Anyone considering going to the fiber mapping project in the ky, in, oh area should heed my advise and find somewhere else to spend your time and money.
I have worked on this project numerous times for two different contractors, mostly for the current one.
EVERY TIME.... I have been mislead or out and out lied to. They tell you crews are making x amount but when you get there they give you work in bad areas where it is next to impossible to make the kind of money they claim others are making.
Most of the people who come leave fairly quickly. The work sounds relatively easy till you try it....then you come to understand what a bitch it usually becomes. Not only do you have to be proficient at doing the field work, which requires asbuilt mapping capabilities and a bucket truck and a computer and numerous other mapping tools, but then you also must be able to decipher all the various fiber routing scenarios and draw all of that up by hand on maps of varying scales in ink in multiple colors. My experience is that even as a well seasoned mapper.....you will need to spend at least one hour drawing for each hour of field work that you do. And....this will complicate your scheduling because they are always jamming you to turn in maps asap so they can show x amount of production each week....so if map turn in is on thursday but it is going to rain friday so you could use your down time to draw....well to bad....we need those maps thursday so you better spend all day wednesday or tuesday drawing them up and don't forget you may have to go back to the field to figure out some inconsistency with what you drew.....like a cut off fiber tail that is hidden in a multicable bundle somewhere...... or a fiber that has two rows of footages stamped into it.... or any of a dozen other hair pulling scenarios.....there went a bunch of wasted time and trouble and your profit ......
They have told me repeatedly that I was one of the best subs they ever had but they still feel okay with lying to me and manipulating me.....most recently promising me my own large eclusive territory to do then telling me the maps weren't ready yet for that area and coercing me to work in other areas in the meantime (5weeks) where they batch the work out so as to get the experienced people to do the hard stuff, which equals less profitable, or more accurately, greater loss, while saving the easy stuff (gravy) to try to train newbies on, most of whom do not work out, so you end up rarely getting any gravy and that is the only thing that can possibly make the current rediculous pricing scheme work out.
In the past, anytime I did actually get any gravy running it would last for a week or two at which point they would either throw more newbies in or move you 150 miles away or simply run out of work for a week or two with little or no notice.
This job is a loser for the same reasons that most cable jobs are......pay is too low......you have to wait too long to get paid...... and there is little if any regard for the real life scenarios that the field personnel face, such as planning for lodging, personnel needs, personal or family life time, etc, etc.
The job needs to pay about double the current prices to be profitable enough to be worth doing given current fuel and equipment and lodging costs as well as in relation to other work options. They are paying $80 / mile plus $5 / event. It needs to be at least $10/event to be worth doing and some events you don't get paid for even though you have to collect information and enter it on the map or a notation as to what the deal is. They say $5/riser but if there is more than one cable you only get paid $5. I have had poles with 10 fibers on them....imagine how long it takes to get all that info and then draw it on the map.....for $5.....these people are completely out of their minds.......
Fiber Mapping Warning - the straight scoop
There are 2 replies to this message
