- 2 days ago
The job that 12 million people depend on without ever knowing your name.
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VIDEO TOPICS/TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The Meter Reader
2:41 The Distribution Technician
5:08 The Operator
7:38 The Crew Leader
10:12 The Supervisor
12:20 The Operations Manager
14:35 The Chief Engineer
16:59 The Deputy Director
19:18 The Executive Director
22:41 The Commissioner
☕ Support the channel & suggest my next video idea: https://ko-fi.com/masterpov
VIDEO TOPICS/TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The Meter Reader
2:41 The Distribution Technician
5:08 The Operator
7:38 The Crew Leader
10:12 The Supervisor
12:20 The Operations Manager
14:35 The Chief Engineer
16:59 The Deputy Director
19:18 The Executive Director
22:41 The Commissioner
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Level 1. The Meter Reader
00:01You drive a small utility truck through the same neighborhoods every day.
00:06You wear a uniform with the Water Department logo stitched on the chest.
00:10Your boots are scuffed from walking through wet grass.
00:13Your tablet is in your hand before you even step out of the truck.
00:17You have 340 houses to read today.
00:20You have a route supervisor who will ask why if you finish too early or too late.
00:25You know every dog on your route.
00:28You know which ones bark and which ones bite.
00:31You know which yards have meters hidden under three years of overgrown ivy.
00:36You walk up to the first house.
00:38You lift the concrete lid on the meter box.
00:41You pull out spiders and dead leaves and whatever else has made a home in there.
00:46You wipe the glass face of the meter with your glove.
00:49You punch the reading into the tablet.
00:51You take a photograph of the dial as proof.
00:54You move on to the next house.
00:57The work seems simple, but it isn't.
01:00Every meter tells a story.
01:02A reading that jumped 400% in one month means a leak somewhere on the property.
01:07A reading that didn't change at all means a broken meter or a tampering issue.
01:12A reading that's lower than the previous one means someone has been doing something they
01:17shouldn't.
01:18You flag these accounts.
01:20Someone else will investigate.
01:22You just read the numbers.
01:24You walk eight miles a day in every kind of weather.
01:28Rain, snow, 100 degree heat.
01:31You eat lunch in your truck.
01:33You listen to the radio chatter from dispatch.
01:36You hear about the main break on 4th Street.
01:39You hear about the service call that's taking three hours because the homeowner won't let
01:43the technician in.
01:45You hear about the trainee who got stuck in traffic and is missing his route.
01:49You're grateful you have your own route and your own rhythm.
01:53You make $19 an hour.
01:56You have benefits.
01:57You have a pension if you stick with the city long enough.
02:00It's honest work.
02:02It's invisible work.
02:04Nobody ever thanks you.
02:05Nobody even sees you most of the time.
02:09You're the person who makes sure the bill is accurate.
02:12You're the first link in a chain that goes all the way to the treatment plant.
02:17You go home at night.
02:19Your wife asks how your day was.
02:21You say it was fine.
02:23You don't tell her about the rat you saw in one of the meter boxes.
02:27You don't tell her about the old woman who came out to ask if the water was safe.
02:31You just eat dinner and watch television and go to bed early.
02:36Tomorrow, you have 340 more houses to read.
02:41Level 2.
02:42The distribution technician.
02:44You got promoted after two years on the meter reading route.
02:47You applied for the opening.
02:48You interviewed with the operations manager.
02:51You took a written test about valve types and pressure zones.
02:54You passed.
02:55Now you wear a different uniform with the same logo.
02:58You drive a bigger truck.
03:00You have tools that weigh more than you do.
03:02Your job is to fix things when they break.
03:05And things break constantly.
03:07A water distribution system is a living organism.
03:11Miles of pipe buried underground.
03:13Valves that haven't been turned in 30 years.
03:16Fire hydrants that get hit by drivers who are texting.
03:19Service lines that corrode and fail without warning.
03:22Every morning, you check the work order system.
03:25There are always calls waiting.
03:27Someone has no water pressure.
03:28Someone has brown water coming out of their tap.
03:32Someone drove their car into a fire hydrant at 2 in the morning.
03:35Water is shooting 40 feet into the air on Maple Avenue.
03:38You respond in order of priority.
03:40The hydrant is the priority.
