Off The Clock Toolbox Talk

Anthony shares his story of growing up in a family of tradesmen where hard work and thick money were at the center of their way of being. And with the hard work came hard substance use.

As a teen, addicted to alcohol and cocaine, Anthony went to his parents to ask for help when he realized he was in more trouble than he could handle. His father’s solution was to send him to Fort McMurray where Anthony’s cowboy lifestyle cemented in. After decades of remote work, burning down one town and moving on to the next, Anthony found himself alone and using dangerous opiates. With a six month old child now in his life, he realized he had to do something different and reached out to an aunt who helped him get into recovery.

Anthony’s recovery experience was not straightforward, and he feels that after one year of recovery, he was just beginning to thaw out from decades of substance use. It took several years for him to figure out how to start living his life. Anthony discovered his son was in foster care at two years of age and knew he had to do the right thing and break the cycle of inter-generational trauma. He took some parenting courses and did more personal work so he could be a better father. Anthony and his mother were able to gain custody of his son, and Anthony continues to learn and grow beyond the harmful patterns he learned from his dad and uncles, creating a better life for himself and his son.

Off The Clock Toolbox Talk
Men forging health in the unregulated drug crisis, through real f**king talk.
Learn more about the podcast series at TradesPodcast.com.
Please give us your honest feedback by completing our anonymous survey at tradespodcast.com.
You'll be given the opportunity to enter our monthly draw for a $200 grocery card.
Thanks for supporting Off The Clock Toolbox Talk.

Superintendent Summit features in-depth discussion about how to lead work sites in a day where all our crews are affected by mental health and overdose (drug poisoning). From their own experiences, Superintendents Duncan Jordan and Trevor Botkin together with CSO Shane Sewell discuss many of the factors that have to be juggled between the demands of the business and the wellness of the crews; both ends have to be balanced to produce profit and have a crew healthy enough to produce the profit. Duncan and Trevor discuss that a super’s job is not to be a psychologist or counsellor. But when they can build a crew where people feel seen and heard, where the super is perceived as approachable by crew members, when crew members see themselves as invested in the physical and mental safety of the worksite, then striking the balance between profit and wellness becomes attainable. The development of these social skills, however, are not typically afforded to a superintendent; it often happens through a super’s personal journey or recovery. And that’s difficult to facilitate as an active Superintendent.

Duncan emphasizes the importance of education in all things safety – physical on site safety, safety with drug use, and safety with one’s mental health. Duncan gets personal and tells us how he tries to educate folks through the story of loved ones he’s lost to suicide. Trevor shares that he’s also lost beloved crew members to suicide as well. They agree that these losses drive them to take an extra moment with crew members, friends and family, even when there’s so much on their plate. Co-host Karen ties it up with a feeling that project participants have expressed before, that all these beloved people we’ve lost in construction, that perhaps its their energy that carries us forward in the work we do, to create a world where people can talk about these things, where previous generations could not.

If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, 988 is Canada’s suicide crisis line. You can call by yourself, 24/7, or you can call together with a buddy. Many of us in the Off the Clock Toolbox Talk community know these feelings and are sending out our love and hope to you.

Off The Clock Toolbox Talk
Men forging health in the unregulated drug crisis, through real f**king talk.
Learn more about the podcast series at TradesPodcast.com.
Please give us your honest feedback by completing our anonymous survey at tradespodcast.com.
You'll be given the opportunity to enter our monthly draw for a $200 grocery card.
Thanks for supporting Off The Clock Toolbox Talk.

Ironworker, Shawn Underhill, joins Daniel and Karen to talk about his journey through problematic substance use and addiction. From Shawn’s early days smoking pot as a teen in his first construction job, to navigating problematic substance use in camps up north, to using to get through pain, grief, and exhaustion, Shawn demonstrates how recovery is anything but a straight line. Daniel and Shawn discuss how, on average, most people addicted to opioids struggle with that addiction for 15 years, but they do recover, even though it typically takes multiple attempts.

The recurring theme of Shawn’s story is his mom’s constant voice, in her life and death, urging Shawn to access help at Fraser House Society (the host organization of this podcast). And every time he returned, he grew more and more, adding to his toolbox, ultimately creating a life of beauty that he loves.

Shawn’s counsellor, Sam, jumps in at the end and Shawn and Sam give us some insight on what the first few weeks of counselling are like, and what its like to begin the counselling journey. Shawn closes out with a poem he wrote at a very dark time, to cultivate hope for us all.

