ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Humble PIe or.. becoming a better employee

Still stand by Quotes.

I have been there for employers through thick and thin. I went down rough roads many a time. But I believed in them, and I believed in myself. I din't jump ship when the going went rough. Some of my previous employers wish I never left.

My gut instintcs always tell me that the grass is not so green on the other side. But you'll never know if you don't try once or twice.

I was always loyal to everyone, unless they tried screwing me first, then it was war.

I try not to trust people unless they prove themselves first, came with age I guess. As we get old, we form our ways.

To the younger guys though, be loyal to yourself first, but never forget where you get your bread money.
Loyalty goes both ways.
Employers can't eat without great employees, we know that.

If you start out not caring about your job and see yourself as just a number to your employer, that's all your going to be, is a number.

If that is what you want out of life, by all means, be a number.

Dnk......

Sparkeee24 The reality is that you are a number, the sooner you understand this the better you will be at educating yourself and getting multi work experiences that will make you valuble to your employer and if you start your own business someday. These are the realities today. Gone are the days of 30 years with an employer and a gold watch. Look out for the person who's trying to give you a snow job just so that they can benefit themselves. Look out for the person who has their head in the sand. Safety tip Don't lose your head for a minute you need your head your brains are in it. LOL

Sparkee, I see a lot of brown-nosers in my beloved trade and I think this is a disgrace. So many guys out there are good at sucking the bosses a** and not worth a nickel at their job. This has many times led to my "humble pie". I don't kiss nobody's butt. However, I am very kind, respectful, and courteous. There's a fine line there. I will tell anyone exactly what I think but I'll do it in a respectful manner. When you're good at what you do, you don't have to butter no beans. They'll butter your bean. If I can run 300' of 3/4" emt, in the walls & ceiling (not a rack)in an 8-hour day and have only short nipples for waste, and I'm consistently on time every day, what difference does it make if I answered my cell phone 3 times or I was over there shooting the bull with the duct man? If you're good at what you do,you should be valued more. Seems so, but too many contractors are allowing these suck butt's to exist because they are informants and snitches. Ironically, these are the guys that are costing the most man-hours and most people don't even realize it. EXAMPLE- This guy I worked with some time ago- call him John. He's 1 of the 2 lead men, he picked up a 1/4" beam clamp and it had a regular 1/4"-20 bolt just stuck down in the top hole where that square-headed bolt goes, you and I know it don't fit in that hole, the bolt that does fit has a little square head on it and it's threads are larger than a reg. 1/4"-20. He said, "Somebody took that beam clamp and drilled and tapped it out to 5/16"!!" Lead man here. He always liked to talk to everyone like they were his children. This guy is everywhere. He doesn't know his job very well but he knows how to butter the bosses bean. Sickening. Contractors- You're guilty of letting this happen. Take a new evaluation of your men, starting with the ones that are coming by the office 30 times a day telling you who is doing what and all that stuff. THOSE are the guys costing you money. As for the men in the field who don't like to be bothered with these guys, next time they come around, ask them how to find the amount of inductive VAR'S to correct a low power factor? or how to find the neutral current in a wye? or what's the formula for finding capacitive reactance? or how do you find the demand for 20 8kw ranges? Draw them out a combination circuit and ask them to tell you the total I in that circuit. Usually they'll leave you alone after that. If you don't know, you better start finding out.

Howdy! added comment here. I'm in trade school for a reason. It's a 4 year program, and it's awesome. I'm learning tons. My worst area is dealing with personel, unfortuneately. I am learning lots, as I have said, and my mechanical abilities and trade skills are not in question. It is my relations with coworkers and people skills I nead the most work with. I know this might sound dumb, but does anyone know about a good book that may give some insight into people skills in the workplace? Especially the trades, and most importantly our trade. I have a moderate college education, am not in a "trade family" and am an only child...so it seems I am a few years behind my coworkers in human relations, but am far ahead in skills and well rounded ness as far as "my overall work" is concerned. The team effort is what I am looking at learning more about. Thanks for all your added input folks! I like to hear everyones opinions, positive negative or neutral, it still gives me a good idea of the differing opinions within our trade. Thanks! Brian Sparkeee24