I’d spent a lot of years learning to be a go-to man. Those years were hard come by. But I’d succeeded. I’d gone from being perceived as a lazy dog fucker by French crewmates who neither worked with me, nor communicated with me, often. They conversed in French and had developed a report with one another and I was left on the sidelines, clueless as to what they were about. No wonder they thought me lazy. I wasn’t. I was waiting for instruction. Things changed in Oreflow when I asked my shift boss, “What can I do to help you help me get my Code 5.” I began to rise within my ranks, finally becoming a hoist-man and then a spare shift boss, in time.
I found lessons hard to come by in Ground Control, as well. My boss rarely went underground. He was stuck in meetings all day, all week. I had to learn the job piece-meal, putting it together on my own, in most cases. I listened to him speak. I observed what he observed in the photos I took and the jottings I drew on layouts and in my notebook. I asked questions of development and drilling bosses. I kept my eyes and ears open and I absorbed what I saw and what I heard. In time, I got better at what I was doing, at auditing headings, investigating ground faults and failures, at making decisions. I think I did a good job. I could have been better at it. To think otherwise is sheer hubris.
I certainly visited enough sites during my tenure. I made 500 site visits my first year (beginning June 16th 2007), 925 the next, and 1000 the year after that.
Then I was marginalized. Dave Black was hired upon Montcalm’s closure and he began to take over my role as Ground Control’s underground presence. It began slowly at first, then completely and abruptly after the Junior Engineer in the group didn’t want to do cable bolt layouts anymore. I was given the job and I found myself stuck behind a desk, pumping out print after print, two or three a week, eighty sections per print. It was time consuming. It was a challenge at first. It ceased to be within about a month, when it just became onerous and boring.
I snuck underground to check on and chart electrical cable borehole placement, and to inspect what I thought I might need to see with my own eyes. I had to. The position of such things like electrical cable and dewatering holes were only “draft” doodles on Level plans, not surveyed in, their exact positions not concrete at all; and “I” had already struck a dewatering hole on my first print. I began to be cautious. I began to worry about diligence, so I went underground with a “disto” to see such things for myself, to site in their exact positions for my prints.
I only made 151 site visits that final year. The rest of the time I sat at my work station pumping out one print after another until I had my JDAP for that year (my Job Description, Action Plan), where my boss declared that all upcoming training would be directed towards Dave Black and I would spend another year pumping out cable bolt prints.
I’d had enough. I was jealous. I was angry.
I saw a posting for the Design group and applied. For some reason, I had to prove my worthiness again, taking the same aptitude tests I’d had to take when I’d applied for the Engineering Group four years prior. I didn’t see why. I’d passed them already. No matter. I took them again, and passed them again, and was interviewed and offered the position. I accepted.
When Dave Counter found out I’d applied to leave his group he was livid. He
fumed. He pouted. He stopped talking to me except in the most gruff, terse way.
So be it, I thought. It was time to move on.
But I had to train someone to replace me first. So sayeth Dave Counter. Okay.
That was reasonable, right and proper. But Dave Counter took his time posting
my position and then even more time in choosing my replacement. There was a
perfect candidate, early on. She had all the qualifications; indeed, she had
experience in Ground Control and Rock Mechanics. Dave passed Kaylah by,
probably because she was a girl, and he didn’t think she could handle the
physical aspects of the job, pull tests, the installation of stress cells and
such. He had a point. We handled some pretty heavy stuff, from time to time;
but that didn’t stop him from accepting a female EIT once. (She was hired in
the end, though, but with Production Engineering, instead.)
I candidate finally came along that fit Counter’s criteria. No experience, though. Fresh out of college. Most importantly, male.
I set about training him. I even took him underground once or twice, too, but I mostly chained him to my desk and taught him what AutoCAD skills I had, to prepare him for the drudgery that would be his for the next year. That way I could escape.
I also taught Dave Black what AutoCAD skills I had, expecting that he’d have need of them in time, too. This gave Julien, the new guy, an opportunity to escape his chains every now and again. Once he did, he was hell-bent to escape them for good, finding every reason to accompany Dave Black underground.
I decided that Julien was trained. I decided that Dave Black was competent to replace Julien in a pinch, too. But I still didn’t get my release from Dave.
I talked to Gordon Shepard, head of Design, about my lack of release. Gordon advised me to seek out Counter and press the issue. Counter was standoffish, not answering my question as to whether I could leave, but he didn’t exactly say I couldn’t, either. So, I asked the Chief Engineer and he said that I ought to just move. I’d been accepted for the new position, and they’d waited six months for me to fill it. My replacement had arrived and been trained. My new boss saw no reason why I couldn’t make the move anytime I wanted to.
I didn’t see the point in waiting any longer, either. A desk was open, recently vacated by a student who’d gone back to school. I began to move that day, that very hour.
My time in Ground Control had come to an end.
My moving was a bittersweet victory. I loved Ground Control, just like I’d loved Oreflow. I was sad to leave both.
But it was time for a change.
