Nobody handed you anything when you started.
You got hazed, ignored, talked down to, and made to feel like you didn't belong. You figured it out the hard way because that's how it was done to you.
And now you're doing it to the next guy.
We don't talk about this enough.
There's a hierarchy in the oilfield that has nothing to do with skill or experience. It's about who got there first. Who paid their dues. Who suffered enough to earn the right to make someone else suffer.
New hand shows up on the rig floor? He's a liability until proven otherwise. Fresh guy on the frac site? He better keep his mouth shut and stay out of the way. Kid just got hired on the hotshot? Good luck figuring out anything because nobody's going to show you shit.
And we act like that's normal. Like that's just how it works out here.
Here's What That Culture Actually Produces
New guys don't ask questions because they're terrified of looking stupid. So they guess. They assume. They figure it out on the fly.
And guessing on a rig floor gets people killed.
That guy who "should have known better?" He did know better. He just didn't feel like he could ask without getting buried for it.
The guys at the top hoard knowledge on purpose. If you know something nobody else knows, you're harder to replace. So they keep it close. They let you struggle. They watch you fail and call it a learning experience.
It's not mentorship. It's gatekeeping dressed up as toughness.
The Guys This Industry Loses Because Of It
Good hands who won't tolerate being treated like garbage. Smart guys who ask too many questions and get labeled a problem. Young guys with real potential who burn out in two years because nobody invested a single minute in them.
We lose them to other industries. To desk jobs. To anything that treats them like a human being.
And then we wonder why we can't find good help.
The Other Side Of It
Some of the best hands I've ever seen came up under somebody who actually gave a damn. Who took the time. Who answered the dumb questions without making them feel dumb. Who showed them the right way instead of letting them figure out the wrong way alone.
Those guys stay. Those guys become the best on the crew. Those guys actually make the job safer for everyone.
That's not weakness. That's how you build something worth working for.
The cycle stops when somebody decides to stop it.
Maybe that's you.
The new guy on your crew doesn't need to earn basic respect. He doesn't need to be hazed into belonging. He needs someone to show him how to do the job right so everybody goes home.
That's it. That's the whole job.
We're out here preaching safety culture in every meeting and ignoring the one thing that actually makes people unsafe...a culture that punishes people for not knowing things they were never taught.
Check on your new guys. Answer the questions. Share what you know.
The oilfield's hard enough without us making it harder on each other.