Always on Call

Today's post comes from a guest contributor, who we will call 'Demented':

Working for a defense contractor, some of us get the "privilege" to go out on flight test support. Most people might consider this to be a good thing, and maybe it is the first time you get to do it. The idea of seeing the product you are working on in the field is kind of cool. I got hired on and was told to expect 25% of my time to be in the field for flight test support. Ok I signed on (first job out of college) for the job, but I had no idea what 25% of MY time truly meant.

Within the first week of being with the company, I was told to fly across the country to get trained for flight test. I got to fly out on a Thursday, and when I got there, found out that flight test was canceled for Friday and would resume on Monday. So now I was stuck on the other side of the country for the next week (where I know absolutely no one) and the two guys that were training me took off to see family / friends. I got to spend a weekend in a town with nothing to do but watch T.V. in the hotel room. After that week of training was over, I figured I was good for at least a few weeks before I had to go out again. Boy was I wrong. I got back into town on Sunday, showed up for work on Monday and was told to be at another test site the next day.

The whole travel aspect never got any better, it only got worse from there out. We regularly get phone calls from our lead on Saturday to travel Sunday to support Monday. There is no schedule for who supports what, and when to expect it. We just take our weekend and pray that the phone doesn't ring with a caller ID from who we now call the Dementor. (Because he sucks the happiness right out of the room - Harry Potter Reference).

My favorite last min travel story is when I got a call on Saturday to fly to the East Coast on Sunday. I had canceled my personal plans and booked the flight. The next day, I get on my flight and landed at 10 PM EST. Upon landing, I turned my phone on and got a voicemail time stamped at 3 PM telling me that my trip was canceled and hopefully I hadn't left yet.

Because my boss calls me on Saturday to travel on Sunday, I throw rocks.