00:00.00 archpodnet Welcome back to Sirra Mark 87 and we're talking about drug use in the field specifically to deal with fatiguegan pain. But you know drug use in the field. So doug I think you had a comment from the last segment go ahead. 00:14.50 Doug Yeah, um, it was basically to put a playoff of what Heather was saying I think this is something that you shouldn't be masking issues with drugs. It should you actually be having a conversation with your employer. 00:29.90 archpodnet Yeah. 00:31.60 Doug Um, and this is this is very valuable information for an employer to know as well as how how hard are you pushing your crew because if if it's 1 person who feels like they need to knock back some opiates to be able to show up to work the next day that's probably not just one person. 00:41.19 Andrew Kinkella Um. 00:51.40 Doug Um, and obviously you know if you're if you're getting back into the field or it's your first time out those first couple of weeks you're going to be a bit sore and it's going to take you ah ah a bit of time to get climatized acclimated to the field and that work and that's understandable. Um, but you know. 01:00.40 archpodnet M. 01:10.72 Doug It really if if you know you're six months in and and you're struggling but that should be definitely a conversation um with an employer and if they're a good company and this is a good way to find out if they're a good company or a. You have a good line manager or manager you know there's people there as if there's can be discussions about what you're doing how you're doing it. Um I'm just thinking about like how many people overfill buckets all the time and then wonder why they're so sore. Um, there's there's a whole a whole range of of ways to be addressing. 01:39.75 Heather You. 01:46.63 Doug Your health and your body. Um, as as Heather was saying outside of needing to use drugs. So I think that's ah, a huge thing and then the sort of segues into I think that whole idea of having a conversation should also be how. You know the the question from the viewer asked you know how do you deal with that. Is you you shouldn't deal with this. This is if you're you're field tech and um, this is is an issue you pass that up the the chain of command um, it's it's not your job. Um, and then there's there's also some health and safety and risk stuff to you as well. I mean. If you're out in the middle of nowhere. Um and you have quote unquote narced on one of your ah fellow. Um, ah you know or or they believe that you you've you've felt you're causing troubles or you're not cool as Andrew said or but Andrew what was was your terminology or something I forget what you were saying but know. Basically that there could be some real dangers from people who who basically yeah, come after you because they think you're causing problems for them. So it shouldn't be something that you should ever deal with it should always be something dealt with at the company level. Companies should have um you know it should be in your your contracts or terms or conditions. There should be policies about drug use and all that sort of stuff and it should be something that someone higher up deals with and if you are that person higher up. 03:18.83 Doug Um, you should have got some training and discussions about you know how you approach that and how you approach it safely? Um, and how you ensure that your entire staff is safe and I realize that is not every organization you're going to be working for. Will do that. Ah, but again, this is a good opportunity to sort of weed out ones. You don't want to work for um I think we talked about this many times but not every organization is going to be 1 that you want to work for um, there might be some that is actually a company culture I mean um. 03:43.11 Heather Just what else just. 03:54.82 Andrew Kinkella Yep. 03:55.22 Doug Krista talked about it was being the 1980 S but you know there there are some some organizations that do have that sort of more laid back maybe laid backs out the right term but a much more um, party attitude and we've been talking sort of semi legalish illegalish drugs. Um, you know things you might need a prescription for you know a bit on that on the drug side but there's also you know alcohol is a drug as well. And again, there are sort but certain organizations where um, it's not safe the levels of drinking and alcohol consumption that happens during work or. 04:18.81 Andrew Kinkella Right. 04:32.61 Doug And work related context. Um, so again, it's a good way to sort of filter out those employers you don't want to work for because it's it's about keeping you safe and again I'm going back to that whole you know they they didn't listen to our our podcast about how you can do people. Um, you don't need to do 1 by 1 you can have stakeless ah sites someone trips over you you trip over something you get hurt. Um, you want someone else there who knows first aid and who is there both sort of mentally um to be able to help you out. So if it's unsafe and it's not just like. You being safe. It's it's everyone around you because if you need help you need help from someone who is conscious who's there. Um, and who is not going to freak out because they see blood weather on shrooms. Um and start screaming and just make the whole situation worse. 