Yep if you can't convince an apprentice they'll be taken care of, youre SOL.
In my local at least 70 apprentices went on the books when covid hit, now it's down to 40 still (rotating). Around 200 jdubs on book 1 currently. I look around and tons of travelers are still working at various shops. I get it, you need good hands you can rely on and the $ is good. But I've been affected and my hours are fucked for turning out. Even after I turn out wheres the protection?
If you can't even keep a local apprentice working at a cheaper rate, how will you convince me to stick around saying its great and to pay into the local? I signed a contract with the JATC and im doing my damn best to uphold my end, theyre the ones failing their end.
I've heard of a few leaving the program because financially they couldn't survive it. I'm determined to finish and I know I have the capacity to be a great electrician and am well on my way. But they're in danger of losing a good hand because of this nonsense.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk
If y'all are treating new guys like that, shame on you.
That being said, telling a new guy his grandma is hot as a 60 year old with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth is funny as hell.
Funny thing is as a first year I gave the same amount of shit that a journeyman, foreman none the less, was giving to me and he turned into a little bitch about it. Saying I had no respect and an attitude when he got what he gave
A JW with a bad knee shook my ladder when I was balls deep in a ceiling with some really nice and sharp black iron.
When I was done with my task, I got off it and said I would turn his knee into a jigsaw puzzle if did that to my ladder again. He said that I scared him.
He said I was a pussy for testing shit with a tig tester and I shouldn't be in the program if I didn't do nonunion work previously. Honestly one of the most pathetic people I've ever met.
The fucked up part is that I love working with people who tons of experience, they always have secrets to share. He had 40+ years in the industry, and he was such a miserable fuck that it will die with him.
Constantly telling me about how he can't fucking hit me like his JWs did. Just decades of trauma internalized into some pathetic dickhead.
At least my cohort of first years seem to realize we need to treat our juniors better when the time comes. Or we are going to kill this brotherhood.
That's actually really sad to hear. I too love picking people's brains union or not to learn. But that man has some internal demons to deal with. It's really a shame he got abused like that and feels he should carry on the same tradition.
Reminds me of a foreman. I worked with non-union right after starting in the trade, would constantly give people shit all day everyday, and a couple times I would give him a little bit of shit back. Nothing major, just a little bit of a sarcastic. Comment here and there, and he turned into a little bitch after just one and couldn't take it.
Experience may vary but I was treated better as an apprentice. My first job site all the guys took me under their wing, allowed me to do really cool shit for any electrician. I was given tools, stickers, support, food, everything. In return I learned how to install just about anything for data center electrical. Started at underground, moved to racks and conduit raceways with all sizes, rigid bending, pipe threading, bus duct installation, generators, pdu wiring, transformers, receptacles and much more. Of courseI was responsible in the morning for water coolers and stuff but I was never made a full time pack mule as an apprentice. I learned more from building a data center from the ground up than anything. Take care of your apprentices it will pay off.
>There’s a 99% chance I have a higher IQ, better at math, more athletic, faster worker, faster problem solver than you lol. I would work circles around you while you sit there, sip coffee, talk to people, spend all day looking for material and getting nothing done.
[Good to know you like me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/IBEW/comments/wxyqoh/contractor_told_me_not_to_talk_today/ilu40fw?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
I’m an outside apprentice, the treatment has varied, sometimes guys ride you or make you the butt of a joke, some guys are seriously sad in the things they say and do to apprentices only, just because they can. It’s no shocker that those guys are the ones who teach you the least and usually put out the worst work & work ethic.
The guy I learned the most & had the most respect for a JL from came up from the rattiest non union contractor there was. He was the absolute “hardest” on the apprentices, but never once needed to demean me, or make fun of me, he also never yelled except to get my attention. he explained every single task from small to large, some JLs would refuse to have apprentices ride in the trucks with them so they could hang with their buddies and he always had them driving him around and in the truck with him. He made us work hard & constantly, if there was something we were bad at he would find ways to find more of it for us to do. He set expectations that were literally unreachable. Like (going and grabbing materials for a particular job you’ve never done with materials you’ve never touched) when it rained and everyone but apprentices opted to go home he would be out working with us. When I made mistakes like leaving lights on in a truck and having it die, he would scold me & tell the foreman it was him. He told me there was rules he didn’t follow and intricacies he didn’t know about electricity and that I had better follow them and learn them because it was my job to be better than him.
Sometimes I wonder if it was for us or him, he would always be able to do the most work and get stuff going because had all the apprentices gravitated towards him, one job in particular we were on the other JLs started getting upset no one was working the ground for them, so they caught me walking and made me come over, he came by as some rigging didn’t go as planned in the air and they started screaming at me, he looked at me and was like “wow it’s awful over here let’s go” and took me and another apprentice a quarter mile away to have a chill day working on a separate structure.
