Never too old to have a happy childhood!
QUOTE: Originally posted by Mark_W._Hemphill If you want to make good money in a railroad job, and have every evening and weekend off to spend with your family, you really need to think about winning the lottery or finding a different line of work. That kind of railroad job existed as a fluke of history, and it's rapidly being driven back out of existence by competition between railroads and other modes of transportation, competition between all the people who are seeking jobs, and competition with other industries that have higher rates of return on capital. Road jobs with regular hours are plentiful, if you don't mind working for a short line and making a wage of $25-35K a year. Road jobs with high wages can be had, too, if you don't mind chain-gang road service that will age you ten years for every five, being enslaved to the crew caller, and if you don't mind never seeing your family or being able to tell them when you will be home or if you can be there for all the events that matter to you and them so deeply. If you want the really big money in railroading, it doesn't matter whether you are in management or labor: You WILL work long, exhausting, irregular hours, and you WILL be away from home for the majority of your life, until the day you retire. You'll never see your kids grow up. Your relationship with your wife had better be really strong. If you don't have one, you'll find dating very difficult. Case in point, myself. Yes, I'm in management, and I'm making a great wage. I also will only be home to see my family two weeks every four months, I work 16-17 hours a day 7 days a week, and every time I go to work I take a substantial risk of being shot or blown up. If my phone rings at 0300 I'm going to get up and deal with it. There aren't any good deals in life except for a very lucky few. Most of us have to do it the hard way.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98 to awnser your question....yes...its hard to have any kind of quilty of life and have a family at the same time...that is why at some point you have to tell the railroad to stick it up thier a$$ in so many words csx engineer
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
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