Why I'm Dragging

[Wheelsup]

When its 8:30 and the foreman walks by and says "What have you done since 8:00?"

When the no-load nonskilled retard of the crew walks by and the foreman pats him on the back and asks "How was your night?"

When I ask the foreman for some material I need for the job and he gets very angry and shouts " Everything you need is in the Conex!!" But I've looked through all the conexs a dozen times and they're all filled to the brim with useless horseshit that was ordered by............guesswho?

When the foreman/estimator/dickhead finds me in the field and he's all out of breath because he ran all the way because he's stupid so he can ask me "Why aren't you finished?" ..... "Finished with what" I asked...... "The Job!!!!"he shouts. Now I'm truely amazed and inform him there is no way in hell I could be finished since I'm the only damn electrician on the job and he proceeds to rant about everything I've done but I know better because I've seen this big,fat,round,clueless,pure bag of shit in action and I start to reach for my tool bag but it suddenly dawns on me that he is baiting me to quit so I tell him if he's not satisfied with my job performance he has to fire me right now. All the air went out of fat boy. He couldn't explain that to the office.

When I pole vault out of bed every morning because I haven't been laid in four months and all the local girls are way too scary looking to even think about going there.

When your not allowed to take a taxi. Motor pool won't pick you up. There are no resteraunts within walking distance. Dinner at the hotel is $30 for inedible hog-swaller so as last resort you've decided to order room service but it's been three hours since you've called and the food still hasn't shown up yet and you're laying flat on you're back staring at the ceiling and you can feel the tears beginning to well up.

When you have to resist the daily urge to wade through a bunch of stuck-up embassy pukes with a baseball bat.

When you're in what passes for a grocery store in Assfuckstan. Nothing is in english. You can't remember if it was the blue cap or the white cap. You choose the white, carry it back to your room, take a drink and immediatly spew it back out. Damnit!!! Who in the hell drinks water with gas anyway!

When you've been gone so damn long and you're family is constantly asking "When are you coming home?"

[mexfishguide]

Sounds like a construction job to me?

Take XCare
Mexfishguide:cheers

[shanebo]

Wheelsup brother I have had those thoughts many time for many years. Your right about the caps, they get me !@#$up everytime. I just looked in my fridge and the Blue cap has no gas. I have some other bottles in there also, that have a gold cap...they have gas and they make me do strange things from time to time. All overseas workers need a few of them to get them thru the daily BS on these jobs.
Thank God for Pilsner Urquell
Hang In There.....

[Gabriele]

I'm sure many have had those same feelings, I saw it too, but the project needs to be the focus, maybe the super hasn't had to deal with a pro and maybe the new guy is a pal. I always and still do try to keep my personal life seperate from my working life.

[The Wild Rover]

Geez, I don't think there are too many guys on this site that haven't been there...and it sounds like many of the overseas jobs going on right now, sadly. Why don't you do yourself a favor, and save yourself the coronary...get out of there bro. There are plenty of jobs for skilled guys, right here...you just have to know where to look....and it is all here!
I always liked to use my fathers saying...
"I was looking for a job when I came here, I'll be looking for one when I leave"
I love telling them to get my check....So go ahead and fire me, and then saying my fathers above quote...I have done it many times. You beat them to the punch..then tell them you quit!
There is another quote from my old man...
"Three wire hook up, two wire fuck up, one wire drag up"
And another...
"See you on the next big one!
And you never know, it has happened many times in my life, where you work and do your best for a real asshole, and no matter what, you are traeted like an idiot...And then many years and projects later, he's working for you. I always go out of my way to treat them better than they treated me, in fact, I have had guys tell me...When you worked for me, I treated you like shit...so why are you taking care of me? And my response is always...
"because that's the way the old timers and my brothers before me taught me."
And it does chokes em up man. You become the gentleman, the tradesman we all try to be.
It is so hard sometimes, many of us know...but you can feel better about yourself, if you just drag up! The feeling has no equal, when it is done right.:cheers


Sometimes it's better just to quit, so you can beat all the knuckle-draggers to the next job...it is so nice sometimes just to look at that hellhole of a job from an airplane window, wheels up... going home...see your wife and kids, your Ma, or your Old man, or your best gal, where-ever...or maybe just your space at the old bar back home. Save yourself the nervous breakdown, bro... cut your losses and go, before the asshole makes a name for himself on account of you, and then turns around and labels you high maintenance. There are other places for you in this world....just get away from it man and you'll be happier in the long run!

