Question for the guys working camp type shifts

[gdhillon]

I got invited to a 3rd round interview for a apprenticeship for the utility here.

From what I’m told these guys are on the road 60-70% of the time as their maintaining equipment at all substations and generation stations in the province

Im currently a design tech trainee with said utility in PG, it’s a good gig for sure. 80% of the time I’m a desk jockey, 20ish I’m in the field talking to customer, contractors etc. don’t get much for overtime, but the final rate after training is about 2$ off what a jman would make. (I am currently making 1.89 more then the apprenticeship starting wage)

My last interview was a panel with hr lead, a foreman and manager. Manager advised the shift is 4 on 3 off when working out of Surrey/main shop (30-40% of the time). Depending on how large the job is outside of Surrey they work anywhere from 5/2 to a few months out at a time, as they are basically chasing shutdowns

So my questions for my fellow snow and mudders(particularly the guys working camp type rotations):
1) how do you guys ‘juggle’ family life and work?
2) if you were to be in my position (currently living at home, gf lives in pg but going to school in lowna) would you chose to stay with design or accept an apprenticeship if offered? My big thing with this, the gf has brushed on it too, is starting a family in the future and being gone all the time

I have done a pros and cons list but I thought I’d get some opinions on here, might sway my opinion, might not but it’s always good to hear from the guys in the situation

thanks in advance !

 

[Hoehand79]

17 yrs on the pipeline now and I avoid camp like the plague, but sometimes a guy has no choice. If you are a short drive from home makes it easier for a day off or 2. But if not, you are stuck in camp because it s hard to justify 12 hrs of driving for 2hrs of home time. I heard this once, if you can't spend as much time at home as it took you to drive there then it's not worth it. My kids are older so it's not that bad that way just gotta deal with the warden. I would take a good pay cut just to work from home but at the end of the day cash is king. Just my 2 cents weigh your options and do whatever you think is the best, good luck

 

[pipes]

I lived out of a suit case for many years. Not camp jobs but away from home none the less. I was single at the time ( young dumb and full of cum) and remained that way until I got a job where I was home ever night. Never had a house of my own until then as well. Living on the road like a rock start has its drawbacks. Don't miss it and wouldn't recommend it if you have plans of having a family. I don't have any kids and that boat has sailed. Like Hoehand say's weigh your options and discuss with your GF and good luck on your decision.

 

[pano-dude]

If it's 4days on 3 off you won't have any time at home since it's a days travel each way even if you fly to pg.
4 weeks 3 off is different but 4 weeks away from family is tough.

I did 2weeks on 2 off for a few years and it was ok for me but not good for the wife having to deal with the kids school, hockey, chores at the ranch, her own work etc.
Unless you're making substantially more money to be away from home it's just not worth it imo.

 

[Lunch_Box]

I work overseas and pre covid our schedule was 4 weeks on 4 weeks off, travel on your own time (lose 1.5 days each directions roughly). That was fine, wife is able to be a stay at home mom and be with our girls and the 3.5 weeks at home is amazing. Now with covid we are gone 6-8 weeks or longer sometimes and but still get 3.5 weeks at home, 2 of which are in quarantine. It was rough last year but managed, I am not sure if I can do another year if this keeps dragging on. But so hard to find a job at home and almost impossible one that pays anything close to what I make currently.

 

[getzcold]

Working on the road is tuff, but it’s worth experiencing and some people enjoy it. You definitely get exposed to more things and are given opportunity’s that are harder to come by working in town. Sometimes it’s worth using it as a stepping stone to get experience before finding a gig in town.

 

[Annacassandra]

What's the apprenticeship PLT? Sounds like transmission maintenance?

I'm not a PLT I'm an engineer but I work for an electrical utility here in Alberta and being a lineman for the utilities is a pretty gravy gig. You'll probably be on the road a lot in transmission and especially as an apprentice but travel from your home base is part of your work schedule. So if you crew is based in pg and you work 4/3 or 8/6 you report to work on the first day of your shift in pg then travel to the wherever the work is and you're back home the end of day on the last day of your shift- or at least that's the way it works here. You get to do some really cool things in transmission and then when you're looking to settle down you can move into distribution and be home every night. You might still work shift work or have to travel occasionally for certain projects or be on call but for the most part you're based out of one service point and home every night.

 

[ABMax24]

What has the best future career prospects? Where do you see yourself in 10, 20 or 30 years?

It sounds like you've already got a pretty good spot, depending on what room there is for advancement in position and pay.

I don't like being on the road, I'm home 99% of the time. But if work is slow I'll take a shift or 2 on the road, or if a sweet couple day gig shows up I'll jump on it. I've also got a position that now pays more than JMan, and pays more than those that continue to work away from home, but it also took me 10 years to get here.

It's nice to make the money that can come with working on the road, but I've seen way too many guys that send the money up their nose, or they get divorced and have to continue making that money so their ex can continue to live the good life. There are lots that make it work, but the divorcee rate is not in your favor choosing to always work away from home. At least from what I've seen in O&G construction.

 

[Shitfly]

Being young, if you think it's something you want to try out, now's the time. Definitely working away from home is not for everyone, so many different dynamics in peoples lives etc, but like mentioned earlier it can give you some different experience and work/life perspective. I've worked oil/gas field/plant on: week/week, 2week/2week, month/month and 5week/5week overseas, and also worked shiftwork at home 8on6off. For sure lots of divorced folks out there (but that's everywhere..), but also depends on how your life is set up,, wasn't working at home for prob 12-13yrs, but once I was home life was not great, so I split, being around all the time I realized it wasn't the life I thought I was working towards.. reset. Anyways back working week/week, new wife, new life, all's been good again last 7yrs haha. No kids, so like I mentioned, everyone has a different situation, goals, work/life balance has to work for ya. Also the travel to/from work is a pretty big piece of the puzzle, won't take long to realize you're losing lots of time on the road (and fuel/maint $$), and most the time driving to/from work is the most dangerous part of the day, fly-in fly-out if ya can.. good luck, always nice to have options, weigh your choices with the pay/goals/sacrifices etc,

 

[Caper11]

Your married I take it? My advice is you need to sit down a have a serious conversation with your spouse, she will be the one looking after things and taking on extra responsibility, so at the end of the day, she should have decision if this is the best for your household.

