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Thread: Labor shortages in the skilled trades discussion

  1. #31
    Abducted by Aliens Borderland's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Welder View Post
    One day I want to be a skilled tradesman.

    I spent today cutting the floor out of a dumpster, then beating it apart with a small sledge and a large cold chisel. It was probably 115 degrees inside that thing and I sweated like 2 gallons of water. Then I got stormed on before I could get my tools up. I can't figure out why I can't find anybody else who wants to do this.
    That only works in a non-right-to-work state. By the time you're a journeyman you will have provided a union official a comfortable living and paid for his kids to go to college.
    Last edited by Borderland; 07-14-2021 at 07:24 PM.
    In the P-F basket of deplorables.

  2. #32
    Abducted by Aliens Borderland's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hickrev View Post
    Even that is getting cut back significantly. We run “survey” crews out of our engineering offices (state-side) that do both roadway and boundary work, all of whom are “supervised” by one licensed surveyor in a completely different development office. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t seen 95% of the plats we’ve sent him for approval, but hey, apparently that’s what the licensing board is fine with.
    Some states allow that. As long as your company has a physical office and staff in the state where the work is being done. More or less a corporate license to do business in that state.

    Personally, I wouldn't stamp a survey that I didn't do myself. That includes the research, calculations and being on site at least once. But then I was never in the bidness. I was employed by the gov't to build roads and bridges.
    Last edited by Borderland; 07-14-2021 at 08:00 PM.
    In the P-F basket of deplorables.

  3. #33
    Four String Fumbler Joe in PNG's Avatar
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    Call it College Cargo Cultism- the cult belief that if you get your degree, then you are exempt from hard work forever.

    And like a lot of superstitions, it's hard to pin down where someone has said as much, but the belief is there, not to mention the subtle pressure to get a degree, or be one of those toiling losers.

    It's funny how the old Aristocratic belief that labor and toil somehow soils and degrades those who participate has come back into fashion.
    "You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
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  4. #34
    Site Supporter Maple Syrup Actual's Avatar
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    There's pretty decent money in the trades here but we keep circumventing the shortage by allowing temporary foreign workers at minimum wage, which holds the wages well below what they should be. You go to lots of big construction sites and entire trades are imported.

    I miss trades work though, that's for sure. I really thought I'd be happier designing stuff but man, I am bored to death and can almost feel my brain atrophy as I no longer have to solve problems on the fly the same way.
    This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
    https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff

  5. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by JodyH View Post
    Try skilled oil/gas refinery/fractionation plant operations labor.
    Starting rate for relatively inexperienced (still need a few years of OJT in a related sector of O&G) is around $150k/yr. and goes way up from there, 14 days on 14 days off shift work has you actually working less than half the year.
    We're still very shorthanded at the facility I'm currently at.

    It's a good situation to be in for job security and compensation package negotiation though...
    Thats some damn good money. Im assuming 24/7 operation. Do they rotate days night or its straight shift?
    I'll wager you a PF dollar™ 😎
    The lunatics are running the asylum

  6. #36
    Someday I’m gonna post a hell of a story. Today isn’t that day, but someday. I’ve witnessed a level of incompetence, failure of leadership, and complete failure to grasp the realities of the current situation that probably won’t be believed. The amazing thing is that when I do post it, every single word will be true.

    I’ll offer this for a teaser/trailer: I work at a place that is 99% managed by ostriches that reached their current positions thanks to the Peter Principle. There is one exception, I report to him, but he is fighting a losing battle and he knows it.


    Edited to fix grammar.
    Last edited by Jared; 07-14-2021 at 08:18 PM.

  7. #37
    Quote Originally Posted by UNK View Post
    Thats some damn good money. Im assuming 24/7 operation. Do they rotate days night or its straight shift?
    Obviously not Jody, but my brother works 12's for fourteen days, then goes home. His job doesn't have a night component in the oil field. My buddy that monitors pipelines within the oilfield also works 12's but there are two shifts so they have 24 hr. coverage.

  8. #38
    Quote Originally Posted by Borderland View Post
    Some states allow that. As long as your company has a physical office and staff in the state where the work is being done. More or less a corporate license to do business in that state.

    Personally, I wouldn't stamp a survey that I didn't do myself. That includes the research, calculations and being on site at least once. But then I was never in the bidness. I was employed by the gov't to build roads and bridges.
    As we've discussed before, I was in the boundary/cadastral surveying world. It was common place in our state to have one licensed guy and several crews of qualified guys (most of which were pursuing their own license). I was a party chief for a couple of these outfits and if you were doing an uncomplicated boundary survey, it either closed or it didn't. You knew within a few minutes of turning the last angle and shot the last distance. Those type of surveys went right to the drafting department and were produced into plats. I know for a fact that once AutoCad came around the "stamps" were stored in the computer and applied digitally. If it was a good crew doing the work, it was rarely reviewed by the licensed surveyor of record. The licensed guy really came into the picture on legality questions and complicated geodetic computations. In all honesty, the licensed guys spent more time booking work, going to planning meetings, and managing the help than anything.

    In Alaska, construction surveying isn't a licensed profession. They only called us boundary guys to establish the rights of ways on highway projects, and run topo work. Once that was done and the design was completed the union construction surveying guys rolled in.

  9. #39
    Abducted by Aliens Borderland's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maple Syrup Actual View Post
    There's pretty decent money in the trades here but we keep circumventing the shortage by allowing temporary foreign workers at minimum wage, which holds the wages well below what they should be. You go to lots of big construction sites and entire trades are imported.

    I miss trades work though, that's for sure. I really thought I'd be happier designing stuff but man, I am bored to death and can almost feel my brain atrophy as I no longer have to solve problems on the fly the same way.
    Roger that.

    I miss those 20 million dollar construction projects. It's like a Normandy beach invasion without the people actually being killed. Just hundreds of thousands of dollars riding on your performance every week. We used to have a meeting every Monday morning and the contractor would lay out the weeks work schedule. Critical path was a thing and everyone needs to be committed to schedules. You didn't want to that guy in a contractor claim for a completion date penalty. A little different than an unemployment check that didn't arrive on time.
    In the P-F basket of deplorables.

  10. #40
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    Labor shortages in the skilled trades discussion

    Quote Originally Posted by Joe in PNG View Post
    Call it College Cargo Cultism- the cult belief that if you get your degree, then you are exempt from hard work forever.

    And like a lot of superstitions, it's hard to pin down where someone has said as much, but the belief is there, not to mention the subtle pressure to get a degree, or be one of those toiling losers.

    It's funny how the old Aristocratic belief that labor and toil somehow soils and degrades those who participate has come back into fashion.
    I’m wondering if this depends on if you are a stem graduate staying in a stem field or not…
    I have 11 direct reports; all with at least a BS. 9 of them bust their ass consistently delivering more than I have a right to ask. The other 2 do ok, and just have different priorities it is hard to argue with.

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