[Megga Watt]

Unlike my Brother WR I have always found it very difficult to drag, I have only done so twice in my life, and both times it was just about like your situation. This last company I just drug up from was the toughest, there were a few good people I had to let down and I spent many a night awake trying to figure it all out. But in the long run the stress of the job overcame the good I could do and I made the decision. I did my best and that is all I can do. There are just some things that just ain't worth trying to save.
Unfortunately we always leave some good friends behind, just keep in touch and move on.
I think WR and I had the same father mine used to say the same things LOL.

[mexfishguide]

Of course do it with style and class:rockwoot: We are the only group I know of that works like hell to be out of a job. I was raised in this construction business and so was most of my family. Even back in hard times before most of you were around, my dad would come in carry ing his tool box, mother would take one look and start packing,dad could carry his head high and could all ways work on a new project. He was at the tops about 145 lbs. but taught me how big a 15" cresent look ed to some one you were chasing. It bothers me not a dam bit to drag up - if the co. wants you off the job, they tell you in a hurry and make no bones about it, so I am a human being the same as them. I have drug at 7:30 am on double time, and have had my travelling buddy come to me and say I just "drug up for us " lets get the hell out of here! I drug up not to long ago I was the PM, the man I reported too told me, I do not know what to do, I have never had anyone quit on me. I said hell you don't have to do anything, I just did it.

Take Care
Mex Fish Guide:cheers

[Wheelsup]

Megga Watt , I too find it difficult to quit a job. I figure the layoff is coming soon anyway, why not just stick it out? But never before have I worked for such an idiot. How can someone in a late stage of life be so immature/egotistical/insecure/socially ackward? He needed his ego constantly fed. Kinda like Bobo the gorilla down at the zoo. If he didn't get his daily supply of bananas he'll go apeshit on you. Once he asked the crew to take a look at the chart on the wall.He was proud of it. It was one of those computer programs where you enter in dates and certain goals to be met, all printed out in a nice format. Well, the completion of the project was scheduled for 90 days. All of us experienced hands got together the first week on the job and agreed that the project would take 7-8 months. To think it could be done in 3 months was absurd. I refused to look at the chart. I couldn't hide my contempt. I was a marked man. Of course we all looked at the chart when Bobo wasn't around. It was fun to laugh and point and say "Well , there's another goal we didn't meet. " There was also a completion bonus for finishing early. $250 a day for each day finished ahead of schedule. It was meaningless. Salary and per diem paid more than that. Why should I put out extra effort to lose money?........ We had a guy on our crew who was the consumate professional. He did his job good and he cared about what he did. He would go straight to work in the morning without stopping to shoot the breeze. The kind of guy any foreman would want in his crew. But not Bobo. Bobo would fuck with this guy every day. After being on the job a couple weeks, he handed Bobo a list of all the materials he would need and all the problems to be corrected.He was a no-nonsense kind of guy and he expected things to be done right. Bobo did not like that. "Why can't you do it this way?" " Can't you just do it without all that?" . One day he just got on the plane and left. Bobo was quite for a few days after that. His feeling's were hurt pretty bad. He couldn't understand why he would leave without telling him.

[pensacola_niceman]

I'm still a bit of a newbie to the overseas work scene. I'm an Electrical Engineer, and for the first 25 years of my career, I've worked in polite corporate America. I've been in Iraq for 6 months now, save 3 weeks for R&R.

You know what I really like about this overseas assignment and working with the rest of you construction pukes?...........the LACK of a polite corporate climate.

Let me explain: Here in Iraq, our first and foremost priority is to get the job done and do quality work for the client. As a company, we are also focused on doing well to get more contracts and more work. Sounds simple enough doesn't it? Also, we are all working men (some women) and we see and tell it like it is. Make sense so far?

Let's go back to polite corporate America - especially big companys. You are evaluated equally on your true technical job performance (and skills) as much as you may (or may not) embrace false diversity, paint poor people's houses, give to the United Way, or volunteer your free time to protect the gay spotted owl from extinction! If you don't come up with some horseshit "money saving" idea twice a year, they ping you on your job performance (no raise for you pal). And no, suggesting shaving a million or two off the CEO's salary is NOT considered a valid money saving idea.

Good God knows what would happen if you were to use the word "fuck" in our polite corporate America. Commenting on a female coworkers' nice ass will not only get you fired, but a year or two in jail. Don't even think of making some ethic joke or reference, life without parole awaits you for that. No matter what you say or do, someone will get offended.

Not here in good ole' Iraq! We're too busy too worry about shit like that. "Fuck you" is usually considered a friendly gesture and most of the women here are proud to have a nice ass (the ones that do anyway).

Guess what rats? I love it! Imagine that - the work is more important than adhering to some ridiculous HR shit's idea of what an upstanding model human being you should be.

