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<blockquote data-quote="DanielH" data-source="post: 1489797" data-attributes="member: 18034">I worked as a helper for some electricians over a summer a few years ago. I learned many of the same lessons. The music was intolerable even back then and I wasn&#039;t even a baptized Christian yet. There&#039;s lots of drug use. Since it was a union job, the main way the owner of the company would &quot;fire&quot; people would be to transfer them from a job that didn&#039;t drug test to a job that did drug test. When our site&#039;s construction was winding down, he let the apprentice and one electrician know they were being transferred to a drug test job the coming Monday. Both of them said they got shoulder injuries that weekend, so they couldn&#039;t come in to work. Overall I liked that job because when doing electrical work there&#039;s a lot of time to yourself, and you could put in earbuds and listen to a podcast and as long as you&#039;re aware of your surroundings, you&#039;ll be fine. (I was almost run over by a forklift while listening to a podcast).I believe the only reason I was able to endure physically was because of the muscle memory I had built up from sports and training from my childhood to early 20s. Wrestling and soccer were invaluable for endurance, and football and weight lifting were necessary for the heavy lifting. Still, I was drained at the end of most days (and electrical work is often easier than other trades) and if I had a family, I don&#039;t know how I would have the energy to be a good father. Maybe that would come with more time on the job - also when you become a journeyman you do a little less physical labor than the apprentices/helpers.Every time I ever worked a union job there was a lot of the &quot;good enough&quot; mentality - in the sense that you didn&#039;t need to try to be a good worker, just not a bad one.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DanielH, post: 1489797, member: 18034"] I worked as a helper for some electricians over a summer a few years ago. I learned many of the same lessons. The music was intolerable even back then and I wasn't even a baptized Christian yet. There's lots of drug use. Since it was a union job, the main way the owner of the company would "fire" people would be to transfer them from a job that didn't drug test to a job that did drug test. When our site's construction was winding down, he let the apprentice and one electrician know they were being transferred to a drug test job the coming Monday. Both of them said they got shoulder injuries that weekend, so they couldn't come in to work. Overall I liked that job because when doing electrical work there's a lot of time to yourself, and you could put in earbuds and listen to a podcast and as long as you're aware of your surroundings, you'll be fine. (I was almost run over by a forklift while listening to a podcast). I believe the only reason I was able to endure physically was because of the muscle memory I had built up from sports and training from my childhood to early 20s. Wrestling and soccer were invaluable for endurance, and football and weight lifting were necessary for the heavy lifting. Still, I was drained at the end of most days (and electrical work is often easier than other trades) and if I had a family, I don't know how I would have the energy to be a good father. Maybe that would come with more time on the job - also when you become a journeyman you do a little less physical labor than the apprentices/helpers. Every time I ever worked a union job there was a lot of the "good enough" mentality - in the sense that you didn't need to try to be a good worker, just not a [I]bad [/I]one. [/QUOTE]

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