I (33 M) live in New Zealand, and I'm a laborer / operator of some years. But ever since march of last year, I have only been enable to find temp gigs. I would love to find a full time job running heavy equipment, but it seems next to impossible. I feel like I'm doing all thats asked of me, but nothing seems to work, and I am just exhausted.
I was contracted to this company, and they got a guy in from one of their other teams (probably didn't like the fact that I charge out $35 an hour for running heavy equipment :/ ).
And this guy did everything that woudl have gotten me kicked off the machine for months at my first gig. He failed to check his machine, did not let it warm up in cold weather, waited till have way through the day to geese it, and failed to ID that it was a manual hitch not an easy hitch (another sign he did not check the machine over).
At this point I have to ask : What the actual hell are employers looking for? On the one hand, Im told no because i dont have 5+ years experience and a truck license, on the other hand, I see stuff like this all the time and m shocked that this is the pass mark.
So we had an operator out here a bit today, and he and is offsider left the neighbors yard in this state. I was allways taught by the forman that showed me how o use diggers that you should a) never leave the public's yard/property in this state, and B) should always keep your excavations in one pile to make it more efficient to pull back into the hole.
My step dad said that the guy who did this is also a forman, which just made me mental. Because companies have been denying me access to excavators/heavy equipment for ages due to lack of experience. But then I see stuff like this and I'm like "But that go's against everything I was taught." He tried to say "Well depending on who you work for will depend on what they care about." But It didn't sit well with me.
Am I wrong to feel some sort of way about this?