Speaker 1: Welcome back to On the Job. On this episode, we're
Speaker 1: hitting the road with Cody, a carpenter who travels from
Speaker 1: city to city building massive sets for a touring theater show.
Speaker 1: It's a demanding job with lots of responsibilities, and as
Speaker 1: we'll hear today, they were responsibilities that he didn't necessarily
Speaker 1: sign up for, so stick around. When you think of
Speaker 1: a carpenter, you probably picture someone with a hammer and
Speaker 1: a saw, but for our guest Cody, that image couldn't
Speaker 1: be further from the truth.
Speaker 2: Often when I tell people that I'm a carpenter, the
Speaker 2: first response is how can I help them in their
Speaker 2: home remodeling? But I think the easiest way to let
Speaker 2: them know is that I almost don't handle a single
Speaker 2: piece of wood the entire tour, and that tour can
Speaker 2: last up to thirty straight weeks.
Speaker 1: Now. Typically we like to use full names here to
Speaker 1: give people their due credit, but preferred we keep it
Speaker 1: informal because while he loves his job, it didn't come
Speaker 1: without some struggles and he wants to make sure that
Speaker 1: doesn't ruffle any of his higher ups feathers. So Cody
Speaker 1: it is. And for the last three years now, Cody's
Speaker 1: been living a life on the road, one arena after another,
Speaker 1: one city blending into the next.
Speaker 2: I just celebrated City one hundred in Columbia, South Carolina.
Speaker 2: At the completion of this contract or tour, I will
Speaker 2: have completed one hundred and four cities in thirty months.
Speaker 1: It's a life of constant movement. They load in, build
Speaker 1: their structures, then the bright lights come on and people
Speaker 1: enjoy the show. Then almost immediately after it's breakdown time.
Speaker 1: Then load out and off to the next place to
Speaker 1: do it all over again.
Speaker 2: Life on the road is extremely fast forward. My production
Speaker 2: travels as one massive unit of roughly ninety people. We
Speaker 2: eat together, we share the same hotel rooms, and we
Speaker 2: work in the same arena each week in a different city.
Speaker 2: So every week that we unpack our lives, at the
Speaker 2: end of the week, we know we have to pack
Speaker 2: our lives.
Speaker 1: For Cody, life on the road is a balancing act
Speaker 1: between the excitement of a new city and the exhaustion
Speaker 1: of living out of a suitcase.
Speaker 2: And I think living life and fast forward isn't for everybody,
Speaker 2: But I have a great mental fortitude and willingness to
Speaker 2: engage in as many experiences as I can in a
Speaker 2: short amount of time.
Speaker 1: Though for all that mental fortitude, he does on occasion
Speaker 1: lose track of where he is.
Speaker 2: Most recently in Columbus, Ohio, I woke up and I
Speaker 2: needed to get coffee, because caffeine is the golden liquid
Speaker 2: when you live this type of life. Well, upon return
Speaker 2: from getting coffee, I went back in the hotel and
Speaker 2: I went up to my hotel room. My key didn't work,
Speaker 2: which is the ultimate kick in the shorts when you're
Speaker 2: so tired. So I went back down to the front
Speaker 2: desk and I said, Hey, my key isn't working in
Speaker 2: my room. The guy said, that makes sense, You're in
Speaker 2: the wrong hotel. And I had walked into the wrong
Speaker 2: hotel out of delirious overnight travel. So yes, I often
Speaker 2: forget where I am.
Speaker 1: Before signing up for this rambling existence, Cody was living
Speaker 1: a very different kind of life, rooted in community.
Speaker 2: Prior to this, I was an athletic and program coordinator
Speaker 2: for Clear Creek County and the High Rockies in Colorado,
Speaker 2: west of Denver.
Speaker 1: Cody loved being part of a small community and that's
Speaker 1: part of the reason he went above and beyond at
Speaker 1: his coordinator job to keep things running smoothly.
Speaker 2: The next thing you know, the volleyball team is missing
Speaker 2: a player. Okay, let's get in the company truck and
Speaker 2: go pick timmy up. Oh and guess what, it's game time?
Speaker 2: Where's the referees? Oh? Wait, Cody, throw on the pinstripes
Speaker 2: because you're doing that too. Well, wait a second, who's
Speaker 2: going to pick up the chairs? After all the fans leave?
Speaker 2: The dad set them up, but they're not going to
Speaker 2: stay after their kids finished, and things start to stack,
Speaker 2: and they start to stack, and you're always going to
Speaker 2: put that community first when you have my personality and
Speaker 2: my character traits. And slowly, that forty hour work week
Speaker 2: during the sports season would grow to fifty to sixty
Speaker 2: to seventy hours.