05:17.60 Andrew Kinkella Right. 05:26.51 Andrew Kinkella Yeah, no I think you bring up a great point about that like being ostracized. Whatever if you won't you know, like smoke weed with everyone else and the answer to that is like be ostracized. It's okay, you know like I've had I've been on projects where I actually had. Um, an alcoholic beverage in my hand somebody asked me do I drink I said no as a joke and then the whole crew thought I was like anti-drus and alcohol and I didn't care I Just let it roll I'm like yeah I don't drink you know as I would as I would have a drink and so. It's okay to be ostracized right with this stuff and what I found is totally what you say is the cream rices at the top over time. The good companies don't have as much of this crap going on right? So um, if you play the long game in crm. Yeah, you'll deal with a couple duds especially in the beginning. 06:11.59 Heather Um, yeah. 06:16.88 Andrew Kinkella But you can kind of keep a note to yourself. It's like these companies are more professional on these projects. This crap doesn't happen. You know so it's okay, especially if you're starting out in Cram you're on a few projects where there's a ton of this It's like it's fine. Be the outsider on top of that like you're saying if something bad happens guess who they're going to turn to. Yeah, it's not the stone guy in the corner. It's you. 06:39.20 Heather Yeah I think that um you know what's a little more difficult than the average workplace is that you know when you're out in the fields you're working with people. You're there with them twenty four seven I mean whether you like it or not even though you go to your hotel room. And everything you're not able to go home and be social so that that's what encourages the social aspect of the field and and many times that's where I think lines are blurred and I get it I get it. But I think that you want to work for a company that encourages health. 06:57.79 Andrew Kinkella Yeah. 07:05.95 Andrew Kinkella Yeah, yeah. 07:14.40 Heather And safety through a culture of health and it's not just oh let's make sure we have a hard hat on and everything it is an actual culture of health and I think people need to understand that you know look at firemen firemen go through boot Camp firemen have an academy where there. 07:24.76 archpodnet Oh. 07:34.28 Heather They have to demonstrate that they're physically ready to do the job. They're constantly running and staying in shape they have gyms in their in their facilities. So this I think that we forget that and I know we've mentioned this before on on the podcast. Um, we forget that side of. 07:42.40 archpodnet M. 07:54.16 Heather Of archeology. It's very labor intensive and people need to understand that their body has limits and so if you are getting tired and let's say you're out of shape. Um, you need to get in shape I mean if you want to be in the field and you're not in shape like you're not going to have somebody. And if I you're not going to shoot. You're not going to have somebody who is obese working in a fire department actually fighting fires climbing upstairs. It's not going to happen. They don't unless it's a volunteer fire but most like most fire departments are not going to allow that to happen and. That's the problem though is that people then take that personally and if companies are making decisions to make sure that the people that are out in the field if they're expecting if they have a six thousand acre survey and they have to get you know they have calculated a reasonable pace. But if somebody is not in shape and this is from somebody right now who's been at the desk a lot and I'm not in shape so it would hurt my feelings too. However I'm I have enough common sense to know that I'm not going to be able to. Keep up with somebody who is regularly walking at a very high pace who weighs less than I do who's younger than I'm than me I'm in my fifty s you know you have we have to. We can't like say oh that's discrimination. No, that's keeping you safe if you are physically not capable of doing that work. 09:15.18 archpodnet No. 09:26.25 Heather You need to be honest with yourself and sometimes so I think some of the issues are and people are pushing them so their bodies beyond what their bodies are capable above of they should not be expecting the company to reduce the expectations if they're not capable but others are and so i. I think it dives into lots of different areas but most for the most part you want to work for companies and I don't think companies. It's a bad and I'm not saying that's what Doug and Andrew are saying but you can't say it's a bad company when you come to the company and say. 09:55.18 Andrew Kinkella I agree with you. 10:02.31 Heather I'm so sore I can't handle this pace Shera asking me to do too much when it's not an unreasonable pace. Maybe it's unreasonful for you. But you're not in the shape you need to be in for this role. So let's find another role for you I know it's hard. It's a hard truth but it. 10:17.25 archpodnet Um, yeah, Doug go ahead. 