Anyone here care to share some funny stories that had happened during their work careers.

Many, many years ago I was sent out to a warehouse under construction. I was sent an apprentice and I didn't know it was his first day. I was on a scaffold and told the ap to "get me a couple of donuts". He took about 3 steps, turned, and looked up and said "Don't you want any coffee"? I nearly fell off the scaffold laughing.
Rowdy

i saw an inspector fall off a gangplank into the mud once......

ok, maybe i shouldn't go there,my bad...

my fav,

out to an elderly couples home on a service call, tricket says something like 'light does'nt work'.

get there and the old duffer explains that the guy @ the hardware stroe sold him a switch box, switch, light etc....which the old gent installed...all fine & well.

checked out the sw box & no romex ??

asking the guy he said

romex? what's that?????

On his first day on the job, my new helper, commented that his first task,was completed. "That was easy, what's next Pete?"

I told him I needed the carpenter's stand, and sent him on his way to find Andy, the carpenter. "Oh, and make sure he gives you the long one", I shouted.

Immediately I called my buddy Andy via cellphone, explained the situation, and got his assistance.

Fung (Frickin' useless new guy!), approached Andy, and asked "Can I have a long stand?"

"Of course", said Andy, "Wait there a minute", and left the room.

Apparently, Fung stood almost motionless for a good 25 minutes, before it dawned on him, (watched by about half the site), and on realising what was going on, he burst into a tirade of expletives before returning to me and reporting "Andy says he can't find one".

Needless to say he was the butt of a multitude of jokes come lunchtime, and was not allowed to forget it for many months.

Fung has since completed his apprenticeship, and is a fine electrician, but he still recalls his very first day on the job, and says it was the first lesson he learned about the construction industry:

Don't trust any B&@%*+d.

Not really work since it's my house, but electrical.

When we had our house inspected, one of the many things they found was that the swimming pool light didn't work. The previous owners had been there 5 years and had had the bulb replaced, but still no go. We got them to credit us to have it fixed, plus to upgrade it to GFCI.

Shortly after we moved in, I decided to do take a look. No voltage at the box by the pool. traced the wires back to the house by the pool pump, still no voltage. Up a conduit, across the attic, and down a conduit to the swtich box. And that's where it ended. It wasn't tied into any circuits.

There were no cut wires nor did it look like there had ever been a feed for the switch. I still don't understand how it ever came to be that way.

Oh, another thing: the water pressure was low. Opened the meter cover by the curb and saw that the valve was only halfway open. Opened it up, and found that 'missing' pressure.

Heaps of apprentices, have been the butt of a tradesmans practical joke.
Like the new guy at work a few years ago, who
was sent down to the Wholesaler, to get a box of Right-hand Bends(conduit elbows),
"And take all of the Left-hand ones out, we don't need them, for this job".

At least 365 funny stories a year.

For 12/10/02: THIS IS TRUE!

Contractor: (Radio Call)Where are working this morning?

Reply: Got State Fire, City Fire and Electrical inspection at the restaurant in about 45 minutes... why?

Contractor: Mr. Ponder called and said he has been trying to reach you all morning and last night but never got you. It's some type of emergency and wants you to call him NOW!

Reply: Sorry, got home from work at 11pm and left at 7 this morning. Give me the the number and I'll call right now.

RING RING

Mr. Ponder: Hello

Reply: Hi this is Ron, John called and said you were trying to reach me. What is the problem?

Mr. Ponder: Yes I needed to ask you what was the best type of bulb to shine on my front door to light up my Christmas wreath and where could I get one?

I'm not an electrician, but i can add to this..

I had a new guy on our low voltage team, never used a sissor lift in his life, he was out there trying to get it going for about two hours.. he finally got the thing to move, and he got scared because he just stood there screaming "NO BRAKES NO BRAKES".. people are dodging out of his way telling him to just let go of the handle,etc.. Needless to say, he was fined like 2600$, because he finally stop'd the lift after he took out the newly installed drywall'd office in the middle of the floor on the warehouse floor..

I thought that was too funny not too share..

