pension, no 401k match, minimal raises, thats not loyalty from a company. Companies now aren’t trying to keep people. It’s all ass backwards.

 

When I was a kid I had a job as an HVAC helper. A couple of guys here are familiar, but we got to the job sites after the walls and windows were in, and obviously before A/C was operable. A Texas August and that job didn't pair well. That and very short stints in a couple of other jobs that happened outdoors was the worst it ever was for me. Mostly been an office powderpuff for 35 years... I imagine some of you gents could wind up on TV in an episode hosted by Mike Rowe.

 

So it brings up a topic, how many jobs have you held. For me, I started working at 13 on a blueberry farm so I could get a pair of Jordans. Which led to working since. I came up with a list of jobs I’ve had, I think I missed a few, but can’t come u with them now. I’m at 16.


Picking blueberries
Town highway-mowing traffic medians and a cemetery
Dunkin’ Donuts- counter and Baker
RGIS inventory services
College grounds crew/maint
6 flags-Ride operator, then manager
Dishwasher/short order cook
Kayak rentals on Cape Cod
Bumper cars and Arcade attendant
Gas station- fuel attendant and convince store
Snow maker at ski area
Dicks sporting goods- hunting/fishing dept
Tree climber for tree service
EMT
Vintage carousel operator
State park system for 20 years- I’ve held 6 different titles for the parks.

 

At 14 I washed large aloe leaves in an industrial restaurant dishwasher, they made aloe based health products out of them
16 Dairy Queen, mostly cooking but did everything
17 Payless Cashways, hardware and lumber store, stocked, helped customers, loaded lumber
19 a neighborhood Affiliated food store, Joe's Grocery, had a full meat market, processed deer during deer season
22 delivered retail milk for Elise, Borden for 6 months, 6 months was long enough to see getting up at 3 am wasn't for me
23 back to the grocery store
24 Package car driver UPS, then at 32 feeder (semi) driver for UPS

Talking with my wife a few months ago realizing almost every job I've ever had was customer service based.
Although there are runs in feeders that you never see a customer, some you do.



Pic was back in the Dairy Queen days.

 

What?!

 

Or they're just going off the script the company gives them.

 

I haven't been on the show but that's pretty accurate.
I work at a hydroelectric dam, he's been to one of the WA state dams for his show.

 

Yup..
Also Texas used to have retail blue laws.
You couldn't buy stuff like household goods on Sundays.
Stores would have those aisles blocked off.
You have to buy liquor from a liquor store and they are closed on Sunday.
We have a lot of stupid laws here..

History of ‘blue laws’ in Texas long with effects still felt today | News | kdhnews.com

Texas, like many states in the Union, fought over the “blue laws” incessantly. Throughout the first few decades of the 20th century, Texas legislators, businessmen and preachers disputed beer sales, ballpark admissions, movie showings and department store openings with mixed success.

After a protracted battle over punishing business owners who flouted state law and kept their doors open on Sunday, the Legislature passed what would be its last state “blue law” in 1961, which prohibited the sale of a vast swath of consumer goods on Sunday.

Many department stores, now allowed to keep their doors open with caveats, simply laid paper over the items not for sale — with a web of confusing exemptions for buyers in “emergency situations.”

A few of the items on the no-sell list included clothing, footwear, utensils, electric fans, radios, clocks, tools (excluding non-power-driven hand tools), jewelry, clocks, watches, toys (excluding novelties and souvenirs) and lawn mowers.


The penalty for a first offense was a fine of up to $100, while second and subsequent convictions could be punished by imprisonment in jail not to exceed six months or by a fine of not more than $500.

In 1985, Texas abolished all “blue laws” on the books after department stores regularly ignored the laws, relying on the state’s ability and willingness to prosecute the law, according to the Chicago Tribune, which reported the law’s final days.

Department stores simply walked the aisles, removing the white paper, and the “blue laws” appeared to be gone.

