Tag Archives: working in Dickinson North Dakota

Example Of Working In Dickinson, North Dakota

November 1, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, Information on Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what are people like in Dickinson North Dakota, working in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

In my previous blog post titled “Jobs, Employment, And Working In Dickinson, North Dakota”, I explained that local people from Dickinson are hostile, mean, malicious, and hateful to their non-local co-workers. I wrote some pretty harsh things in that blog post, but I stand by what I wrote, and I believe that what I wrote was truthful, honest, and accurate. Readers are probably wondering, where do I come up with this, how did I come to this conclusion? I will give one, recent example.

I agreed to do a job recently. I was not given a very accurate job description, or any kind of warning. I don’t think that there was any ill-intention in this, the people giving me the information did not know.

I had to drive about an hour from Dickinson to get to the job location. My job, was to climb up to a two foot wide platform, to work by myself, and to be just one part of the overall work operation.

There were three significant problems with this job: There was the requirement and expectation that I would be up on the platform, standing, for 15 hours; It was extremely cold and windy; There was not a railing on one side of the platform, and if I fell off this side, I would certainly die.

My thoughts were, “This is bullshit, this is fucked up.” I had worked at heights before, I had worked at dangerous jobs before, I had worked in the cold and wind before, but not for 15 hours straight.

According to OSHA, when you are working at heights like this, where you can fall to your death, it is required that there be a continuous railing of 42″ in height, or you are tied off with a safety harness and lanyard. There was no railing on one side, just steel that came up to knee height. The company did not have, offer, or want the person on the platform wearing a safety harness and lanyard. I have two safety harnesses, but I didn’t know that I would need to bring one, and I realized that they wouldn’t like me wearing one.

In this company’s and its employees’ “ignorance”, they just didn’t care to have a railing on one side of the platform, or have a safety harness for the person on the platform. Their opinion was, “What, just don’t fall off.” I asked what happened to the person who used to have this job before me, and they said they didn’t know what happened to him, he just didn’t come back.

It was very cold and windy on the elevated platform. I was wearing thermal underwear, FR pants, heavy hooded FR sweatshirt, heavy hooded winter jacket, and work gloves. After a couple of hours on the platform, I kept getting colder and colder. I had to climb down quickly, run to my vehicle, put on a second heavy winter jacket, run back, and quickly climb back up to the platform. I made it back up on top of the platform, just in time to do my part of the work process and not create a delay for everyone.

All day long, my hands were cold, my feet were cold, and I was generally cold. After about eight more hours, I had to climb down again, run, get a third winter jacket to tie around my waste, run, and climb back up the platform, just in time to do my part of the work process.

When it got dark at 6:00 p.m., I couldn’t see anything. I had to quickly climb down, and run to my vehicle to get a flashlight. This time, I just drove my vehicle over, and parked it next to a small tanker truck and other parked equipment.

During the day when I had to urinate, I would quickly climb down and urinate beside the parked equipment. At night, after it was dark, I would just urinate off the platform. If I had had to poop, I could not have run to the portable toilet and turned around and run back in time, let alone go in and sit down.

We worked until 9:30 p.m. that night. The longer that I worked, and the more tired that I became, the more careless, unworried, and not paying attention I became, plus it became dark. That is when I caught myself a few times almost falling off the one side of the platform without a railing.

After stopping on the drive home to get fuel in my vehicle, and going to the drive thru at McDonalds, it was approximately 11:15 p.m. when I got home. I slept for five hours, and then I had to get up and drive back to the job site by 6:00 a.m.

Do you think that I was looking forward to standing on that platform for another day from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., for 15 hours? In the cold and the wind. Where tripping, losing your balance, or not paying attention will result in you falling to your death. I never planned on working or living like this. This is not normal.

After several days of working like this, my local co-workers and work supervisor from Dickinson were not very nice or friendly to me. It was hard to do this job, and I did not delay the work once. It was like my work supervisor had a dislike and resentment for me. Even though I showed up on time, did my job all day long without complaining to anyone, didn’t get hurt, didn’t make a mistake, didn’t cause any kind of delay, my local Dickinson co-workers and local Dickinson work supervisor were determined to dislike me. They were just thinking and thinking, and hoping to be able to find fault with something I was doing, so that they could complain.

Jobs, Employment, And Working In Dickinson, North Dakota

November 1, 2017UncategorizedDickinson, North Dakota, employment in Dickinson North Dakota, guide to Dickinson North Dakota, Information on Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what are people like in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota lilke, working in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

In many ways, the people in Dickinson are an open book. Their behavior, actions, beliefs, and motivations are so blatant, apparent, and un-hidden, that it is almost like observing children, primitive, or low functioning people.

It might also have something to do with my age, with me having seen all of these behaviors and scenarios in Dickinson, play out before in other places. Nevertheless, whenever I did see these types of things that occur in Dickinson in other places, I was painfully aware of the ignorance, stupidity, and backwardness of the perpetrators and accomplices.

In our private, personal, and social lives in Dickinson, we can retreat to our homes, families, and friends in order to get away from things, people, and situations that we don’t like. However, work is a part of our lives where we are forced to deal with things, people, and situations that we would have never voluntarily been involved with.

The Biggest Point, that I wish to make in this blog post, is that many bad, ignorant, backward, malicious, and ill-intentioned people in Dickinson, use work as the opportunity to act on and fulfill their desire to cause problems for others.

I am sorry that I have not previously been able to articulate this so clearly: There are many people in Dickinson who are uneducated, uncultured, untravelled, small minded, ignorant, close minded, bitter, hateful, malicious people. More so than any other place that I have ever lived. I am not saying this to be hateful, I am saying this to be truthful, honest, and accurate.

One of the reasons for the lack of education, ignorance, close mindedness, bitterness, hatefulness, and maliciousness, I believe, is the Catholic Church here in Dickinson. One of my readers tried to explain to me, that in oil field towns, the wind-falls that some families receive, while other families receive nothing, is something that inspires bitterness, resentment, and hatred. The families in the oil field towns that receive nothing, while their neighbors become rich, don’t feel right about taking their hatred out on local people, so they direct all of their anger, meanness, and hostility toward people from some place else.

It has been my experience in Dickinson, time after time, again and again, that local co-workers from Dickinson, have this horrible, not very hidden, intention of doing bad things to non-local co-workers. But, to be completely honest and accurate, there is often also something wrong with the people who could not get a job anywhere in Texas, Arizona, or New York, that came all of this way in order to be able to get a job.

The third and fourth elements or factors, that makes working in Dickinson a horrible and terrible experience, time after time, is the fact that the people in Dickinson have to work more than forty hours per week, and people do not have normal home lives here.

I believe, that one of the reasons why people get up to no good at work in Dickinson, is because they are working more than forty hours per week, and spending too much time at work. There is just too much time and opportunity for malicious, bitter, ignorant, hateful, mean people to conceive, hatch, and carry out their bad intentions towards others. Normal people are stuck way too long at work, with people who have evil intentions towards others.

I believe, another reason why people get up to hatching and carrying out their bad intentions towards others at work in Dickinson, is because they do not have a normal home life. There is a shortage of women in Dickinson, and a scarcity of attractive women. Many men in Dickinson do not have anyone to look forward to seeing, talking to, spending time with, or doing activities with. Plus, there is not a lot to do in Dickinson. Thus, you have ignorant, uneducated, untravelled, uncultured, close minded, malicious, bitter, hateful people, who have nothing better to do than think about harming other people at work, and the opportunity to cause other people harm at work, because everyone is working too many hours.

How Has This Blog Website Affected My Employment?

October 26, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, people in dickinson north dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is it like in Dickinson North Dakota, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I hope that the people who don’t like me or my blog website will read this post.

In the summer of 2014, I began working for a small, locally owned company in Dickinson, North Dakota. I liked the work that I was doing, better than any work that I had done in the past. When I started with this company, I was pleased with the money that I was making. I made about $25,000 in the first six months.

Then, there came the winter work slow down. The owner of the company had a talk with me in person. He asked me if I would like to be the manager of the company, and I said that I would. He explained to me that he planned on retiring in two years. He said that if I could manage the company O.K. for two years, he would give the company to me.

I was contented with the money that I had been making at this company. I was happy that I was asked to be the manager. I didn’t know if I would be able to afford this company, even if it was given to me, because of the possibility of a customer not paying. If a customer didn’t pay, and there was a history of a government customer not paying for several months, I would not have enough money in the bank to meet payroll for three months. I didn’t know if I wanted to own this company or not.

January and February were lean months, but there was a good project in March where I made about $7,500 that month. I liked the work, and I liked the amount of money that I was being paid. The owner of the company was fairly nice, and he did not bother the employees unnecessarily. The owner of the company left the employees alone to do their work.

This small locally owned company did various small projects each month. These small projects were always in town. The company did not make very much money on these small projects, and the employees did not make very much money on these small projects. Nevertheless, the company owner liked doing them because he believed that they were good for business, these small projects could lead to bigger projects, it was good advertising, and it was good public relations.

The older, experienced, long-time employees, did not want to do these small projects. They were a pain in the ass, they didn’t pay much, they interfered with working on bigger projects, and they were always “on front street” in town, where everybody could see what you were doing, and bother you while you were working. Before long, I clearly recognized why the older, experienced long-time employees did not want to do these small projects in town.

What was actually happening, and I didn’t like it too much, was that the older, experienced, long-time employees who refused to do the small projects “on front street” in town, they were actually getting to work on bigger long-term projects outside of town, and they were making a lot more money than me. Because I was the manager, I kind of felt that it was my duty to do these small projects in town, which were more for advertisement and public relations, than an opportunity to make money.

I tried to be professional and do a good job on these small projects in town, but the truth was, because I was doing these types of small projects regularly, it was keeping me from making very much money. The big, long-term projects out in the middle of nowhere, that is where I wanted to be.

This blog post is mostly for the people that came to figure out or find out that it was me writing these blog posts about Dickinson. Even before anyone knew or had any idea that it was me writing these blog posts about Dickinson, when I was working in town, people would sometimes bother me when I was working. I don’t mean the casual, pleasant, polite conversations. I mean when people come up to you, and you can tell that they are trying to instigate a fight or antagonize you, because of their disrespectful attitude, inappropriate familiarity with you, or leading and inappropriate questions.

I would try to avoid, discourage, and not be drawn into any kind of conflict while working in town. The truth is, that I wanted to keep my job, and not lose my job by getting into some kind of conflict while working in town. It was not that I liked working in town, I didn’t like working in town because these projects interfered with me making money. I wanted to keep my job so that I could work on the bigger long-term projects outside of town.

Now, it looks like it is the case, that some people have figured out or found out that it is me who is writing these blog posts about Dickinson. The people who don’t like me or my blog posts, have probably informed my employer, and have told him, “I don’t think that it is right for you to have him work here.” Now my employer, considering the people who have voiced their concerns, has probably come to the conclusion that he can not have me working in town “on front street” because these small projects are all about good advertising, and good public relations.