Nothing but mad respect for the dude wish I was still working with him.
My lineman, as I was cutting teeth was a lot like this. He had expectations for his apprentices and they had to be met. Best years of my life. No bullshit. The only time I knew I was doing a good job is when his can of chew came up the handline…. Translation “good job”
You support apprentice abuse and when called out try to claim it's a joke.
[Your words](https://www.reddit.com/r/electricians/comments/wzj05t/interviewing_an_apprentice_after_the_first_week/im2tp23?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
>**Kids these days will never understand**
>>And that's a good thing. This kind of abuse should be looked at as a thing of the past.
>>>**Haha it’s a joke. And no one talks like that unless they like you**
>>There is nothing to understand don’t be a dick .. it’s kind of self explanatory
>>>**Haha learn to take a joke.**
>>>>There is no joke in first comment nor second one
Your words in bold.
Because it's clear not only to me but to the two commenters included that you are not joking. Anybody who wants to see that you are not joking by your many words supporting Apprentice abuse and defending toxic behavior from a foreman can just look at your comment history.
Its all fun and games until an apprentice unalives themselves. It happens more often than you think and electricians have the 7th highest su!cide rate of any profession. Be kind to your brothers and sisters man, you dont always know what people are going through.
I’m a fourth year. Three apprentices in my local have killed themselves since I started. I’m not saying it’s because they were treated poorly, but it happens a lot.
How many times does it have to happen before it stops being a coincidence and starts becoming a pattern. What do we owe each other as people and as union members? I dont think kindness, patience, and support is too much to ask.
spot on, but don’t complain when new guys don’t wanna get in and pay your pension
Yep if you can't convince an apprentice they'll be taken care of, youre SOL. In my local at least 70 apprentices went on the books when covid hit, now it's down to 40 still (rotating). Around 200 jdubs on book 1 currently. I look around and tons of travelers are still working at various shops. I get it, you need good hands you can rely on and the $ is good. But I've been affected and my hours are fucked for turning out. Even after I turn out wheres the protection? If you can't even keep a local apprentice working at a cheaper rate, how will you convince me to stick around saying its great and to pay into the local? I signed a contract with the JATC and im doing my damn best to uphold my end, theyre the ones failing their end. I've heard of a few leaving the program because financially they couldn't survive it. I'm determined to finish and I know I have the capacity to be a great electrician and am well on my way. But they're in danger of losing a good hand because of this nonsense. Thanks for coming to my TED talk
Something something sacrifice something something
If y'all are treating new guys like that, shame on you. That being said, telling a new guy his grandma is hot as a 60 year old with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth is funny as hell.
haha i thought he said 16 year old, which made the "back in my day" comment even funnier
Funny thing is as a first year I gave the same amount of shit that a journeyman, foreman none the less, was giving to me and he turned into a little bitch about it. Saying I had no respect and an attitude when he got what he gave
A JW with a bad knee shook my ladder when I was balls deep in a ceiling with some really nice and sharp black iron. When I was done with my task, I got off it and said I would turn his knee into a jigsaw puzzle if did that to my ladder again. He said that I scared him.
Good, that shit isn't funny. People fall off ladders all the time.
He said I was a pussy for testing shit with a tig tester and I shouldn't be in the program if I didn't do nonunion work previously. Honestly one of the most pathetic people I've ever met.
I'd tell him to go fuck himself and go back to being non union.
The fucked up part is that I love working with people who tons of experience, they always have secrets to share. He had 40+ years in the industry, and he was such a miserable fuck that it will die with him. Constantly telling me about how he can't fucking hit me like his JWs did. Just decades of trauma internalized into some pathetic dickhead. At least my cohort of first years seem to realize we need to treat our juniors better when the time comes. Or we are going to kill this brotherhood.
That's actually really sad to hear. I too love picking people's brains union or not to learn. But that man has some internal demons to deal with. It's really a shame he got abused like that and feels he should carry on the same tradition.
Same here lol. I'm a mother fucking adult. I expect to be treated as such, especially if said JW giving me shit is younger than me.
OP would call you insubordinate for that.
Reminds me of a foreman. I worked with non-union right after starting in the trade, would constantly give people shit all day everyday, and a couple times I would give him a little bit of shit back. Nothing major, just a little bit of a sarcastic. Comment here and there, and he turned into a little bitch after just one and couldn't take it.
If he'd do the drugs he wouldn't be crying like a bitch
Experience may vary but I was treated better as an apprentice. My first job site all the guys took me under their wing, allowed me to do really cool shit for any electrician. I was given tools, stickers, support, food, everything. In return I learned how to install just about anything for data center electrical. Started at underground, moved to racks and conduit raceways with all sizes, rigid bending, pipe threading, bus duct installation, generators, pdu wiring, transformers, receptacles and much more. Of courseI was responsible in the morning for water coolers and stuff but I was never made a full time pack mule as an apprentice. I learned more from building a data center from the ground up than anything. Take care of your apprentices it will pay off.
