He loved his job because they gave him a chance and he returned the favor by busting his ***. He was always up beat and positive around negative bitter employees. He said he would be active and involved doing extra.
He worked with employees that did the bare minimum waiting to collect benefits and retire. He had health conditions and needed to be at work so he could pay for insurance.
He dealt with bad leads that dumped the work on him but he saw it as a way to prepare so when he became a lead. He didn't care for job titles he did the work and took pride in it.
Bad health or not he gave his all because everyone settled or gave up Not motivated only sticking around because the pay was enough to keep them around.  
He never milked his injuries he had to be at work because people would complain and he didn't want his crew to look bad. God forbid he gets his health right and takes time off.
He was the heart of the team he did the extra while others did a half *** job just enough to get by. They believed in him at the beginning then gave up on him since they had to step it up when he missed due to his health issues.
Lots of people play the union card or its not my job rather than stepping it up doing what you can to make it easy for the next guy. He always said "don't leave it for the next guy be the guy." People want a job but don't want to work everything is earned not given. He was a team player even if they helped him or not. The work was easier when he was there but worse when he came back after a medical leave.
Most ditch work he could only miss, if he had a medical procedure or doctors appointment. He wanted to live his life but he had to do that on his own time when he wasn't sore or too tired to do so
He didn't want to leave his wing man they were a power team and had one anothers back. While the morning crew never teamed up unless it had to be done last minute. The day should be the set up and night clean up. Due to lack of team work the night crew helps with the set up.