WALKING - WHEN THAT GREEN GRASS TURNS OUT TO BE FADING PAINT.

Once or twice in a working life, a day or two into that perfect job, alarm bells ring, your CV still holds up, but the lipstick’s rapidly peeling off the new employer. A word here, a look, it’s explained that you misunderstood a point or two at the interview. The supervisor / GM / CEO, perhaps even the Chairman, so disarmingly charming and welcoming at the on-boarding, is now more Hyde than Jeckell. Fellow employees with more time than you under their belt, start to whisper quiet warnings and that ephemeral sixth sense begins to cut in.

A month or so back, a friend and I decided to apply for what looked to be pretty decent sort of road train driving job up in the Pilbara. We knew the industry was / is short of experienced drivers, but this was the fastest interview in the West, not even a request for referees, 10 minutes in, “Well guys, would you like to come on board?” In retrospect, it was of course far too easy.

We arrived to utter chaos, nobody knew what was happening from one day to the next, except for one or two blokes who seemed to have constant phone calls from ‘The Boss.’ There was no foreman, nor, as it turned out, was there any maintenance, tyre fitters, or even a yard. Relaxed? You bet. Why the good ol’ boys even pulled into the drive-in for beer to drink on the way back to the camp in the company bus. Oh they were civilised, the smokers sat in the front seats and opened the windows.

About three days in, we stood at the dawn pre-start meeting and found there was trouble brewing. We were subcontracting to a contractor who was working for the mining company and we weren’t the only transport company, plus it seemed the other transport company drivers wanted out, as they alleged they'd been bullied by our crew. There were more shocked and offended people than you could possibly believe, all of them on our crew.

Assured there was no trouble, the other company still insisted on being transferred to another site. With the shift about to start, one of the other company's drivers quietly took me aside and said, “Greg, you seem a bloody good bloke mate, get out, if you’re not one of them, it's bad news, most blokes don’t last a swing,” Three minutes later, one of our mob came up to me and said, “Great, trouble making bullshitters, going way too fast and wrecking the gear. Best thing that could have happened.”

I soldiered on, the road train I was in had a sign in it, reading, ‘Keep this truck clean!’ And clean it was, unfortunately, it had a leaking right steer hub and left front drive hub, the Jake brake couldn’t be used, as the engine had a cracked head, which also meant I had to keep the Horton fan on constantly and I couldn’t use the trailer handpiece, as there was a computer fault, which meant if I used it, the computer shut down and the trailer brakes locked on, so I needed to brake on the foot pedal only. There was also an issue of the brakes not releasing for three to five minutes when stopped to be loaded, but hey, the loader drivers were aware and didn’t get excited.

I did write the litany of faults down on the rig prestart app – oh yes, we had all the mod cons in terms of apps etc, but other drivers told me you weren’t supposed to that, 'The Boss' would get annoyed, it was a ‘Tick and Flick’ exercise, so I quickly lost interest in reporting things that were never going to be repaired anyhow and I didn’t want to incur the wrath of ‘The Boss.’ Time and a carton or two passed, (around the bus) then suddenly our first swing was over – my mate? Oh yes, problem after problem as well, but one story’s enough for illustration purposes.

Loaded, we convoyed back to the main town, I found the six degree four kilometre downhill slope interesting in a loaded road train with just footbrakes. Low range? You bloody bet!

On arrival at the railhead where we parked the rigs, three long term drivers hopped in the only ute and left. The rest of us wondered what to do. I messaged the Perth office and asked politely what we should do. Ten minutes later one of the blokes in the ute rang me and explained that if I kept sending messages like that to the office, I could expect a black eye and a mouth full of teeth. I replied asking him if he understood the implications of what he’d just said, on speaker phone. The word 'implication' stopped him for a second or two, but he did eventually see an interesting picture. Anyhow, we all flew home.

With eyes wide open, my mate and I decided to give the job one more try and returned a week later. Jumping on the bus the very next morning, some bloke was beside himself with anger, yelling about people wasting time and not doing the right thing. I told him to settle down, he’d bust a foo foo valve. Well, he rounded on me, yelling he’d been with the company four years and knew better than anybody else what was going on, which in a strange way, was quite comforting, as previously nobody seemed to know anything.

I found myself in the same rig and reassuringly, nothing had been done, although the outside was gleaming – even if I couldn’t stop, you’d be able to see me coming! Two hours later, ‘The Boss’ rang me. “What happened on the bus this morning?” Non-plussed, I was quickly put in my place. It was about the angry man. “He’s been with me four years. He’s my best driver, my ears and eyes up there! If he says ‘Jump!’ You jump!”

“I’ll tell you what,” I replied, “I will jump. Right out. You can keep this chaotic crap mate. I’ll see the day out and I’m gone.” With which, I hung up. An hour or so later, the lady who’d interviewed us rang to ask what had happened and if I’d reconsider! Of course, my workmate quit as well, in fact three of us quit that day, the other guy was a long term driver - it was his third swing.

Now it’s very easy for a road train driver, down the bottom of the food chain, to walk, jobs are a dime a dozen, but just imagine being a million dollar plus executive and finding the culture wasn’t the way you thought. Walking takes a lot of thought and immense courage.

There’s a wonderful line or two in the old country hit, ‘THE GAMBLER’ – “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em and know when to run.”

Greg Ross?