03:43You show up with your crew.
03:44You locate the shutoff valves upstream of the brake.
03:47You close them one at a time until the geyser slows to a trickle.
03:51The homeowner, whose lawn is now a lake, is standing on the porch yelling at you.
03:55You explain that you didn't cause this.
03:57You're here to fix it.
03:59She yells anyway.
04:00You understand.
04:02Her house insurance is going to be a nightmare.
04:04You dig.
04:05The broken hydrant has to come out of the ground.
04:08The shoe.
04:09The lateral.
04:10The bolts.
04:11All of it has to be replaced.
04:12It's a four-hour job minimum.
04:15You work in the mud.
04:16You work in the cold.
04:18Your hands are numb by the time you get the new hydrant installed.
04:21You test it.
04:22You open the valves.
04:23Water flows.
04:25The pressure in the neighborhood returns to normal.
04:27You clean up.
04:28You file the report.
04:30You drive to the next call.
04:31You learn the system by walking it.
04:33You know where the old cast-iron pipes are.
04:36You know which neighborhoods have the cheap plastic service lines that fail every winter.
04:41You know the valves that are supposed to work, but don't.
04:44You write all of this down in your head.
04:46Nobody has a map that's accurate.
04:48The system was built over 100 years by different crews at different times.
04:53The official maps are wrong half the time.
04:55The real map lives in the heads of the technicians who have walked every street.
05:00You go home with dirt under your fingernails that won't come out even with a wire brush.
05:04You take two showers and you still smell the pipe dope on your skin.
05:08Level 3.
05:09The Operator.
05:11You went back to school at night.
05:13Community college classes.
05:14Water treatment certification.
05:16You studied chemistry you hadn't touched since high school.
05:19You memorized regulatory limits.
05:22You learned the difference between coagulation and flocculation and filtration and disinfection.
05:28You took the state exam.
05:30You passed.
05:31You are now a licensed water treatment operator.
05:34You work at the plant.
05:36The plant is the heart of everything.
05:38Raw water comes in from the reservoir or the river or the wells.
05:42It's full of sediment and bacteria and whatever else was in the watershed that week.
05:47Leaves.
05:48Silt.
05:49Agricultural runoff.
05:50Dead animals.
05:51Pharmaceuticals flushed down toilets.
05:54Your job is to turn that water into something safe to drink.
05:57You work 12-hour shifts.
05:59The plant runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
06:03It never stops.
06:05It can never stop.
06:06A city with no water has about 72 hours before everything falls apart.
06:12You walk through the plant constantly.
06:14You check the sensors.
06:16You check the chemical feed pumps.
06:18You check the flow meters.
06:20You pull samples every hour and run tests in the lab.
06:23Chlorine residual and pH.
06:26Turbidity.
06:27Alkalinity.
06:28You adjust the dosing based on what you see.
06:31Too much chlorine and people complain about the taste.
06:33Too little and you risk an outbreak.
06:37You are the last line of defense between the watershed and the customer.
06:41If you miss something, people get sick.
06:44If you miss something bad enough, people die.
06:47You take that seriously.
06:49You work holidays.
06:51You work through blizzards.
06:53You slept at the plant during the ice storm three winters ago because you couldn't get home.
06:58Someone had to keep the chemicals flowing.
07:00You know every pump in the building by its sound.
07:04You can tell when something is about to fail just by walking past it.
07:08The older operators taught you this.
07:10Now you teach the newer ones.
07:13Your boss is the chief operator.
07:15His boss is the plant superintendent.
07:18You are middle of the pack.
07:20You don't want their jobs.
07:22You like being close to the actual water.
07:24You like watching the clarity improve as it moves through each stage.
07:28You like knowing that the number you write on the lab sheet will show up in someone's coffee tomorrow morning.
07:34That's enough for you.
07:35That has always been enough for you.
07:37Level 4.
07:39The crew leader.
07:40You've been with the utility for 11 years now.
07:44You're 34 years old.
07:45You have a wife and two kids and a mortgage.
07:48You applied for the crew leader position because it pays $8,000 more a year.
07:54Your wife is also tired of you coming home at 3 in the morning covered in mud.
07:58You got the job.
08:00You now supervise a field crew of six people, three distribution technicians, two equipment operators, one laborer.