This engineer has finally found his niche!

[Megga Watt]

Megga Watt , I too find it difficult to quit a job. I figure the layoff is coming soon anyway, why not just stick it out? But never before have I worked for such an idiot. How can someone in a late stage of life be so immature/egotistical/insecure/socially awkward? He needed his ego constantly fed. Kinda like Bobo the gorilla down at the zoo. If he didn't get his daily supply of bananas he'll go ape shit on you. Once he asked the crew to take a look at the chart on the wall.He was proud of it. It was one of those computer programs where you enter in dates and certain goals to be met, all printed out in a nice format. Well, the completion of the project was scheduled for 90 days. All of us experienced hands got together the first week on the job and agreed that the project would take 7-8 months. To think it could be done in 3 months was absurd. I refused to look at the chart. I couldn't hide my contempt. I was a marked man. Of course we all looked at the chart when Bobo wasn't around. It was fun to laugh and point and say "Well , there's another goal we didn't meet. " There was also a completion bonus for finishing early. $250 a day for each day finished ahead of schedule. It was meaningless. Salary and per diem paid more than that. Why should I put out extra effort to lose money?........ We had a guy on our crew who was the consumate professional. He did his job good and he cared about what he did. He would go straight to work in the morning without stopping to shoot the breeze. The kind of guy any foreman would want in his crew. But not Bobo. Bobo would fuck with this guy every day. After being on the job a couple weeks, he handed Bobo a list of all the materials he would need and all the problems to be corrected.He was a no-nonsense kind of guy and he expected things to be done right. Bobo did not like that. "Why can't you do it this way?" " Can't you just do it without all that?" . One day he just got on the plane and left. Bobo was quite for a few days after that. His feeling's were hurt pretty bad. He couldn't understand why he would leave without telling him.

Sounds to me like Bobo is a little insecure, well that is what happens when you don't really know your job. I have run many a job and know what it is like to be handed a schedule that I know is imposable but still have to give it the old collage try, even if everyone is against me.
Yes some Bobo's just ain't worth the time of day and others wouldn't make a pimple on Bobo's ass, LOL.
What I am getting at is go with your gut, I am a slow burner and it takes a lot to piss me off and still it takes me a few days to get that way. I have always liked working construction and have done so for way too many years now. The construction business has changed so much in the past 20 years it is unbelievable. The people skills have fallen big time, and the company taking responsibility for getting the project done correctly has fallen to the Lawyers not wanting them to accept liability of giving the wrong direction and so on. Everything in this business has gotten so screwed up no one remembers how it used to be, it was great to finish a project without any problems or ahead of time like planned by the engineers. Now they plan a job by computer get most of it wrong and blame the installers. They finally get some Bobo that doesn't know the job is under bid and can't be done in the time frame the computer gave so they give him a lot of money and a fancy title to go with it and use him as a fall guy so when things go wrong the ax falls.
There are no loyalty's anymore on either side, we as craftsmen are as much to blame chasing the bigger and faster buck, and companies looking for the cheaper hand and get what they pay for. I remember when it was unheard of to go from company to company, we called them scabbs. we Stayed with a company and they kept us busy as much as possible. The old union hands could always be counted to stay the job no matter what and get er done.
Now I am not even sure how they bid these jobs anymore I think they weigh the drawings or square foot it and give a price, then hand it over to the field supers and say it is a field problem now handle it.
Well I have babbled on enough here, like I said just follow your gut you sound like someone that cares and has a hard time quitting like my self.
Whatever your decision it will be the right one for you, and you will always do your best what ever the situation.
I see you are either in Bangkok or live there, I live in Jomtien next to Pattaya so if you ever get down here give me a shout and I will buy you one of these:
:bigbeer
Heads up and keep up the great work.

[pensacola_niceman]

:lol: meggawatt, you owe me more than one you big bum! take this:moon

[Megga Watt]

:lol: meggawatt, you owe me more than one you big bum! take this:moon
:moon Right back at ya little man with a big cock!!!! You will have to come to Pattaya to collect :rockwoot:
Let me know what is going on. :banghead
:bigbeer

[HeadRat]

When you've been gone so damn long and you're family is constantly asking "When are you coming home?"This one I can totally understand, the other one's, well, that's why some can do it and some can't. It's not IF you play the games out there, it's HOW.

Keep your head up and don't give up any bonus money/unemployment by quitting.

[Wheelsup]

Thanks Megga Watt The next time I come to Thailand I will look you up. Be careful on Jomtein beach. When you see the Rainbow Flag, do a turnaround. I never saw so many freaks in my life.:cheers