It may be the case now, that the only place that my employer can have me work, is out in the middle of nowhere on some long-term project where there aren’t any people around. This is what I wanted in the first place.

Dickinson, North Dakota Has Removed The Welcome Matt

October 26, 2017UncategorizedDickinson, North Dakota, guide to Dickinson North Dakota, Information on Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, the Dickinson Rule, what are people like in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

In my previous two blog posts, I explained that Dickinson, North Dakota has removed the Welcome Matt, and I explained the reasons why. I will not go into these reasons again, instead I will explain what this means, more clearly and more plainly.

If you are living in a different state, and you are considering moving to Dickinson to work, I want to caution you, and give you some things to consider.

The local people in Dickinson do not like workers from out of state. They did not like out of state workers during the oil boom, and they dislike out of state workers even more now that the oil boom has gone away.

Many oil field jobs have gone away, local people are making less money, work hours have been reduced, and overtime hours have been reduced. Some local people have lost their jobs, and some local people are having difficulty in finding a new job. The winter work slow down is here, there will be fewer jobs, layoffs, and it will be much harder to find a job this winter in Dickinson.

During the oil boom, the local co-workers in Dickinson, were often hostile, hateful, uncooperative, mean, and undermining to out of state workers. Now, the local people in Dickinson not only hate out of state workers, they feel that out of state workers are a threat to them in preventing them from finding job, taking a job that could have gone to a local person, or keeping their job while a local person is laid off or fired.

I would not come to Dickinson now from out of state without having a good solid job offer, and a second or third prospective employer. Your prospective employer may be a good person, their management team may be good people, but once you get out to your office, counter, warehouse, truck, route, job site, or oil field, your local Dickinson co-workers may have other plans for you, specifically, you not being here.

In my previous two blog posts, I described something called the “Dickinson Rule”. What this means is, the local people in Dickinson have adopted this rule, where local people are given preference in hiring, promotion, work assignments, overtime, and should be the last people to be reprimanded, demoted, laid off, or fired. People from out of state, are not due equal treatment or fair treatment.

If you are a worker from out of state, be prepared to not receive complete instructions when required, not receive important information when necessary, be given incorrect instructions and information, be assigned faulty equipment, faulty equipment to not be repaired, to not be given the necessary tools, to not receive cooperation, to have your work performance reported as unsatisfactory, to not be paid for hours worked, and to not be paid as agreed. These things are the implementation and application of the “Dickinson Rule”.

I am going to try to write enough about this “Dickinson Rule”, so that company owners and company managers can fully understand and realize that this is happening. I believe that many company owners and managers have spotted some of these things, but I doubt that many of them are completely aware of everything that is going on. Further, I think that there are company owners and managers who do not care.

I also want to write enough about this “Dickinson Rule”, so that workers from out of state will know about this ahead of time. Workers from out of state can plan ahead, what they think that they would do in their particular work situation, when they don’t get cooperation, complete information, correct instructions, fully functioning equipment, all the necessary tools, pay for all hours worked, or the pay that was agreed upon.

One of the things that out of state workers can do, is say, “No, I don’t want to work for you company because of the Dickinson Rule.” If enough out of state workers call this out as their reason for not accepting a job offer, not coming to work, quitting and leaving, then company owners and managers may have to address this problem, and try to put an end to the implementation of the “Dickinson Rule” at their company.

Starting Over Writing About People In Dickinson, North Dakota

October 26, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, Information on Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, the Dickinson Rule, what are people like in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota since 2011. I have been writing blog posts about living in Dickinson for the past three years. I have been seeing such a significant change in the people in Dickinson during the past several months, that I believe a transition has occurred.

There was an oil boom in North Dakota from 2007 through 2014. In 2015, there was a sharp drop in the price of oil. The number of operating oil drill rigs decreased, work in the oil field slowed down, other businesses slowed down, and many out of state workers returned home to the states where they came from.

Dickinson became less crowded, less busy, quieter, and calmer. However, the attitude, outlook, mood, and behavior of people in Dickinson did not change that much from what it had been during the oil boom years of 2007 through 2014.

In 2015 and 2016, people in Dickinson wondered and speculated whether the oil boom would come back. People’s opinions would change daily depending on what they had heard, read, or what other people had persuaded them to believe. No matter what we thought, we were all waiting to see what actually happened.

In 2017, I believe that most people in Dickinson had concluded that the oil boom was not coming back, whether they admitted this out loud or not. Reaching this conclusion, every individual considered what this meant for them, how would this affect them.

In the Fall of 2017, it was like everyone in Dickinson had changed overnight. It was like they had all changed in unison, their attitudes, outlook, mood, and behavior.

In Dickinson every winter, there is a work slow down, and a work shut down. It becomes so cold, that it is difficult to work outside. It begins to snow, and the ground freezes. Farmers don’t do any work with their fields, construction companies can’t do many types of work because it isn’t practical, personal work projects and commercial work projects can’t be done due to the weather.

In the winter, there are fewer jobs, it is harder to find a job, there are fewer ways to make money, and it is harder to make money. It is a time of financial hardship for many people in Dickinson because they are not working. This year, as winter approached, people in Dickinson had already been thinking that the oil boom was over, and it wasn’t coming back.

I think that this is why, I saw a sudden universal change in everyone in Dickinson during the past couple of months. I think that everyone in Dickinson is preparing for hard times.

I wrote about this some in my previous blog post. For the past three years, I had been writing that the people from Dickinson were unfriendly, and that they did not like the workers who came from out of state during the oil boom to work in Dickinson. The unfriendliness, hostility, lack of cooperation, hatred, and undermining of out of state workers that I had written about for the past three years, all of sudden got worse and more severe.

What I thought was happening, was the local people from Dickinson had their wages reduced, hours reduced, overtime hours reduced, they had lost their job, or they were unable to get a job, and they felt that they had more of right to make money and earn a living than the workers who had come from out of state.

With the realization of the local people in Dickinson that the oil boom was not coming back, that there would be fewer and fewer jobs in the oil field, that winter is coming where there is a work shut down and reduced work, the local people from Dickinson universally decided all at once that their “benevolence” toward people from out of state was over.

Approximately one-half of the employers and companies in the Dickinson area, are not from Dickinson. Examples are: Menards, Wal-Mart, Runnings, Marathon Oil, Continental Oil, Whiting Oil, Tesoro Oil, Conoco Philips Oil, Lufkin, Halliburton, BJ, Nabors Drilling, Scull Construction, JE Dunn Construction, Knife River Construction, MDU, BNSF, Family Fare Grocery Store, Cash Wise Grocery Store, Sanford Health, St. Alelxius Health, and Dickinson State University.

However, even though approximately one-half of the employers and companies in the Dickinson area are not from Dickinson, some of these companies do pay attention to whether they are hiring local people from Dickinson, or non-local people. One reason why they pay attention to whether they are hiring local people from Dickinson, is because their management and their workers are from Dickinson, and these people already working at the company have collectively started enforcing the “Dickinson Rule”, whether the company owners wanted this or not.

Non locally owned companies in Dickinson that appear to try to hire mostly local people from Dickinson whenever possible are: Runnings, Whiting Oil, MDU, Family Fare Grocery Store, St. Alexius Health, and Dickinson State University.

Non locally owned companies in Dickinson that appear to have slight favoritism to hiring local people from Dickinson are: Marathon Oil, Continental Oil, Conoco Philips Oil. This slight favoritism may be because these oil companies want people who work in the field to be familiar with the area, knowledgeable about the area, and accustomed to the weather.

Non locally owned companies in Dickinson who appear to have no preference in hiring people based on where they are from: Menards, Wal-Mart, Tesoro Oil, Lufkin, Halliburton, BJ, Nabors Drilling, Scull Construction, JE Dunn Construction, Knife River Construction, BNSF, Cash Wise Grocery Store, and Sanford Health.

Because of the large amount of people that work at Menards, Wal-Mart, Tesoro Oil, Halliburton, BJ, Knife River Construction, Cash Wise, and Sanford Health, these businesses could not stay open if they tried to only hire people from Dickinson. For that matter, all the other non locally owned companies in Dickinson that have some preference for hiring local people from Dickinson, Runnings, Whiting, MDU, Family Fare, St. Alexuis Health, DSU, Marathon, Continental, and Conoco Philips could not stay open if they tried to only hire people from Dickinson.

The local people from Dickinson almost unanimously do not want people who are from out of state to be living in Dickinson now, but the non locally owned companies in Dickinson need the out of state workers in order to have enough employees to stay open and function.

The locally owned companies in Dickinson, they still have some out of state workers employed with their company. Several example are MBI, Nuverra, Winn Construction, Northern Improvement, and McDonalds. These companies would not have enough workers if they did not hire some people from out of state.

I believe that I just explained rather thoroughly up above, that both the non locally owned companies and the locally owned companies in Dickinson have had to hire workers from out of state in order to keep their businesses open and functioning. I explained that some of the non locally owned companies in Dickinson, do have a preference for hiring local people from Dickinson. Because some non locally owned companies have so many local people from Dickinson working in them, these local people at these companies have begun applying or enforcing the “Dickinson Rule” in hiring, and also in the work place.

The point that I want to make, the “Transition” that I believe occurred in 2017, the almost universal and unanimous change in the people in Dickinson that seemed to occur overnight, was the passing of the “Dickinson Rule” into law in Dickinson.

The “Dickinson Rule”, is that the local people from Dickinson are to be given preference in all things over people from out of state. The local people from Dickinson should be the first to be hired, the first to be promoted, the last to be reprimanded, the last to be demoted, the last to be let go, the last to be fired. In all dealings, business, financial, social, medical, religious, and enforcement of law, local people from Dickinson have precedence over people from out of state. People from out of state are not due equal treatment. Whenever and wherever possible, the people from out of state should be encouraged to leave Dickinson.

Some Of The Flaws With Companies In Dickinson, North Dakota

October 16, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what are companies like in Dickinson North Dakota, what are employers like in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, what is wrong with companies in Dickinson North Dakota, working in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I won’t be able to cover everything that is wrong with companies in Dickinson, North Dakota, but I want to point out some of the things that are wrong. I hope that this will give company owners and managers in Dickinson some things to consider. I hope that this will give people who are planning on moving to Dickinson some things to watch out for and be aware of.

The company that I recently worked for in Dickinson, starts most new-hires out as laborers, whether they are equipment operators or not. They want to see if the new-hire can do physical work, if they can follow instructions, if they can get along with others, if they have sound judgment, if they are normal, and….so that they have enough laborers in order to complete the work. This is not a bad idea, it works O.K., except some experienced equipment operators would quit before long, after getting tired of being a laborer.