08:08You run the crew out of the operations yard.
08:11Every morning at 6, you have a safety briefing.
08:14You talk about the jobs for the day.
08:17You assign vehicles and equipment.
08:19You remind everyone about the new confined space procedure because the state came through last month and found deficiencies.
08:26You are responsible for safety.
08:28You are responsible for productivity.
08:31You are responsible when something goes wrong.
08:34And things go wrong.
08:36One of your guys cut through a fiber optic line last week because the locate wasn't marked correctly.
08:42The cable company is billing the utility $45,000 for the repair.
08:47You have to document what happened.
08:49You have to write statements.
08:51You have to meet with the risk management department.
08:54Your guy isn't in trouble because the locate was wrong.
08:57But the paperwork is still your problem.
09:00You manage people now.
09:02That's the hardest part.
09:04The pipes are easy.
09:05The pipes are predictable.
09:07People are not.
09:08You have a guy who shows up hungover twice a month.
09:11You have a guy whose marriage is falling apart and he cries during lunch sometimes.
09:16You have a new hire who is terrified of confined spaces but won't admit it.
09:21You deal with all of it.
09:22You cover for them when you can.
09:24You write them up when you have to.
09:27You learn that leadership in the field is different from leadership in an office.
09:31You can't fire someone for being sad.
09:34You can't discipline someone for being scared.
09:37You can only show up every day and set the tone and hope they follow it.
09:42You respond to main breaks in the middle of the night.
09:45You sit in your truck with the heater running at 2 in the morning.
09:47You drink bad gas station coffee and watch your crew dig through frozen ground.
09:53You call the customers who have no water.
09:55You explain when it will be restored.
09:58You apologize for the inconvenience even when it wasn't your fault.
10:02You are the first face of the utility they see.
10:05You have learned to be calm when people are angry.
10:08You have learned to be patient when you are exhausted.
10:11Level 5.
10:13The Supervisor
10:14The Operations Supervisor retired.
10:17The position opened up.
10:18You didn't want it.
10:20You told your wife you didn't want it.
10:22A desk job, more meetings, more politics.
10:25But the money was significant.
10:27And the pension calculation changes at this level.
10:30You would be stupid to turn it down.
10:32You took it.
10:33You supervise 3 crew leaders now.
10:3618 people in total across multiple crews.
10:39You don't swing a pick anymore.
10:41You don't turn valves in the middle of the night
10:43unless something has gone completely wrong.
10:45You sit in meetings.
10:47So many meetings.
10:48Monday morning staff meeting with the operations manager.
10:51Tuesday safety committee.
10:53Wednesday engineering coordination meeting.
10:55Thursday budget review.
10:57Friday crew leader meeting.
10:59Between the meetings you answer emails and approve purchase orders.
11:02And review incident reports.
11:04You manage budgets now.
11:06You are responsible for $2.3 million in operating funds.
11:10You have to justify overtime.
11:11You have to explain why the fleet replacement costs went up 18% this year.
11:16You have to fight with procurement to get parts delivered in less than six weeks.
11:21You also still respond to emergencies.
11:24When the main breaks on a Saturday, you show up.
11:27You coordinate the response.
11:29You deal with the media if the break is big enough to make the news.
11:32You deal with the city manager if the break affects something politically sensitive like the mayor's neighborhood.
11:37You are the bridge between the people who do the work and the people who make the decisions.
11:42Neither side trusts you completely.
11:44The crews think you've forgotten where you came from.
11:47The executives think you're too sympathetic to the crews.
11:50You walk that line every single day.
11:53You have started golfing because that's where the real conversations happen.
11:57You hate golf.
11:58You pretend to love it.
12:00You play with the public works director and the city engineer on Thursday afternoons.
12:04You lose on purpose sometimes.
12:06You win on purpose other times.
12:08You are learning that everything above a certain level is politics.
12:11The water itself is almost an afterthought.
12:14The water moves because people navigate relationships.
12:17The relationships are the real work now.
12:20Level 6.
12:21The operations manager.
12:23You are 47 years old.
12:25You have been with the utility for 24 years.
12:27You have worked every job in the field.
12:30You know everyone.
12:31You know the system.
12:32You know the politics.
