What’s the best way to quit a job? Two-weeks notice? Get mad and scream, “I quit!” around your foot in your mouth? In Drilling Rig 101 we call it “Twisting off.” The term comes from twisting off the drill string, while drilling, which is never a good thing

I know of one instance when a hotheaded mechanic who was working on a stubborn piece of equipment screamed, “I quit,” threw his tools down, and stomped away. The tool pusher called the office and asked for a replacement, but when he looked outside 30 minutes later, the man who had quit was back working on the same equipment.

The pusher walked out and asked, “What are you doing?”

The man said, “Working.”

The pusher said, “You said you quit.”

The man said, “I’ve said that before.”

The pusher said, “Yeah, I know, but I believed you this time.”

 

I’ve heard several tales about men who left a lasting impression when they twisted off. One guy dropped a handful of 12” long, 1 ½” diameter blowout preventer bolts into the wellbore when a driller dared him to quit.

A mechanic boarded a rig in Santa Barbara, California. He quit a week out of port with no means of getting off the rig. He rode it for the next 65 days, all the way across the Pacific Ocean to Hong Kong, and never hit a lick.

There is another way to quit that never made sense to me. Don’t do your job or break the rules and get fired… on purpose. In other words, put the onus of getting rid of you on someone else. We have rules out here that must be adhered to. No fighting. No stealing. No drugs. No sleeping on tour (pronounce tower.) No cell phones outside the living quarters. We didn’t have to worry about the latter in the olden days. Now … I know a guy who recently went home aboard a helicopter called especially for him. He has to tell his wife and kids Angry Birds cost him his job, 28 days before Christmas.