When the opportunity arises at this company, a laborer can sometimes get in a piece of equipment and run it, in order to demonstrate his operating ability, and increase his chances of getting to be an operator in the future. This is O.K. too.

When the need arises for a foreman at this company, they pick one of the equipment operators to be a foreman. They do this because they believe that the equipment operator has enough knowledge and job experience to know what is going on, what needs to be done, and how to complete the work. This is a problem if the equipment operator who is chosen to be a foreman is a bad person and unfit to be a manager.

Stop and think about this, why would you think that a person with no education, no management training, no management experience, who is not a very good person, would be a good manager? This happens all the time in Dickinson, and none of the company owners or company managers ever spot this as being one of the biggest flaws in their company.

I will try to point out and explain why promoting equipment operators to foremen, and foremen who used to be equipment operators to superintendent, can be a very bad idea that hurts both the company and the other employees.

A company owner, or a company manager, often seek to hire the most competent and skilled employees. As far as the company owner or the company manager are concerned, the more qualified, experienced, and skilled an applicant is, the better, they would be an asset to the company, with potential to move up.

To an equipment operator who was promoted to foreman, or to a foreman who used to be an equipment operator who was promoted to superintendent, a competent, skilled, qualified, experienced new-hire is not an asset, it is a threat to them.

An equipment operator without any education, without any management training, without any management experience, looks at someone who is a better equipment operator than them, a more experienced equipment operator than them, a more qualified equipment operator than them, a physically stronger person than them, a more intelligent person than them, a faster learner than them, a more likable person than them, as a threat to them.

A person with training in management, a person with higher education, a person with more broad management experience, a highly intelligent person, or a good natured person, would recognize a skilled, experienced, qualified new-hire, as an employee with potential, someone who could help complete the work, take more responsibility, be in charge of portions of the work, a person to depend on, a good example for other workers. A good manager would utilize a new-hire in the most effective way to get work done. A good manager would just use a skilled, experienced, qualified, talented, intelligent worker as a tool or resource to get work done, not look at them as a threat.

Perhaps the biggest problem with companies in Dickinson, is that they promote a person to manager, who is unfit to be a manager. Yes, a person who has been with the company for a while, who has performed many aspects of the work, does probably know how to complete the work. But many of the workers in Dickinson who have been promoted to manager, do not like workers who are more experienced, more qualified, more knowledgeable, more intelligent, a faster learner, quicker, stronger, or more likable than them. They see them as a threat.

A good manager would look at a talented employee, and think, “Good, finally, thank God, now we can get work done, now I don’t have to watch someone all the time, this will make less work for me.” However, the workers that get promoted to manager in Dickinson think, “I have got to get rid of this person, I have got to make this person leave, I have got to try to find a way to make them leave, I have got to get other people to help me make them leave, …or they will take my job.”

At this company that I recently worked for in Dickinson, there was a young man who was much quicker than any of the other workers, he had much more energy than any of the other workers, he was more intelligent than any of the other workers, he remembered how to do things more than the other workers, he was always coming up with ways how to complete the work quicker, and he was an equipment operator. I didn’t like him at first, until I worked with him some, and then I had to hand it to him, he was quicker, faster, better, more intelligent, and more knowledgeable in the work that we were doing.

He was not treated very well by the foreman. The foreman appeared to resent him, and not want him around. This young man told me that the foreman had done a few things to try to get rid of him. This foreman’s life would have been so much easier, if he would have given this young man a written list of work projects in the morning, told him to take the people that he needed, that he was responsible for getting it done, and to go do it. More work would have been completed, and probably completed better, with less work required from the foreman. Instead, the foreman didn’t utilize this young man like he could have, and tried to make him not want to work at this company.

Warning To Mexicans About Speaking Spanish At Work

October 16, 2017Uncategorizedadvice for Mexicans, do not speak Spanish at work, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, stop speaking Spanish at work, why Mexicans are not promoted at work, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I recently worked for a construction/oil field service company in Dickinson, North Dakota. There were a group of new-hires that started at about the same time. This company usually starts everyone out as a laborer, whether they are an equipment operator or not. They want to see if all employees are capable of doing physical work, if they are normal, if they can follow instructions, and if they can get along with everyone, before they put them in an operator position or a position of more responsibility.

The make up of the laborers was approximately 30% White, 30% Native American, and 30% Hispanic. Two of the new-hire Mexicans were above average in just about every way: they worked harder, they worked faster, they had more common sense, they had good judgement, they had a lot of work experience, and they were good equipment operators. One of the new-hires, Jose, could have or should have been a foreman before long, except for one thing, he kept speaking Spanish, and he didn’t know how much this was hurting him. I will try to explain very clearly why speaking Spanish at work is a very bad idea, and how it hurts Mexicans.

When I was riding in the crew truck with two Mexicans, they would begin conversing in Spanish about personal and family things, and this would continue on to include talking about workers, about work, and about work plans. As far as the discussion about work and work plans, I needed to be able to understand what they were talking about so that I knew what was going on, and they knew what was going on, because work instructions from the foreman and the superintendent changed about every fifteen minutes.

For instance, if they were discussing going and picking up a trailer, I would need to know this to be able to tell them, “No, don’t try to get that trailer, the trailer jack on that trailer is broken, go to the other yard” or “You will have to turn around and get the ball hitch back, they took the ball hitch off this truck and put it on another truck.” If they were talking about removing erosion control straw bails, I might need to know this to be able to say, “We don’t have a sledge hammer in this truck to break the stakes, we need to get one off of the other truck before we leave.”

But what hurt the Mexican new-hires even more was this. The foreman of the equipment operators had met a young man who was about 28 years old, who had received trades school training on operating equipment such as dozers, backhoes, skid steers, and excavators. He had work experience operating equipment, and his father was a life-long equipment operator. The foreman of the equipment operators liked everything about this young man, and told him to apply with the company. He started out with the other new-hires, working as a laborer for two weeks, but then the equipment operator foreman intervened, and began putting him on equipment, because this it what they had planned for him all along.

When this young man was riding in the crew truck with two Mexicans, they talked on and on in Spanish, and he did not understand what they were talking about, and when they turned and looked at him and started laughing. He did not like this, and he was sick and tired of the Mexicans talking in Spanish like this.

I did not like it, the new-hire who has now moved up to the next level and will be a foreman eventually did not like it, the equipment operators do not like it, and the foremen do not like it. Just about everyone on the job site who is not Mexican, does not like it when the Mexicans go on and on speaking in Spanish, so they are certainly not going to be promoted, because no one likes this when they can’t understand what they are talking about.

In order to be able to complete the work without mistakes, and without re-work required, everyone needs to pay attention, and clearly let everyone else know what is going on: Do not dig there, there is a fiber optic cable there; Do not drive on that land, the land owner has already complained; No one drive on the embankment, it is too wet and you will rut it; Do not park there today, the scraper has to remove most of the dirt there today. There are all kinds of things that people need to know throughout the day, and this communication doesn’t happen when the Mexicans keep speaking Spanish. This is one of the reasons why the Mexicans are not promoted to equipment operator, or foreman, because they keep reverting back to speaking Spanish, and not everyone can understand Spanish.

Expect To Not Be Paid By Local Employers In Dickinson, North Dakota

One of the purposes of this blog website, is to inform people from out of state what living in Dickinson, North Dakota is like. One of the most important things that I can tell people who are planning on moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, is to be prepared for local companies in Dickinson to not pay wages that are owed.

I am 48 years old, and I have worked in Florida, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and North Dakota. The only time that I have not been paid wages owed, is here in Dickinson, North Dakota.

I have already written a couple of blog posts about my previous employer in Dickinson, a local oil field service company with about seventy employees, that had failed to pay me for all the hours that I had worked, which amounted to approximately $630 in unpaid wages owed by the time that I received my third pay check. I had to contact the North Dakota Department of Labor, and then go and get the Small Claims Court paper work at the Court House to file a civil suit against this employer before they agreed to pay me the wages that I was owed.

The Bismarck Tribune newspaper wrote an article approximately one year ago, stating that the Department of Labor in North Dakota has been overwhelmed with non-payment of wages cases, mostly from Western North Dakota. This is why I realized that the Small Claims Court would be a quicker, surer way to get the money that I was owed.

Now, for my most recent employer, another local Dickinson company with about seventy employees, the person that hired me told me that I would be paid $20 per hour. There was no negotiating or discussion, this is what I was offered, and this is what I accepted. I was told that I would be working every day, for twelve hours per day, for approximately the next month. This worked out to about $2,000 per week, and $8,000 per month.

The work was very hard physical labor. I have had above average strength and stamina for most of my life, but I am 48 years old now, and I am not as physically strong as I used to be. I did not know if I could hand dig, pound stakes with a sledge hammer, lift, and carry heavy things all day long, for twelve hours a day, day after day after day. It was very difficult for me, but I did it, I wanted the $2,000 per week.

I received two other job offers shortly after accepting this job, but I politely declined both of these job offers, explaining that I had already accepted another job, and was sticking with it because it paid $2,000 per week, otherwise I would have liked to have worked for their company.

After working for sixteen days straight, I received my first pay check direct deposited to my checking account on this past Friday. The check was for much less money than it should have been. One of the reasons why it was less than it should have been, was because I was being paid at $18 per hour, not $20 per hour as I was offered and accepted when I was hired.

I was very, very angry about this, in part, because I was not paid wages owed by my previous local employer here in Dickinson, I had to threaten to take them to court to get all of my unpaid wages, and now this same thing is happening to me again. I was angry because it was very hard physical labor for twelve hours each day, and I was expecting to be paid $2,000 per week. I was angry because I had declined two job offers from other companies because I was expecting to be paid $2,000 per week at this company.

I do not yet know who/how/why I was not paid what I was told, what I accepted, and what I agreed to. I considered not going to work Saturday morning, this morning, because I was so angry. But I thought that perhaps it was a simple mistake, that the company would be willing to resolve.

I went to work this Saturday morning. By 12 noon, approximately four of the ten workers present, left for the remainder of the day, with various excuses, whether they were legitimate reasons or not. I was still so angry about not being paid what I was owed, that I thought that perhaps the best thing for me to do, would be to say that I was sick, and to go home for the remainder of the day, lest I lose my temper at someone, or over something.

At approximately 1:00 p.m., a foreman named Mike, who was not my foreman, who I had never met, and who I had never worked for, drove by my work truck and called me out on the radio, “Why are you sitting in your truck?!” I replied, “I just got in my truck to move it forward, my foreman is on the loader behind me, watching me and what I am doing, are you my foreman, or is Jeremy?” Mike replied, “We are all your foreman.” My foreman who was one hundred feet behind me on the loader, and the superintendent remained silent, and didn’t object.