The scissor lift thing got me thinking... A bit of background: About 15 years ago we were installing 2-1/2" rigid down the tunnel into Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD complex) in Colorado Springs, and into the radio room for some "future" cell phone system. If any of you have seen the Show "SG-1" they show the entrance to the tunnel I'm talking about. In the movie "War Games" they showed one of the the blast doors (of two in a set) into the actual complex inside the mountain that we had to go through with our lift to park for the night and to charge it.
Well, "Big Bob" was driving the lift, and as some may know, in a military installation like this there are regulations, we had our two guards walking along side, my self, and I think a couple more apprentices. Anyway, there was a whole bunch of us walking this thing back to its parking area at about quitting time. As you might guess, at quitting time the blast doors get very busy and there is to be no disruption of the traffic there. Well, Bob is driving the lift through the blast doors which are only two or three feet wider than the lift, watching his left side so he doesn't hit any body and so is not watching his right side, which of course no one else is either because the lift is so close to the right side wall of the blast door area. Bob didn't see the brand new Air Force pick-up parked there either. Side swiped the truck with the lift and left an enormous gash down the side (six inch scratch in the paint, but wait...). Anyhow, the guards decide that we had better move the lift the forty feet down the way to its parking area to get it out of the blast door and the way of all the people trying to leave, at break neck speed.
This Colonel coming through sees us "leaving the scene of the accident", sets his briefcase down to walk the fifteen feet to the guard shack outside the blast doors to tell the guards, another guard sees the "unattended" briefcase and radios in a Bomb scare. Realize all this is within a space of no more than 25 feet, guard shack, briefcase, lift, and about ten people involved. The bomb scare shuts down the entire complex, nobody gets in or out, busses stop, MP's come out of the wood work with M-16's, until the situation is under control. Well, 45 minutes later, after all the involved persons fill out accident reports in triplicate, no copies thankyou, things start to move again. Hundreds of people are late getting home, the Air Force motor pool has a truck to repaint, and Big Bob can't drive any vehicles on the site for three whole days. Then there was the time we wore the funny glasses with the big noses to work and everybody saluted us, but thats another story.

When I was working at the Pareora Freezing Works, a few years ago, one of the sparkies there was repairing an Electric Forklift.
Smoko time came, so he turned off the the F/Lift and went to have a cup of char.
When he came back and switched it back on, it
shot through the wall in the workshop, as someone had tampered with the controls, during Smoko, it made one hell of a mess.

I'll try to make this short read. I got a call late at night to a vacant warehouse that all the Em’s were on and the fire panel was in "trouble". I go there and its dark and I go to the panel and find it in bad shape. Old, full and one of the breakers was bad and burnt. I pull it and see the buss is a little bad where I pulled this one so I go looking for another spot. I find only one spot to put it and I pop it in. They all light. I go. I get a call back, same thing but this time when I show up the fire alarm guy is there trouble shooting the fire panel. I'm watching him and he comes to conclusion the whole thing is fried. So he goes and gets another whole CB and proceeds to install it. I go to the panel again to see why all the EM and EXITS are not working. I see the breaker is tripped and I flip it. Then I notice in black marker on the back of the panel "wild leg" right where I put this breaker. OOOOPPPSSS so I put it back where I found it, but as I was walking out I could hear the poor fire guy freaking out with his dispatcher " I don’t know what happened it just fried out this one too"...OOOOPPPPSSS

[This message has been edited by JohnnyB (edited 12-13-2002).]

About a month ago, I got a call at 11:00pm from a regular customer....
Cust: One of my rental houses has no power, can you come out to look at this? I checked the main breaker and it was off. I turned it back on and nothing happens.

Contractor: The whole house is out?

Cust: Yes, I'm standing outside right now at the meterbases. ( this is a duplex) Both meters are there, but one is not turning at all.

Contractor: Did they pay thier bill?

Cust: Oh yes! I'm sure they paid the bill. I asked them already! They are great tennants, they are never late paying thier rent!

Contractor: Are you still at the meterbase?

Cust: Yes, why?

Contractor: What color are the tags?

Cust: One blue, and one red.

Contractor: Tell them to pay the bill!!! That's probably why the don't have trouble paying thier rent!!!