Why are electricians such babies

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ceknight said:
It'd be the rare electrician who couldn't make a profit using Exxon's method. Imagine if the government bought each of us a million dollars's worth of AFCIs just to encourage us to install them, and let us sell the units at full price w/ markup and keep all the pennies for ourselves. My, what a wonderful world this would be... :)
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We need better lobbyist?
 
I almost hate to revive this thread (for fear of where it could go :D ) but I feel compelled to add this:

This week, while working in a new addition to a hospital, I was running a 3/4" EMT from the electrical room halfway across the joint for a rooftop unit we forgot to pipe (no big deal, caught before grid).

Anyway, the floor guys were working in an area I'd need to set a ladder on to finish my run, and so I asked him if I could work in the area. He told me that he put up the caution tape to keep people out, because otherwise he'd have to clean the area twice before applying his coat of whatever on the concrete.

I nodded, said I understood, and asked when it would be okay to work on. He said, Monday should be fine, and I said "OK, no problem."

As I turned to walk away, he started to prattle on about how sensitive the floor gunk was, and how much liability was involved, and how people didn't really respect his job but that it did take a lot of skill to install successfully. I nodded, said I'm sure he was correct, and tried to pry myself out of the conversation so I could get back to work...

...and then he told me he'd been a painter for over 30 years, and started over with this, said he had a lot of experience in construction, and that electricians were the biggest primadonnas of all the trades, with plumbers a close second.

I kinda nodded, and then blinked, 'cause the "but you guys aren't so bad..." never came. :D

About three days later I finally thought of a comeback - but unfortunately for me, the moment to tell off the typical self-important floor guy had passed. :D

Anyway, I feel better...
 
way to think quick....:D

should've asked him how much he liked doing the work, cause he was now gonna get a chance to do it again :D

(unfortunately he was right about electrician's being primadonna's...much as I hate to admit it..)
 
I've heard the electrician's as primadonna's many times before. The trade that follows after any given trade, always thinks the trade before them are a batch of primadonna's. I just goes with the territory.
 
Emahler, that's the funny thing - I get pretty bad tunnel vision when I'm on the job. The whole while the guy was talking, I'm standing there, looking him in the eye thinking about the next run, so the backhanded comment took a minute to sink in, and it was a couple days before I stopped to puzzle over it again. :D

Ever the quick wit am I. ;)
 
We do a lot of work for electrical contractors and I here from the electricians that my guys are a bunch of primadonnas, cause all they know how to do is sit at a piece of equipment and turn knobs, hardly electrical work in their eyes.

I tell them I am hiring and their eyes usually light up, I explain typical week is 60-80 hours, a lot of holidays, emergency calls at all hours, they usually back off then.
 
brian john said:
We do a lot of work for electrical contractors and I here from the electricians that my guys are a bunch of primadonnas, cause all they know how to do is sit at a piece of equipment and turn knobs, hardly electrical work in their eyes.

I tell them I am hiring and their eyes usually light up, I explain typical week is 60-80 hours, a lot of holidays, emergency calls at all hours, they usually back off then.
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Brian...when can I start? I can sit down and turn knobs for 80 hrs no problem...
 
they can kick, cry and screem all they want, as long as they can perform the work right and on time. I get paid they get paid , no more kick, cry or screem. :wink:
 
electricmanscott said:
I'm reading these threads that are nothing more than btchfests complaining about new requirements. And I am hearing it at the supply houses. It always seens to come down to "this is going to cost me....." . It is NOT going to cost YOU one penny. It is going to make you money. Is that not why we do this????

New requirements are generally for new products that will be more expensive and therefore will be sold by YOU at a higher margin.

I laugh at guys in the supply house that are always complaing about afcis, smoke detectors, co2 detectors etc. These things should be making you more money.

They always question me as to why I am buying the $70.00 electronic low voltage dimmers insted of the $5.00 push on clunkers. "Those are too expensive, I ain't payin for that....." the yahoos say
#1. Dosen't matter what the price is, they are required for electronic lv fixtures if you want to dim them.
# 2. I ain't payin for them either. In fact I am collecting an extra 35 bucks for each one that comes through the customers door.
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I agree with that sentiment. It's the little things like the requirement in 210.63 for new split-system A/C installs. That puts more dollars into our pockets. If it wasn't required we wouldn't have to do it, and we defintely couldn't charge out for it.

IMO, I think the requirement for smoke detectors in every bedroom is sometimes silly when you have 4 smoke detectors within 10' of each other including the hallway. Sorry, ma'am, code requires it like this, that'll be $650, thank you!

Heck, even the 210.52 receptacle rules make us money.
 
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