According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are approximately 120,000 lineworkers currently supporting the nation’s electric grid—a critical role that comes with more than its fair share of long hours away from home, safety hazards, extreme weather and other challenging conditions.

In the following roundtable, lineworkers from across the country describe a typical day in their life, their most (and least) favorite parts of the job, and how their bond with fellow workers makes long days worth it.

How long have you been a lineworker and what drew you to this type of work?

Collins: I’ve been a lineman for the past 16 years. I like working outside and have always enjoyed construction and building things.

Kersten: I began my apprenticeship in 2002 and was working as a contractor inspecting poles for our local utility. Many of my family members worked in various union jobs, but my uncle was a lineman and gave me a small peek into the world of line work. It sounded like something that would be challenging, diverse and lucrative enough to keep a young man interested.

Trout: I’ve been in the trade for 30 years and a lineman for 20 years. When I was younger, I had a friend whose dad was a lineman working for The L.E. Myers Co. He would tell us stories about the trade and we all looked up to him. I wanted to be a part of it.

Can you describe a typical day on the job?

Collins: Our start time is 6:30 a.m. at the show-up location, which is usually a job trailer located as close as possible to the job site, and our day finishes up at either 4:30 p.m. or 6:30 p.m., depending on our schedule. Family life is important to all of our guys, so we try to only work 50 hours a week from Monday to Friday, but there are times that we work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day if the job needs to be finished. 

On a normal day, our activities start with an all-hands meeting at 6:30 a.m. to go over the plans for each crew, then we have a daily safety topic/conversation and usually head out to the job site around 7 a.m. to get equipment fueled up and running. When we get there, we have a job brief more detailed to that particular crew’s plans, which reviews each step of the job and how it will be performed; we’re normally doing energized work, so attention to detail and good plans are crucial. On a typical day, a live-line crew will set two 60- to 100-foot-high steel poles and install a steel cross arm and all associated hardware from pole to pole. When the new structure is built, the crew (wearing special suits for energized work) will start the conductor transfer, move it from the old to the new structure and remove the old structure. They’ll then move equipment to the next structure and start the process again. Depending on the structure type, location and terrain, the crew can do anywhere from 1–3 structures a day. When the day’s work is finished, crew members head back to the job trailer, park the equipment and go home.

Kersten: The typical workday on Local 17 property starts at 7 a.m., when the general foreman distributes work to all crews for the day. Whenever we start a new job, we spend a good part of the morning locating and loading material for the day’s work plan before leaving the yard for the day. When the crew arrives on the job, the foreman and linemen will discuss what will get accomplished for the day and go over a short version of how to accomplish the main task. 

After that, the apprentice will enter the discussion to go over a tailboard with more in-depth tasks as well as what will be needed (tools, equipment, material, truck setup, etc.). We work until lunch, and then, after lunch, we’ll again discuss a short tailboard to reaffirm what’s to be accomplished and discuss any changes or issues that may have popped up along the way. Depending on the distance to the yard, we’ll stop work in time to clean up and make it back to the yard by the quitting time for the day. If we know what we’re doing the next day, we’ll inform the apprentice of what needs to be loaded for tomorrow’s plan.

Trout: Every day, I start by giving a safety topic to the crew and asking if there are any needs relative to tooling, mechanical issues or materials. I usually arrive between 6 and 6:30 a.m. and start our morning meeting at 7 a.m. Throughout the day, I check on crews and gather any tooling or supplies they need.

What are the hardest and easiest parts of your job, and why? 

Collins: Weather, long days and working away from home are the hardest parts, because these are all things that take you away from your family. But a good group of guys become like a second family, which makes being away from home and the long days and weeks easier.

Kersten: The hardest part of this job is dealing with all of the different personalities (co-workers and customers) you encounter. People often have different ideas on how to accomplish their daily goals, and if two people differ greatly on their goals for that day, it can be an uphill battle to find a middle ground. The easiest thing about the job is showing up every day. If you love what you do, the morning ride isn’t as difficult and can be fun. The guys you work with really do make a difference in how you feel in the morning.

