Jon Beasley
Supervisor of Safety Training
Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.

For Jon Beasley, you might well say electricity runs in his blood — and in his family's blood. Beasley, a lineman since 1979 and currently the supervisor of safety training at Atlanta's Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, says his grandfather strung some of the earliest telegraph lines from Georgia to Florida.

“My dad worked for Atlanta Gas Light Co.,” Beasley adds. “And from when I was a young boy, I always knew I wanted to work outside. I'd see those bucket trucks go by, and I thought that might be what I wanted to do. My dad also taught me that whatever you do, be the best you can, and he said that if you work for a utility, you will never have to worry about a paycheck.”

In turn, Beasley has done his part to keep the family tradition rolling. “My kids used to come to my apprenticeship practices, and I taught them how to climb. They loved it, and my daughter helped me teach knots and she loved it. She was proud in 1999, when I won the International Lineman's Rodeo competition in Kansas City; she was more proud of the trophy than I was.”

A safety trainer for MEAG, as well as for 52 cities in Georgia and 22 in Florida, Beasley says line work, when he was first starting out, used to be all about climbing. “Back then, climbing was a daily function; it was the norm,” he says. “We would get to a job and a lot of them were overhead subdivisions. I guess that is one of the biggest things I have seen change is that today all the subdivisions are underground. The interesting thing about that is since linemen don't climb as much today as we did then, today if you have a line down behind a house and you are expected to climb, it is harder because you don't do it every day.”

Beasley adds that the crews have gotten smaller, but the equipment has gotten better, which is helping linemen deal with higher-voltage lines, while also saving their bodies from some of the physical toil of days gone by. “There is also a lot more electronics involved,” he explains. “You have to learn the electronic stuff, the breakers and everything are more computer oriented. We used to laugh [and say] that, ‘One day they will all have computers in the trucks.’ Of course, I go far enough back to where we used to also say, ‘One day they will actually have air conditioning in the trucks!’”

Beasley sees a difference in the attitudes of younger line workers today compared to the recent past. “[Learning about the lineman field] used to be word of mouth; you knew someone and they told you what they did for a living, and they went in knowing someone and knowing what it would be about,” Beasley says. “Now a lot of kids are coming in not knowing what to expect. I don't think we are getting as many applicants that really want to be outside now. A lot are thinking, ‘I would rather have an office job and make more money quicker.’ They want the money right up front. Once in a while, you will find a guy who likes being outside and likes the hot work.”

As with just about any experienced lineman, some of Beasley's most memorable experiences were part of storm-restoration efforts. “After Hurricane Hugo back in 1989, I worked [on that restoration effort] for about seven weeks,” he says. “I remember being on the way in and my bucket truck was the slowest one … I would see people standing outside and their lights were out, and I would stop and put their lights back on. By the time I got to where I was supposed to be, my foreman was asking, ‘Where did you go?’ My groundman and I did that about every other night on the way in, and I still get a little choked up thinking about it. I have seen grown men start crying a little bit; they were so happy and grateful we got their lights back on.”

During storm work, Beasley says, linemen's adrenaline is up, and if they are well fed and get enough rest, it is amazing how much work can be done in a short period of time. For Hurricane Katrina, Beasley organized rooms, meals and other logistics for a crew of about 40 to 50 linemen. “Our orders were we needed to get the hospital, the racetrack and the police department back up, and we did them in that order,” he notes.

Another high-adrenaline situation for linemen, he says, is “hot work,” or barehanding. “When you do barehand work, you are energized, so you have to keep your body away from everything, even a tree limb could kill you,” he notes. “You won't leave your keys in your pocket; they will get very hot. You can feel [the energy] buzzing through you. For some odd reason, it is safer, because you know you are hot, you can feel it. You are intense the whole time you are up there [on the line]. It is like listening to a rattlesnake — you hear it, so you are aware of the danger.”

