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Bobhook149

Senior Member
I am in the beginning stages of being hired at a doctors office building as a facilities electrician. When I was interviewed I asked questions like "what is expected of me on a day to day basis".? They had no response for this question other than I would come up with PM schedules for manuals that come with this new building. This would be my first job as a part of a maintenance crew, me being the only electrician. Can anybody tell me what should be expected? WHat I should know? Any material I should read or look at before taking on this job?

This is going to be a brand new facility and Im told that I will have other responsibilities that are not electrical related. In my mind I cant see my self doing electrical work 8 hrs a day 5 days a week. Am I mistaken?
 

Ponchik

Senior Member
Location
CA
Occupation
Electronologist
If the building has machinery then i would expect PM schedule, but if it is a brand new building with just lights and receptacles, i don't know what can go wrong on regular bases. Unless you are being hired as a general maintenance to do basic tasks (change bulbs, door knobs, painting .....)

are you sure your positions is facilities electrician? What does "other responsibilities other than electrical" mean? Do you have to drain toilets or pickup trash and sweep floors?
 
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stevebea

Senior Member
Location
Southeastern PA
I am in the beginning stages of being hired at a doctors office building as a facilities electrician. When I was interviewed I asked questions like "what is expected of me on a day to day basis".? They had no response for this question other than I would come up with PM schedules for manuals that come with this new building. This would be my first job as a part of a maintenance crew, me being the only electrician. Can anybody tell me what should be expected? WHat I should know? Any material I should read or look at before taking on this job?

This is going to be a brand new facility and Im told that I will have other responsibilities that are not electrical related. In my mind I cant see my self doing electrical work 8 hrs a day 5 days a week. Am I mistaken?

How big is this " doctor's office building "? It seems a little strange to me that a brand new facility would have to hire a full time electrician. I could understand it if they owned numerous buildings in a general locale. Even with other responsibilities I struggle to see how you could keep busy 40 hours a week.
 
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Bobhook149

Senior Member
I agree. The building is brand new with other offices I will have to report to locally as well. I would be expected to preform other tasks. Pay is good and it seems stable with the economy the way it is. They are being very vague as to what they want me to do and I agree that there cant be enough to employ an electrician full time. However is this helps its a 4 story office building. I have just never done this "maintenance" thing before and am looking for some insight.


Thanks

Bob
 

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
Changing light bulbs, installing equipment circuits, moving circuits, moving cubicle walls & circuits, changing sign bulbs, moving ceiling lights, servicing machines, etc. Offices today are reinvented every few months. Machines come & go, office areas get enlarged, reduced, moved & moved again.

Advantage is that you will be inside, away from the weather, in a mostly clean environment. A brief slow period may give you a chance to coast a bit & catch up on technical reading, rearrange your tools, etc.

Disadvantage is working with an office full of human beings. You may well face every attitude & personality under the sun. Some folks will be easy to work with, some will be fussy about any noise you make or any inconvenience you cause them. You may have to stay late & do some projects after hours.
 

stevebea

Senior Member
Location
Southeastern PA
I agree. The building is brand new with other offices I will have to report to locally as well. I would be expected to preform other tasks. Pay is good and it seems stable with the economy the way it is. They are being very vague as to what they want me to do and I agree that there cant be enough to employ an electrician full time. However is this helps its a 4 story office building. I have just never done this "maintenance" thing before and am looking for some insight.


Thanks

Bob

Ahhh.... yes, it's making more sense now with the fact that you will be responsible for other buildings. The fact that they are rather vague about your duties would lead me to believe that it's rather open-ended and your duties could vary from changing lamps and filters to moving office furniture and everything in between. If the pay and benefits are good... go for it! You will be a lot less likely to be laid off than being in new construction.
 

rlc3854

Member
Location
Amite, LA
You will be setting up a libary of as builts, submittials and oem maunals to start the PM process. You will be part of the safety/cleaniness committie and make daily inspections. You will be part of the space utilization commitee making recommendations on office space changes, sketchs, estimates ect. Even if there is a stationary engineer the building management staff look to the electrician as a lead/supervisor in plant operations. St up meetings/phone calls for warranty work. Oh and every now again perform some real electrical work, even if it just side jobs for the staff.
 

cadpoint

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
I hope you have a good personality, you will be everything to your new employer!

You will have to deal with both contractors and clients. Your personality will be the Tell of the tape on that.

You have to be open to learn a lot of aspects of maintance that you never had to before.

Things you will have to do.

You have to make friends be a friend and extend friendship in deverse conditions.

You will have to do project management level work for yourself, in that you will have to know what parts to get service for, and know when it's over your head and when and where and what to order all by yourself.

You have to know who's responsible for what and what services, and the limits of the libilities that are on the equipment that needs servicing. You also have to know
and follow hazardous waste practices!

You will have to baby sit the services when they come on site. You have to follow around and hold their hand and you have to state that LO-TO is SOP!

Make friends with the Janitor and the crew!

