Dear everybody,
Every so often, people will bring up the topic of working for the railroad, and railroaders often warn against the job. But sometimes it’s unclear. Therefore, the following are three questions. Please answer them with either “YES” or “NO.” I realize that, to a certain extent, this is an oversimplification–I’m sorry for that.
1.) Do you like your job more than you dislike it (YES/NO)?
2.) If you knew when you became a railroader what you know now abou the job, would you still have become a railroader (YES/NO)?
3.) Would you reccomend the job to others similar to yourself (YES/NO)?
I am not a railroader because many years ago I asked myself the same questions ( and a lot of others). I came to the decision not to work for the railroad. Instead, I used my engineering degree in manufacturing. I have never regretted either decision and I still enjoy my interest in railroading.
Pretty much, yes. I came from a railroad family and so I pretty knew what to expect going in. I never expected some of the changes I have seen.
If I had known about the longer hours we would be working 35 years later, I might have moved on after a time. You always expect things to get better rather than regress into sweatshop conditions.
Probably not. If you are just hell bent on it I will help out if I can. Prepare yourself for a way out and do not wait too long to exercise that.
1: Yes
2: Yes
3: Yes, only because you qualfied the last question…I think the job is atractive to people like me, but to others, it would seem very frustrating, too hard, and the hours too odd.
I’ve “heard” a lot about the “good 'ol days” but those were before my time. Since I only the current RR I answer YES to all three questions because my quality of life has improved dramatically. Moving up to dispatcher helped swing those yes answers even higher.
1.No 2.Yes 3.Yes/No ;This question is very hard to define unless you know the individual like the back of your hand.I’m 4th Generation on my Dad’s side and 3rd on my Mom’s ,and we have all gone thru are ups and downs with railroading.
Yes to questions 1&2 but question #3 brings more guestions for me to ask the person intrested in the railroad, because as stated above this job is a mind set i.e. getting called at 0030 for a 0200 on duty time for some people it is hard to get adjusted to getting out of bed to answer the phone.
Yes, I could not imagine sitting in an office all day or, even worse, working in a factory, even though the job becomes routine, something different is always happening, and no one ever wants to fall into inattentiveness due to complacency.
2)Same reason, for lack of a better answer, what else would I do, I’ve really done nothing else and I discovered that I couldn’t see myself doing what I attended college for, which was to be an educator. I found that I wasn’t destined to be an educator, so I guess I couldn’t see myself sitting in a classroom all day, either.
3)No, this job is tough, it’s very hard on family life and anyone who wishes to be a family-oriented person should RUN as far away from the railroad as they can get. Now, if you wi***o spend your life regretting what you’ve missed out on (and I suppose that’s true of everyone in one aspect or another), hire right out on the railroad. Personally, we’ve stayed married, we’ve raised three children successfully, but I sure didn’t get to do everything with them that normal parents do, that’s my chief regret. Also, I know plenty of my co-workers who have stayed married and raised families successfully, regardless of what you frequently see posted on this and other boards about rampant divorce of transportation folks. I wouldn’t recommend this job to anyone but I know plenty who’re grateful to have it, despite the drawbacks, I would be in that crowd, too.