End of Year Message · Lineman Bull$hit

End of Year Message

Before this year ends, I need to say something clearly — and I’m done playing nice. Honestly, after this past week and the conversations I’ve had with people responding to storms, I don’t give a fuck about some of your feelings.

I didn’t spend decades in this trade, didn’t bury friends, didn’t carry the weight of bad calls and close calls, to sit quietly while standards get gutted by people who’ve never paid the price or at best… have spent years quietly on the sidelines with no real skin in the game. Sure, they may have been on the roster… tagged along on “road games”… Hell, they even know the right words to use… It doesn’t make them someone the new hands should listen to…

Most of the respect and support I’ve gotten this year came from men and women who actually work in the arena. They’re the people I get private messages and phone calls from daily… The ones who’ve felt their hands shake on a pole in bad conditions. The ones who understand this trade doesn’t give a damn about confidence, opinions, or marketing.

But the noise matters too.

Over the last year, even more so in the previous couple of days… I’ve watched some non-union hands and a handful of line-school instructors show up loud, defensive, and thin-skinned… over a post that wasn’t even directed at them… Lots of talk. Lots of credentials. Not a lot of ownership. Maybe they’re afraid of the heat or their own reflections in the mirror… I promise you… I’ve stood in the heat, and I’m at peace with mine.

So let me be plain:

Teaching linework without owning its consequences is bullshit.

Lowering the bar so more people can “pass” isn’t opportunity — it’s negligence. Softening expectations to keep tuition checks coming isn’t education — it’s exploitation. Selling confidence without competence is how people get hurt or killed.

Now let’s talk about the part that really bothers me — the kids and families.

There are line schools charging $15,000 to $30,000 to people who don’t yet understand this trade — and that’s not an accident. They’re selling the image of linework, not the reality of it.

They market Brotherhood without talking about funerals. They sell paychecks without talking about missed birthdays, storms, divorces, and bodies breaking down. They promise careers without explaining that this trade will test your judgment, your humility, and your limits — every single day.

Families sign those checks believing they’re buying an opportunity. Young people show up believing they’re buying certainty.

What they’re really buying is risk, often without being told the full cost.

And here’s where it gets even uglier — and this part matters.

I’ve seen some of the “guest speakers” being invited into these schools to “inspire” students. Some of those speakers are frequent flyers on the wall of shame — the same companies that show up over and over on the list of contractors who habitually let their people get hurt or killed.

Read that again…

You’re bringing in representatives from companies with documented injury and fatality patterns……and presenting them as role models to kids who don’t yet know enough to question it.

That’s not mentorship. That’s normalization of failure.

It teaches young hands that getting hurt is just “part of the trade,” that fatalities are bad luck instead of leadership failure, and that if enough time passes, accountability expires.

More than half of what’s being sold in those classrooms already exists in countless Union apprenticeship classes and real OJT all across the country… It’s even in my Skool community — and I give it away for free. Real hazard recognition. ET&D best practices. Decision-making under pressure. Hard lessons learned the expensive way… We’re here to elevate and educate the next generation of hands… not milk them for every last penny or ask them to take out loans to pay for something that can only be paid for with time and experience…

What we’re missing isn’t information.

It’s hands-on time under real supervision — and no price tag, no certificate, and no Instagram reel replaces that.

So don’t lecture me about “value” while you water down standards to keep seats filled. That’s not about helping the next generation — that’s a business model built on ignorance, hope, and selective memory.

And let’s be honest about something else.

Some of the loudest instructors have never owned a fatal call. Never stood in front of a crew knowing the outcome was on them. Never felt the silence that follows when someone doesn’t make it home.

Yet they’re teaching like this trade is theoretical.

It’s not.

This is a profession where mistakes don’t get retrained — they get buried, and the cost of lessons learned can carry the ultimate price. Where “we’ll figure it out later” turns into funerals. And the field does not care how confident you felt in a classroom.

To the non-union hands throwing rocks without understanding the point — hear me:

This isn’t union vs non-union.

This is standards vs shortcuts.

Truth vs marketing.

Reality vs bullshit.

And to the instructors who feel attacked?

Good.

If your program can’t survive scrutiny, it doesn’t deserve trust. If your graduates aren’t being prepared for the weight, the cost, and the consequences of this work, you’re not helping them — you’re setting them up.

I’m not here to be liked.

I’m here to protect the next hand climbing into the arena — whether they know my name or not.

If that makes you uncomfortable, sit with it.

Discomfort is where growth starts.

Silence is what’s been killing this trade.

Next year, the volume goes up — not down.

The truth gets sharper — not safer.

Because this work deserves honesty, not hype.

And I’m not backing off...

Somebody ring the fucking bell… I’m just getting warmed up!!!

~ Kevin

LINEMAN BULL$HIT™