• @mihnt@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    33
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I’m 42 now and I left the trades a year ago after getting the life beat out of me for most of my life. It’s not that no one wants to do the work, it’s that no one wants to pay for a good tradesperson. When I left my last job they were only hiring techs for $16-$20 and hour. That was with HVAC certification. It’s laughable.

    Matter of fact, the company I worked for withheld raises from one of their teams for 3 years and they pikachu faced when they all left. Literally the best tech team in the company too. (This team had over 100 years of total experience in the trades. Plumbing, electrical, you name it. They’ve done it.)

    Not to mention like 99% of the companies require you to own your own tools and will not replace/repair anything that breaks while working for their company. Got a nice new impact and it broke doing a job? That $200 is coming out of your pocket. Always.

    Fucking, also, all the jobs that require being on call. Got a family? Fuck you, go fix shit at 2am and then make sure you show up to work on time at 6am with no sleep. Work 10-12 hours, go home, get called the next night too.

    • @Asafum@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      71 year ago

      A-fucking-men… That’s why I backed out too. Nothing worse than the 2am call, or JUST pulling into your driveway just to get a call and have to go back out for god knows how long.

      Yes yes “money.” A little bit sure, but not enough to be ok with a company literally owning all of my potential time.

      • I thought most tradesmen were independent contractors. Doesn’t that mean that you don’t have to put up with shit like that? That’s what it means in IT…

        • @mihnt@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          21 year ago

          Nah, you can work for companies and be a W2 employee. There’s a lot of both. I’d say a majority of the ones I’ve met work for a company so insurance is easier. They don’t have to be bonded and insured on their dime because the company does all that.

    • Metal Zealot
      link
      fedilink
      51 year ago

      Whew, my poor cousin worked for CN Rail a while ago. Absolute worst, most inconvenient on-call hours you could imagine.

    • @MisterFrog@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      11 year ago

      The US has a perplexing set of labour laws, and I understand it varies wildly by state but damn, how is it not a federal standard that if you’re an employee, the employer is required to provide you with all tools to perform your work?

      • @mihnt@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        11 year ago

        It’s a lot less a law thing as it is a work culture thing. Some jobs provide stuff, but you’re required to have the basics. Some provide everything. It all really depends, but it’s prevalent for companies to expect you to have everything but the big stuff. (Which I mean, even then, some still require you to have your own storage solutions like in the case of mechanics.)