I could tell from foreman Mike’s demeanor, that he was going to try to assert some kind of master-slave work conditions on me for the remainder of the day. I had worked for the past sixteen days straight, without complaint, mistake, mishap, or problems with my co-workers, foreman, and superintendent. I tried to get along with these twelve people, to do what they wanted, to work in agreement, to work in cooperation, to keep up with them, to do as much or more of the work, and to help them in their work. My co-workers, my foreman, and the superintendent were with me throughout the day, every day. If anything needed to be done, I took direction from my co-workers, my foreman, and the superintendent. I did not need, and it was not a good idea, for someone outside of this work group, who did not know me or anything about me, who was not aware of what I had been instructed to do, to drive by or drive up and get on me about my work.

I couldn’t believe, and I didn’t like, that I was not being paid what I had been told, and that my foreman and the superintendent were not sticking up for me when another foreman was trying to get on me about my work. I told my co-worker that I was quitting, to get in the truck, I will drive back to the yard and that he could take the truck. I told my foreman that I was quitting because I was not being paid what I was told, and that I didn’t like being fucked with by someone who doesn’t know me, who I have never met, and who I have never worked for. I drove to the yard, and I told the superintendent the same thing.

Neither my foreman or the superintendent cared very much. They could not care less. This was not much of a surprise to me. Nor will it be much of a surprise to me when the person who hired me, fails to acknowledge that he told me that I would be paid $20 per hour. This is why I will file a Small Claims civil court case against the owner of the company for the wages that I am owed.

When I file a Small Claims civil court case against the owner of the company personally for wages that I am owed, there will be a permanent record of the case for everyone to see and look up. The owner of the company will be served the court papers at his company office by a Sheriff Deputy, and his reaction will be, “What the fuck is this shit?!” Then, the “I could not care less” attitude will stop, and be replaced with “I wish that I would not have done that.”

The owner of the company can appear personally on the court date and defend himself against my claim for unpaid wages, and hear what happened to me, which is fine with me. Or, the owner of the company can hire an attorney to represent him in court, which will cost him at least $750 in attorney’s fees, plus the unpaid wages that I am owed, which is fine with me. Or, the owner of the company can not show up in court, not be represented by an attorney, and I will be awarded a default judgement for the unpaid wages that I am owed, which is fine with me. In all three scenarios, there will be a record of the judgment against this employer for everyone to see and look up.

If you come to Dickinson, North Dakota, I advise you to be aware that the local companies here in Dickinson will attempt to not pay you the wages that you are owed. I recommend that before you accept a job with a local company here in Dickinson, that you look up the owner of the company on the North Dakota Court Record Repository, “NDCourts” to see what kind of person they are. I also recommend contacting the North Dakota Department of Labor to ask how many complaints the employer has for nonpayment of wages.

In A Way, I Finally Got The Job That I Always Wanted In Dickinson, North Dakota

October 8, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is it like to work in the oil field in North Dakota, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

When I first came to Dickinson in 2011, I was looking for a very high paying job in the oil field that would allow me to quickly build up money in savings, pay down my credit cards, pay my biggest recurring bills like property tax and homeowners insurance, and return to my home in Idaho by Christmas. It didn’t really work out that way.

I did return home to Idaho just before Christmas, but with less money in the bank than when I arrived in Dickinson in May, and with a very injured back. Working for a construction company in Dickinson, I had repeatedly lifted things that were too heavy for one person, and I kept doing it day after day, while my back got worse and worse. This was the first time that my back did not recover, and I had not known that it wouldn’t.

By December I could hardly stand and walk. I quit my job and returned to Idaho. The first chiropractor that I went to in Idaho was young and he did not know what he was doing. After about five or six chiropractor visits, he could not even diagnose what was wrong with my back. If I had had health insurance, I would have probably been assessed by doctors as needing back surgery and hip replacement. Thank God I didn’t have health insurance.

The second chiropractor that I went to was the oldest in town, and he immediately knew what was wrong with my back, it was called “antalgia”, which means “leaning to one side”. If you have an injured area on a vertebrae or disk, you will lean away from the injured area to prevent the intense pain or nerve pinching. After about six, one hour chiropractor visits, my back was much better.

Over the following year, at first I could only walk about one block with a lot of pain and effort. I kept trying to walk further and further each day. Within a few months I could walk 1/2 a mile. I did back and stomach exercises every day.

What had been the cause of my problems, was that my arms, shoulders, chest, and legs were very strong from going to the gym for many years, which allowed me to lift and carry very heavy things all day long at work, but my back muscles and my stomach muscles were not nearly as strong, this was my weak point in my body, and my back became inured.

It took me over one year to recover to 90%. In early 2013, I was talking to a woman who had broken her back, and she told me that what had helped her to recover was the supplement glucosamine sulfate and glucosamine with chondroitin. She told me that if I took this supplement, I would notice a difference in one week. I did, I did notice a difference in one week. Taking this particular supplement during the following several months helped me to recover to 100%.

In the Spring of 2013, I returned to Dickinson, and I got a job as a foreman for an underground utility construction company. This job required a lot of physical labor and digging for about 10 hours each day, Monday through Friday. I did this job, and I did not have any back problems, to my surprise.

During the past four years in Dickinson, I have had several other jobs, some of them I have written about on this blog website. Some of these jobs have paid well, for a while. A couple of weeks ago, I was offered an oil field/construction job in Dickinson, working 12 hours per day, every day. I don’t mean 12 hours per day, every day, for one week or two weeks, I mean every day, with no days off.

This job that I was offered that involved working every day for 12 hours per day, paid $2,000 per week, every week, so I took it. As I was told, and as it turned out to be, it was hard physical labor from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. We worked in the rain and snow last week, (Yes, it snowed for quite a while through the morning one day last week), and then we were soaking wet and cold for the next 8 hours of work.

This is about as hard physical labor as I have done in my life, it doesn’t get much harder than this in construction. Most of the crew workers are twenty years younger than me. Anyone who slacks off, it is noticed immediately, and complained about immediately. Unless you want to be let go soon, you don’t stop working, sit down, or take a break.

Everyone tries to keep up and keep going, but some can’t on some days. Two of the new hire workers who are in their late twenties, who are experienced oil field/construction workers, complained to the foreman about two of the older workers who were not working as fast, who were tired out. Yes, the two older workers were tired out after 8 hours, but they have been working for this company for several years, and they do make it through the whole 12 hour work day, and come back the next day. Soon, one of the complaining twenty-year-olds was having back problems.

About 70% of the workers are having back problems of some kind. Myself, and my co-workers, recognize in everyone who is working, in what they are doing and how they are doing it, and in what they try to get out of doing, what kind of injury or physical problem they are dealing with or trying to hide. Sometimes we can see that someone is out of breath, light headed, dehydrated, sick, weak, worn out, tired out, or inured. If the sick, worn out, or injured person finds something they can do, and keeps working, complaining from co-workers is minimal. If someone frequently stops working, or is not doing enough, everyone turns against that person and complains about them to the foreman.

Having to physically compete every minute of a 12 hour work day, every day of the week, with experienced oil field/construction workers who are 20 years younger than me, is a ridiculous position for me to be in, considering that I have already been a foreman, superintendent, project manager, engineer, manager, and business owner, but people and employers in North Dakota don’t give a shit, and they could not care less. I think about this some, but mostly I just want to make it through each day and make this money for as long as I possibly can.

An Unethical And Underhanded Business Decision In Dickinson, North Dakota

September 19, 2017Uncategorizeddoing business in Dickinson North Dakota, doing business with women, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I have been working for a locally owned company in Dickinson, North Dakota for a little over three years. Sometimes this company is busy, and sometimes it is slow. About two years ago, I was promoted to manager of this company.

Myself and some of my coworkers, have had second jobs, and third jobs, outside of working for this company. The owner of the company that I work for, and my co-workers are generally calm and mild-mannered. None of us want to quit working for this company, because each of us are left to do our job with very little interference, each of us is treated pretty fairly, and we are fair with each other.

Last week, myself, a co-worker with two years experience, and co-worker with five years experience were scheduled to perform work for a new customer in Dickinson. There was another long time customer that requested work last week, that one of us three experienced workers could have done, and allowed a new hire to be the third person on the other job for the new customer. The owner of our company said to me, “No, this is important, and I want the three of you to go. Tell the other customer that we don’t have anyone available.”

Myself, and my two co-workers, had to put aside whatever personal and work activities that we had planned, in order to go perform work for this new customer. When we arrived at this business location, I introduced ourselves, and I asked to speak to the manager. After about three or four minutes, the manager walked up, she was a lady who myself and my co-workers knew from other work that we had done.

The manager said, “I never got a contract back, we never signed a contract, we don’t need you.” I was very taken aback by this, but I didn’t react in proportion to how I felt. I said, “Oh, O.K.” I realized that it probably was true that someone didn’t sign a contract or get a contract back. I realized that in the lobby of this business was not the place to have an argument at this moment, especially since I didn’t know about the contract not being signed or returned.

I apologized to my co-workers, and I told them that I would telephone the owner of our company to explain what was happening. I tried repeatedly to telephone and text the owner of our company, but I could not get in contact with him. After about half an hour, I told my co-workers to go ahead and forget about doing this work for today.

I was very angry about what had happened. Ever since I was about 26 years old, I had been responsible for scheduling contractors, equipment, and material. I always tried to be very clear with all contractors and suppliers about what was needed, when it was needed, and if there were any changes or anything else that they needed to know. It would not do me any good, my company any good, or anyone else any good, to allow a mistake to happen. In fact, making a few costly mistakes would have resulted in me losing my job.

This lady manager, who I am tempted to refer to as “this fat bitch” for the remainder of my story, could have sent one text message, one e-mail, or made one phone call to the owner of my company a month ago, a week ago, or one day ago, stating, “We don’t need you after all, sorry.” However, the way she chose to handle this, was to not inform the owner of our company that anything was wrong or that they didn’t need us, and to allow us to put this work on our schedule, to decline other work, and to show up with three people to perform this work. She seemed kind of pleased with herself, and snarky when she said, “We never got a contract back, we never signed a contract, we don’t need you.”

The owner of our company has had this business in Dickinson for twenty years. The overall manager of the business that we were going to perform work for, has been the manager there for twenty-eight years, and she has known the owner of our company for that long. The corporate sales manager who did this underhanded thing, has been at this business for less than two years. I don’t know why or how this lady felt that handling this the way that she did helped her or benefited her in any way. I would expect that she will have negative consequences from this, though I don’t think she ever thought of this, or she would not have done it.

Though this kind of thing can happen, especially when one or both parties is trying to be sneaky, treacherous, or underhanded, it had never happened at this company that I work for in Dickinson, or with any other project, contractor, or supplier that I have dealt with. However, now that I think about it, about half the time women do do things like this.

Background Check On Employers In Dickinson, North Dakota

September 18, 2017Uncategorizedemployers in Dickinson North Dakota, guide to Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

You read that correctly, Background Check On Employers In Dickinson, North Dakota. I recommend to everyone, that if you are going to apply to work at a company in Dickinson, North Dakota, you perform a background check on your employer.

