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If you’re new to the trade or still in your lineman apprenticeship, there’s one thing you should understand early:
This job doesn’t forgive shortcuts.
Every experienced lineman you meet has a story. Some are about close calls. Some are about family members who didn’t make it home. And almost all of them start the same way: “Everything looked fine… until it wasn’t.”
This is the kind of advice you only get from the field, and you don't learn this in textbooks and classrooms.
You can memorize procedures all day, but lineman safety really comes down to how you think when no one’s watching.
You don’t have to get all figured out on your day one itself. Your managers and crews, will respect you far more for slowing things down than pretending you’ve got it figured out.
People say confidence gets you hired but remember, in this field, caution keeps you alive!
Here’s something young linemen often miss. The foundation and safety checks are non-negotiable.
The way a crew handles grounding procedures tells you everything about how seriously they take safety. You can sit through a dozen safety talks, but watching how grounds are set and whether anyone slows down to double-check them, says more than words ever will.
If grounding feels rushed or treated like a box to check, that same mindset usually shows up everywhere else on the job.
You got to watch closely:
Transmission line safety failures don’t usually happen at the top of the pole. They happen during setup, when people get comfortable.
“The foreman’s position is the most valuable position you’ve got in the crew, as that is your first line of defense” - says Rick Garland in From Boots to Boardroom
The foreman role in utility crews matters more than most people admit.
A good foreman:
A bad one?
But the truth is utility safety culture lives or dies with the foreman. If leadership cuts corners, the crew will follow. And during storm work, those cracks show fast.
The best storm crews stick to fundamentals, even when everything else is chaos. They don’t skip tailboards, and they don’t assume yesterday’s conditions still apply today.
Storm work isn’t about speed. It’s about controlled urgency.
The electrical trade isn’t frozen in time. Electrical safety evolution is real, whether people like it or not. Today, crews are starting to see
Technology won’t replace experience, but it will expose unsafe habits faster than ever. Young linemen who adapt early won’t just survive longer. They’ll be the ones who’d lead.
No job is worth your life. No deadline beats coming home. And no amount of toughness replaces doing things right.
Sometimes, the best safety lesson isn’t written down. It’s passed on, one story at a time.
If you want to hear real, unfiltered stories and lessons from someone who’s lived in this work, check out Rick Garland’s episode from the podcast from boots to boardroom. It goes deeper into the realities of the trade, the brotherhood, and the hard truths every lineman should hear early.
If you’re new to the trade or still in your lineman apprenticeship, there’s one thing you should understand early:
This job doesn’t forgive shortcuts.
Every experienced lineman you meet has a story. Some are about close calls. Some are about family members who didn’t make it home. And almost all of them start the same way: “Everything looked fine… until it wasn’t.”
This is the kind of advice you only get from the field, and you don't learn this in textbooks and classrooms.
You can memorize procedures all day, but lineman safety really comes down to how you think when no one’s watching.
You don’t have to get all figured out on your day one itself. Your managers and crews, will respect you far more for slowing things down than pretending you’ve got it figured out.
People say confidence gets you hired but remember, in this field, caution keeps you alive!
Here’s something young linemen often miss. The foundation and safety checks are non-negotiable.
The way a crew handles grounding procedures tells you everything about how seriously they take safety. You can sit through a dozen safety talks, but watching how grounds are set and whether anyone slows down to double-check them, says more than words ever will.
If grounding feels rushed or treated like a box to check, that same mindset usually shows up everywhere else on the job.
You got to watch closely:
Transmission line safety failures don’t usually happen at the top of the pole. They happen during setup, when people get comfortable.
“The foreman’s position is the most valuable position you’ve got in the crew, as that is your first line of defense” - says Rick Garland in From Boots to Boardroom
The foreman role in utility crews matters more than most people admit.
A good foreman:
A bad one?
But the truth is utility safety culture lives or dies with the foreman. If leadership cuts corners, the crew will follow. And during storm work, those cracks show fast.
The best storm crews stick to fundamentals, even when everything else is chaos. They don’t skip tailboards, and they don’t assume yesterday’s conditions still apply today.
Storm work isn’t about speed. It’s about controlled urgency.
The electrical trade isn’t frozen in time. Electrical safety evolution is real, whether people like it or not. Today, crews are starting to see
Technology won’t replace experience, but it will expose unsafe habits faster than ever. Young linemen who adapt early won’t just survive longer. They’ll be the ones who’d lead.
No job is worth your life. No deadline beats coming home. And no amount of toughness replaces doing things right.
Sometimes, the best safety lesson isn’t written down. It’s passed on, one story at a time.
If you want to hear real, unfiltered stories and lessons from someone who’s lived in this work, check out Rick Garland’s episode from the podcast from boots to boardroom. It goes deeper into the realities of the trade, the brotherhood, and the hard truths every lineman should hear early.
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