[phaedrus]

It's not hearsay; I have a few engineer coworkers whose original job and training wasn't in tower climbing who now climb a couple times a year as installations require. I have seen their Powerpoint presentations, with pictures. Two of them are older and experienced in RF/telecom, but I have one younger coworker who went to a site and was asked to climb a tower and just - did it.

One older coworker is quite enthusiastic about it (as a mechanical engineer, he designed some of the custom rigging), so perhaps this is a case where he does it because he wants to & demonstrated aptitude so they let him. He actually decided to on his own to stop when a recent near miss made him question "why the hell" he isn't leaving this to professional riggers.

I don't know how/why my younger engineer coworker ended up doing it. Both her parents are in this same field and I know she feels a lot of pressure to excel and not say no to things. And when we come out to help a site there's a lot of pressure to restore service. So she may have agreed or even volunteered but not for the right reasons.

It may though be a case where no one thought to mention to me that this isn't a required thing, that some are doing it because they want to, etc. My coworkers aren't always good at realizing what new employees don't know, and I'm not good at picking up nuance.

But I definitely was "voluntold" to go out to a site and cut cables, which is a specialty technique I'm not properly trained in and would've taken place outside in the elements. (Did I mention I'm a programmer, a profession I chose in part because it takes place indoors? I also have undiagnosed/self-diagnosed dyspraxia; it would have been a disaster.) Thankfully the trip got canceled for other reasons, but my point is I wasn't asked; I was just told we need to send someone so you're going.