How is employee turnover in the railroad industry? Once someone has made it through the rigorous screening process and is hired is he or she likely to remain in the industry for life or for only a few years?
Old heads always say you either quit your first year, or you hang around for 30.
Seems to hold true.
zug
6 done… 31 to go.
If you haven’t been run off in a year, it all starts to make sense right about that time.
Like Zug said, either they quit inside the first year, (or first derailment) or they stick around for the duration.
16 years in so far.
I just got my BA-6 , I’m betting most of the railroaders did. 287 months of service here…The first few years I looked forward to seeing the time add up but now it just makes me feel old.
I was hell bent on working for a railroad, I nearly quit a few times but it was clear that I couldn’t be happy anywhere else. All the times I was laid off I got in a lot of trouble.
I agree with everyone, if you can last the first year you have a chance of a long career, it usually takes about that long to weed out the ones that are not meant for the railroad life.
Randy
I heard this at a C&NW Historical Society meeting in an address by Dan Sabin(CEO of Iowa & Northern). ‘We will be starting a Conductor class of 12 folks this summer. If we still have 5 employed by the end of the year, I will feel good’,
The irregular hours/schedule for employees in road service can play havoc with family life.
Jim
Only 25 years left, unless Railroad Retirement changes something…
Retention can be an issue, especially when a different outfit nearby is paying a lot more for similar work hours and conditions…
Same holds true for other departments in the railroad, not just the operating crafts.
We see that in the volunteers on our railroad as well. Some get it, some don’t.
The deciding factor for some is what picture they had in their mind when they started here. If they had too romantic a view of railroading, or are just interested in being a railroader, they may not make the cut - we’re a real railroad that has passengers with expectations and all of our crewmembers are expected not only to railroad safely, but to provide the customers with a memorable experience.
Of course, nobody is here for the money. We usually end up spending our own money for all sorts of stuff to keep things going.
.
Yup and yup. Also, when I look at the total creditable earnings, I wonder where it all went!
There were 16 of us in my class, age wise I was the oldest at 38.
Of the 16, there were five of us still here after 3 years, we 5 all stayed railroading….now we are two ground pounders, two are engineers, and one is a yardmaster.
Don, I know what you mean….my wife looked at that, said “no way, you couldn’t have earned that much!”
Scary how much three daughters, two granddaughters and a wife can spend!
You said it. But we keep smiling because EX wives spend it even faster…
I hired with 4 other people. 3 quit within one year, one is a dispatcher, and I’m still a groundpounder.
I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but what is a “groundpounder?” Is it a conductor? Switchman?
I hired out for a summer job - 47 years & 6 days ago.
Current seniority roster I am on has 2 of us with 1973 dates - the rest of the roster is 2001 and later.
You are a worker, Balt. Some people are and go on and on. There are worse things to be in this life.
John
So that must mean you can pretty much pick any assignment you want?
Time flies, I sometimes can’t believe I’ve been in transportation myself for so long…on July 4 it will be 25 years! It was only supposed to be a summer job!
Yes. Pretty much anyone who isn’t in a purely supervisory role, or an engineer.
Biggest cause for turnover for the lowest on the roster is being furloughed, Guys get cut off, find another job to hold them over. They get recalled, quit their other job and come back only to be cut off again after a week or two. After doing this a couple times people don’t come back.
To keep the low seniority guys connected, they started some retention boards. The low guys would work two days a week and keep their insurance. Many found other jobs to do the other days of the week. Thing is, they would get recalled to full time work, quit their part time work and get cut back again after a week or two.
We’ve had a few leave after working a few years, some even after becoming engineers. Some went to other railroads. A few left the industry entirely.
Jeff
Jeff,
The PTRA has a flow back agreement with the UP…if furloughed here, we can mark up in the same craft with our seniority date at the local UP terminal, in this case, Englewood.
Have to do the UP training class and rules re-cert, but its pretty much the same as ours.
Had a bunch cut off a few years ago, they exercised the agreement, went there.
All of them got called back, but one guy liked his job there, so he stayed, didn’t realize the contract required him to come back, got fired from the PTRA, (job abandonment)…UP cut him lose the same day!
Best thing about working for a terminal switching road is we all go home every day!
Can’t say about railroading just trucking you either get to love it or leave(the average trucking company turnover is over 100% mostly new hires). I think I would have liked a railroad job as much or more then driving though. Getting cargo there and done has a real sense of purpose. Thx. IGN