Looking for a better job

 This story tells about my decision to remain with the Forest Service and the difference between how employees are treated by the government versus the private sector.   It is human nature to always be looking for greener pastures and sometimes we don't realize what we have until we look down the road at something else.  

LOOKING FOR A BETTER JOB

 

Sometime after graduating from forestry school at Lassen College in Susanville, California in 1970, I had an interview with the Weyerhaeuser Company in Klamath Falls, where they had a mill and large timber land holdings.   The job involved locating property lines, marking timber, mapping and timber cruising.   There was no housing provided and came with a monthly salary and a pickup truck.   I declined the job offer and don’t remember why.    Instead I took a seasonal job with the Forest Service on the Summit District of the Stanislaus National Forest.  The Weyerhaeuser mill in Klamath Falls shut down in 1992.

After getting married in 1975 while working for the Forest Service at Orleans the thought of working for the private sector intrigued me again after experiencing some management problems with the Forest Service.   I learned that the Diamond International Corporation with a large mill south of Red Buff, California had a vacancy for a forestry technician.  I was given an interview at their Red Bluff office with the chief forester and land manager.   Here again there was a monthly salary with benefits, a pickup truck provided and a company house available at their forest camp south of the small community of Paynes Creek, east of Red Bluff.   During the interview they advised me to drive up to the camp and take a look at the facilities and meet with the field forester in charge, who would be my supervisor.    The camp consisted of 4 houses, a shop used for maintenance of equipment and fuel storage tanks.   The houses were more like rustic cabins surrounded by a pine forest and dusty roads.    Three of the houses were occupied by the field forester, another forestry technician and an equipment operator that did road maintenance work.   The houses had no yards and there was not much privacy, it was basic living quarters. 

The field forester was very informative about what my duties would be, mostly locating property lines and marking timber.  He said I could do improvement work on the house with material provided by the company during my off time.   I could see there was a need for much improvement.   He also informed me of things that they did not tell me about at the Red Bluff office.  Such as the requirement to do fire patrols during deer season after work hours and weekends without compensation, in other words no overtime.    All I remember of Paynes Creek was a store, a state forestry fire station and maybe a small grade school.  Red Bluff was the nearest city for shopping about 30 miles from the camp.    

We drove back to Orleans thinking life in our little rented cabin eight miles downriver from Orleans was not that bad and how I could cope with the management problems, plus there was over time pay for burning slash and fire suppression work.   I declined the job offer.

In the late 1980’s or early 90’s the mill in Red Bluff closed putting many people out of work, including those working in the woods.   Guess I made the right choice.

Over time I learned management problems are universal, no matter who you worked for.   Many of these large forest product corporations are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and can be sold or taken over at any time.  There are more concerns for the shareholders than the employees.   I will never forget the young forester that went to work for Champion International Corporation that had the plywood mill in Gold Beach.   He had only been on the job a few weeks when they closed the mill and he was instantly out of a job.   He came into the Forest Service office looking for a job and the District Ranger told him there was nothing available.     It made me feel fortunate to have a job with the Forest Service.