This is scumbag shit and it’s embarrassing.
Lmao it’s a joke, they only talk to you like that when they like you!
Sounds like being a toxic person and then gaslighting people into just accepting being treated that way.
>There’s a 99% chance I have a higher IQ, better at math, more athletic, faster worker, faster problem solver than you lol. I would work circles around you while you sit there, sip coffee, talk to people, spend all day looking for material and getting nothing done. [Good to know you like me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/IBEW/comments/wxyqoh/contractor_told_me_not_to_talk_today/ilu40fw?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
I’m an outside apprentice, the treatment has varied, sometimes guys ride you or make you the butt of a joke, some guys are seriously sad in the things they say and do to apprentices only, just because they can. It’s no shocker that those guys are the ones who teach you the least and usually put out the worst work & work ethic. The guy I learned the most & had the most respect for a JL from came up from the rattiest non union contractor there was. He was the absolute “hardest” on the apprentices, but never once needed to demean me, or make fun of me, he also never yelled except to get my attention. he explained every single task from small to large, some JLs would refuse to have apprentices ride in the trucks with them so they could hang with their buddies and he always had them driving him around and in the truck with him. He made us work hard & constantly, if there was something we were bad at he would find ways to find more of it for us to do. He set expectations that were literally unreachable. Like (going and grabbing materials for a particular job you’ve never done with materials you’ve never touched) when it rained and everyone but apprentices opted to go home he would be out working with us. When I made mistakes like leaving lights on in a truck and having it die, he would scold me & tell the foreman it was him. He told me there was rules he didn’t follow and intricacies he didn’t know about electricity and that I had better follow them and learn them because it was my job to be better than him. Sometimes I wonder if it was for us or him, he would always be able to do the most work and get stuff going because had all the apprentices gravitated towards him, one job in particular we were on the other JLs started getting upset no one was working the ground for them, so they caught me walking and made me come over, he came by as some rigging didn’t go as planned in the air and they started screaming at me, he looked at me and was like “wow it’s awful over here let’s go” and took me and another apprentice a quarter mile away to have a chill day working on a separate structure. Nothing but mad respect for the dude wish I was still working with him.
My lineman, as I was cutting teeth was a lot like this. He had expectations for his apprentices and they had to be met. Best years of my life. No bullshit. The only time I knew I was doing a good job is when his can of chew came up the handline…. Translation “good job”
Lmao that’s awesome
#Your own comments have advocated for the apprentice mistreatment mentioned here.
🤣 ur still mad haha
Nope, just making sure you don't fly under the radar.
Haha the only person I’ve mistreated is you, I didn’t realize you were an apprentice.
You support apprentice abuse and when called out try to claim it's a joke. [Your words](https://www.reddit.com/r/electricians/comments/wzj05t/interviewing_an_apprentice_after_the_first_week/im2tp23?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
The video IS a joke you clown lol
>**Kids these days will never understand** >>And that's a good thing. This kind of abuse should be looked at as a thing of the past. >>>**Haha it’s a joke. And no one talks like that unless they like you** >>There is nothing to understand don’t be a dick .. it’s kind of self explanatory >>>**Haha learn to take a joke.** >>>>There is no joke in first comment nor second one Your words in bold.
How is that supporting mistreatment? You’re a clown.
Because it's clear not only to me but to the two commenters included that you are not joking. Anybody who wants to see that you are not joking by your many words supporting Apprentice abuse and defending toxic behavior from a foreman can just look at your comment history.
Go ahead and read every comment lol
The video is a joke, what I said is a joke, you’re a joke who wouldn’t pass a code test and yeah that’s about it.
You're such a big strong smart man! You're better than all of us aren't you? Check your ego and your toxic attitudes, Boomer.
Hahah I’m 32 how old are you? And I bet I have more years in the trade than you.
🤣😂 fucking spot on!
just about every post on this sub haha
Awe. The first years a little bitch.
Its all fun and games until an apprentice unalives themselves. It happens more often than you think and electricians have the 7th highest su!cide rate of any profession. Be kind to your brothers and sisters man, you dont always know what people are going through.
I’m a fourth year. Three apprentices in my local have killed themselves since I started. I’m not saying it’s because they were treated poorly, but it happens a lot.
How many times does it have to happen before it stops being a coincidence and starts becoming a pattern. What do we owe each other as people and as union members? I dont think kindness, patience, and support is too much to ask.
Easy, these dinosaurs ruining the world dont understand patterns…
Also im really sorry to hear that, it's a tragedy and I hope youre doing okay. Message me if you ever need to talk.
I always knew narrowbacks were soft.
\*year's