All is Quiet
on the western front…
I always wanted to say that. Today seems like a good day. Nothing is happening. I’m sitting in the site office bored out my freaking skull.
One thing is so nice. I have hardly any responsiblity. I go out and watch’em place fill. Then I run to the lab in town and do a little bit of lab work. Come back to site and watch’em place some more fill. What’s even better is the meetings. I’m not put on the hot seat or grilled. Nobody even asks me for things. It’s so refreshing.
The part that sucks? Trying to keep myself amused for at least 10 hours. The only reason there is night shift for us is because the state is paranoid about the mine fucking things up. They want some one out here practically 24/7 to ensure things are being done right. Granted, I don’t blame them.
One of the contractors on this project was apart of the catastrophe known as the University of Alaska, Fairbanks Museum. It was modified while I was going to school there and 3 companies pretty much went bankrupt on that project. The individual I was talking to blames UAF for everything. Which is, of coarse, amusing because I know better. That project was used as an example in several of my tech electives as a case of what not to do. TW had warned me that first night about one of the contractors never taking blame on themselves. If only I had been able to put two and two together.
Not much more is happening… sleep during the day get up, go to work, repeat. Its nice revisiting my old friend called Boredom.
Ill be home soon, its a little bit warmer than nome here right now. Im coming home soon sweetie…
joe
January 20th, 2008 at 5:19 pmEh? YOU HAVEN’T CALLED ME!!! What’s going on? April is not soon enough and we both know that :P
January 20th, 2008 at 7:12 pm10 HOURS??????? AT LEAST?????? what the…..how long do you have to work then. I find it painful trying to work 8 hours a day. So how many hours do you have to work a week then and how much holiday do you get a year? I work 40 hours a week and get 8 weeks paid holiday a year here in Holland.
January 21st, 2008 at 2:34 amWell… that’s a little complicated. The construction business is finiky. If I was in the design office, I wouldn’t work nearly as many.
I’m salary, so I’m required to work 40 hours a week. However, when on a job, the contractor’s hours dictate how many I work. They typically work 10 to 12 hour days, 5 days a week. When a project is working over time, this could double drastically. I’ve worked 80 hours before because there was no hourly to relieve me. Being salary can suck… I don’t get paid over time or time and a half currently. However, I do get several large bonuses during the year to make up for those hours. I also have 7 days paid holiday and then however many hours I’ve accrued for pto (personal time off). This is usually the equivalent of 2 weeks (with the 1 week of holiday)… though, I have 80 hours stashed for pto at the moment. One good thing is that when I need time off, there’s usually no protest.
…there are times when I wish the US working industry was ran like many european countries :(
January 21st, 2008 at 4:29 am