10:21.34 Heather But it's the truth. 10:25.21 Doug It was just a playoff of Heather's earlier comment and um about like you know, close knit. You know you're working with people. You're out in the fields. You can be out for you know, maybe ten days in a row in middle nowhere. Um, again, that's why I was I was really emphasizing. It shouldn't be your problem. You should be able to take this to your supervisor whether that's called a crew tree for a project officer or whatever wherever the terminology project manager. Maybe it's the pi something like that and again it should be something they could handle and if it's them. That's the issue. Um. You should have been given some sort of number or some an office or a place to call for issues like that and that should be a red flag if you're basically being put out in the field with no way of of being able to contact someone higher up. Um, if there are issues. Um I'd say you know it's a tough thing to do, especially if you're starting out. Maybe this is your very first project. But if you don't feel safe with the actions of your other crew members walk away. Um, you're you're going to burn that bridge. But you know. Um, if you if you feel like you know every morning you're going there and you have to ride in in the vehicle and and everyone's still a bit drunk and you're afraid that you know they're going to flip a vehicle or be in an accident your life archeology is not worth your life. So if if you feel it's danger. Um, send it up. The. 11:58.94 Doug Chain of Command and if they don't respond just walk away and. 12:06.20 archpodnet Okay I think that's good advice and probably a good place to end this podcast. However I did want to bring up 1 thing. Um, that is I guess it's health related but it's ah it's actually a good positive known here. So we've mentioned before on this show. Ah, Rie Cruz who is something somebody a lot of people are here in the west know and he has been very public on his social media and he had to go fund me campaign still does for his health issues. He was diagnosed with um ah basically colon cancer and a severe form of it last fall and. Got an infection over the winter while he was dealing with and getting chemotherapy and so like that and they basically put him in hospice care and told him you know his life was limited and I've got a positive update the infection's gone. They've taken him off of hospice care and are putting him back into chemotherapy. So. It's kind of a. 12:51.74 Heather Wow. 12:57.28 archpodnet Crazy situation because he got rid of a lot of stuff and you know moved to his uncle's house in you know California got rid of his apartment and and you know was basically planning for the end of his life and now there's light at the end of the tunnel. So I just wanted to put that out there for anybody following along. Um. Check out Ritchie Cruz and all of his socials like I said he's very public about all this stuff and wants people to know how he's doing and and just you know the situation that he's bet in so I wanted to bring that up for anybody following along so okay, well with that? Yeah, no worries. Um, and and you know the other thing was too again health related because he. 13:27.47 Heather Thanks Chris. Um. 13:34.33 archpodnet He started feeling you know bad in the field while he was crewchieving and and running a project and it was just you know luckily he was paid attention to at least eventually and his employer has been pretty good about you know his health insurance and then keeping him busy and and things like that when he can. He's been really fatigued. But. Ah, you know if you feel anything if you feel like you're not quite right in the field you need to get it checked Out. You need to get it taken care of right? Um I mean you may not have health Insurance. You may not have some of the other things but you also may die. So What's the tradeoff right? a whole bunch of medical bills that you've got to deal with legally or dying. I mean that's a decision I hate that we have to make but it is a decision that we have to make sometimes so yeah, all right? Well with that. Thanks a lot Keep those comments coming apodnett.com. There's a contact form right on there. There's contact form in every single page so it generally goes to me or it just goes to the ah to the arcpodnet. 14:32.69 archpodnet Ah, email. But either way we see that and we enjoy your questions and just let us know all right? Thanks a lot everybody and we'll see you next time. Okay, ah me do the outro here all right? Thanks everyone for joining me this week thanks also to listeners for tuning in and we'll see in the field. Goodbye. 14:53.38 Heather Thanks for listening. 14:55.97 Andrew Kinkella And with my buy I just want to say go get a colonoscopy I'm 52 years old I did mine recently. It's not that big of a deal. Do it do it. do it it can save your life. 15:00.83 Heather 4 15:06.53 Doug And bye. 15:08.66 archpodnet And Doug has a countdown there you go. Ah.