Speaker 1: But despite all his efforts and the extra time he
Speaker 1: put into the job, being a small town athletics coordinator
Speaker 1: wasn't the road to riches. In fact, it barely kept
Speaker 1: Cody fed.
Speaker 2: It got to the point where I had the local
Speaker 2: market texting me when the meats were being put in
Speaker 2: the freezer and would be sold at half price. Because
Speaker 2: I'm also a competitive strength athlete as well, so that
Speaker 2: takes a part of my finances each and every week
Speaker 2: as I try to achieve something bigger in that world.
Speaker 2: So my life looked like the gym work and outreach
Speaker 2: with the community, and I do very much so enjoy that.
Speaker 2: But I also know that you take a financial loss
Speaker 2: when you choose to help your community, and that's a
Speaker 2: very sad fact.
Speaker 1: That ceaseless struggle just to get by started to wear
Speaker 1: Cody down. As much as he enjoyed being such an
Speaker 1: integral member of a small community, it was coming at
Speaker 1: his own expense.
Speaker 2: For the first time in my life, I think I
Speaker 2: honestly told myself that you need to take the leap
Speaker 2: for your financial future, and you need to sacrifice what
Speaker 2: you love, which is a sense of community and meaning,
Speaker 2: and you need to put that to the side for
Speaker 2: an extended period of time to have a better future.
Speaker 1: So when his girlfriend, who was a traveling performer, said
Speaker 1: she could get him a job on the next tour
Speaker 1: with her, Cody realized the time for that sacrifice had come.
Speaker 2: The quick, skinny, and the easiest way to say it
Speaker 2: is a nice old dose of nepotism, if we're being honest,
Speaker 2: she pulled some strings. My interview lasted five minutes and
Speaker 2: thirty four seconds and I was expected to report to
Speaker 2: the student in Florida almost immediately upon being hired.
Speaker 1: That began Cody's new life on the road, going from
Speaker 1: city to city helping the lead carpenter build these massive structures.
Speaker 2: My particular production is held up by chain hoist motors
Speaker 2: which have one ton and two ton capacity, and essentially
Speaker 2: all my production or my set pieces are steel and
Speaker 2: has multiple curtains hanging from it. So picture of the
Speaker 2: big curtains that you'd see on a stage show or
Speaker 2: a Broadway or if you've ever been to a local
Speaker 2: production that curtains. Just times it by about twelve and
Speaker 2: that would be what you're looking at.
Speaker 1: And that's how it went for a while, learning on
Speaker 1: the job, occasionally asking the lead carpenter for help when
Speaker 1: he encountered a problem, but incrementally gaining confidence in his
Speaker 1: ability to do the job. But that said, he would
Speaker 1: by no means call himself a master of his trade.
Speaker 1: To reach that level, he knew took years of understudy
Speaker 1: or an unexpected tragedy.
Speaker 2: In my case, I watched my boss fall from about
Speaker 2: four feet off the ground and his leg snapped and
Speaker 2: it looked like gumby, and I knew immediately it was
Speaker 2: most likely a broken leg.
Speaker 1: Coming up after the break, Cody rises to the challenge,
Speaker 1: whether he wants to or not.
Speaker 3: Looking for a job is lonely, endless searching, phone calls
Speaker 3: that go nowhere, applications that vanish into thin air. What
Speaker 3: if you could link with dozens of local companies who
Speaker 3: are hiring right now with just one connection. That's Express
Speaker 3: Employment Professionals. Find us at expresspros dot com. One connection,
Speaker 3: endless opportunities and no fees ever for job seekers Express
Speaker 3: Employment Professionals expresspros dot com.
Speaker 1: We're back with Cody, who was working as an assistant
Speaker 1: carpenter for a nationally touring theater company until the guy
Speaker 1: had him. The lead carpenter broke his leg on the
Speaker 1: job and was sidelined for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 2: Twenty minutes later, the expectation was that I brought the
Speaker 2: show to Fruition and take over his responsibility with only
Speaker 2: six months experience under my belt.
Speaker 1: Miraculously, Cody managed to get everything done in time for
Speaker 1: the show to start, and when the bright lights flashed
Speaker 1: on and the show began, only then could he breathe
Speaker 1: a sigh of relief. But his relief was short lived,
Speaker 1: because soon after he was called into the office.
Speaker 2: I went in, They sat me down, They said, you're
Speaker 2: now the head carpenter. This is your pay increase and
Speaker 2: moving forward, do the best you can, but we don't
Speaker 2: have anybody to assist you for the near future.
