You probably won't like this advice, but...

I'm going to elaborate a little further on this. I'm a Freemason, as well as most of the people I work with. When one of our drivers or bosses goes through the degree process, it's a pretty big deal for us, so pretty much all of us will be at the Lodge.

 

What exactly do you do at a Freemason lodge?

 

Just wanted to comment on the showing up to work 45 minutes early...I think this is bad advice. I think it looks bad in a few ways. If I had an employee that would show up 45 minutes early all the time, I'd think there was something wrong with him/her. Makes you look cheap, desperate, perhaps a butt-kisser, and that perhaps you undervalue your own personal time, so what else do you undervalue?

I think showing up 5 mins early is a requirement, and 10-15 minutes early is about ideal.

 

I've only been at this career a little over a year, but I learned early on in my worklife that it's one heck of a lot easier to be the kind of guy who brings solutions than the kind of guy who brings problems. It helps, I suppose, that I'm naturally a cheerful guy and that I'm good with words. I don't think it's kissing ### to greet my DM politely and ask what I can do to help him when he calls me. It's not brownnosing to send a macro with all the information he needs to keep me moving. Basically, I feel there's no such thing as too much information. IF he needs less, he'll tell me so... and out of the 3 DMs I've had, none has told me to back off on the information flow.

IT is what you make of it. As a company driver, I am at the mercy of my dispatcher. My relationship with him is of both a personal and a professional nature. I will do what I need to do to keep both relationships appropriate, healthy, and productive on the professional end. At the end of the day, being able to tell some other driver that I told my DM exactly what was on my mind about him is absolutely at the bottom of my priority list. I have a family to feed and bills to pay and self-respect to keep: it's not that hard to fill all three requirements.

Basically, do what I'm asked to do with a minimum of whining and keep the truck on the road. How hard does it have to be?

 

I like to think I get my jobs by what I know not who I blow.

 

I'd tell you, but then I would have to kill you. LOL

 

Seriously why is that crap so secretive?

 

so far this is what im learning from this thread. a job is a job, youre not there to make freinds. so sit down, shut up and drive. always be gracious even to the butheads,and never talk about the idiots you have to work with. only complain about not making enough money. do your time being as professonal as you can. then go home. happy trails