There is a fairly large company in Dickinson, where I applied to work once in approximately 2014. Though I was well qualified, or perhaps over qualified for the position that I applied for, I did not hear anything from this company after I applied.

Employers anywhere, have their own personal beliefs and preferences for who they would like to hire. Some employers want employees who stay at the same job for many years, other employers want employees who show ambition. Some want employees who are family men, who don’t drink, don’t get into trouble, and have no criminal record. Other employers want men who are risk takers, rough, not afraid of getting hurt, or putting others at risk.

In Dickinson, employers seem to favor local people, and North Dakotans, over people from out of state. This is probably a combination of a feeling of obligation or loyalty to local people, comfort in dealing with people from a similar background, discomfort in dealing with people from a different background, and people from elsewhere having different beliefs, values, and ethics.

I have had the experience in Dickinson, where my life experiences, work experiences, education, beliefs, values, and ethics, were so different from my employer’s, that I had problems. As an example, a company that I recently worked for in Dickinson, had the practice of not paying employees for the hours that they worked. The owner and his wife, would look at employees’ time sheets, and pay them for less hours than they worked, based on their opinion of how much work was completed.

When I sought to file a complaint with the Department of Labor, I found out that there were four previous complaints against this company for failure to pay employees wages that they were owed. I found out from local people in Dickinson, that this practice used to be fairly common in Dickinson. I also found out that this company owner owed a lot more than four employees money, after looking him up on the North Dakota record of active and completed court cases, NDcourts.

The company in Dickinson that I had applied to in 2014, and never heard back, I saw that they had another job advertisement for an engineer in August, so I applied again. I didn’t expect to hear back from this company, because I don’t think that they liked me or my resume. And again, I didn’t hear back from them. I wondered what it was about me, that would make me so unacceptable to this company. I have a good education, a great deal of work experience, and a completely clean background, what is wrong with me as an applicant?

I decided to look up the company owner to see what kind of person, HE is, since he is judging me, and I am not suitable for his company. One of the court cases that he was involved in, involved a dispute over child support payments. At about the time he was starting his company in Dickinson when he was in his early twenties, he became married. He and his wife had three children. By the time he was in his early thirties, he became divorced.

His company was organized as a corporation. As his company was doing well, he paid himself a salary of $60,000 per year. The extra money that his company made, was held as retained earnings. Though the retained earnings grew to $700,000, he continued to pay himself a salary of $60,000 per year. The child support that he paid, was based on his salary of $60,000 per year.

His ex-wife, and his ex-wife’s attorney, tried to explain to the court, that the child support that he was paying, was based on his $60,000 per year salary, but look at how much money his company was making, this isn’t right. I believe that the court in North Dakota decided that there was no law saying that the company owner had to pay himself more money, or receive more of the retained earnings of his corporation. So, his child support payments remained the same.

Ha, ha. He outsmarted the courts, his ex-wife, and his ex-wife’s attorney, in not having to pay more money in support for his children. It’s hamburger helper, macaroni cheese, and Wal-Mart for them.

Businesses Closing In Dickinson, North Dakota

August 17, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I want for everyone, local people, people from out of state, and people who are considering moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, to know what is going on here. The oil boom is over in North Dakota, it was over by the end of 2014. Since then, everything has become less busy with each passing month in Dickinson, North Dakota.

During the morning work rush hours in Dickinson, 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., traffic is not heavy. From 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., traffic is very light. After 8:00 p.m. in Dickinson, the streets are almost empty. After 8:00 p.m., there are only three to six people in each of the downtown bars on a week night. After 8:00 p.m., it is the same thing in each of the grocery stores, only about three to six customers.

Outside of town in the industrial areas, there are many commercial buildings and warehouses that have become vacant. In town, there are many commercial and retail spaces that have become vacant.

The Sears store has sold most of its inventory, there is hardly anything left in the store, and they are permanently closing in just a few days. The Family Fare grocery store on highway 22 is closing in just a few days, much of their inventory is already gone.

In downtown Dickinson, there are two family owned businesses that were very rude to me, and several other people that I have spoken to. I spent about $500 at one business, and about $1,000 at the other business, yet the owners were shitty with me when I came to their stores to buy more equipment. I enjoy driving by their stores now at various times throughout the day, and I see that they have zero customers.

I am not going to list every tenant from every retail, commercial, and industrial building in Dickinson that has left, because it would take too long and it would be difficult to include every one. In general, in buildings where there are five or more tenants, it has gone from one vacancy, to two, then three, and so on as the months have passed in Dickinson. What I want for people to understand, is that more and more business will continue to close in Dickinson.

I have had a couple of discussions recently with two men who are my age, late forties, who have lived and worked all over the United States, who came to Dickinson right when the oil boom began in 2007. They lived and worked through the housing shortage, and the worker shortage in Dickinson. One of these men is an electrician who has had his hours reduced more and more, as other workers are let go. One of these men is a roustabout foreman who has had his wage rate reduced by $7 per hour, as other workers are let go. Both of these men admit to there being a scarcity of jobs right now, and every indication that things will get much worse in employment.

All three of us, do not like it when uninformed people in the area say things like, “Things are starting to pick up again.”, “The drill rig count is up.”, “Its starting to turn around now.”, and “People are going back to work now.” These statements are absolutely not true, although the drill rig count may go up from time to time. It is not helping anyone to give them false information, it is actually harming many people.

There are many people who have reduced work, have lost their jobs, or have been unable to get a job, who should do everything they can to plan on leaving North Dakota. They need to look into what things are like in Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, what kind of job can they get there, where can they live, and how are they going to get there.

It is about to get cold again in North Dakota, and there will be a winter work slow down. It is wrong, and it is harmful to mislead people who have lost their job or who have not been able to get a job, into believing that if they wait here, the oil field is getting ready to pick up again, it’s not.

It would actually be better for everyone in Dickinson to know and to say, “The oil field is not going to pick up any time soon. More people will probably lose their jobs. It’s time for people to start thinking about where else they could live, and where else they might go to earn a living. It is not going to be good to encourage people to stay in Dickinson, there will end up being many unemployed people in Dickinson if some of these people don’t try to go someplace else.”

When It Costs $600 To Poop

August 11, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, pooping in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I have been told, and I have realized myself, that my blog website becomes difficult to read when I have one negative blog post after another, back to back to back. So I will tell when it costs $600 to poop.

When I became a superintendent for a construction company when I was about 29 years old, we were building communication sites in very remote areas like swamps and forests. When it rained, even dual rear tire, four wheel drive trucks would get stuck on the way to the job site. Many of the sites were too remote and hard to get to, to have a portable toilet company bring one out. All of the workers were red-necks and hunters, so we all went to the bathroom in the woods without complaining.

When I came to work in the oil field in Dickinson in 2011, going to the bathroom in the bushes was not a problem for me. I had worked in construction for many years, and I knew that you can’t take a crew truck with all of its tools and safety equipment away from a job site to drive 1/2 hour to a bathroom, and 1/2 hour back. What if somebody needs a tool? What if somebody gets hurt and it is a medical emergency and they need to be taken to the hospital?

I was having a discussion with my co-worker/supervisor about one month ago, and he said, “Now that is something that I didn’t know until I got to North Dakota. I didn’t know, and I got into a lot of trouble for it.” This is the story that he told:

It was my very first day of work, I mean my very first day on the job, literally. I was driving this vacuum truck, and I had this kid with me. We had to drive like one hour from New Town to get to this location that we were supposed to be at. Not long after we arrived at this location, the kid said, “I need to use the bathroom, do you know where there is a bathroom?” I said that I didn’t know, but that I kind of needed to use the bathroom too.

We got back in the truck, and we started driving, looking for a bathroom. We ended up driving almost all the way back to New Town, we drove for like 45 minutes. When we got back to the site, there was this supervisor yelling, screaming, and hollering at us. He was yelling, “Where the hell were you! You were supposed to be here two hours ago!” I explained to him that we both had to use the bathroom. What!!!!

The owner of the company called me and he said, “Look, that shit you took just cost me $600. The truck and the two of you were being billed at $400 per hour. You were gone for 1-1/2 hours to go use the bathroom. Do not ever do that again. Go shit behind a tank or something next time.”

I said, I’m not going to go shit behind a tank where some oil company man is going to come along and step in it. The owner of the company then said, “O.K., the next time you have to use the bathroom, you call me, and I will tell you where the nearest portable toilet is.”

I couldn’t believe that story, and that the owner of the company was having to call his employees and come to an agreement and understanding with them, that you can’t have two workers and a vacuum truck pull off the job for 1-1/2 hours because somebody has to poop.

Second Criticism Of Local Companies In Dickinson, Nepotism

August 9, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, nepotism in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

In my previous blog post I explained that when I first came to Dickinson, North Dakota in 2011 to work in the oil field, one of the problems that I saw in company management, was the failure to properly delegate work. Existing companies could not keep up with the demand for work partly because owners and managers could not see or understand that they needed to delegate work to competent people in order to be able to handle the increased demand for work. The second big problem that I saw was nepotism, the hiring of relatives and friends.

I will try to get right to the point, whenever I have worked at a company where the owners or managers hire relatives and friends, everyone else suffers and pays for it. Ultimately, it costs the company tremendously, if it doesn’t cause the ruin of the company altogether, which I have seen happen, in Dickinson.

First, is it a good idea to hire someone for a position at a company, if you know that they would not ever be hired for a similar position at any other company, or that you would never hire them if they were not a relative or friend? How could this ever be a good idea, to hire someone that you know is not capable of doing the job?

I experienced this at one of my first jobs out of college. The owner of the company that I was working for, hired his much less capable brother to manage the estimating department. In compiling estimates, it is most important to not leave anything out, and to total the costs as completely and accurately as possible. The owner’s brother would waste everyone’s time with daily memos on the new required font type for weekly reports, who was required to use green marker pen, red marker pen, blue marker pen in making comments, who was in trouble for not using the most recent new required font type, etcetera. After a while of causing problems and causing work to have to be repeatedly re-done in the estimating department, the owner’s brother was put in charge of the sales representatives instead. He drove the sales reps up the wall, causing some of them to quit. Eventually the owner’s brother irritated the owner himself so bad, that he had to let him go, but not before he had irritated and upset everyone at the company, causing more than several people to quit.

The hiring of relatives and friends of the owners and managers has occurred at every company that I have worked for in Dickinson. The third company that I worked for in Dickinson, this caused the failure of the company. When I first started working for this company in May of 2013, the company had a lot of intelligent, competent, skilled technicians and workers. The main company that we performed work for, liked all of the technicians and workers because of their intelligence, ability, and work performance. But then, the owners of the company hired one young lady who was a niece, and one young lady as a favor to a friend.

