Working at Paducah

[X-radcon30]

Me and my wife just got exceped to work at the Paducah plant as Sr. RCTs. Im just looking for alittle heads up on the goods and bads of this plant. We have both been at K-25, X-10 and Y-12 in Oak Ridge for the last 10 Years. So anyone that has been there or is still there could give us alittle info it would be greatly appreated. Thanks again

[moondoggie]

That depends, whom where you hire by? There are different contractors doing different things

[X-radcon30]

we are coming in with Bartlett

[shiftman]

There are four different companies working at the Paducah site. Three are DOE contractors doing infrastructure, environmental remediation and depleted uranium conversion. The fourth is a private company that leases the enrichment facility from DOE.

If you are coming with Bartlett, you are likely going to work for USEC. At USEC, techs are referred to as "Health Physics Techs". The ones working for the DOE contractors are called "Radiological Control Techs". It is essentially the same job, just different labels.

I am new to this board, but if it has a pm option, send me a note. I will be happy to help you in any way that I can.
 

[X-radcon30]

That would be great, We are kind of going in blind.

[shiftman]

Glad to help

[Sun Dog]

OK, Since I started this about 5 months ago I would like to update it a little. To start, yes we did go to Paducah with Bartlett and It was hell from the start. I told my recruiter about a month in advance that my Clearance would be terminated on a certain date. When I arrived at the plant on August 23rd, I found out that the proper extension paperwork had never been filed and as feared my Q was gone! I was also told that on top of my quoted hourly pay, I would be getting an extra $3.15 health and welfare. That seemed to also be another lie told by A***...aka LAA (lying a$$ A***). I was not the only one told this, the two other people that hired in the same day, were told the same thing! I contacted B****, he called A*** and guess what? No one knew a thing about it, or my clearance. Now remember, this is still the 1st week on the job.
I figured since the 1st week sucked so bad, the 2nd week would have to be better (WRONG)! I sat in the Bartlett break trailer for another 3 weeks, getting dirty looks from C*** and S**** (S**** is the Site Coordinator and C*** is his lap puppet). Mind you this whole time, I was told a different time to come in everyday and when I followed what I was told, got chewed because I came in late or left too early....wtf did I get into! Finally after many weeks and hundreds of dirty looks, I got a permanent assignment....THANK GOODNESS! I get to leave the trailer!!!!!
My 1st week on the job, I had ask for 2 days off in September to go back to Tennessee, to take care of some important business. I was told it was granted, no prob. In October I got sick with the flu and was off for 2 days. When I came back from being sick, I was wrote up for missing too many days. 2 for being sick and 2 for the days that were requested and granted.
Now, since I'm uncleared I have to wait on someone to escort me from the portal to the break trailer, to my job site. Every morning at 6:15am, I'm at the portal waiting for someone to bring me in. If no other Bartlett employee shows up, I call and get someone to come pick me up. Most days I'm lucky and get to the Bartlett trailer before 6:30, somedays they're a little slower and it's right at 6:30am before I make my grand entrance..... I'm cruising along in my job, no worries! I think everything is fine and then on Tuesday Dec 28th, I get called to S****'s office. Guess what? I'm fired! They're reason was excessive tardiness...It would have been nice to have been warned before this extreme. According to B**** and S**** a simple look and head shake, is considered a verbal warning. So now, I've left my home, moved 6 hours away from my kids and lived in the pits of hell I like to call a trailer for nothing! y
So, if you want to loose your clearance, get dirty looks, lied to about your pay, fired for no reason and want a place you can do whatever drug you want and not be tested, go work in Paducah!!!!

Thanks, Eldon

That is a sad story.

Why did you stay after finding out your rate was $3.15 less than what you expected?

Are you sure you were fired?  BC says that it isn't smart to fire anyone, except for the most dire of situations.

Firing people is a messy, expensive, litigious, and time-consuming process.  It is reserved for those cases where you just can't have that person working for you again and the risk of not firing them is great enough to make you want to go through the trouble.

If you fire someone, you have to give a reason.  It had better be a watertight reason with lots of documentation and evidence.  You'll never have to rehire them, and you're off the hook for their unemployment benefits.
If you lay them off, no reason is needed -- so you have nothing to defend against.  You may have to rehire them at some point, and they get unemployment benefits.

Like I said, there are times when you just need to fire someone.  But, most of the time, the scales of risk-benefit tip toward laying the guy off.

Modified to remove names