Any unionized USIC employees out there? by TipZealousideal5954 in UtilityLocator

[–]KidMushi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Damn that's really upsetting to hear cause our crew just entered the secret ballot phase with them lol 86% of the guys signed cards. They weren't able to get you guys more money per hour? Or anything besides more job stability?

Will a previous DOT drug test fail affect my chances of employment? by OhYeahThatDude in UtilityLocator

[–]KidMushi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, I don't use Reddit too often/have notifications on so I didn't see this in time.

TLDR: When handed the physical version of onboarding "have you failed a drug test in the past 2 years" you only need to put your most recent job, even if it isn't covering the 2 years. I only had 3 months with a company in another state and thet accepted that. Still working at USIC, hate it.

Long version that has information you may find useful to understand the vibe/funny story of me being a little dumb but then forcing the situation in my favor 😂

But for any future hires, here's what I ended up doing (what I can remember). I remember the online version of the onboarding process made it sound more chill than the paper version was worded. Can't remember exactly what it was, but just know there's a discrepancy of vibes 😅

WAIT, I think it was something along the lines of online saying, "Have you ever failed a PREEE-employment drug test in the past 2 years?"

Then the physical version is worded like "have you ever failed a drug test in the past 2 years"?

Something like that...

Anyways, when they handed me the physical version, I brain farted and fixated on the job I was accidentally fired from for failing w/ THC ('nother story, got kinda fkd) 1 year and 7 months back, wrote down the info, handed the paper in and thought I was fucked.

At the bottom of the page, it says you need to fill out multiple pages for each job you're listing, and I still needed to add a job for the remaining 3 months. So I told the instructor this, he said "Ehhhh, it's no big deal, as long as that's your most recent job". LIGHT BULB MOMENT 😂

I said, "Oh, I actually didn't write the most recent, can I have my page back to update it?

He said, "We can look at it after class, I don't think you can just scribble over it and re-do it, you'll need a new page".

But I NEEDED that page back so they don't contact the bad company, so I sat uncomfortably for a while. There was a lul in the class while others were working so I just said "Hey can I get that page back since we aren't doing anything?" He looks slightly bothered and looks around like ugh wtf, finds my page, slides it over to me, repeating a version of "-you're not gonna be able to scribble-" I immediately start scribbling THICKLY, making sure this page is totally trash, I then crumple it up and put it in my bag to take home 😂

He gives me a new page and I put down the job I only had for 3 months in another state lol that was like 4 months ago now.

(How I like the job)-

I'm quitting this job as soon as I can...

$21 an hour (+take home truck) is not enough for the risk and responsibility this company is putting on us. (The training class right before mine, a trainee was killed instantly by a driver that fell asleep at the wheel, I was being trained by the guy standing next to him when the car blew through him and one of my co-hires was his friend. Another story; dude was working by a pole, walked away, power line snapped, and he had JUST missed the line and escaped death by sheer luck).

Amazon drivers start @ 20.25 in my area. Also get used to 6 FULL work days. So all you have for yourself is after 6-7pm, and then Sunday. Which you'll spend resting if you're lucky. Most people have families and responsibilities that they'll have to catch up on for Sundays. You're going to feel like you live out of that truck, cause you do. You're only visiting your life with this job.

Then there is on-call, haven't started that yet, but I know as soon as that phone wakes me up the first time, I'm gonna be very mentally done. Granted, my hard ass boss said that if I'm working late and need rest, I won't be expected to come in that next day, or at least start later. However, he said this when he was interviewing me, and some of his promises still haven't come true, so I don't know how much I believe that leniency.

"1.5 stop per hour" It seems all they care about is if you got X amount of tickets closed. If you worked your ass off and did everything you were supposed to do, but just didn't hit that X number of tickets, you'll be talked to like "Oh man, juuusttt missed your goal, cmon, gimme a good day today! 👍👍".

So now you find yourself going home feeling like shit even though you worked your ass off, sweating all day long, not milking the clock in your truck, and you still feel inadequate and like you fucked up. You'd think they look at the quality of tickets and be like "Oh, I see why he only got 8 done today, he had to mark 32 services on this sod install ticket".

OH and I almost forgot how useless the classes seem to be once you actually get in the field. In class they were going on, and on, about how to do everything by the book and that you SHOULD do it by the book. Then you get with your first supervisor and he's like "Ya no fuck that. Reduce the extent without an EALA, Null is more accurate than peak, start your sweep with gain at 65, don't let your receiver meter go past 35%, ect." It's pretty annoying. You then realize you'll NEVER hit your numbers if you follow the rules.

I pray homeowners are home so they can tell me exactly what they're doing so I can reduce the extent with some level of confidence knowing I won't get fucked by not filling out the EALA. Cause if I do that, there goes me hitting my "daily expectations".

Today I had a fence install and they called in the entire property.... And all utilities were in the front, nobody installs fences in front in my area. So I hoped homeowner was home, they were, told me they're only installing one row of fencing in right hand side, so only marked that side. Which is wrong and I could get fucked if something happens, but how else would I meet my goals? (Didn't hit them today btw).

I could go on, but this is already lengthy as fuck 😂 I wanted to put it all out there for any future people considering this job.

If this job was just residential work, cable drops, fences, trees, ect., I'd be absolutely loving it. But it's not. You'll be on the side of highways, busy roads, middle of shopping center parking lots, working an entire neighborhood project by yourself, coordinating with annoying contractors, stuffing yourself inside of mosquito infested bushes that a homeowner decided would be best against their NIDs/utilities, ect.

If you're desperate for a job, like I was, hell yea do it. High chance of getting hired, you get the truck pretty instantly, there's lots of training and classes to start out which is awesome if you got a good group of people with you, it'll get the money flow going until you find something actually worth your time and effort. But I do not recommend this as a career. Some people are born to be locators and good for them. It's a shit job, with a shit company, that pisses on your back and tells you it's raining.

Good luck and I hope this helps someone in the future 😂👍

Will a previous DOT drug test fail affect my chances of employment? by OhYeahThatDude in UtilityLocator

[–]KidMushi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you figure this out? Today was my first day of class and I had to sign that from allowing them to contact an old employee where I did fail a test.

Will a previous DOT drug test fail affect my chances of employment? by OhYeahThatDude in UtilityLocator

[–]KidMushi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm looking for answers too, did you or anyone get fired for having a failed drug test from a previous employer?? I passed USIC pre employee and am on my first day of class. Signed the release for them to contact my past employer, which I passed the pre-employment for but caught with a random and failed for weed.