Neither of these two young ladies had any construction experience whatsoever. Not even hammering a nail or digging a hole with a shovel. Some of the technicians and workers who had been working in construction for ten years or more resented this. Several of the best technicians left soon after these two young ladies were hired. They resented that they were being paid within a few dollars of what they were making, that they weren’t any help, that they would have to show them how to do every single thing, and that they were not interested in construction, only the opportunity to get paid a lot of money by being present on the job.

The company owners’ response to several lead technicians quitting within a few weeks, was to move their niece right up to driving the service truck and taking the lead. The company that we did the work for did not like this, nor the did the end users. It was obvious to everyone that the twenty year old niece had never done any kind of construction whatsoever, and that this was not an acceptable replacement.

At this same time, the second young lady that was hired, she came to work with the crotch of her jeans missing, a hole about the size of a dinner plate. I figured she was going to try to have some kind of sexual harassment claim if anyone said anything to her. The company that we did the work for, several of their employees complained to the owners of my company about this. What is wrong with her, and do not ever have her come to work for us like this again. The work that had already been awarded to the company I was working for was completed, and they never got any more work awarded to them, ever.

The most recent company that I worked for in Dickinson, the effects of hiring relatives and friends was very noticeable. There were people in management positions that probably never would have been placed in a management position at any other company. There were people that were hired, that would not have been hired most other places. There were people working there, that would have been let go a long time ago anywhere else.

The net overall effect of all these relatives and friends working there was very bad. There were areas of responsibility that no one was taking responsibility for, or even paying attention to. There were people not showing up for work, without any preparations having been made to cover their absence. No one was very concerned about anything, because they were not in fear of losing their jobs.

This most recent company that I worked for in Dickinson, I have seen the very beginning signs of bankruptcy, and I think that this will become common knowledge within about one year. The failure of this company might not have occurred if the owner would have hired experienced managers with degrees in business administration, accounting, economics, finance, or construction management, instead of relatives and friends with little experience and no business education.

Criticism Of Local Companies In Dickinson, Failure To Properly Delegate

August 9, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, oil field service companies in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakota, working in the oil field in North Dakotaname withheld

Ever since I first came to Dickinson, North Dakota in 2011 to work in the oil field, I noticed that the local Dickinson companies had a strange and different way of doing things. I will start out by giving the following brief example.

During my first month of working for an oil field service company in Dickinson, the manager of the company would come out to the job site to operate a crane. During the rigging, lifting, positioning, and connecting of very heavy steel, the manager would routinely answer his telephone and talk on the telephone while operating the crane. This should have never, ever happened.

When I was about 27 years old working for a tunneling company, it was explained to me that I could not talk to the tunneling machine operator while he was working. This was explained to me by the crane operator, who was in charge. The crane operator explained other operator positions where the operator could not talk while working, sometimes mandated by law, such as the elevator operator in mining, because of the loss of life that could occur if the operator was distracted.

This oil field service company that I was working for in Dickinson, had one of the highest injury rates. And, while I was working there, this manager did have an “at-fault” operator error while operating the crane that caused a significant injury. Then my co-workers discussed aloud, “Maybe we should hire a crane operator, to just operate the crane.”

Although the manager of this oil field service company was knowledgeable, hardworking, honest, and fair, he wasn’t “managing” very well. Prior to the oil boom that began in 2007 in North Dakota, this oil field service company had much less work, and fewer employees. Prior to the oil boom, this company did not have enough calls for work, to require this manager to stay in the office all day. To maintain profitability, this manager also performed work in the oil field.

Now in 2011, this manager needed to stay in the office all day, and deal with the customer calls that came in. No more going out into the oil field and working. There was a wait list or backlog of work, where work requests that were called in, could not be gotten to for six to eight weeks. This company needed to expand, but it didn’t.

One of the reasons why this oil field service company did not expand was because the company owners and the manager did not see or understand how to delegate work properly. The manager could no longer receive from the workers every request they had for a tire, wrench, hydraulic hose, grease fitting, leaf spring, lifting strap, bolt, belt, etcetera; go look up every one of these parts in a catalog; place the order for every one of these parts; receive telephone calls from the work crews explaining and describing their problems; think about, solve, and explain problem solutions to the work crews; and receive telephone call work requests from every customer describing their problems and what they want done. This was too much work for one person to do, and too much work for one person to do well and handle completely.

The manager needed to have someone serve as “field superintendent”, “project manager” or “operations manager”. The easiest way to do this in the case of this oil field service company, would have been to appoint one of the most knowledgeable and competent workers that they already had working there. Out of several possible candidates, the decision might have come down to how easily that particular person could be replaced on their work crew.

The “field superintendent” could then take over the responsibility of assigning work orders to the work crews, making sure that they had proper instructions, material, and equipment, and receiving all the telephone calls about problems from the work crews. The manager then could have handled all calls from customers requesting work, discussions with the company owners, purchasing additional or new equipment, hiring, counseling, and firing workers.

This particular oil field service company never expanded, and its wait list and backlog of work increased. The oil companies like Continental, Marathon, Occidental, and Whiting needed to have their work done more quickly than this. Other existing oil field service companies had similar problems to the ones that I just described above.

In Dickinson, out of nowhere and overnight, the two oil field service companies Titan Oil Field Service and SM Fencing & Energy Services were formed by owners in their twenties, and they quickly grew to where they each had over fifty employees and millions of dollars in equipment. The reason for their creation and their rapid growth was that the existing oil field service companies in Dickinson could not keep up with the demand for work.

Dishonest And Disreputable Companies In Dickinson, North Dakota

July 17, 2017Uncategorizedcorruption in Dickinson North Dakota, corruption in North Dakota, employment in Dickinson North Dakota, failure of North Dakota government, failure of the North Dakota Department of Labor, injustice in North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, oil field service companies in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

In the beginning of June I started a new job in Dickinson, North Dakota. I thought that this was going to be a good job, with a good company. When I arrived to work at this oil field service company at 3:45 a.m. on a Monday morning, one thing after another went wrong. No supervisor showed up until 4:30 a.m., my supervisor was out for the week and he had left no instructions regarding me and my work. After phone calls were made, it was determined that I was supposed to drive a crane truck to a location two hours away, but the keys were missing, the crane truck was a mess and in no condition to drive, and the equipment on it that was needed that day was broken.

My instinct and my gut feeling was that I should say right then, “Hey, I don’t want to work here.” I could barely keep myself from telling the company that I had decided not to work there. It appeared to be so disorganized and unprofessional, with no planning or accountability. I needed the job, and the money, so I hung in there.

I got along with my co-worker/supervisor at the job site location two hours away. Within a couple of days, he was letting me do all the work on my own. His intention was that he would do the paperwork, and that I would do the physical work. This led to my co-worker/supervisor arriving at job locations a few hours late in the morning, and leaving a few hours early in the evening, because he was only doing paperwork, and I was doing the physical work which took all day.

It was hot, dirty, and tiring physical labor, and I would have liked some help, sometimes feeling like I was close to getting heat stroke. I was not supposed to be doing this work by myself according to the oil company safety rules. I did the work by myself, and I operated the crane truck on days when the wind was well over 30 mph, the cut off point to stop work. I broke these rules on many days in order to get work done.

I didn’t know that this oil field service company in Dickinson was not going to pay me. I had to wait for the two-week pay period to end, and then wait another ten days for a pay check to be made. On my second pay check, I was shorted 8-1/2 hours of overtime pay. I wrote a letter to the company payroll person, listing my hours, and explaining that I was shorted 8-1/2 hours of overtime pay.

My co-worker/supervisor telephoned the payroll person while I was sitting in his truck, and he went over the hours that I was shorted. Later that day, my co-worker/supervisor received a response from the payroll person, she said that the owner of the company had crossed out my hours, and wrote fewer hours, because he did not think that enough work was completed.

The owner of this company graduated from Dickinson State University with a degree in Business Administration, and he should know that it is illegal and unethical to not pay employees for hours worked. This says something about the owner of this company, Dickinson, Dickinson State University, and North Dakota. I have worked in Florida, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, and Idaho, and I have never ever before had a company refuse to pay me for my work hours.

My co-worker/supervisor then had a fairly long telephone conversation with the owner of this company, and he believed that he had agreement from the company owner that everything would be taken care of, that I would be paid for the 8-1/2 hours of missing overtime pay. Because I was expecting to be paid this money, I continued working for this company.

This past weekend I received by e-mail, a work hours summary for my third pay check, and it was 12-1/2 hours short on overtime hours! I couldn’t believe it! Not only was I not being paid for the 8-1/2 overtime hours that I was already missing, they were taking away another 12-1/2 hours of overtime pay!

The company owner had left a week earlier to go on a two-week hunting trip in South America. This made me believe what my co-worker/supervisor and I had already suspected, that it was actually the company owner’s wife that was shaving work hours off my pay, claiming that I was not getting enough work done. The company owner is on a two-week hunting trip in South America that probably costs $15,000 to $20,000. The company owner’s wife is trying to steal $570 of my pay, because she thinks that I don’t deserve it. She and her husband are better than me, and I don’t deserve to be paid. The truth is that I have been doing all of the work by myself, and have been breaking the safety rules on many days to get the work done.

I looked the owner’s wife up on Facebook, and I saw that she attended the Catholic college in Bismarck, the University of Mary. Not only do the Catholics not learn right from wrong in the Catholic Church, they don’t even learn basic right and wrong, ethical and unethical, legal and illegal when the go to their University! It is illegal and unethical to not pay your employees for hours worked.

I looked on the North Dakota Department of Labor website on how to file a complaint against an employer for not paying wages. It wasn’t too much of a shock to me, that the North Dakota Department of Labor wants for employees to “ask for your wages”, and that they will later act as a “mediator”. The North Dakota Department of Labor should be a government regulatory agency that enforces law in North Dakota, not a mediator. Because the North Dakota Department of Labor is so easy going toward employers, there is a huge back log of cases. There is a recent Bismarck Tribune newspaper article that says people who filed a complaint against an employer in 2014, had to wait two years, Two Fucking Years!, for a case worker to even be assigned to their complaint.

North Dakota has got to be the most corrupt and backward state. Of course employers are not going to pay employees wages when they know that there is a two year wait before the complaint is even looked at. I telephoned the North Dakota Department of Labor, and there are four previous complaints for non payment of wages against the company that I work for. In other states, this might be grounds for revocation of business licenses, but in North Dakota, the company instead gets glowing and gushing newspaper articles about them from the Dickinson Press.

Dickinson could not be more proud of this husband and wife entrepreneur couple. The Dickinson Press newspaper has written several articles about them, how wonderful and successful they are. They believe that they are so wonderful and successful, that they don’t even have to pay me for the hours that I worked.

