I haven't visited the site for a few weeks but got the email from Mike Holt with a heads up re. this forum.
Coincidentally, just this morning I called an impromptu meeting today with 4 of my best job foreman. The purpose of the meeting included a few subjects, one of which was my desire to see the more experienced guys TEACHING the less experienced guys more.
Are you an on-the-job teacher?
I was lucky ( well, kind of, lol). For my first year in the field I worked for an ornery old man, I mean a world class SOB at times. This guy was so demanding there were times I almost quit. I remember one time on a scissor lift; he was teaching me to bend and hang 1/2" pipe, (quickly, without wasting moves) by leaning against the side of the lift smoking a cigarette, shouting orders. "Why didn't that stick have a coupling on it before you shot it up?!" "Put the GD connectors in the box BEFORE you hang it!" ect., ect. I had had enough, and hit the "down" button on the lift controller. I quit, well; I was trying to anyways. He grabbed the controller, we fought for control of it for a few seconds, and we came to rest 1/2 way between our work elevation and the ground. For the next 20 or so minutes he taught me more than ever before.
He explained his demeanor, stemming from a submariners naval background, a rather rough life, and many years in the trade. He explained to me that he saw potential in me (I was 19 yrs. old at the time) that he hadn't seen in a kid for a while. He explained that not only was he teaching me for my benefit, but for HIS. You see, this wise old wireman wanted to feel the long-term satisfaction realized after your student becomes an accomplished electrician. 20 minutes or so later we were back up in the air running conduit.
I never forgot those 20 minutes. Sometime after his untimely death from cancer later in my career, I decided to try to always be a teacher to others like he was to me. Maybe not as harsh, but as relentless and demanding as necessary to burn good habits and long lasting knowledge into the minds of deserving apprentices.
Last week I had a foreman tell me he "taught" a new apprentice how to bend pipe. Yesterday this kid pulls up to the shop to off-load some left-over material out of the trunk of his car, and I notice a new bender in there with the little instruction booklet still stapled around the handle. I ask him, "Do you know how to use that thing?" ?Yeah?, he answered. Well, I had a few scraps of ?? EMT in the back and asked him to bend me a 10 ?? offset in one piece and a 10 ?? 90 in the other. He couldn?t do it? he didn?t have a clue. You see, the foreman that ?taught? him merely told him how to bend pipe, likely for several hours, and it didn?t sink in. My foreman never held this kid?s feet to the fire, never required him to practice, or bend anything without assistance. No bueno.
My point is this industry would be a lot better off if more journeymen took a personal interest in teaching, testing, and challenging those with less experience. Theory, motor control, ladder diagrams, the NEC? all this stuff can be taught on the job, day by day, even if all you?re doing is throwing up 2?x4? lay-ins all day. Take a break; teach a kid how to draw a ladder diagram of a start-stop, than make him draw it for you the next day. Let him go home early that Friday if he gets it right? you get the idea.
You see, we can and should all be ?Instructors?, at least to those that show an ability to retain what they?re taught and have the motivation to work hard when asked. Somebody taught me, someone taught you? pass it on.
Godspeed Bruce Kopsco, you ornery SOB,?????.? and thanks. Thanks for everything, especially not letting me win the fight for that lift controller.
Coincidentally, just this morning I called an impromptu meeting today with 4 of my best job foreman. The purpose of the meeting included a few subjects, one of which was my desire to see the more experienced guys TEACHING the less experienced guys more.
Are you an on-the-job teacher?
I was lucky ( well, kind of, lol). For my first year in the field I worked for an ornery old man, I mean a world class SOB at times. This guy was so demanding there were times I almost quit. I remember one time on a scissor lift; he was teaching me to bend and hang 1/2" pipe, (quickly, without wasting moves) by leaning against the side of the lift smoking a cigarette, shouting orders. "Why didn't that stick have a coupling on it before you shot it up?!" "Put the GD connectors in the box BEFORE you hang it!" ect., ect. I had had enough, and hit the "down" button on the lift controller. I quit, well; I was trying to anyways. He grabbed the controller, we fought for control of it for a few seconds, and we came to rest 1/2 way between our work elevation and the ground. For the next 20 or so minutes he taught me more than ever before.
He explained his demeanor, stemming from a submariners naval background, a rather rough life, and many years in the trade. He explained to me that he saw potential in me (I was 19 yrs. old at the time) that he hadn't seen in a kid for a while. He explained that not only was he teaching me for my benefit, but for HIS. You see, this wise old wireman wanted to feel the long-term satisfaction realized after your student becomes an accomplished electrician. 20 minutes or so later we were back up in the air running conduit.
I never forgot those 20 minutes. Sometime after his untimely death from cancer later in my career, I decided to try to always be a teacher to others like he was to me. Maybe not as harsh, but as relentless and demanding as necessary to burn good habits and long lasting knowledge into the minds of deserving apprentices.
Last week I had a foreman tell me he "taught" a new apprentice how to bend pipe. Yesterday this kid pulls up to the shop to off-load some left-over material out of the trunk of his car, and I notice a new bender in there with the little instruction booklet still stapled around the handle. I ask him, "Do you know how to use that thing?" ?Yeah?, he answered. Well, I had a few scraps of ?? EMT in the back and asked him to bend me a 10 ?? offset in one piece and a 10 ?? 90 in the other. He couldn?t do it? he didn?t have a clue. You see, the foreman that ?taught? him merely told him how to bend pipe, likely for several hours, and it didn?t sink in. My foreman never held this kid?s feet to the fire, never required him to practice, or bend anything without assistance. No bueno.
My point is this industry would be a lot better off if more journeymen took a personal interest in teaching, testing, and challenging those with less experience. Theory, motor control, ladder diagrams, the NEC? all this stuff can be taught on the job, day by day, even if all you?re doing is throwing up 2?x4? lay-ins all day. Take a break; teach a kid how to draw a ladder diagram of a start-stop, than make him draw it for you the next day. Let him go home early that Friday if he gets it right? you get the idea.
You see, we can and should all be ?Instructors?, at least to those that show an ability to retain what they?re taught and have the motivation to work hard when asked. Somebody taught me, someone taught you? pass it on.
Godspeed Bruce Kopsco, you ornery SOB,?????.? and thanks. Thanks for everything, especially not letting me win the fight for that lift controller.
(A1W, Idaho Falls, 1976)