ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area What Do You Hate Most?

Every job has aspects I don't like, but electrical work is better than most. I've met some good people in electrical work. Here's a list of what I don't like.

Pulling heavy wire through long runs of conduit - you'll strain at the limit of your strength, feeling a lot like an ox pulling a plow.

Underground work - working on your knees all day in small boxes underground.

Dusty, hot ceilings - you'll catch old diseases that settled in the dust years ago. Crawling around is physically demanding and you'll sneeze from the dust - sometimes getting a cold with runny nose that lasts for days.

Working on your knees in floors with dead baby rats in the box and in raceways, slimy grunge squeegeed into the box from mopping floors for years.

People - construction, including electrical, invites criminals and other undesirables. You'd swear some of them were hired straight out of prison. You'll work with bullies. You'll work with lazy people who will stand there and let you do all the work, then the boss will come and ask why it's going so slow. That will drive you nuts. You'll work with petty, jealous people. Other trades, such as sheetrock, plumbers, painters will get in your way, damage your work and delay you.

Cigarette smokers will fill your air space with smoke, especially when there's no ventilation. Attics, new construction, no matter what, they will make sure you smell their smoke. They're the worst.

People will borrow your tools, such as your DeWalt hammer drill, Sawzall, tape measure and everything else, but will not buy their own tools. Journeymen are especially guilty about not bringing their own tools to the job. The people who borrow your tools will never bring enough to do their own work, will never pay for your tools when they damage them and will never buy any of the tools they need for their own work. Not only that, but all of their tools will be worn out pieces of junk you wouldn't want to use.

Working with a dummy who decides to do things the hard way is a real pain.

Working with people who do shoddy work with no pride of workmanship makes you wish you were somewhere else. People who expect you to violate code to save money are all over the place.

Not getting paid to drive from one job to another seems unfair. Sometimes you have to go to more than one job in a day.

Other than these things, electrical isn't so bad.

If it was just a matter of doing electrical work, it would be great!

Likes:
The physics of it all- I don't think I'll ever be bored, and I always lose track of time when troubleshooting.
commercial/industrial work
MTW
Helping people
Customers who recognize professionalism and expect no more from me than they expect from themselves
Old accounts-it's nice when a buyer retires and makes sure that everyone knows that you're a preferred vendor.
Good referrals from customers-I haven't needed to advertise yet-thank God.
The pride in my craft, which used to be standard, but now is not.
The ability to control my schedule and the realization that I could move anywhere and have a trade.

Dislikes-
Customers that are too busy to give you the information or resources you need for diagnostics, but not too busy to tear apart the labor bills for your footwork.
Rooftops in -10°F
Rooftops in 98°F/95% humidity
People who expect more from you than they expect from themselves.
Those Relatives!! Am I the only person whose entire family cannot seem to buy a house with decent electrical? I love 'em but wow-

AND-present company excluded- AHJ's that have their pet methods that are irrelevant to code, but enforced nonetheless.

I must say that I wouldn't rather be doing anything else. I regularly donate time on saturday and sunday to schools and churches and people with troubles. The part that really got me was the troubleshooting of control panels- I was hooked after two calls. Now that is 50% to 80% of business. If I had a worthy opinion, it would be to encourage you to learn how to read schematics well and practice troubleshooting machine tool wiring. It's amazing to me how many times I've been the 3rd or 4th person that was called,and the last. Good Luck - more are always welcome!

Chi Sparky,

"Customers that are too busy to give you the information or resources you need for diagnostics, but not too busy to tear apart the labor bills for your footwork."

Ain't that the truth!!

I also have known the satisfaction of troubleshooting those machines. Unfortunately I don't get enough of them to keep up with it and get a little intimidated by the time the next one comes in. You're lucky to have that type of work 50-80% of the time.

Even though it might not sound like much, sometimes the part I enjoy the most is flipping the switch.

I hate slumlords and specially the ones that own so many dumps that they have their own jacka44 of all trades that always mess up electrical repairs and try to blame some one else. I once saw 14 guage wire hooked up to an 70 amp breaker feeding an 240/120 dryer recept that was on a back porch out side in the elements needless to say after the small fire I fixed it right,I also hate houses with rats and roaches today I got attacked by those ganster roaches you know the ones that go in to your bag and stay and when u try to get them out they just won't go

They probably don't worry about it, as they know someone who will put it right