Fatigue Is the Drunk Nobody Wants to Call Out

15th February 2026

Let’s quit pretending...

The most dangerous thing on storm or normal work isn’t always the wire… the switching… the busted gear… or the voltage you can see. Sometimes it’s the man holding the ticket. Because fatigue is an invisible energized conductor… and this trade has been flirting with it for decades like it’s a badge of honor.

We don’t call it what it is. We romanticize it. We glorify it. We build whole identities around it. “I can run on two hours.” “I’m built for it.” “Sleep when you’re dead.” Cool story… until you bury somebody.

If a hand shows up drunk with a 0.08% BAC, you already know what happens…

He’s done. He’s off the job. He’s a liability. Rightfully. But let that same hand stay awake long enough… work long enough… drive long enough… push through the night long enough… and suddenly we clap for him like he’s a hero. That’s Lineman Bull$hit.

Because fatigue impairment has numbers… and they don’t care about your pride…

After…

17 hours awake, your brain is functioning around 0.05% BAC. Impaired.

21 hours awake, around 0.08% BAC. Legally drunk.

24 hours awake, around 0.10% BAC. Severely impaired.

So let’s translate that into plain language. If you’ve been awake 21 hours, you’re “legally drunk” without a bottle in your hand. And if you’re leading crews and acting like that’s normal… you’re not a leader. You’re gambling with people’s lives and families.

Here’s another truth the tough guys hate...

Your body runs on a clock. Circadian rhythm. And that clock does not give a damn about your outage map… your mutual aid agreement… your “we’re almost done”… or your ego. There’s a window late at night into early morning where the human system drops to its lowest. That’s when reaction time falls off a cliff. That’s when attention starts blinking. That’s when microsleeps show up… and you don’t even know you had one. Eyes open… brain offline.

Now stack that circadian low on top of storm tempo. You’re out there doing energized work in the worst cognitive condition you can be in. That isn’t “storm hardened.” That’s stupid… and it’s preventable.

And let’s talk about what really happens on storm response… the part nobody wants to put in the after-action report. Some of us travel 12 to 16 hours just to show up. Windshield time… airport time… seat time… caffeine… gas station garbage… and adrenaline. Then we roll into the yard, get a clipboard, get a circuit, get a rushed briefing… and go straight to work like we didn’t just cross half the country half asleep.

Then it’s 16-hour shifts… back-to-back. No reset. No real sleep. No decompression. Just grind. So what are we doing? We’re arriving impaired… then stacking impairment… then putting that impaired brain on the sharp end… around energized… around booms… around rigging… around traffic… around heavy iron… around the public. That isn’t “getting after it.” That’s a body count waiting to happen.

Fatigue isn’t a feeling. It’s a performance failure. It hijacks judgment and makes dumb decisions feel reasonable. It crushes reaction time… and in this trade, reaction time is life. It turns attention into a strobe light… You miss what’s right in front of you. It makes your hands clumsy… dropped tools… missed grips… sloppy rigging… forgotten steps. And it turns good men into bad communicators… short fuse… tunnel vision… “shut up and go” leadership.

Then the near misses start showing up like warning shots… and everybody shrugs them off… because “we’re tired.”

Near misses are the smoke…

Fatalities are the fire…

If you want to know what it looks like before it bites… here it is...

Re-reading the same steps...

Forgetting simple things...

Missing things you never miss...

Overconfidence with no verification...

Tunnel vision...

Snapping at your people...

Moving like you’re underwater...

Nodding off in the truck… at the tailboard… waiting on a clearance...

If that’s you… Or that’s your crew… you’re not “pushing through.” You’re impaired...

Here’s the line in the sand.

Willpower is not a substitute for sleep.

Read that again.

Willpower is not PPE. Caffeine isn’t sleep… It’s debt. And the interest rate is paid in mistakes. So stop lying to yourself. If you’re too tired to double-check… you’re too tired to do it. If you’re too tired to think… you’re too tired to climb. If you’re too tired to drive… you’re too tired to leave.

Foremen… General Foremen…

This is where you earn your money. Not in the speech. Not in the “atta boy.” In the decision to slow down when pride is screaming to speed up. Name fatigue and circadian low points as hazards in the tailboard… every day. Rotate critical tasks. Use buddy checks… because fatigued people don’t self-report. Control the drive home.

And normalize this standard. If your crew just traveled 12 to 16 hours to get here…

They do not go straight to the sharp end.

They stage. They reset. They sleep.

Because… arriving exhausted and then climbing is no different than showing up under the influence.

Storms don’t care what you meant to do. They expose what you allowed. And fatigue is one of the biggest things this industry has allowed for decades… because it’s convenient… because it’s profitable… because it looks heroic… until it kills somebody.

Fatigue is the drunk nobody wants to call out…

I’m calling it out…

Better Never Rests…

And neither does the hazard.

Discipline Over Luck… Truth Over Comfort… People Over Ego

~Kevin | Lineman Bull$hit™ Academy

2 comments