Off The Clock Toolbox Talk
Men forging health in the unregulated drug crisis, through real f**king talk.
Learn more about the podcast series at TradesPodcast.com.
Please give us your honest feedback by completing our anonymous survey at tradespodcast.com.
You'll be given the opportunity to enter our monthly draw for a $200 grocery card.
Thanks for supporting Off The Clock Toolbox Talk.

An expanded part of Kale’s Story, Trevor Botkin and Kale Moth discuss the specifics of working on an oil rig and other tough work sites. Belonging and paychecks pull us in. Identity and pride in hard work keep us there. Kale says, “That much time spent with the same 4 or 5 guys... you’re spending more time with them than your actual family. That group almost becomes your family... You get a full-time job, and a part-time relationship. And you just gotta understand, that’s the way its going to be.” Trevor talks about the guilt he had about his family getting the table scraps of his life and energy, but the balance was his family had all the shiny things they needed. Trevor describes an oil patch colleague who struggles with the extreme change of culture between spending time on his crew and coming home to his wife.

Karen shares her perspective as a partner of a tradesman who was consumed by a demanding work life. Trevor confirms the limits of maintaining a healthy relationship under these demands. Kale describes the extreme hours required of him to continue to be part of his crew and what people turn to, to find fulfillment within the long hours, including short on-site clips of Kale on his rig.

Kale talks about how the people in the industry need to change, and that younger guys are refusing to sacrifice everything like the generations before them did. Trevor comments on his observations that younger folks coming into the industry are not willing to break their backs and things are changing, but the older guard are not able to change with the young guys, and the end result is the old guard suddenly don’t feel like they fit in anymore, and that loss of safety and community contributes to substance use in the older population. The industry is also changing in that it is now required to accommodate their workforce to recover from mental health and substance use issues. Trevor says his fantasy is that employers start having this conversation in a different way, training supervisors in how to deal with all types of health in a strategic and regular way.

The crew ties up the conversation getting a tutorial on growing beards and goatees. Karen shares when her ex-husband and his crew identified as Plumbers of the Caribbean, getting through the day by singing ‘stupid-ass pirate songs’ and Trevor and Kale agree, that’s how its done.

Off The Clock Toolbox Talk
Men forging health in the unregulated drug crisis, through real f**king talk.
Learn more about the podcast series at TradesPodcast.com.
Please give us your honest feedback by completing our anonymous survey at tradespodcast.com.
You'll be given the opportunity to enter our monthly draw for a $200 grocery card.
Thanks for supporting Off The Clock Toolbox Talk.

Colby and Greg join us to share what the Tailgate Toolkit is, and how its helping men in construction navigate the drug poisoning crisis. https://thetailgatetoolkit.ca/

Greg shares his experiences hiding an opioid addiction that stemmed from a car accident, and how that brought him to helping other men as a Tailgate Toolkit Facilitator. Through talking about the current realities of substance use in the trades, and sharing his authentic story, Greg creates safety for men in Toolkit sessions to be able to share their stories of pain and loss.

Colby shares how he is focused specifically on trades leadership, partially incentivized by residential building points and gold seal credits, but also just because leaders want to know how to create some kind of safety for their crews; that they are tired of losing their crew members, and the emotional toll it takes on them.

Greg and Colby touch on how their conversations with men in the trades, one group at a time, are slowly changing culture to be able to better take care of ourselves and each other. Greg talks about all the tentacles that are attached to the death reports, such as families, friends, co-workers, and the group Mom’s Stop the Harm https://www.momsstoptheharm.com/ (who support the Tailgate Toolkit, and are also a Partner with Off the Clock Toolbox Talk).

Colby reiterates the harm reduction principles they utilize to improve safer usage, and that employers, by law, need to accommodate recovery, and cannot fire employees for having a substance use disorder. From a business point of view, Colby emphasizes that while it is costly to accommodate employee recovery time for a substance use disorder, its actually more costly to replace people. One of the purposes of Tailgate Toolkit is to support employers navigating the legalities of the drug poisoning crisis with a partnership with Roper Greyell LLP https://ropergreyell.com/, and Colby covers some of the obligations and pro-tips on how employers can begin to helpfully engage with their crews.

Off The Clock Toolbox Talk
Men forging health in the unregulated drug crisis, through real f**king talk.
Learn more about the podcast series at TradesPodcast.com.
Please give us your honest feedback by completing our anonymous survey at tradespodcast.com.
You'll be given the opportunity to enter our monthly draw for a $200 grocery card.
Thanks for supporting Off The Clock Toolbox Talk.