Build a rollo-dex of who's who, (make a hard copy) you will be without power or the phone more times than not.
 

mivey

Senior Member
To add to cad:
Become the go-to guy for whatever they ask and you will become invaluable to them and add to your security.
 

Bobhook149

Senior Member
Thanks everyone the info is greatly appreciated. I have never been in maintenance and thought this was a little overwhelming given that the job description is very vague. I have been a Journeyman for about a year now with experience on both big commercial jobs and residential jobs as well. I feel that my personal skills are very good but am nervous to take on multiple buildings and have it all on my shoulders even though I will not be head of maintenance.

Any more thoughts are greatly appreciated and honesty is okay I can take it.
 

muskrat

Member
Location
St. Louis, MO
Familiarize yourself w/ PM of everything from GFCI recept to Panels and document everything. Update as-builts and OEMs as you modify. Haz-mat for fluorescent lamps/batteries etc.
Good luck.
 

Bobhook149

Senior Member
What kind of HVAC work? I know that the building will have automation control. Pretty confident that I can handle the job especially since it doesn't start until October.
 

jumper

Senior Member
What kind of HVAC work? I know that the building will have automation control. Pretty confident that I can handle the job especially since it doesn't start until October.

Basic stuff contactors, fuses, relays, pressure limit switches, fan motors, selonoid valves, other valve motors, filters,belts, may be cleaning coils.... etc.

It is not complicated stuff. Freon gas and such as duct work will someone else's problem.

In my experience about 80% of HVAC is electrical and routine maintenance.
 

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
Thanks everyone the info is greatly appreciated. I have never been in maintenance and thought this was a little overwhelming given that the job description is very vague. I have been a Journeyman for about a year now with experience on both big commercial jobs and residential jobs as well. I feel that my personal skills are very good but am nervous to take on multiple buildings and have it all on my shoulders even though I will not be head of maintenance.

Any more thoughts are greatly appreciated and honesty is okay I can take it.

Get to know the head of maintenance & learn how to work with him. He may well
be the person you will report to, unless you have been told otherwise. Whether boss or not, keep him in the loop on any work you do. A written list or e mail is a great way to do this. That keeps him up on what is in the building & where, whether other trades need to be involved in something, etc.
 

mayanees

Senior Member
Location
Westminster, MD
Occupation
Electrical Engineer and Master Electrician
I would think that among other things you'll be the Power System owner, responsible for NFPA 70E compliance: Documentation; energized work permits; handling of ECs and their interaction with the system; development of electrical safe practices; placement of Arc-flash labels; training programs; etc.

I would think that's a very desirable position for an electrician.

John M
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
I would also suggest not getting real excited about things that bug you for a while. Every place has stuff that is not well thought out or just plain wrong. It will take you a while to learn what is doable and what you will just have to live with for now.

One more suggestion - don't say something is against "the code" or is "unsafe" unless it really is and you have verified it first and can pull up a reference to support your contention. it will forever destroy your credibility if you make this kind of claim and it turns out to be wrong. If you are unsure, don't make that claim.

Unless something is an immediate safety issue, there is no reason to get worked up right now. There may be no reason to get worked up about it at all, even if something is "wrong". Many, many things that are "wrong" are not an immediate hazard and can be dealt with as you get to them.
 

bpk

Senior Member
I was an Industrial electrician before takeing a maintenance job for a facility. I bet my job is about 80 percent HVAC and building automation. Anything from motors and drives for Air Handling units to automation programming. Also alot of trying to reduce utility costs, building security. It may not seem like it now, but you will have plenty to do, especially in a new building getting all the bugs worked out, my only advice is to be proactive and take care of the people in the buildings
 

mtfallsmikey

Senior Member
Changing light bulbs, installing equipment circuits, moving circuits, moving cubicle walls & circuits, changing sign bulbs, moving ceiling lights, servicing machines, etc. Offices today are reinvented every few months. Machines come & go, office areas get enlarged, reduced, moved & moved again.

Advantage is that you will be inside, away from the weather, in a mostly clean environment. A brief slow period may give you a chance to coast a bit & catch up on technical reading, rearrange your tools, etc.

Disadvantage is working with an office full of human beings. You may well face every attitude & personality under the sun. Some folks will be easy to work with, some will be fussy about any noise you make or any inconvenience you cause them. You may have to stay late & do some projects after hours.

Been in this field now for 12+ yrs., and this post is the most correct one. Add unclogging toilets, too hot/cold calls,replacing/adjusing door closers, cleaning evaporator coils, or even cooling towers. Then you may be changing printer cartridges, delivering printer paper. Attitude/apperance is everything, smile as you are getting chewed out...it leaves them speechless!
 

WIMaster

Senior Member
Location
Wisconsin
Being a new building make sure to get copies of ALL of the as-builts!
The maintainance guy at my church (with an attached school) asked me to troubleshoot a recently installed FA system, none of the devices were labeled, the designations in the FACP were very vague and the only as-builts he had were for parking lot lighting!:rant:
I apologized and told him to get the people who installed it to fix it. I would have been there a looooong time trying to figure out what they did and what was where. He probably would have had an as-built when I was done.
 
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