Sometimes you drive by those construction workers and you just can’t believe what they’re going through.
Everyone’s face is covered in hot soot, sewer grease, and rain. One guy is up to his neck in the road, another is jackhammering his spinal column into dust, and then there’s the guy driving the big roller, smearing steaming asphalt around like butter. And littering all these folks are the guys cranking pickaxes into the ground and the ones trying to steer big, clunky bulldozers down the narrow gravel shoulder beside the ditch. Of course, everyone on the team’s losing brain cells by the minute from the fumes which smell like a jammed laser printer had sex with a gas station.
If you happen to be working on a team of construction workers, then I think you’re pretty lucky if they hand you the job of being the guy who gets to hold the Stop sign. You must be either the grizzled veteran who earned each day of the Stop sign job with each slipped disc over the years, or you’re the skinny, babyfaced newbie who nobody trusts within a quarter mile of the job site.
Either way, if you can handle the guilt then your job’s, well…
AWESOME!
13 Comments
August 14, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I don’t know how things work in your neck of the woods, but out here in the greater Seattle area, it seems that road crews typically consist of about 8 people. 6 of those people set up cones and then sit on whatever horizontal surfaces they can find drinking coffee and smoking while 1 guy holds the stop sign and 1 guy does the actual road work. When the one guy finishes up for the day, the 6 cone specialist spring back into action and pick up all the cones and call it a day. Around here it’s the guys who pull cone duty that really have it made.
September 2, 2008 at 12:39 pm
As a former road construction worker, I have to say that this is the newbie job. Long periods of standing, no human interaction, just holding the ol’ stop sign. I recall my days of marching like a tin soldier back and forth singing songs in my head to occupy my time. On second thought, maybe it was awesome…
September 16, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I always thought the guy holding the stop sign was a temp, some schlub who is scraping by and learns that he’s got the best possible temp job ever. Then, he thinks, things are really gonna go his way!
September 17, 2008 at 11:49 am
I’ve had this job and it sucks, drivers get very cranky and threatening very fast when you slow down their commute. Plus 10 hours on your feet in the sun, no bathroom breaks, eating lunch standing up, getting yelled at by angry driver does not equal a good job.
October 27, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I had this job one summer. We were working on a lonely highway through the woods right at the boundary of a large military base. I was standing there when a tank came lumbering out of the woods (off base territory) up onto the highway and towards me. I checked the opposing traffic and had to spin the sign from “slow” to “stop”. The tank stopped a few feet from my spot, waited untill I spun the sign and I waved him through. He rumbled past our crew, made a right hand turn after he was back on base property, and disappeared into the woods. THAT was awsome!
November 17, 2008 at 4:17 am
I have to disagree. This is the worst assignment when you’re on the site. I would rather be busting my ass doing work than standing flat-footed and baking in the sun. Also, time goes by excruciatingly slowly when you’re the flagger, except when you have an angry driver miss hitting you by inches.
December 20, 2008 at 12:22 am
I was waiting for my dad at a gas station once, and there was some road work next to it. The stop sign guy must have been in color guard in high school because he would *BAM!* Show the stop sign to one side of the road while at the same time showing the slow sign to the other. He would then twirl the sign ~25 times, hand over hand, then he would *BAM!* spin around and flip the sign then start all over. I must say, it was awesome.
January 27, 2009 at 8:31 pm
This ones a bit esoteric, non?
January 29, 2009 at 7:37 am
Can I just ask then why it always seems to be women I see holding the stop signs at construction sites?
Why is that? Are they given the easy task because they’re women and god forbid they should do a “man’s job”?
I really am very very curious as I’ve noticed it a LOT lately!
Any insight, anyone?
February 16, 2009 at 11:21 am
I was wondering how you would go about getting a job holding the stop sign. I have summers off and thought it would be a good way to earn some extra money.
April 26, 2009 at 12:05 am
i m with peter on this one, drivers will get angry and speed up and pass you at 50 with inches to spare, like i was happy to be standing there in 120 degree weather.
Time was going backwards on that job.
Glad i went back to college
May 11, 2009 at 9:57 pm
I know a guy who had this job last summer. He said the best part is when you recognize someone driving towards you and you flip the sign to “stop” then point and laugh at them.
July 3, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Not such an awesome job. The guy holding the sign is a whole lot more likely to be hit by a car. They are the red shirt guys of the construction world.