 

Do you count different jobs at the same place? I think I'm younger than a lot of this crew so my list is pretty short:

Landscaper (summer after high school)
Landscaper (summer after 1st year university - different company)
Operations Support Engineering co-op student (4 month term)
Reservoir Engineering co-op student (8 month term)
Process Technical co-op student (8 month term)
Technical Contact (same company and similar role to my last co-op term - first real job after university. Did two different tech contact roles over the course of about 4 and a half years.)
Project Development Engineer
Safety Relief Subject Matter Expert (did this job half time in parallel with my PDE role for a couple years after I'd been in the other role for a couple years then was laid off about a year ago.)

Process Safety Engineer

 

I'm not necessarily against these laws. I used to always try not to shop on a Sunday, though since having a kid that seems to be the only time I can get to the grocery store.

 

That's ridiculous, another example of politicians with too much power.

 

Politicians and Southern Baptists..

 

One and the same, more likely eh?

 

paper route
fishing/hunting store
construction laborer
drywaller
house painter
fishing/hunting store manager
welder
construction management

I was a welder for almost 12 years, been doing CM for about 8 months now. Construction laborer and drywall was about 4 years combined and the fishing/hunting store management was just under 2 years. House painting was the shortest I've ever been at a job, 2.5 months. That job fucking sucked.

 

Yep, I think the year I spent building a dormitory unit in Death Valley was the worst. I remember laughing with my guy’s when we’d watch a group of tourists get off the air conditioned tour bus, scurry into the gift shop and come back out with their “I survived Death Valley” t-shirts!

 

One of my favorite landscaping “jobs” as a kid, was at this old man’s house off of Roller Coaster Rd, his wife was a model-70 years ago. Super cool house on a hill with a pool at the bottom. Most people would have me bag or can all the leaves and debris………not Mr Snodgrass! “Just dump it over the edge”
You mean just dump it and leave it? “Yes”
He also paid me all in coins usually, I’d have to come in and count it when I was done.

 

The list of several top companies for me - but that is because commitment to a company culture is a big part of where I work and the team I lead.
I’m not looking for short term one-and-done…No matter how good you are at your job, I’ve got a minimum 1-yr investment to make you proficient and a key player in OUR team. If someone has a 20 year career spread out over 8-10 companies, they never spent enough time at any of them to become vested in the team…or they were dog shit and let go after their lack of competence finally made it high enough up the chain.

I probably wouldn’t give the guy that has done the EXACT same position much further look either, but in construction it is rare to hold the EXACT same position long.

 

Exactly

 

This is absolutely true as well. I would expect nothing less than that to be reciprocal. That’sa big part of why so many people in our company have been here 10+ years (a huge number 20+).

 

In the welding industry, especially here in the oil/gas field, it's extremely rare to spend more than a year at a company. The fact that I did 7 years at one shop blows peoples minds and it was honestly a mistake on my part. Most people do a year, maybe 18 months, with a company. Then the job ends, or they get a better offer and move on. Staying loyal to a company results in stagnation, both skillwise and especially wages/benefits. In this trade, you don't get raises unless you switch companies.

 

My dad was a dam operator most of my life. He was a logging sawyer before that, until a tree hit him and damn near killed him

 

Being a journeyman welder isn’t a position we interview for. Completely different thing to me. Call the hall for a welder, and he gets a test when he shows up. Even foremen aren’t typically interviewed - they are promoted on the job from the journeyman working on that site, and may get bumped back down as the size of the job grows/shrinks.

But the GOOD foreman are there ones that start the path to becoming GF or Superintendents. We don’t hire any GFs or Supers out of the hall… they are promoted from within (from those loyal and hardworking employees) or interviewed extensively.

The role you are in now is the sort of role we are interviewing and being people for, looking for people that are smart, hard working, able to think outside the box and quickly, and have good background experience to help them make good decisions and lead others

 

That said, we do have journeyman that have been with us in the field and the shops for 20+ years. It’s a company culture for us, and it does go both ways.

 

Was the tree and bear one incident or separate

 

Fucking phone keyboard

damn NEAR killed him

 

Hahahah
I was going to say, that would be a shitty way to be taken out.