12:34You know where every skeleton is buried because you were there when some of them got buried.
12:38The operations manager is the top of the operational hierarchy.
12:41Below you is distribution, treatment, maintenance, fleet, locates,
12:46valve exercising, and hydrant flushing.
12:49You manage 140 people directly and indirectly.
12:53You report to the executive director.
12:55You work out of the main administrative building now.
12:57Your office has a window.
12:59You can see the plant from your desk.
13:01You keep a framed photograph on your wall of your first crew from 1998.
13:05Half of those people are retired.
13:07Two of them are dead.
13:08One of them is now a consultant who tries to sell the utility services you don't need.
13:12You manage a $28 million operating budget.
13:15You manage capital projects that stretch across fiscal years.
13:19You are rebuilding a pump station that serves 60,000 customers.
13:23The project is running 14 months behind schedule because the electrical contractor went bankrupt mid-project.
13:28You have spent the last six weeks in meetings with lawyers trying to figure out how to get back on
13:33track.
13:33You deal with the regulators.
13:35The state environmental agency audits the plant every year.
13:38The federal regulators audit every three years.
13:41You have to demonstrate compliance with regulations that get stricter every time Congress meets.
13:45Lead and copper.
13:48Disinfection byproducts.
13:49PFAS.
13:50Emerging contaminants that didn't exist as a category when you started in this industry.
13:54You deal with the city council.
13:56They want to know why rates keep going up.
13:59You explain that the infrastructure is aging.
14:01You explain that chemicals cost more.
14:03You explain that labor costs more.
14:05You explain that the federal mandates are unfunded.
14:08They nod and then they vote against the rate increase because their constituents are angry.
14:12You walk out of the meeting knowing that in 18 months there will be another main break.
14:16They'll ask why you didn't fix it sooner.
14:19You'll remind them.
14:20They won't remember.
14:21That is the job.
14:23You have stopped taking it personally.
14:25You have learned to document everything in writing.
14:27You save every email.
14:29You keep a paper trail that could absolve you in a lawsuit.
14:32Because the lawsuits will come.
14:34They always come.
14:35Level 7.
14:36The Chief Engineer.
14:38You are not the operations manager.
14:40You are his counterpart on the technical side.
14:43The operations manager keeps the water flowing today.
14:47You plan for the water to flow 50 years from now.
14:50You have a master's degree in environmental engineering.
14:53You are a licensed professional engineer.
14:55You have been with the utility for 19 years.
14:59You came up through the engineering department rather than through the field.
15:03You manage a team of 24 engineers and technicians who design the system.
15:07Every new subdivision that gets built in the service area goes through your office.
15:12Every pipe replacement project.
15:14Every pump station upgrade.
15:16Every treatment plan improvement.
15:18You review the plans.
15:20You stamp them.
15:21You put your license on the line.
15:23If something fails and it was your design, you lose your license.
15:28You could lose your freedom depending on how bad the failure is.
15:32You maintain the master plan.
15:34A 50-year vision for the system.
15:36Where will growth happen?
15:38Where will capacity shortfalls develop?
15:40What will the demand look like in 2070?
15:43You build hydraulic models.
15:45You run scenarios.
15:47You present findings to the executive team and the board.
15:50They listen.
15:51And then they tell you the capital budget is a third of what you requested.
15:55You do what you can with what you have.
15:58You know things most people don't know.
16:01You know the system is older than it looks.
16:04You know there are mains that were installed in the 1890s that are still in service.
16:09You know the pump station on the east side is at 94% capacity.
16:13One hot summer day could take it down.
16:16You know the treatment plant will need a $200 million expansion within the next eight years.
16:22Nobody has figured out how to pay for it.
16:24You carry this knowledge around like a stone in your pocket.
16:28You bring it up in meetings.
16:30People say the right things.
16:31Then the meeting ends and the next crisis takes priority.
16:35You write reports that get filed and never read.
16:39You advocate for projects that get cut from the budget.
16:42You watch things you warned about happen anyway.
16:45You say, I told you so, only in your head.
16:49Saying it out loud would be bad politics.
16:51Bad politics shortens careers.
16:55You have learned that being right is not the same as being effective.
16:59Level 8.
17:00The Deputy Director.
17:02You oversee half the utility.