I went to the courthouse in Dickinson to find out about filing a small claims civil suit against the owner of this company for nonpayment of wages. I thought that I could win this case if the owner of this company had to personally appear in court. However, I was told at the courthouse that in North Dakota the defendant in a small claims case is allowed to be represented by an attorney, and not even appear.

I already know what this means, an expensive attorney that has practiced law for twenty years in Dickinson will be hired, a long time colleague of every judge in Dickinson, and I am just an out of state oil field worker, nobody. Just like my employer believes I am so insignificant that I don’t need to be paid my wages, the court judge will feel the same way in deciding between what his long time attorney colleague says, and what I say.

It has been my experience in Dickinson that the police are only successful in harassing people, not solving crime, the local courts do not work, the state courts do not work, Federal agencies like OSHA, the Department of Labor, Equal Opportunity Employment don’t even function in North Dakota. North Dakota has got to be the most corrupt and backward state.

I am very angry about not being paid, and there is not any legal way for me to do anything about this in North Dakota.

The End Of A Work Week In Dickinson, North Dakota

July 7, 2017Uncategorizedemployment in Dickinson North Dakota, guide to Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

If you have been reading my blog posts for the past couple of weeks, you will have read some descriptions and details about how things have been going at my new job that I started five weeks ago. I was very let down and disappointed that what I thought was going to be a good job at a good company, turned out to be the exact opposite.

Besides complaining about the company that I started to work for, I very nearly could not work because my eyes swelled up to where I could not see due to allergies. I made it through that, but just barely. My co-worker/supervisor for a number of reasons, did not want to help me do the work, and began to come to work less and less, to the point that he did not come to work at all yesterday. The company that I work for, is unaware of this, but the oil company that we are doing the work for, is aware that I have been working mostly by myself, though I am not supposed to be.

I have been working out of town, two hours away from Dickinson. There is an even greater shortage of women, restaurants, stores, and things to do where I am working, than in Dickinson. On the drive home to Dickinson this Friday, there is nothing that I was looking forward to in Dickinson. There are no friends or prospective girl friends that I was looking forward to seeing, no where that I was looking forward to eating, nothing that I wanted to buy, and nothing that I wanted to do.

When I got home in Dickinson, I checked my e-mail. There was nothing too important or alarming. I had an e-mail that my on-line pay check record could be viewed. I looked at my net pay check, and it was disappointingly low. Looking at it some more, I saw that my company had shorted me 8.5 hours of overtime pay.

I wrote a letter to the company pay roll person, writing down the hours that I worked each day, and my total hours. I planned on dropping this letter off on Saturday or Monday. Also, there was withholding for “New Hire”, which I did not understand.

As I thought about it some more, I realized that the company was going to try to not pay me for drive time, which began to make me angry. I have to wake up at 2:00 a.m. on Monday, to leave at 3:00 a.m., to drive two hours until 5:00 a.m., which is 6:00 a.m. in that time zone, and then work until 5:00 p.m. in that time zone, which is 6:00 p.m. in Dickinson. In other words, I start driving at 3:00 a.m., and I don’t get done with work until 15 hours later, that’s right 15 hours later. On my time sheet, my supervisor writes down 12 hours for Monday, but the accounting women and the owner’s wife, just assume that because it is a two hour drive, they will just go ahead and take two hours off that 12 hours.

I could inconvenience the company owner and his wife by filing a small claims suit or a complaint with the Department of Labor, for the money that I am not being paid, but I would probably lose, because this is North Dakota. The company owner and his wife have a lot of news stories about them because they are so amazingly successful, benevolent, charitable, and run everything so well. I am seeing and experiencing the exact opposite.

I have to weigh out what I want to do. Saying or writing what I would really like to do, would only cause me unnecessary problems and not get me anywhere. The only smart and rational thing for me to do, would be to find another job.

I looked at North Dakota Job Service, Indeed, and LinkedIn, to try to find another job. There are very few jobs in Dickinson now, very, very few jobs.

I write about things like this in blog posts, because I am frustrated, but also to write what is actually happening. If anyone came to Dickinson, they would experience the same thing, and perhaps even worse. Most people would go to the liquor store or to the bar on a Friday evening like this. This is why most out of state workers get a DUI in Dickinson. It sucks here so bad, but you can’t drink, or the police will get you.

When A Blue Collar Worker Becomes A Supervisor In Dickinson, North Dakota

July 6, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

The title of this blog post also could have been “When A Red Neck Becomes A Supervisor In Dickinson, North Dakota. ” There are other words besides “Blue Collar Worker” or “Red Neck”, that could have been used.

I started a new job in Dickinson five weeks ago, and I would not have lasted a day, had it not been for the fact that my co-worker/supervisor was my age, and he was from the South like me. He has many years of work experience in the oil field, and he has worked with several oil companies in this area.

My co-worker/supervisor wanted and intended that I would drive and operate the crane truck,that I would do the physical work, and that he would do the paperwork. There is a lot of oil company paper work. He wanted to sit in the air-conditioning in his crew truck doing paperwork, while I would do the physical work. This is not normally how a two-man oil field crew would operate, especially if the paperwork does not take all day.

The paper work does not take all day, so my supervisor/co-worker would leave the job site location to go and do other things. Basically, he would head for home at 2:30 p.m. Hey, that’s what supervisors do, isn’t it? Even though my co-worker/supervisor was supposed to be helping me do the actual work, in his mind, since he was in charge, he was a manager, and managers can go home when they want, can’t they?

Because the paperwork does not take all day, and my co-worker/supervisor had assigned himself the paperwork only, my co-worker/supervisor began texting me on most mornings, “Got to take care of some things, go ahead and start without me.” He wouldn’t arrive on location until about 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m., he would sit in the truck and do paperwork for three to four hours, and then he would leave to go home at 2:30 p.m.

The oil company that we are doing the work for, has all kinds of supervisory oversight on what is going on at their locations, safety supervisors, security & operations supervisors, maintenance supervisors, automation/controls supervisors, production supervisors, and so on. For the past four weeks, all of the oil company personnel have seen just one person doing the work, and there are supposed to be two of us doing the work.

There are supposed to be two of us, because the oil company is paying for a two-man crew, and it takes two people to do the work, especially for safety reasons. There is not supposed to be just one person on these remote locations, doing this type of work.

I didn’t complain because I wanted to keep my job, I wanted to get paid, no one was bothering me, and I was being left alone all day to do the work. I didn’t think it was right for my co-worker/supervisor to show up at 10:00 a.m., stay in his truck the whole time with the air-conditioning on, listening to the radio, snacking and drinking, while doing the paperwork, and then leaving to go home at 2:30 p.m. On many days at 2:30 p.m., I was just about to the point of heat stroke.

I am sure that all of the different personnel at this oil company have mentioned and discussed that I am there by myself doing the work, that this is not supposed to be like this, not what they paid for, and not safe. It has been mentioned to my co-worker/supervisor by the oil company manager a couple of times recently that he is supposed to be there with me.

This morning I waited for my co-worker/supervisor to show up at the oil company yard at 7:00 a.m. I received a garbled text message from my co-worker/supervisor that he had some business to attend to this morning, without giving me any work instructions. I texted him back that I would go to the truck stop to get fuel in the crane truck. He knows that I would have to use my own money, he has the company fuel card. I wanted to act like we were starting work, I didn’t want the oil company to know that my co-worker/supervisor was no where around, and that I didn’t have any work instructions.

I waited at the truck stop after fueling the crane truck, to hear back from my co-worker/supervisor, but I didn’t hear back, and he didn’t answer his phone, it was now 8:00 a.m. I drove for one hour to the area that I thought we were supposed to be working in, and I sent a text message to my co-worker/supervisor telling him where I was, and asking for the site location name, it was now 9:00 a.m.

At 10:00 a.m., I was trying to decide whether or not to call the oil company to ask them what site I was supposed to be working on. This would lead to them asking me where my supervisor/co-worker was, which I didn’t want to explain, and they wouldn’t like it.

Shortly after 10:00 a.m., my co-worker/supervisor called, and he was very angry about all of the missed calls he had, blaming me, but I only called him twice. He was acting like everybody was causing him problems and bothering him. He told me what site location to meet him at. It took me about twenty minutes to get to that site location, and I started work.

The oil company manager called me to ask me what was going on. In order to call me, I believe that the oil company manager probably had to call the company that I work for to get it, which probably involved him explaining why he had to call me, he could not reach my co-worker/supervisor. The oil company manager told me to have my co-worker/supervisor call him when he arrived at the site location where I was working.

At about 12 noon, my co-worker/supervisor called and asked me if I had found the site location. I told him that I had found it, and that I had completed the work. He told me that he would meet me at the next location. I went to the next site location and I completed that work. My co-worker/supervisor called me and he wanted me to go back to my previous location to get some information which would allow him to complete the inspection paperwork.

I informed my co-worker/supervisor to not turn in the completed inspection paperwork without having been on that site location, because the oil company manager knows that he has not been on that location. At this point, my co-worker/supervisor said that he was not going to drive to work, it was too late in the day now.

My co-worker/supervisor was supposed to be working right along with me, all day, every day. He began to believe that since he was in charge of he work, that makes him a manager, he was the manager of me. He began to believe that since he was a manager, he could arrive at the work location at 10:00 a.m., and leave to go home at 2:30 p.m., a 4-1/2 hour work day, not leaving the air-conditioning of his truck. Today, he planned on turning in a time sheet for 12 hours, just like every day, and not even come to work at all.

It would have been easier for me, if my co-worker/supervisor would have sent one text message to me this morning, stating that he would not be coming to work today, and letting me know what work site locations I had to go to. However, because he knows that he is not really a manager, that he is an hourly oil field worker, that is supposed to be there working with me at each location, that he would have to try to act like he was going to meet me at each location throughout the day, act like he was right there the whole time, to turn in a time sheet for twelve hours today.

Today, it may have come to the point that the oil company that we are performing work for, has had enough. This will be especially true if my co-worker/supervisor tries to turn in inspection check sheets, when the oil company knows that he was never on those site locations today. With my co-worker/supervisor having gotten into the habit of 4-1/2 hour work days, the oil company would reasonably believe that they are not getting what they paid for, that they are being short-changed. This work for the oil company will likely come to a halt soon, over dissatisfaction with work performance, and I will probably be looking for another job.

Allergies Almost Causing Me To Lose My Job In Dickinson, North Dakota

June 28, 2017Uncategorizedallergies in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I never had allergies before in my life, until the last four years in Dickinson, North Dakota. In my first two years in Dickinson, I didn’t have allergies either.

I wouldn’t care very much if I just had a runny nose, and red, itchy, watery eyes. But, one or both of my eyes swell nearly completely shut, my eyes become blinded by sunlight, and I can barely see. This happens about three to four times each year, for the past four years.

No one is going to like this, what I am going to write next. In order to not lose my job, and go to work, I have had to wear two pairs of sunglasses, one over top of the other, and open my eyes for 1/2 second, and close them for 1 second, while I am driving. On some days, even wearing two pairs of sunglasses, I can’t hold my eyes open for more than one second.