I do not recommend taking a job JUST for the money either yes the compensation package is important, but so is a career. Is there linear moves allowed that you can progress in your career, that can take you to retirement. Whats the structure to your work rotation.
Ive turned down high paying jobs cause I did not see a structure in the work and days off, like traveling home on your days off and only being home for 1 day. You can find that out in a interview when OT hours are talked about. That one company told me 800 hours of OT was normal.

Ive done a 14/14 rotation, and Im currently on a 8/6. Communication through FaceTime and phone calls daily is IMO extremely important, especially when kids are involved.

Good luck on your interviews and your decision.

 

[gdhillon]

What's the apprenticeship PLT? Sounds like transmission maintenance?

I'm not a PLT I'm an engineer but I work for an electrical utility here in Alberta and being a lineman for the utilities is a pretty gravy gig. You'll probably be on the road a lot in transmission and especially as an apprentice but travel from your home base is part of your work schedule. So if you crew is based in pg and you work 4/3 or 8/6 you report to work on the first day of your shift in pg then travel to the wherever the work is and you're back home the end of day on the last day of your shift- or at least that's the way it works here. You get to do some really cool things in transmission and then when you're looking to settle down you can move into distribution and be home every night. You might still work shift work or have to travel occasionally for certain projects or be on call but for the most part you're based out of one service point and home every night.

It’s for a winder apprenticeship, I have thought about getting into line. But I’m not a huge fan of heights

 

[gdhillon]

What has the best future career prospects? Where do you see yourself in 10, 20 or 30 years?

It sounds like you've already got a pretty good spot, depending on what room there is for advancement in position and pay.

I don't like being on the road, I'm home 99% of the time. But if work is slow I'll take a shift or 2 on the road, or if a sweet couple day gig shows up I'll jump on it. I've also got a position that now pays more than JMan, and pays more than those that continue to work away from home, but it also took me 10 years to get here.

It's nice to make the money that can come with working on the road, but I've seen way too many guys that send the money up their nose, or they get divorced and have to continue making that money so their ex can continue to live the good life. There are lots that make it work, but the divorcee rate is not in your favor choosing to always work away from home. At least from what I've seen in O&G construction.

In twenty years I’d like to get into management, in my mind my technician background a ticket would really help with that pursuit.

Talking to the gf, she’s done school in 3ish years and would like littles shortly after that. Had a long talk with her about it last night actually, from her input and talking to you guys as well as coworkers I don’t think I would be able accept the offer is I was given it.Being away and starting a family as stated above would be difficult.

The pay wouldn’t be astronomically more, even if it was the case someone above said they’d basically trade any amount for in town work. That comment took me back a bit

I am heavily leaning towards staying at my current gig (room for advancement here would be getting on special projects etc),
think I’ll have to discuss it more with my manager.

Thanks for input boys!

 

[Pedaling pete]

You made the right choice. Work camp is about as fun as it sounds. I know cause I'm in camp right now lol

 

[FatGuy]

Yep I work 14 on 14 off. Have for 6 years. It’s hard on the girlfriend mostly when I come home and bugger off sledding for a bit. But we have no kids and it’s really good money.

both have to be on the same page. Work and money isn’t everything.
you will never regret blowing off work to spend with family. But you will regret blowing off family to go to work

 

[canuck5]

Working away is great until it’s not. Generally you see guys do it at start of career or at the end it generally doesn’t work well with young ones at home. Now that said long term job prospects and security with a utility allowing yourself to get transferable skills within a trade is worth lots.

 

[ABMax24]

The one exception I've seen to this is getting to choose where you live. If a person works on the road all the time sometimes you can move to the town, community, area etc where you want to live and commute. I work with a few people that do that, they work all over Alberta on different projects, they've given up there places in Alberta and live in the Okanagan Valley, or on the island and commute for their shifts. If you're going to be away from home for work anyway, might as well have a nice house in a beautiful town to go home to.

 

[Annacassandra]

It’s for a winder apprenticeship, I have thought about getting into line. But I’m not a huge fan of heights

Yea I'm not sure as a winder you'd have a whole lot of opportunities to settle down somewhere permanent and be home every night. I'm not sure though I don't think we have winders in the company I work for. Definitely have to be ok with heights if you go the plt route, until everything goes underground there's no way to get out of climbing poles.


My husband has been away for work at least partially for the last few years, when our son was small there's no way I would have put up with it. Now that he's a bit older (grade 4) it's not so bad but still not really worth it. He does it right now out of necessity because the work just isn't here especially this year.

 

[Uturn]

I spent the first 10 years of my work career living on the road. It was an experience, but hard on relationships. Got tired of it quick. Last 30 sleeping in my own bed every night. Now as a shift worker I miss some important family events, but we schedule them around my days off. Wouldn't go back on the road for 5X salary.

My $0.02

 

[skegpro]

Wtf is a winder?

 

[Zrock]

worked in a campground for some time and seen all the workers that worked away from their family.. Can tall you the only ones that cared for it were the ones where their family traveled with them. The ones that were away from their family hated it but were doing it for the money... Money does not replace family time no matter how much you make.. Seen quite a few of these end in divorce