I have been working at a treeservice for about 6 1/2 years. I consider myself to be pretty good at my job, but I have definitely fucked up at times in the past. Management has spoken to me about those mistakes, and we have moved past them, as we should.
I am paid $20.50 an hour, which means after six day work week I take home about $800 a week. Not terrible, but basically just enough to struggle to pay my bills. I have an opportunity to join the Ironworkers Union in April. My starting rate will be significantly higher than what I am making now, and the benefits will be much better, so that is on the horizon for me.
Earlier this summer, I got switched to a different crew, that specifically requested me because they know about the quality of my work ethic. This has always been the one thing that I could be counted on for, putting in a solid effort every single day. We have been on a massive job for the last four months, and it is a job that I am very confident that most people at this company would not be able to do the quality of work that I have been doing.
The big issue that made it clear to me that this job has no future for me, happened a couple of weeks ago. A shitty new coworker started, and he thought that he is the greatest thing to ever happen to tree work. He found out that he will not be getting the opportunity to run a truck, which he doesn’t deserve by any stretch of the imagination. He found out that another guy, who I haven’t personally worked with, but I have heard very good things about, will instead be getting the opportunity to run a truck. This new guy threatened to kill that employee. I contacted my boss, and alerted him about this. Seems like a good thing to do, right? However, my boss, then accused me of starting drama, and said that if he heard anything else from me about issues at work, I would be fired on the spot. This is obviously bullshit, but it has really made it clear to me that the time that I have put in at this company has now been for absolutely nothing.
Unfortunately, I can’t really leave this job until the beginning of April. I have always tried to keep my head down, just show up to work every day, work hard, go home. How do I make it through the next six months with this hanging over my head?