Authenticity Is the Line… And Journeymen Don’t Get to Step Around It

This one is for my peers, my Brothers. For the Journeymen.

This is also a warning shot across the bow for:

The safety and training professionals who claim stewardship of the next generation.

I’m passionate about teaching and training because I was in their boots. And because whether we like it or not… every Journeyman is already teaching.

We don’t get to opt out of that responsibility.

The moment you topped out… the moment you were trusted to work without supervision… You became an instructor. Not by title… but by example.

Every decision you make in the field teaches something. Every shortcut teaches something. Every time you slow down… speak up… or stay silent… it teaches something.

We teach behaviors… We teach patterns… We teach techniques…

And we do it whether we intend to or not.

That’s the weight of being a Journeyman.

I remember being a young hand sitting in rooms where the person at the front couldn’t explain their way out of a paper bag. They had the title. They had the credentials. They had the authority.

What they didn’t have was understanding…

You’d ask a real question… not to challenge… but to survive. And instead of clarity, you got buzzwords. Instead of an explanation, you got irritation. Instead of teaching, you got shut down.

That damage doesn’t stay in the classroom.

It follows people into the field…

It teaches young hands to stop asking questions. To hide uncertainty. To accept confusion as normal.

That’s how dangerous habits get passed down quietly.

And too many of us have watched it get worse.

I’ve worked with instructors who had no passion. No drive. No ambition to sharpen themselves.

They weren’t there to build people. They were there to coast. To cruise. To draw a paycheck.

Training became a parking spot instead of a responsibility.

I’ve known training “professionals” whose depth of understanding rivaled “Simple Jack”. If you’ve seen Tropic Thunder, you understand the reference.

Blank stares. Broken explanations. Zero ability to connect cause and effect.

That’s not funny in this trade.

That’s negligence…

Because this job doesn’t fail in theory. It fails in execution.

You cannot teach judgment you never had to develop under pressure. You cannot teach consequence if you’ve never felt it in your gut before a cut. You cannot teach Brotherhood if you’ve never depended on it when things were unraveling.

That’s why I believe this without hesitation…

Anyone formally teaching this trade should be at a minimum a Journeyman-level professional, and if you work with an IBEW-affiliated company… you should have an active ticket in your pocket… NO EXCEPTIONS!!!

Not adjacent to the work. Not educated about the work. Not someone who studied it from a safe distance.

Someone who has done it. Someone who has lived on the margin. Someone who understands how fast a “small decision” becomes a permanent one.

But here’s the part my peers need to hear clearly…

Being a Journeyman does not make you done. It makes you accountable…

The moment a Journeyman stops being a student of the profession… they’ve lost the right to shape the next generation.

This trade evolves… Equipment changes… Methods adapt… Risks shift…

Complacency waits patiently for confidence to outrun competence.

READ THAT LINE AGAIN!!!

And whether you work in safety… training… supervision… or the field…

You are setting the tone every single day.

If you rush… they rush. If you cut corners… they learn to cut corners. If you explain the why… they develop judgment. If you stay silent when it’s uncomfortable… they learn silence is acceptable.

That’s the truth we don’t say out loud, THAT I'M MAKING SURE PEOPLE HEAR NOW!!!

The best instructors I’ve ever known never hid behind titles. They stayed close to the work. They welcomed questions. They explained in plain language. They admitted when they didn’t know and went looking for the answer.

They stayed students… because they respected the trade enough to never pretend they were finished learning.

So let me be clear to my peers…

If you’ve lost the hunger to learn… If you’re coasting on yesterday’s experience… If you’re teaching from slides instead of scars…

You are not protecting this trade.

You are diluting it.

We don’t get to tap out of teaching. We don’t get to opt out of influence. And we don’t get to hand the next generation burnout disguised as experience.

They deserve authenticity. They deserve clarity. They deserve journeymen who understand that teaching isn’t optional… it’s inherent.

Anything less isn’t training.

It’s fraud.

And this trade has buried too many people for us to keep pretending otherwise.

We Rise Together… or We Don’t Rise At All…

~Kevin | Lineman Bull$hit™ Academy

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