Huskies said: Anyone done on-call snow removal before? Not with plows, I will be doing the detail work with shovels and snowblowers. I haven't done driving in snow so I'm very nervous about that. But I've been hard on cash for a while, and despite the disruption, I think it's a good way to keep busy and active and maybe recalibrate me, cause I need it.
Bud ive done it A LOT. Let me share my experience please:
Take a seat
I started doing snow with a commercial company doing hospitals, schools, hoa's etc. started on a shovel. You wake up at 2am or whatever the fuck and get your ass out there no matter what the conditions. So alot of times, you and the other snow people are the only ones crazy enough to be driving in white-out conditions. That was really spooky and lonely at first. But there is a sort of camaraderie that happens between you and the other crazy motherfuckers out there.
I started plowing the following year and honestly, i missed the shovel. Plowing is stressful, and uncomfortable. Bashing around in a 3/4 ton truck with your head on a swivel all day wears you the fuck out. The stress of it can be unnerving. A snowplow can do a shitload of damage to landscape assets, other cars, or whatever else you cant see under the snow. Wears the front end and tires our of your truck.
So now youve coupled the sleep deprivation of being an on call shovel with the stress of handling a 11,000 truck and plow. What fun. Add drugs to stay awake and youre really playing with fire.
Now then. Thats not the top. No sir.
Then theres MANAGEMENT of snow services. Let me tell you what brother, thats the most stessful awful job ive ever done in my life and i refuse to ever take part in it for any amount of money. Ive managed snow services for major hospitals, private schools, and my least favorite, HOA,s.
Now add all the sleep dep and stress of the other two positions and throw a big dollop of liability on there. Someone falls and breaks their leg? You're probably fucked. A "slip and fall" is the second worst possible thing to read in an email, but i straight up had a slip and DIE incident. Of course, i was able to susbstantiate my claim that the hoa board declined services for that particular storm, but fuck me, what bunch of unpaid hardship that was. I STILL feel horrible. Some old dad come out to get his mail, slipped, fell, went into the hospital, never came out. On a property that I WAS MANAGING.
I remember once I had a rich kid at one of my schools eat some ice melt. Fuck me. They called poison control and i had to get the chem SDS asap. Jesus. I wasnt worried about him but rich people do love to make a scene. I remember screaming on the phone with the school site manager:
Them: "well he wont tell us how much he ate" Me: "jim, tell me, how much fucking mag chloride do YOU think you could eat?"
Then there were some jobs i just fucked up and made the call wrong. Pull the trigger too late? Oh fuck. I did a car rental place that turned into a hockey rink and one of their fleet cars smashed into one of my guys plows. Fuck me.
I remember a snow job at an HOA got so fucked up people couldnt get their cars out of their driveways because the stupid ass board decided they didnt want to plow the streets. Only shovel the driveways. What a shit show. I slipped and fell and chipped my elbow on that stupid job. Doctor said its just gonna be that way for life now. Lovely.
Fuck snow. Fuck snow services. Rich people need to either learn to shovel their own shit or live somewhere it doesnt snow.
I quit working for that company back in june and my sleep schedule is STILL fucked up from that shit. There were days id leave the house at midnight, wouldnt get back home until 10pm.
Come in the house try not to wake your wife up, feeling like the fucking twilight zone. Now you CANT even sleep if you wanted. Take benzos i guess. Ope. Heres monday morning, and youre expected to be a human being again!
Anyway. Thats my experience doing snow services. we shovel a few clients driveways on a "when we get there" basis. No contract. Its do it yourself or fuck off policy and I am NOT waking up before 5am to do.
Hope that helps husk.
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