Why don’t I go to the doctor? Because this is Dickinson, and North Dakota, that’s why. I have lived with a life-long Dickinson resident for over three years. I have seen him try to make appointments with the St. Alexius Hospital and Sanford Health, many times. When he needs medical attention fairly urgently, describing his intense agonizing pain, the staff reads to him the appointment dates they have available, five to six weeks out.

Then, what I have seen them do to my room mate, is to schedule him for test after test after test, running up a bill of $7,000 for tests, and offer no treatment! So fuck the corrupt and incompetent medical professionals in Dickinson! They would probably try to put you on the medical helicopter to Bismarck for a bad case of hemorrhoids.

I am getting off my topic here, but what the medical facilities here in Dickinson are trying to do is bill, bill, bill, in order to pay for their personnel and facilities. In treating someone, even if they could quickly diagnose someone and treat them, they aren’t going to, because there is no money in that. And, they probably perceive there being some legal liability in trying to quickly diagnose someone and offer a simple treatment, foregoing extensive testing.

Back to my allergies. It happens three to four times a year in Dickinson, where my eyes swell up, become sensitive to light, and I can’t see. I have tried just about every over the counter allergy medication, like Benadryl, Claritin, Allegra, and Flonase. Benadryl seems to make my eyes more sensitive to light, Flonase Sensimist nasal spray seems to help the most. But nothing helps very much. Visine and Opticon allergy eye drops do not help very much.

If you have read my recent previous blog posts, you will know that I started a new job four weeks ago at an oil field company. I have to drive and operate a crane truck. If I don’t come to work, the work can not be done, my co-worker/supervisor can not get paid, and my company can not get paid. My co-worker/supervisor gets paid about $300 per day, his truck gets billed at about $200 per day at least, and my crane truck gets billed at about $500 per day at least, and the company loses about $3,000 per day in billing. If I tried to not come to work for even one day, they would try to replace me as soon as possible, permanently. Especially, if my co-worker/supervisor and the company thought that this was something that could happen again.

I could not say, “I have a bad allergy attack about three to four times a year, I am having a bad allergy attack this morning, it would not be safe for me to drive or work today.” I may as well say, “I quit.” The company would not understand. The part that they would understand, is that I needed to be replaced. Once my position has been filled, what do they need me for, so that I can call in sick again in the future?

I had to drive two hours to work on Monday in my personal truck with a bad allergy attack, and very much difficulty with my eyes. I then had to drive 1/2 hour in the crane truck to some place that I had never been. When I got to where my co-worker/supervisor was, I explained to him about my allergy problem that I was currently having, but that I wanted to try to work.

I know, and my co-worker/supervisor knows, that if I don’t work, neither of us get paid. This was my co-worker/supervisor’s main concern. I don’t think that most people will understand how dangerous it was for me and for others, for me to work and drive all day with having only about 30% of my eyesight. At the end of the day, I did not think that I could drive the crane truck back for thirty minutes in traffic. I tried to discuss this with my co-worker/supervisor, but he did not want to drive thirty minutes in the opposite direction from his home.

I made it to where I was going at the end of the day Monday, barely. My eyesight was slightly better on Tuesday and Wednesday. I managed to keep my job. This job pays me in one week, what I would earn in one month in Idaho. Jobs in the oil field are very scarce and hard to get now. It would have been the end of me working in the oil field if I would have lost this job after one month, especially for having allergies.

How My New Job Is Going In Dickinson, North Dakota

June 25, 2017Uncategorizedemployment in Dickinson North Dakota, jobs in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about starting a new job in Dickinson, North Dakota. I thought that it was going to be one of the best jobs that I ever had, because the company was enthusiastic about my previous work experience in several different areas that they happened to be looking for.

Because I am in my late forties, have had many jobs, and have worked for about seven companies in Dickinson, I knew that there could be complications and obstacles at work. I was mentally and emotionally prepared for things to not go well at work. I was especially expecting to experience hostility and lack of cooperation from the local North Dakotan co-workers, like always.

I had offered to drive my own personal truck to get to the work location two hours away. I was doing this so that the company would not have to find a truck for me, but also so that I would not be entirely at the mercy of others, at a work location two hours from Dickinson. When I arrived at work at 3:45 a.m. on a Monday morning, after waiting 45 minutes for my work manager to arrive, and he did not arrive, I was informed that he would not be in all this week.

The crane truck that was supposed to be at the work location, was here in Dickinson, and I would have to drive it. I was told the keys were in it, I was already late, to get in it and go. I got my personal work equipment bag and my hotel bag for the week out of my own truck and carried them to the crane truck.

The crane truck had spoiled food in a take-out box on the dashboard, all kinds of other garbage on the dashboard, all kinds of garbage on the seat, and on the floor boards. It was dark outside, but looking out the back window of the truck cab, I could see a metal gas can unsecured on top of the right side tool box. I got out of the crane truck and walked to the rear of the truck, on the back bumper, below the level of the rear deck, were two 35 lb buckets of grease, that would have fallen off on the highway. I was very angry about all of this.

I felt like I was being set up to get fired, by my piece of shit North Dakota co-workers, but I realized that it was more likely stupidity that caused the crane truck to be an accident waiting to happen for the next person who drove this truck. I was angry that any company would start a new employee out like this, I sure wouldn’t.

I went back in to the office to inform them that the keys were not in the crane truck. After about twenty minutes, they were able to find an employee who had the keys. As this employee was removing all of the keys that were needed from his key ring, he was saying that a major piece of equipment on the crane truck was not working, that would be needed. Some things were said by a manager along the lines of, it’s not my problem.

I had had about as much as I could take. Everything in my mind was telling me to say to this company, “Hey, that’s O.K., I don’t want to work here.” I now believed that I had made a mistake, and the best thing for me to do now, was to not spend another minute at this company. If I would have gotten in that crane truck and gone, I could have caused an accident on the highway and gotten someone hurt with all the things that were ready to fall off the truck. I didn’t know what else was wrong with this truck, was the boom locked down, was the other rigging locked down, what was my clearance height?

I had not been given any drive maps, work site location, work orders, work contacts, hotel information, fuel credit card for the crane truck, hydrogen sulfide H2S monitor, or been asked if I had all of my mandatory personal safety equipment. They just wanted me to go. I was getting a very bad impression of the company, and I believed that this is what the company was like, no thought, planning, preparation, care, concern, or accountability.

If anything went wrong, they would just blame me, and I thought that they were setting me up to fail. I wanted so bad to quit right then, to spare myself from the blame of everything going wrong, which everything would likely go wrong. If I would have known that I would have had to drive this crane truck, there was plenty of time on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday for me to inspect and check this crane truck, and the equipment on this truck, when there was day light.

If the crane truck would have been low on fuel, this might have been the last straw. I considered whether I was willing to spend my own money to fuel this truck, rather than deal with the people in the office, who weren’t prepared to provide me with anything.

I left the company yard being more angry, than nervous about driving a very large truck, which I hadn’t driven anything this large for six years. At about 6:00 a.m., I telephoned my co-worker that I was supposed to meet at the work location. I could tell from his voice that he was from the South like me. I was relieved that I would not be working with a North Dakotan.

When I got to the work location at about 7:30a.m., I talked to the man who I would be working with. He was my age. He had worked in the oil field for most of his life, so had his father, and his grandfather. He was very knowledgeable about most areas of oil field work and operations. He looked at the piece of equipment on the crane truck that was broken, and he said that there was very little we could do without this piece of equipment working. He said we would take his truck back to Dickinson.

During the two hour drive back to Dickinson, I had the chance to talk to my co-worker from the South. He explained to me why the company was, the way that it was. He explained that he tries to handle everything, and take care of everything on his own. To not rely on the office in Dickinson, to handle everything himself, as much as possible. As long as work gets done, and the work makes money, he is allowed to operate on his own, without much interference. This is the only way he wants to work.

After getting parts in Dickinson, I was able to drive my own personal truck back to the work location. In the next two days, I worked in the oil field with my co-worker, who was in charge of the work because of his four or five year work relationship with the customer, and because of his many more years work experience in the oil field. On about the third day, my co-worker began leaving me on my own, to go do other things. By the end of the first week, I was working on my own for most of the day.

I was a little angry, that I was having to do all of the work by myself, I didn’t think that I was supposed to be doing everything by myself all the time. On the other hand, I was being left alone, left in charge of the work, and I was not being bothered. After a few days of working with my co-worker, I had told him that I had been a foreman, a superintendent, a project manager, an inspector, and had operated my own construction business. Because of my age, my work experience, and working with me, my co-worker believed that I did not need any supervision or help, and that he could be elsewhere, doing other things.

What my co-worker wanted, and I suppose what I want too, is to be left alone to do your work. To not get phone calls where people are quizzing you about work progress and work details. To not have people pushing you to get more work done. To not have other people trying to tell you how to do the work, what you are doing wrong, and trying to direct everything you do, like you are not capable of directing yourself.

In order to get work done, I have chosen to work on many bad weather days, rainy days, and high wind days. There is a prohibition against performing certain operations when the wind is over thirty miles per hour, but I have done it anyway, because about 30% of the time there have been high winds. This is possibly another reason why my co-worker has decided to be elsewhere doing other things. If I get caught performing certain operations when the wind is over thirty miles per hour, it is better for my co-worker and my company to deny any knowledge of this, that no one knew that I was doing this, to let me take the blame, and for me to get fired. I understand that if the work does not get completed, my company can not get paid, and my co-worker and I can not get paid unless we work every day completing the work.

There are a lot of dangerous things that I have to do many times each day, that are just part of this work. Every location that I go to has multiple surveillance cameras which are monitored at an operations center. If the customer wanted to, they could watch every step that I performed, all day long. Every location has SCADA systems, supervisory control and data acquisition systems, which monitor and send oil and gas flow rates, oil and gas pressures, oil and gas temperatures, valve positions, electric motor speeds, electric motor loading, and probably perimeter breach. Every location that I go to and begin work, causes the operations center to receive alarms for drop in flow rates, drop in pressure, stop in motor load, and stop in motor speed. The multiple alarms result in the operations center looking at the surveillance cameras for that location to determine what is going on at that location. Because each location cost many millions of dollars, I get watched at each location by the people at the operations center. Many people do not know this or think about this, but they should.

I have about two or three more weeks of out of town work, then, as far as I know, I will be working out of the Dickinson office. I don’t know how this will go, or if I can handle this or not. I don’t know if I can take the lack of cooperation, unfriendliness, and unhelpfulness that I always get from North Dakota co-workers. The past three weeks my co-worker from the South has been cordial and has let me work on my own. The customer oil company personnel have been very civil and decent so far. I don’t know if I can take what is going to happen when I go back to Dickinson.