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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by ValleyX Most through freight employees are on call, in a traditional freight pool, when you arrive at your home or away-from-home terminal, you go to the bottom of the board, being so many times out. As they call crews for service, you move up in the rotation and when you get first out, you get the next train. There's nothing set in stone as to what train you might get or exactly when you'll get it. The only way to be certain that you'll not be subject to call is to mark off, taking your name off the availability list, so to speak. Engineers have the option of taking personal days, which will compensate you a day, marking off personal, which compensates you nothing for time lost, or vacation days. Company frowns heavily on missing calls, as you call it not answering the bell. Doing this with any kind of frequency will lead to discipline, doing it on a regular basis will lead to a short railroad career If you're subject to call, you'd best not have a "glow on". Serious repercussions for being caught. Best not to do it. [/quote] OK, thanks for the info.. So if I've got it right, basically your "weekend" is however long it takes for your name to work it's way up to the top of the list? Thats not so bad, seemingly one would get a "feel" for the board after a while (barring the exception or emergency) and have a fairly clear picture of what a normal work week should look like. I used drinking as an example becuse it was the first "removed from the normal world" example I could think of, but other examples might be that once a year planned fishing weekend with the boys, and the picture I had gotten was one that made the engineer almost a prisoner in his own house on his time off, having to be waiting by the phone for that ominous "call" I guess like all companies these days , they try to avoid paying overtime whenever possible? That probably helps too. So, tell me, in actual practice, over the last year how many full two day weekends have you enjoyed off work as planned? Most, some, few, all? What I'm trying to do is quantify the "threat" of that ominous call to the employees peace of mind.
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