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Lineman Bull$hit
393 members • Free
4 contributions to Lineman Bull$hit
24d •
Tickets: A measure Qualified or Competent
I'd love to hear from the group. Now the majority of this page its discussed about how the industry has slipped a little due to the introduction of college certed individuals policing and policies an electrical industry they dont fully understand. My question is- If "John Lineman" has his ticket was verifiably trained (Apprenticeship + records+ curriculum+ Verified On the job hours) is he Qualified or Competent.. *Osha says anyone checking those boxes of verified training metrics and the knowledge checks is deemed qualified.... NOW, We take "Bill the MFJL" Whoms paper trail includes Groundhand/Operator for 5+ years -insert magic wave of a wand-- POOF Bill is a JL and companies dont verify <Compliance to training regulations, History of individual, no knowledge checks> TEST QUESTION IS: ONLY select one. Is Bill in the above Paragraph? A) Qualified B) Competent C) Both A and B D) Someone who bought their ticket and should have an *** placed beside their name and not allowed Apprentice training privileges until all criteria of training and proof of On the Job competency being met along with knowledge checks. We worry about our industry rightfully so. Many of us this is what we know. We love it to the fullest maybe to strong. Shamefully the answer above is most often wrong. Safety departments isn't the only cog in the machine with a tooth missing. I now know 8+ individuals that are either crew leds or General Foreman or daily MFJLs that did not pull one day outside of pulling levers on a digger or excavator or shoveling or running a hand line. Curious is all 🤙 Daniel Cooper, CUSP,CSP
2 likes • 20d
This topic absolutely strikes a nerve all the way to a core with me. All in the name of money is where this lands in todays arena. I think that vetting new to a company hands is absolutely essential in todays environment. Maybe I am a little bias on this subject because I did an apprenticeship back when we didn't have the internet and You Tube. There are companies out there, and we all know who they are if you have two good hands and can wear a harness and can put it on by yourself you can complete your apprenticeship in a matter of months. And then company X comes along that is paying 35 cents more on per diem, this unvetted superstar decides to jump the fence to make that extra 35 cents. Company X puts his ass in the bucket and he gets by on a wing and a few prayers. Had a couple "Small" flashes along the way but he can handle wire. So company X says to the superstar "you might have the right stuff there sport to become a foreman. So the superstar tries to increase his speed by taking short cuts. And along comes the new company X college educated safety geek that has never been higher than the front seat of the truck that company X gave him to offer an enticement to come do safety oversite on a job he has never seen prior to arriving to the superstars job site. The safety geek gets out of his truck with his BOOK and tries to brow beat the superstar. Superstar throws his sucker in the sand and says I don't have to put with this shit company Y is right down the road and they are hiring. They need a top lineman and I'm the man. All this in a matter of a few short months or years and the cycle continues. Just a little of my history I came through a very well established non-union apprenticeship. 5 years total and a lot of grueling tests. First year was thrown out because the company wanted to see if you would make it before enrolling you into apprenticeship. When I graduated I was considered Qualified. I spent the next 30 years after retesting in to the hall in Atlanta with that gold ticket. I didn't feel as though I was Competent until I had 15-20 years invested in the trade. I was qualified by Test Task and Time. But not competent for some time later.
21d •
What We Don’t Say Out Loud … Week 1
Ya'll have seen the Safety Sundays, and I love the conversations they spark. Those will continue, but we can do better. Starting today, a new weekly post will be added to the mix. It will call out... What We Don't Say Out Loud. Let me know what you think... What We Don’t Say Out Loud … Week 1 Here’s something we don’t say out loud… This trade accepts casualties … it just doesn’t admit it. We don’t use those words. We soften it. We dress it up with words like "inherent risk" and "part of the job". We pretend every death is an anomaly instead of a receipt. We hold the funeral. We make the post. We say his name. Then we go right back to rewarding the same behaviors that put him there. Speed over judgment. Silence over friction. Completion over condition. We teach people how to endure pressure, not how to resist it. We train them to keep moving when their gut is screaming to slow down. We condition them to ignore fatigue, doubt, and fear … because those things interfere with production. And it works. Until it kills someone. From the outside, the job looks successful. The lights are on. The storm is cleared. The outage numbers drop. Leadership moves on to the next win. In the field, everyone knows how close it came to falling apart … how many corners were cut, how many chances were taken, how much luck was spent to make it look clean. That’s the blood on our hands we don’t measure. And when someone finally does die, we act surprised. We investigate the last decision instead of the years of pressure that shaped it. We blame the hand closest to the wire and protect everything upstream of it. That’s not tragedy. That’s design. And until the trade is willing to face that … not memorialize it, not spiritualize it, not sanitize it … it will keep feeding good people into a system that already knows the cost… …and has decided it’s acceptable. ~Kevin | Lineman Bull$hit™ Academy
2 likes • 21d
@James Spencer Well said James
1 like • Jan 3
Very well written let’s see how it’s received.
Dec '25 •
Keep your head in the game.
August 1979 West Central Florida. The crew I was working with had been tasked to install GOAB switches in several feeders to make ready for a substation clearance in mid September. This station had to be de-energized to roll the transmission phases into the station. This station would not tie hot to anything else we had on the system. The site we would work that day (Friday) was a little different than the switches we had been installing. We had two energized dead ends that had one span of wire that needed to be installed. We would make up jumpers on one end of the span and install fuse switches with solid blades on the other end. The night of the station outage someone could come to this location and close the solid blades with an extendo stick. This job came up mid morning as a filler job to finish the day with. It was added into our daily job brief to install another GOAB. The GOAB switch was not ready so we backfilled the remainder of the day with this job. My world was filled with distractions that day. It was August in Florida. Wife was 8.5 months pregnant with our first born and the night before she was in false labor. It was pay day and we had to pick up our check that day and get them to the bank before it closed. Direct Deposit was not heard of back then. It was Friday, a beer or five with the boys that afternoon. And did I mention it was hot. We got to that jobsite about 11:30. Lead said lets go ahead and eat lunch and then we can do this job. I had worked with this crew almost 2 years. I considered everyone family. Some were like distant cousins but none the less family. We were a 6 man Feeder construction and maintenance crew. And rarely did our shirt tails hit us in the ass. Had tons of experience to draw from with two of the lineman representing almost 50 years of experience. I was the one of the least experienced guys on the crew being a second year apprentice and 3 year hand. After lunch was done the lead tells us his plan. Pull out three phases of 4/0 aluminum. Don't need a neutral in this span. We will have a bucket with 2 men to frame the dead end and soft side the wire.
1 like • Dec '25
Thank you Kevin. I just truly hope that anyone that reads this can take away the value the story represents. Happy New Year sir.
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@jimmy-mcdougald-9854
Retired JL 47 years. I miss the work and the people. But really concerned about the destiny.
Active 8d ago
Joined Dec 21, 2025
Brooksville Florida
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