Trout: The hardest part is not knowing the future—e.g., job security driven by the overall industry outlook. The easiest part of going to work is that every day offers different challenges and opportunities. 

What activities or parts of your job do you like the most and least, and why? 

Collins: I like new challenges and the opportunity to try new ways of making a job better, safer and faster; it keeps things interesting. The part I like least is working to pick the right people for the right job and trying to keep everyone happy.

Kersten: I love having different problems to solve every day. There are a ton of different ways to do the same task, and it’s up to us to find the best way while still being safe and efficient. There aren’t a lot of jobs that offer people that type of freedom. On the flip side, I don’t like how dangerous this job can be on a daily basis. We work with apprentices every day who can hurt themselves or someone around them at any moment. While this inherent danger is part of the job, it’s an added stress that can take a toll on workers at all times. Safety is a huge part of our trade, and it always needs to be a top priority.

Trout: What I love most is being a part of this culture and contributing to the finished product. What I like least is the daily drama that occurs within this culture.

How is your team’s current workload, and what’s your outlook for the workload in 2025 and beyond? 

Collins: We currently have work through 2026 on multiple projects, and I don’t see the workload changing anytime soon. I’ve definitely seen an increase in federally funded infrastructure work in New Hampshire over the last 5–6 years. We’re currently working on total transmission line rebuilds, structure replacements, new conductors and optical ground wire.

Kersten: Based on the current workload for the yard I’m working in, it looks like we’ll stay busy for at least another year. It feels like I’ve been working 6–7 days a week for the past 10 years. Since the government dedicated money to infrastructure upgrades, I’ve seen a lot of different types of work pop up all over the United States. There was a time earlier in 2024 when it seemed like our local had the most job opportunities in the Midwest and a lineman could work wherever he wanted for a long time. Over the past three years, we’ve had an increase in sub-transmission jobs, which have triggered the installation of concrete and steel poles.

Trout: While the number of projects has increased, many are contingent upon spring and fall outages, with the majority of work occurring during the fall season. We currently have a lot of projects out for construction or bidding, and current projects include transmission line upgrades, rebuilds and alternate energy tie-lines. Staffing these projects can be challenging, but it’s pushing our team to find ways of becoming more efficient.

Finally, what messages about the line work industry would you most like to share with the public?

Collins: People outside of our industry don’t understand what our job entails. Becoming a lineman requires a 4-plus-year apprenticeship, with a ton of book work and tests, all while training and learning on the job. After you become a lineman, you might have the opportunity to become a barehand lineman (working on energized transmission lines), and there’s a lot more training, testing and evaluations involved. When storm restoration is going on somewhere, we hope people will be nice to the lineworkers, because they’re sometimes away from family for weeks or months working up to 16- to 18-hour days.

Kersten: I know that I didn’t understand any part of the job when I was younger; I remember wondering why the power was out and why it was taking so long to get it back on. Now that society has become even more dependent on electricity ... tolerance of life without lights has become shorter and shorter. Every journeyman lineman that’s completed his apprenticeship has dedicated four years of their life to learning their trade. The type of issues we face every day could involve something as simple as an animal shorting out a fuse to the complex replacement of poles with multiple circuits on them. 

Each issue has its own requirements that need to be fulfilled before restoration. Although it may take some time, this is how we ensure that we and the public are able to make it home every night.

 If there’s one thing I’d like the public to know, it’s that every person in this trade is doing their best to complete the task at hand while keeping safety a top priority. A lot of communication is required to keep all parties protected, and this may put crews at a standstill until there’s confirmation that everyone involved is clear of any danger. We hope the public understands that this isn’t “laziness,” but a vital part of the job that needs to happen. We appreciate their patience.

Trout: I don’t believe anyone truly understands the sacrifices we’ve made over the years—the birthday parties missed, the holiday celebrations skipped, the school events we couldn’t attend and the time away from our families in general. Most people only see what we have, not the effort it took to achieve it. This industry takes a toll not only on us, but also on our families. You can’t put a price on certain things, with safety being one, but family is the most important. Over the years, your co-workers become a part of you and form a different kind of family. Nobody outside our industry understands the bond we share. 

Images courtesy of Northline Utilities LLC.