You've got it all wrong....Answer your phone on the weekends.... take the 1.7 or 2.0 and go fishing on Monday....better pay scale and better fishing too!

Is the guy on standby over the aweekend a suckass because he was on standby or because he didnt fix the elevator? Call back burnout is a broblem in our industry that never gets the attension it deserves. I have seen guys go and go but in the end if it only gets you a devorce or a kid you dont know what have you really achived. We are in an industry that overtime is mandatory and we are well paid to do it. But you must take YOUR time the time you spend with your family friends or fishing pole. Life is a balancing act.

Duty is one of those things I could never find a happy place for.

I wasn't happy if I stayed at home all week and didn't get a call.

And..

I wasn't happy if I stayed out every night during the week and didn't get any sleep...

i hear that.... the last company i work for i carried THERE phone ever place i went. answered ever time it would ring. always there to help out....then i figured out i was the only one who did it....stupid me! now if i am on call yep got the phone but i will not sit at home and wait for a call i go about my business. if i am out with the family i will charge them from the time they call untill the time i get back in my house. but if i am not on call don't call me i don't care how big of a customer you have that needs the elevator, if i am that important and the only one that can fix the elevator you need to pay me more are get some training for you other employees. it's not my or new guys fault that has been putting in hydro's for the last 4 years and now has a mech. card in his pocket, standing in front of a 60 year old controller and not be able to find his way threw the prints. schooling for are trade is very out of date, and too short in my opinion....... sorry just bitching!

Being self-employed, I get each and every single t/c, wakes me up many nights. I used to be the only one on call for like 10 years continuous, weekends, holidays, Christmas, New Years, everything. 24/7/365/10 years, no break at all, not for anything. Not because I wanted to, but because of the lack of savvy in the labor pool. Some people can't be trained much, if they don't have enough gray matter upstairs to begin with. Not to mention the huge amount of substance abusers and behavioral problems they used to shove my way w/o warning. Now after 16 years in business I can afford help with the duty, but I still have to handle the initial reports, dispatch, and take it myself if the duty on-call guy decides to get drunk, or won't p/u his phone, or forgets he was on call. Either way, every call doesn't get past me w/o some kind of stress. Wish I could just completely turn my back on it, (lord knows I've paid my dues), but that risks everything.

I hear ya Vic..

I was a LR for ten years, so I know all about the 3am wake ups and the no calls all week thing, so back to the city for me. But I still leave my phone on, one of the brothers or sisters may get stuck on a problem or stuck in an elevator (had to smash the hatch out myself once)I could have used a friendly voice on the other end of the phone sometimes. I just screen my calls now. Works for me.
Now I fish alot too, see my name! OH YA!

I loved it when one of my compadres would call sheepishly, over the radio, and ask somebody to get them out of an elevator they were stuck in...

Everyone would chime in..

"Kind of busy right now. I can be over there in a few hours."LOL..

Course we would immediatley go and get the guy out.

Yes but the best part was asking thru the doors. ARE YOU SURE YOUR STUCK HE HE HE HE......And both of you knowing he cant tell you what an A hole you are till after you let him out.

Bwah-haw-hah!!! Niiiice! 🙂

Oh,man,I forgot that I had this thread!

Yes,I have been stuck on an elevator once or twice.
There was this one time it was me and my dad (old elevator guy) got stuck on a montgomery when the rod for the door lock broke.
Couldn't open the door and it wouldn't leave the floor.
I ended up calling hospital maintenance to get me out.

Never heard the end of that one !

And,yes I will answer the phone for a fellow brother ,I just let them know that if you are calling me, you or someone else better be dying,otherwise it can wait.
If its info you need,just shoot me a text and I will be glad to help.
Yep,the burned out callback blues.

I have never been stuck in an elevator in 34 years..I thought I was several times but always managed to extricate myself..

The closest I ever came?

Mid 80's. A co worker had just finished adjusting his 1st elevator. (A Swift 5000). He got on the radio and called everybody in the area to come ride "One Sweet Ride"..

So about 7 of us get in the "Sweet Ride" and about halfway down the rise the elevator came to an abrupt stop. We opened the car doors and were staring at concrete. (Blind Hatch)

So we sat there about an hour trying to discreetly get the attention of passerby's. Finally got the attention of the building engineer. All he could make out, evidently, that someone was stuck in the elevator. Told us "Help was on the way"

Sure enough, just a few minutes later the maintenance man's beeper went off with a 911 code. Of course he was in the elevator with us!!!

So by this time the "Adjuster" was really catching hell from everyone. We hoisted him up on our shoulders and that's when he remembered that he had already bolted down the car top escape hatch.

So then...With NO Tools but 7 guys we ripped the Stainless stell handrail off the back of the cab and after about 15 minutes, used the handrail as a battering ram to beat the top of the car escape hatch open.

Then we THREW the adjuster to the car top. From there he had to climp 3 floors of rails to get out at the next landing. Then he reset the drive and we got out. (Forgot to set his overcurrent limits...(Sheesh)...

Yeah..."One Sweet Ride"...LOL