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So, once again I'm being paid to sit on a site waiting for Ultramar to get their act together. 
For those who don't know, I do gas station repairs and installs. My job when starting up a new station is to program and test the pumps and monitoring equipment. I'm on day 4 of this particular startup, and I've only done about a day and a half of actual work. With 2 hours of travel. Each way. Each day.
Here's a breakdown of how I've spent my days of "work":
Day 1 - Nothing was ready. Spent over half the day telling the electrician how to do things he should have already known. Spent the other half actually doing part of what I was there to do.
Time onsite: 8 hours.
Time doing actual work: 3 hours.
Day 2 - Again, spent part of the day explaining things to people who should have already known how to do them. Spent the rest of the day finishing what I would have gotten done on Day 1 if the electrician had been ready.
Time onsite: 7.5 hours.
Time doing actual work: 5 hours.
Day 3 - Waited for the inspector to arrive so he could sign off on the operation of the equipment I set up on Day 1 and tested on Day 2, then stood around while he glad handed with everyone. He signed off on the approval without testing a thing or even really looking around.
Once he left, I hooked the monitoring system into the phone line because Bell can't seem to comprehend what we're asking them to do and since I've gotten tired of trying to explain it to them I just it myself now.
Time onsite: 7.5 hours.
Time doing actual work: 1.5 hours.
Day 4 - So here I am today, the day the station is supposed to open. I've been here for over 4 hours and haven't done anything yet except stand around with the other people who were here at 9am for the "opening". It's not going to be happening anytime soon either; they're still paving one of the entrances and haven't finished testing the fire hydrants yet.
If you're not keeping score, that's three 11+ hour days (and counting) for less than 10 hours of actually doing something. Did I mention I get paid by the hour?
Is this the greatest job in the world, or the worst? Sometimes it's hard to tell.
For those who don't know, I do gas station repairs and installs. My job when starting up a new station is to program and test the pumps and monitoring equipment. I'm on day 4 of this particular startup, and I've only done about a day and a half of actual work. With 2 hours of travel. Each way. Each day.
Here's a breakdown of how I've spent my days of "work":
Day 1 - Nothing was ready. Spent over half the day telling the electrician how to do things he should have already known. Spent the other half actually doing part of what I was there to do.
Time onsite: 8 hours.
Time doing actual work: 3 hours.
Day 2 - Again, spent part of the day explaining things to people who should have already known how to do them. Spent the rest of the day finishing what I would have gotten done on Day 1 if the electrician had been ready.
Time onsite: 7.5 hours.
Time doing actual work: 5 hours.
Day 3 - Waited for the inspector to arrive so he could sign off on the operation of the equipment I set up on Day 1 and tested on Day 2, then stood around while he glad handed with everyone. He signed off on the approval without testing a thing or even really looking around.
Once he left, I hooked the monitoring system into the phone line because Bell can't seem to comprehend what we're asking them to do and since I've gotten tired of trying to explain it to them I just it myself now.Time onsite: 7.5 hours.
Time doing actual work: 1.5 hours.
Day 4 - So here I am today, the day the station is supposed to open. I've been here for over 4 hours and haven't done anything yet except stand around with the other people who were here at 9am for the "opening". It's not going to be happening anytime soon either; they're still paving one of the entrances and haven't finished testing the fire hydrants yet.
If you're not keeping score, that's three 11+ hour days (and counting) for less than 10 hours of actually doing something. Did I mention I get paid by the hour?
Is this the greatest job in the world, or the worst? Sometimes it's hard to tell.
If the AC in my truck worked, I could have been playing RS as well.
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So after spending the rest of the afternoon checking and rechecking everything I found that the electrician is not only useless (see Days 1 and 2), but he's also color blind. He got the black and the blue wires backwards when hooking up the motor controls, so they were only running on 60% power.
So the tally for Day 4 comes to:
Time onsite: 8.5 hours
Time doing actual work: 0 hours.
Time chasing someone else's mistake: 4.5 hours.
If have to keep doing the electrician's job as well as my own, I really need to ask for a raise.