Speaker 1: When Cody recalls that meeting, he says, it wasn't much
Speaker 1: of a conversation.
Speaker 2: I don't know how much asking was involved in that meeting. However,
Speaker 2: I do very much so respect and like the two
Speaker 2: people in charge that called me in for that meeting,
Speaker 2: But I certainly don't think no could have been the answer.
Speaker 1: In those early days, Cody was overwhelmed by the responsibilities
Speaker 1: that had been thrust upon him, and rightly so.
Speaker 2: I'm responsible for hanging upwards of eleven thousand pounds over
Speaker 2: audience members as well as sixty of our performers heads,
Speaker 2: and no one prepared me. I am self taught almost
Speaker 2: to the core.
Speaker 1: On nights before a show, Cody often found himself staring
Speaker 1: at his hotel ceiling, worrying about the work that awaited
Speaker 1: him in the morning.
Speaker 2: As I just get nervous about the safety and I
Speaker 2: care about what we're putting up for a production, and
Speaker 2: when all of that encircles in my head. At night,
Speaker 2: you can loose some.
Speaker 1: Sleep, and unlike a typical job where you can close
Speaker 1: your laptop and drive home to decompress, being on the
Speaker 1: road meant Cody could never really escape that stress. It
Speaker 1: was an endless cycle, with no pause to catch his breath,
Speaker 1: no physical distance to let the weight of the job
Speaker 1: slip off his shoulders. And on top of all that,
Speaker 1: he was barely making any more money than he was before.
Speaker 2: If we're talking financial gain from taking on, it is
Speaker 2: so minimal. I'm not going to say out loud how
Speaker 2: much it is, but if I did, it's laughable.
Speaker 1: Cody says. That's why some people in his line of
Speaker 1: work are perfectly happy to stay in a supporting role
Speaker 1: instead of stepping up to the lead. The negligible increase
Speaker 1: in pay is not worth the leap and responsibility, and
Speaker 1: it turns out that reluctance to rise to a higher
Speaker 1: position is a growing trend throughout the country. Business Insider
Speaker 1: recently reported that nearly half of all Americans would decline
Speaker 1: a promotion if offered. For many workers, the promise of
Speaker 1: a bigger paycheck doesn't always outweigh the cost to their
Speaker 1: mental health and work life balance. Remember all the talk
Speaker 1: of the great resignation during the pandemic, maybe this is
Speaker 1: something like the national Nah, I'm good. And even though
Speaker 1: Cody did go down that route, he totally gets those
Speaker 1: that do.
Speaker 2: I think that if you can put your personal life
Speaker 2: above your work to a certain extent, that's not a
Speaker 2: bad move, and I don't think that makes you any
Speaker 2: less of a good employee.
Speaker 1: But for Cody, even though he didn't feel like he
Speaker 1: had much of an option to decline taking that position,
Speaker 1: he acknowledges that he probably would have said yes anyway,
Speaker 1: for better or worse. He's a type of person that
Speaker 1: goes all in.
Speaker 2: I would say yes again with parameters of seeking some
Speaker 2: higher knowledge and having more support, because when it starts
Speaker 2: to roll, that snowball is going downhill. There's no plateau
Speaker 2: and there's no up. It's only down until it's over.
Speaker 1: To his credit, though, Cody has managed to keep that
Speaker 1: snowball rolling about as smoothly as anyone with only six
Speaker 1: months of experience could. And when that initial run, Cody
Speaker 1: signed himself up for the next tour around the country
Speaker 1: as its head carpenter.
Speaker 2: I'm coming up on my one thousandth show, and I
Speaker 2: have seen our production. Once you just wear black and
Speaker 2: you stay in the shadows, and to not be seen
Speaker 2: is to be seen.
Speaker 1: But just because he's not sitting in the audience doesn't
Speaker 1: mean Cody isn't taking pride in the fruits of his labor.
Speaker 2: I feel a great joy for the performer that has
Speaker 2: put forth up multiple decades of their life to train
Speaker 2: and to possibly play a character that they've always dreamed of.
Speaker 2: And when they get a loud applause and they hear
Speaker 2: that all their hard work has come to fruition and
Speaker 2: the crowd has enjoyed their performance, that brings me great joy.
Speaker 1: Cody knows that this road life can't go on forever,
Speaker 1: and he looks forward to the day he can set
Speaker 1: down roots somewhere and once again be a part of
Speaker 1: a community, maybe back in that small Colorado town. But
Speaker 1: for now, as the saying goes, in Cody's line of work,
Speaker 1: the show must go on. For on the job, I'm
Speaker 1: Avery Thompson.