Anyone other than me having trouble finding someone to work. I have been trying for a month to find someone to work. I hired one last week that worked 3 hours and it started raining and we stopped. I told him to come in at 8:00 the next day, haven't seen him since. Nobody wants a job now.
Helpers are few around here.
They show up mid morning and want my job and my pay and still want me to do all the work.
:-O
Gees, even piddly little ole me would take you up on some work.
I don't drive anymore so it would take me a week or two to get there.
Ok, so that ain't gonna happen. I got left without a ride last week and couldnt' get a hold anyone and had no money for a taxi. So I started walking.
Two veterans noticed my Navy hat and stopped for me after almost 5 hours later and 12.9 miles according to the map. I only had 4.2 more to go but by then I was about begging for some police officer to harass me a little just to get off my legs.
No food or water for that whole time and all that walking was beginning to finish me off. I was only taking single half-steps by then. Left leg and knee were pretty much locked up.
It was cold and drizzly the entire time. Most miserable. I don't believe I'll try that again.
E.
3 Hour Day ?
How many hours was he paid?
If someone shows up to work you find a full days work for him.
I take it you chose not to take advantage of the rain day to teach him anything.
Paul in PA
> Anyone other than me having trouble finding someone to work. I have been trying for a month to find someone to work. I hired one last week that worked 3 hours and it started raining and we stopped. I told him to come in at 8:00 the next day, haven't seen him since.Nobody wants a job now.
I'm coming to the conclusion that being a survey technician is not a worthwhile career. Usually the pay and benefits aren't that good. And when it is good, its boom and bust so there is not very good job security. On most of the crews around here, there is not a single person who is either licensed or certified to do the jobs that they are doing. Is it any wonder we cant field crews commensurate with the professionalism we hope to project.
Inquiring Minds Wanna Know
OK, I gotta know. How much were you paying him?
Dave
I'm coming to the conclusion that most surveyors are awful businessmen. They don't charge enough to provide their paraprofessionals decent wages and benefits. They only think in the short term and chase booms, thus opening themselves up to busts. They hire cheap help rather than someone who's educated and/or certified then fail to provide additional training to help them advance and provide work that is commensurate with the professionalism many delude themselves into believing they project. (Not you specifically, anyone who rocks a bow tie is a gentleman and a scholar in my book)
It takes a special breed...
I'm a licensed survey tech and I get paid fairly well (Given the economic downturn between 2008-2012, I'm glad to have been here uninterrupted).
I've been doing this for 13 years and I can count the bad days I've had on one hand. I generally enjoy coming into work whether I'm drafting or cutting line in a swamp. The pay wasn't always good but I've always enjoyed the work.
Either you love it or hate it. I don't think a person will last long in this profession if they look at it as a job and not a career.
Gregg
It takes a special breed...
Please forgive my ignorance, but what is a "licensed survey tech"? IS this a state licence?
It takes a special breed...
I contemplated wording that differently...
I'm a Survey Tech with an LS license.
It takes a special breed...
> Please forgive my ignorance, but what is a "licensed survey tech"? IS this a state licence?
A licensed survey tech is a survey tech that holds a state surveyor's license.
We chase each other to the bottom and then wonder why there is nobody there to help us get the work done. People don't jump on the jobs because they have better options. Pure and simple.
Boxing is dying off because the good athletes are playing football for more money at less risk. Surveyors are getting older, on average, because those that are so inclined are becoming either engineering techs or construction laborers for more money and benefits.
My family owns a sandwich shop and we have trouble keeping "sandwich artists" for more than a few months. The good ones get better offers, the lesser ones drift away.
The problem we have with "newbies" is that they see our newish 3/4ton 4wd work trucks, airboats, marsh buggies, utvs and survey boats and they say that is pretty cool. Then they quickly realize that 75% of the time this equipment only gets you to the job. The real work occurs sloshing threw the swamps, marshes and "big thicket" parts of job locations.
The work we do is not for everyone or faint of heart.
But we have been a lot more selective in our hiring practices lately and been lucky in retaining our crews. Staying busy helps.
I'm coming to the conclusion that being a survey technician is not a worthwhile career. Usually the pay and benefits aren't that good. And when it is good, its boom and bust so there is not very good job security. On most of the crews around here, there is not a single person who is either licensed or certified to do the jobs that they are doing. Is it any wonder we cant field crews commensurate with the professionalism we hope to project.
:good: :good: :good:
-V
Does having unionized survey techs help?
To those of you in union states, does having the survey techs in a union help with the training, availability and retention of good survey techs for professionals?
First year I went from swinging a framing hammer to survey grunt I took a big pay cut. When the surveyors I was working for said they didn't have enough work to keep me busy, I couldn't afford to just hang out so went and found another surveyor who could keep me busy. Worked for 7 outfits my first year. You tell me you don't have work for me? I'm hiring on with someone who does the next day. With low wages and bills to pay, I couldn't afford to camp out on some surveyors door step hoping he'd toss me a few hours of work when the sun was shining.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
>You tell me you don't have work for me? I'm hiring on with someone who does the next day. With low wages and bills to pay, I couldn't afford to camp out on some surveyors door step hoping he'd toss me a few hours of work when the sun was shining.
:good:
Loyalty has to be built from the top down before it can flow from the bottom up.
> ...I couldn't afford to camp out on some surveyors door step hoping he'd toss me a few hours of work when the sun was shining.
That is how is was for me - a little less dramatic, perhaps. I worked for 7 outfits in 6 years. At one time I was working for 2 at the same time. No competition or conflict, one was in British Columbia and one was in Washington State, a unique opportunity that having one American parent and one Canadian parent, and living within 2 miles of the border, gave me.
Wasn't until I started party chiefing that outfits made any real attempt to keep me around. The reality is unskilled survey help is a disposable commodity. I was just too stubborn to give up. Like a shark that can't stop swimming or it suffocates, I couldn't stop working for few days because they didn't have anything for me. I was living too close to the edge of a financial cliff. Here you run out of savings in the middle of winter at -20 and misery takes on a whole new meaning.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
"I'm coming to the conclusion that most surveyors are awful businessmen."
You are absolutely correct!