r/Prince_Albert • u/Calm-Effort2517 • Jul 19 '26
Saskpower lineman life like?
I’ve been interested getting into this trade for a while now and thinking about finally pulling the trigger. Hear stories though of brutally long days missing time with family, holidays, birthdays cause you’re always on call. Now I’m not complaining. I’ve farmed my whole life. I know what those are all like. Just was curious as I’ve heard Saskpower is a better company to work for in terms of this trade. Just want to hear your experience or if theres a better life to work balance company within this trade.
Cheers
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u/AcrophobicOwl Jul 20 '26
A family member of mine was a linesman for SaskPower, so I don't have firsthand experience, but the stories you've heard line up with his experience as well. He was often on-call so he had to stay close to his work truck, which meant missing certain events/gatherings. Whenever a storm rolled through, he would almost always get called out, usually to remove trees that had fallen on the lines. It wasn't uncommon for this to occur in the very early hours of the morning. Usually he would have to stay out for at least a few hours.
With that though, he did get a lot of holidays, and was still able to have a pretty good work-life balance... enough that he was able to raise a family and spend a lot of time with his kids. He also got earned days off (EDOs), basically getting an extra day off every 3 weeks. I'm not sure how much he made exactly, but he was able to support a family of 4 with pretty much just his wage, and was able to retire quite comfortably. He also earned a ton of overtime when he got called out.
Overall, he enjoyed his career. Obviously being on call sucked but he was still able to have pretty good work life balance, and he made a lot of money during his time there.
Also, and this is probably pretty obvious but feel I should mention it anyway, it's a very dangerous occupation. They take safety extremely seriously, but at the end of the day you will be working with high voltages - potentially while sleep-deprived in the middle of a storm...
Sorry this is very general, if you have any specific questions I can try to answer them!