Beasley has had only one close call on the lines, and that was when lightning struck a tree next to a pole he was working on while in a bucket truck. “Lightning hit the tree about 2 to 3 ft from the pole I was working on,” he remarks. “I just ducked down in the bucket like a turtle, and the guy on the ground was screaming; he thought the electricity had hit me. The wood from the tree shattered and filled the bucket.”

Near-lightning strikes notwithstanding, Beasley raves about line work as a career. “I don't mind being out in the weather,” he says. “I can't tell you how many times I have said, ‘Can you believe we are getting paid for this?’

“[Our job] is also so central to people's lives today. If the power goes out even for a short time, people get crazy and upset even that they have to reset all their clocks. I also like being able to train people; you see the passion in their eyes. If you don't see the passion, then you need to tell them…do something else.”

Luke Justice
Line Foreman
Westar Energy
Alvareda, Kansas, U.S.

Though being an electric lineman is a job that takes a demanding physical toll on men in their late teens and 20s, Luke Justice waited until he was nearly 30 before he started working on the lines. “I had been wanting to do it for several years,” he says, “but I ended up doing other jobs before something opened up here. I was a heavy-equipment operator, building golf courses. But everywhere I went, I said, ‘I am just passing through,’ because I knew I wanted to get into line work.”

Among the key things Justice likes about line work is the opportunity to work outside and to face new and different challenges on a daily basis. “It is just right up my alley,” he says. “You get to move around; you are never set at one spot. You are always moving. That is kind of nice. You get to work with your hands, and there is also a lot to electricity. It is pretty in depth as far as what we do out here: transformers, regulators and capacitors. It is not all brawn, and takes more brains than people might think.”

Justice calls today's electric line technology “unbelievable,” and credits it with making the work easier as well as allowing crews to get more done with fewer men.

Among his most memorable jobs are road-widening work in Wichita, Kansas. “I really enjoyed that,” he says. “It is nice to drive down that road 8 to 10 years later and see that it looks just as good today as the day we built it. On the other hand, there is one project that we worked on but was supervised by an outside contractor, and that is the ugliest damn thing I have ever seen. Some days I go out of my way to drive around it. One thing about this [field] is you have to take pride in your work to do a good job.”

Along with pride in their work, Justice says another quality linemen must have is desire. “What it really comes down to is it is a job that you have to enjoy,” he notes. “If you are here for the money, you are here for the wrong reasons. One day it might be 4°F and the wind is blowing 100 miles an hour. Another day it is 104°F. The weather can suck, so it is something you have to enjoy. If you don't, it can be a long 30 years. We are well compensated for our time, but if you don't enjoy it, it shows in your work.”

Linemen apprenticeships, Justice claims, do a great job of weeding out those who can really do the work — and want to do the work — from those who are primarily attracted to the job for the pay or other perceived benefits. “I know very few people who have served an apprenticeship and five years later walk away from it,” Justice says. “The guys I know, if they went through an apprenticeship, they are eventually going to retire as a lineman.”

Justice likens linemen camaraderie to a firefighter mentality. “We are a close-knit group,” he says. “We have our problems, but when it comes down to it, you can take two guys that are madder than hell at each other, but when you go up and you start working together, it is different. You have to put your differences aside. When you are in a bucket with a guy on the ground, you are trusting that guy to watch your back and vice versa.”

Working for Westar has given Justice an interesting perspective on how customers have viewed the utility industry over the past decade. “In about 2001, we went through a low time in our company. We had some internal problems with the CEO that brought the company down financially and morale-wise,” he notes. “Everyone was down on Westar for one reason or another. When everyone is down on you, you can be out there trying to do your job, but people are upset, because they might have stock in the company and it is at an all-time low. But then we took on another CEO and he really has turned things around over the last three years. It has become a good company to work for and we don't face that kind of reaction anymore.

“The other day I was talking to someone who was talking to someone else about making a career out of this work, and I said, ‘It is a great career,’” says Justice. “You get to see a lot of places, and you will have lifetime friendships. But, if you are not in it because you enjoy it, and are not passionate about it, you probably need to find another line of work. If you like to do this, it does not get any better.”