Pretty picture, isn’t it? Yeah, well, it’s the silver lining to the week I had at work.
Late last week our boss was pulled away from the jobsite. His covid test from that morning returned positive. Company policy is any person testing positive must immediately be escorted off the job site and sent home to quarantine for five days – paid of course, but I digress.
The boss having to go home about thirty minutes after he arrived caused the department to scale up; the second in command climbed to the leadership position and I ascended to the second in command position. The only problem with the second in command position is that it is the logistics and administrative position. And for a job with so many departments and moving parts, it is arguably the most important in the department, as you also deal with new hires, their housing, transportation, deal memos, start paperwork, payroll, repairs, returns, ordering, etc.
I knew what the project of the day was, so was fairly prepared and knew what to expect. As I thought, the day went without a hitch. We all stepped up and got through the day. It was the next morning that caused my headache. We lost three more on the crew, due to covid, and now we’re shorthanded. Not only are we now shorthanded, but we also have to now find crew members from out of town and convince them to jump on the next flight out and begin work tomorrow. Oh, and by the way, tomorrow’s location is the day everyone has been dreading. As expected, we couldn’t find anyone to jump on a plane that day. The earliest anyone could fly out would be the next morning. Fortunately, one of the other crews, at a remote site, offered up two of their guys to cover down until I could get my new guys up and running.
Dreaded location day
Our job site for today is in Sula. Not only do I have two guys who have not worked with us, I’m still a man down. Additionally, we’re so deep in the backcountry, we don’t have cell phone reception, so can’t keep tabs on those flying in from out of town, or making sure they’re set up with a rental, hotel, directions to a testing site, and all the other things associated with distant hires. Oh, and It’s off and rain all day.
We started our day at noon and did not complete the job until four-thirty the following morning. A sixteen-hour day without cell coverage when you’re the boss is not easy.
my head hit the pillow by five am that morning. “Damn it’s eight am. I have to get up and get ready for another day.” Three hours of sleep and I am getting up and getting ready for another day at a different site.
Fortunately, I showed up and my new hires were there, along with my loaners from the other crew. We were rolling a little fat in the department today, but that’s okay. It’ll take a little edge off of those of us who worked such a long day the day before and well into this morning.
It was another long day, though not as long as the previous day – thirteen hours. Every department had people just scraping through the day on little sleep from the day before.
Today I was finally able to do something I’ve not been able to do for many years – sleep in. I woke up at noon today, which is a far cry from how I like to be, up before the sun comes up, but my body would just not go anymore and I needed the rest.
So, yeah, when I look at this picture of a rainbow in Sula. It’s a reminder of one hell of a day we had, but there was a silverling lining to the madness.