17:04The Executive Director oversees everything.
17:07The two of you run the whole operation together.
17:10You are responsible for all operations and engineering.
17:13Your counterpart handles finance, customer service, human resources, and external affairs.
17:18Between the two of you and the Executive Director, you control a $340 million annual budget.
17:25You oversee 820 employees.
17:28You attend the board meetings.
17:29The board is made up of appointed officials, mostly lawyers and former elected officials with connections.
17:35They know almost nothing about water.
17:37You have to explain everything to them in language they can understand.
17:41You have to manage their expectations.
17:43You have to anticipate their political pressures.
17:45The chairman wants to freeze rates because he's thinking of running for mayor.
17:49The vice chairman wants to accelerate infrastructure spending because her district has a lot of complaints.
17:55These desires are in direct conflict.
17:57You navigate this.
17:59You write the briefing memos.
18:00You prepare the Executive Director for his presentations.
18:03You handle the issues that the Executive Director doesn't want to handle personally.
18:07You fire people at this level.
18:10Not technicians.
18:11Technicians get fired by their supervisors.
18:14You fire directors and managers when they fail.
18:16That's a hard thing.
18:18You've fired three people in the last two years.
18:20One of them cried in your office.
18:22One of them yelled at you and threatened a lawsuit.
18:25One of them just nodded and cleaned out his desk and you never heard from him again.
18:29Firing the first type hurts the worst.
18:31The crier was a good person who just couldn't keep up.
18:34You think about him sometimes.
18:35You wonder if you gave him enough chances.
18:38You wonder if you should have found him a different role.
18:40But you had to make a decision.
18:42And you made it.
18:43That's the job.
18:44You are 54 years old.
18:46You have a corner office.
18:48You have a reserved parking spot.
18:50You have a 401k that is finally starting to look like something.
18:53Your daughter is in college.
18:55Your son is in medical school.
18:57Your wife has stopped asking you to come home earlier because she knows you won't.
19:01You attend ribbon cuttings.
19:02You give speeches at rotary clubs.
19:04You shake hands with politicians.
19:06You are the public face that the executive director doesn't want to be.
19:10You are comfortable with it now.
19:12You were not always comfortable with it.
19:14But you have grown into the role the way water takes the shape of its container.
19:18Level 9.
19:19The executive director.
19:21You are the chief executive of the utility.
19:24You report to the board of directors and through them to the public.
19:28You are the face of the organization.
19:30When the news wants a quote, they call you.
19:33When the legislature wants to talk about water policy, they call you.
19:37When something catastrophic happens and people are scared and angry, you are the person who stands in front of the
19:43cameras.
19:44You are 58 years old.
19:46You have been in the water industry for 34 years.
19:50You started as a field engineer at a different utility in a different state.
19:54You moved up.
19:55You moved around.
19:57Every promotion meant a new city and a new system and a new set of political dynamics.
20:02Your family hated the moves.
20:05Your first marriage ended during one of them.
20:08You remarried.
20:09You have two adult children from the first marriage who don't call often.
20:14You make $310,000 a year.
20:17You have a company car.
20:19You have a generous retention package because utilities compete for experienced executives.
20:24The board wants to keep you.
20:26You could make more in the private sector.
20:29Consulting firms call you constantly.
20:32Engineering companies call you.
20:33Private water companies call you.
20:36You stay in public service.
20:38You tell people it's because you believe in the mission.
20:41That's partly true.
20:43The other part is that you like the control.
20:46You like knowing that when you turn on the faucet in your house, water comes out because of decisions you
20:52made.
20:53You manage the political environment above all else.
20:57The board of directors, the city council, the county commission,
21:00the state legislature, the federal agencies.
21:04Every one of them has opinions.
21:06Every one of them has priorities.
21:09Your job is to keep the utility moving forward despite all of them.
21:13You authorize the capital projects.
21:16You set the strategic direction.
21:18You hire and fire the senior leadership.
21:21You negotiate with the unions every three years.
21:24You sit in a room for six days straight arguing about wage increases and health insurance contributions.
21:30You reach an agreement that nobody is happy with, which is how you know it's fair.
21:36You sleep poorly.
21:38You drink too much coffee.
21:40Your blood pressure is higher than it should be.
