How many who have 20+ years with the RR have made sacrifices and in the end believed it was worth it? I don’t deny that the pay helped me provide for my family very well and when my son begins college next year he won’t have to worry about tuition. My home is paid off and for the last few years we’ve been debt free. But in return there was so much I missed in his life, birthdays, sports, vacations and most of all father/son time. I was planning and working so hard to give him a better future than I had growing up and in exchange I missed the important moments of his life. I still question if it was worth the sacrifice.
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I left a few months ago after 9 years. One of my favorite engineers retired a few years ago after almost 40 years. He told me it wasn't worth it. He didn't know his kids because he was never around. Most old heads say the same thing. I saw too many engineers dying of brain aneurysms. Had to be the stress of being on call 24/7 and working no regular shifts. Very unhealthy lifestyle. And quite honestly, the money isn't as good as it used to be. So I left. No regrets, I think I made a good decision.
Take this job and shove it
FW: Still not an email.
RE: Was It Worth It
No, it wasn’t. Not even for 20 days, let alone 20 years.
FYI: the so-called “high pay” at UP seems that way only because 1) pay is above average for craft employees who don’t hold college degrees, and 2) most people at UP have never worked anywhere else. The pay at UP is actually well below market average for salaried non-agreement employees.
@wwd 100% agree.
my job is to come on this website and post. you are welcome.
Signed France Litz
Stop being little cry babies and do your jobs, if you can do better elsewhere, go do that. No one cares about you.
how many people do you know that expire and meet their maker shortly after retiring from the railroad?
it really doesn't matter if they think it was worth it or not. guarantee you the next 30 years on the RR won't be the same as the last 30. if you think they had it bad, well....stand by and grab your ankles.
I was there for 27 years. That's really kind of a loaded question/title. Was it worth it? Well that depends on how you're looking at it. A RR job or any job for that matter is by choice. Can a lower paying job give you the same benefits as the RR? Probably not! To me, the RR job was a hard one. Yes I missed out on birthdays and family events that I'll never get back. The pay gave MY family the ability to do things that would've difficult or impossible to do without the pay. The other side to that coin is what did the RR give me that I didn't want? Well it gave me a bad attitude, high levels of stress, sleep disorder, a near failed marriage, and a complete distrust for management. So again was it worth it? On the financial side, I would say yes, but not so much on the other side. So if you ask yourself of whether or not you would do it again, would you? I would absolutely do it again for my family. I would also take the information I have, make different choices and hope for a better outcome after 27 years. Don't take a RR career and think it's going to be a cotton soft ride till retirement. Don't take a RR career, look back 20 years, and ask yourself if it was worth it. It should be worth it to anyone if you're providing for a family.
Whoever made the little Caesar posting is a total du----s! Stop taking up for this POS organization.
No”little Caesar” here, just a trainman/engineer who worked 30 years away from his family for a company that places zero value in any of us. Before you make such stupid comments maybe you should reflect on your own career. Yes, I enjoyed many aspects of my job, including making friends with many coworkers. Could I have enjoyed a different career also?, I believe so. I do look at the life others have without the sacrifices I, and my family made. I wish I had chosen a different path, but cannot change the past. I did not have an 8 hour job with set days off like some other crafts, so I cannot speak for them. I do know the life for someone in train service is not conducive to family life.
I'm a furloughed worker and would like to add my insight. I hired on and relocated for my job with Union Pacific from out of state in 2015. I was furloughed in 2019 when Union Pacific decided to close the maintenance shop I was at.
Like everyone else, I worked odd shifts and had odd days off. The pay was good and I didn't have too many complaints. I really enjoyed my coworkers and actually looked forward to going to work each day. Things began to change when UP introduced MAPS and that was when moral nosedived. I quit looking forward to going to work after that and began to have a sense of anger every time I would get a ticket for something stupid such as not pointing both ways when crossing a rail. The manager who gave me that ticket had an engineering degree. UP's management took a great job and made it miserable. Still, I hung on because I really did enjoy working on locomotives and really enjoyed my coworkers.
Once UP furloughed me, I was initially relieved and angry at the same time. I found a couple jobs but didn't last because I didn't enjoy them. I decided to use my GI Bill benefits and go to school full time to get my engineering degree. I am now looking at graduating in the spring of 2022 and the future looks pretty bright for me. The state that I moved to for Union Pacific has a robust economy with lots of job opportunities, so I am extremely confident in my employment prospects after I get my degree.
Hindsight being 20/20, the best thing that happened to me was getting hired on by UP and subsequently getting laid off. The one thing to keep in perspective is that the grass is always greener on the other side. Sure, your neighbor may work Monday to Friday but he probably has aspects of his job that make him miserable. Compared to my time in the military, Union Pacific's work schedule was great-a straight 8 hours a day, not 8.5 hours with a non-paid lunch break and I knew what my work schedule was. The job loss sucked, sure, but what I gained out of it far outweighs what sacrifices I suffered.
Oh, and once I do get my degree, I will NOT be applying with Union Pacific. I remember how miserable I was under MAPS and from people I've talked to who still work there, MAPS is still very much of UP's culture. I don't want to be the guy with an engineering degree giving people tickets for not pointing both ways when crossing a rail. And that manager who had the engineering degree who gave me the ticket? He ended up finding another job with another company where he is actually using his engineering degree and is loving life now.
There's quite a few "Little Caesars" from the professional/managerial class.
"Ah, the Good Life!!!"
Answer your own question- look around the neighborhood where you live: Did your neighbors make the same sacrifices to provide the same standard of living? Do you have family members that have the same or better level of living standard and were home at nights and on weekends? There are many companies that pay as well or better than railroads and don’t require their employees to basically sign their life away for a salary. I look back at what I have lost through the years and regret the decision I made to make railroading a career.
Money is God in this He-l on Earth, so that is what most "value..."
It's more important than love and life...