21:43Your doctor has told you to slow down.
21:46You laugh when he says it.
21:48There is no slowing down.
21:50There is only the next meeting and the next crisis and the next decision.
21:55You have survived a contamination event that made the national news.
21:59A valve was opened in the wrong sequence during a maintenance operation.
22:03A backflow event pulled industrial water into the distribution system.
22:08Three neighborhoods were on boil orders for 11 days.
22:12You stood in front of reporters every morning.
22:15You answered questions you didn't have good answers to.
22:18You promised reforms.
22:20You delivered them.
22:22The board kept you.
22:23Other executives have lost their jobs over less.
22:28You learned something during those 11 days that you've never been able to shake.
22:32Public trust is the only real currency in this business.
22:36Lose it once and you spend the rest of your career trying to earn it back.
22:41Level 10.
22:42The Commissioner.
22:44You sit at a level above any single utility.
22:47You are appointed by the governor.
22:49You regulate every water system in the state.
22:51Your jurisdiction covers 2,400 utilities.
22:55You are responsible for 12 million customers.
22:59Every drop of water that comes out of every tap passes through the regulatory framework you oversee.
23:04Your office is in the capital.
23:06You have a staff of 180 engineers, scientists, attorneys, and inspectors.
23:12You set the rules.
23:14You enforce the rules.
23:15You fine the utilities that fail.
23:17You shut down the ones that can't be saved.
23:20You make $195,000 a year.
23:24The private sector would pay you triple.
23:26You don't care.
23:28Money stopped being the motivator a long time ago.
23:31You came up through the industry.
23:33You were a field engineer.
23:34You ran a small utility.
23:36You ran a medium utility.
23:38You ran a large one.
23:39You know what it feels like at every level.
23:42When an executive director calls you to complain about a new regulation, you know exactly what pressures she is under.
23:48You listen carefully.
23:50Sometimes you give relief.
23:51Sometimes you don't.
23:53You sign orders that shut down water systems that have failed their communities.
23:57Small rural systems that can't afford to maintain their infrastructure.
24:01You consolidate them into larger systems.
24:04The residents are often furious.
24:06They don't want to be absorbed.
24:08They want their own water.
24:10You explain that their own water is killing them.
24:13The testing results are the testing results.
24:15The lead levels don't lie.
24:18You are responsible for the biggest decisions in the state's water sector.
24:22You testify before the legislature.
24:24You fight for funding.
24:25You negotiate with the federal regulators on behalf of every utility you oversee.
24:30You have to protect public health.
24:33You also have to protect the utilities from impossible mandates.
24:36That balance is brutal.
24:38Sometimes it feels impossible.
24:41Sometimes the pressure makes you wonder why you took this job.
24:44You have nightmares about water.
24:46You dream about contamination events.
24:49You dream about children drinking from taps that weren't tested.
24:52You dream about rivers running dry and aquifers collapsing.
24:56You wake up at four in the morning and check your phone for emergencies.
25:00Your wife has learned to sleep through it.
25:02She knows what kind of weight you carry.
25:04She doesn't ask anymore.
25:06You think about retirement.
25:08You think about a cabin somewhere with well water and no regulatory responsibility.
25:13You tell yourself you'll retire in three years.
25:16You've been telling yourself that for eight years now.
25:19The truth is, you don't know how to stop.
25:22The water doesn't stop.
25:23The problems don't stop.
25:26You have come too far to walk away now.
25:29You sign the orders.
25:30You take the calls.
25:32You give the testimony.
25:34You hold the line between chemistry and catastrophe.
25:38Twelve million people drink what you allow to be drunk.
25:41Twelve million people trust what they have never seen.
25:44You carry that trust across every decision you make.
25:48Somewhere in the state right now, a young person is walking into a utility office for their first day.
25:54They are wearing a uniform that doesn't fit yet.
25:56They have a tablet in their hand and 340 meters to read.
26:01They have no idea what this industry will become for them.
26:04They have no idea that the system they are stepping into is older than they are.
26:08They don't know about the broken mains or the chemical spills or the battles over rates.
26:14They will learn.
26:15Everyone does.
26:17Water never stops.
26:19It just keeps flowing.
26:21One valve and one pipe and one person at a time.
26:25The cycle continues.
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