Guess what!
There’s a whole generation of old men about to pass away, most of them tradesmen. And in my experience, crotchety and unwilling to teach.
Because this generation generally has less interest in trades, likely from being viewed down upon (see above), there is going to be a severe shortage of people working in the trades.
This will possibly mean two things:
Companies are going to scramble desperately to get new apprentices, so -good news- more jobs.
But, expect a startling lack of quality in the years to come.
A local (and very well off) welding company wanted me to pay for my own courses and equipment when I applied. It would have been hundreds of dollars out of my pocket, for MAYBE a chance to be taken on as an apprentice, if I withstand being the shop bítch for long enough.
PART TIME.
This is so crazy to me. I got into a low voltage trade and everything was paid for. I brought minor hand tools, but everything over 100$ was provided. And that is like standard around me (for new guys). Also amazing wages once you’re a well experienced worker. (Talking 5 years or so).
Maybe not welding, or electrician, but pipefitters, plumberd, fire guys, all great trades.
What kind of work is that if I were to go looking? I really enjoyed control wiring for HVAC systems, didn’t enjoy lugging boilers up flights of stairs or brazing compressors in place in Manhattan with 1/2sqft of space to work in…
My work specifically i very company dependant, but data wire, access control, fire, cameras, all the fun “low voltage” stuff. Normally you’ll find Access, Security, and Cameras bundled. Sometimes with Fire, sometimes Data. All depends on who ya look for!
The school I went to, you were basically sold to the employer LOL. They paid for your school when they hired you. You just had to agree to work there for a couple of years.
I wasn’t aware, that truly blows…
I wonder what generation that kind of attitude will end at. There’s nothing to gain by not even letting people get their foot in the door
Most trade jobs don’t pay enough. As an auto tech The offerings are not good, because most dealers keep most of the profits. Nurses are getting screwed left and right too. I tried switching over to being a truck driver and they actually pay less now than they used to, this is after the supposed shortage and I was out 14hrs a day.
I’m a former auto tech who got into sales, after seeing my complete moron coworkers who knew nothing about their jobs and wrote bad checks that I was supposed to cash, making twice as much money as me.
Or in my case: “cool no one wants to pay me, I guess I’m taking the $1000 out of savings and starting my own businesses.” It’s way more stress, but I’m making enough money that I can think about buying a house and retiring before I die.
He started a business with a grand and got lucky. How many people wouldn’t be successful with that grand? How many people don’t even have that money to spare?
Skill shortage probably comes the same way as bankruptcy: gradually, then suddenly. We are probably in the slowly running out of tradesmen phase of the craftocalypse.
Lemme explain why that is:
When I got into construction, a construction company was an owner/salesman and four guys who did everything from digging the foundation to putting in the last cabinet screw.
When the housing boom happened, everyone learned only one part of the process and none of the rest. Capitalism stepped in and said “we need to sell products with the least amount of skill to install them!” and we got shit like wire closet shelving with sheetrock anchors instead of installers who know what a stud is and how to find one.
I have to do every trade now, and I also have to deal with guys who needed a job so they ran to Home Depot and bought some tools and are calling themselves handymen without any experience and they’re fucking up everything right and left because they don’t know even the most basic physics concepts. One of them grew and sold weed all his life and now he’s out of business because of legalization. He has no other option but to be a laborer and he’s not smart enough to understand the job he’s doing. Another was a pro water sports guy and he is actually destroying the things he is hired to work on and I am having to redo all of it. He ran plumbing in a house with no P-traps and stunk the house up with sewer gas ffs.
Things are built to spec. Everybody wants that 4500sf house but most people don’t know what quality looks like. When I was house shopping, the new construction homes homes already made me very disappointed and leary. I eventually bought an older home with a Stablok panel and felt better about that. 😂 Swapped the panel out after close, I’m not nuts.
I eventually bought an older home with a Stablok panel and felt better about that.
My house had a Bulldog panel with the original 1960s inspection sticker still attached to it. Swapped it for a modern 200 amp panel when I had my solar panels installed.
It’s hard to buy a new house in my area… They’re so expensive, and the quality just isn’t there.
I’m 42 now and I left the trades a year ago after getting the life beat out of me for most of my life. It’s not that no one wants to do the work, it’s that no one wants to pay for a good tradesperson. When I left my last job they were only hiring techs for $16-$20 and hour. That was with HVAC certification. It’s laughable.
Matter of fact, the company I worked for withheld raises from one of their teams for 3 years and they pikachu faced when they all left. Literally the best tech team in the company too. (This team had over 100 years of total experience in the trades. Plumbing, electrical, you name it. They’ve done it.)
Not to mention like 99% of the companies require you to own your own tools and will not replace/repair anything that breaks while working for their company. Got a nice new impact and it broke doing a job? That $200 is coming out of your pocket. Always.
Fucking, also, all the jobs that require being on call. Got a family? Fuck you, go fix shit at 2am and then make sure you show up to work on time at 6am with no sleep. Work 10-12 hours, go home, get called the next night too.
A-fucking-men… That’s why I backed out too. Nothing worse than the 2am call, or JUST pulling into your driveway just to get a call and have to go back out for god knows how long.
Yes yes “money.” A little bit sure, but not enough to be ok with a company literally owning all of my potential time.
I thought most tradesmen were independent contractors. Doesn’t that mean that you don’t have to put up with shit like that? That’s what it means in IT…
Nah, you can work for companies and be a W2 employee. There’s a lot of both.
I’d say a majority of the ones I’ve met work for a company so insurance is easier. They don’t have to be bonded and insured on their dime because the company does all that.
The US has a perplexing set of labour laws, and I understand it varies wildly by state but damn, how is it not a federal standard that if you’re an employee, the employer is required to provide you with all tools to perform your work?
It’s a lot less a law thing as it is a work culture thing. Some jobs provide stuff, but you’re required to have the basics. Some provide everything. It all really depends, but it’s prevalent for companies to expect you to have everything but the big stuff. (Which I mean, even then, some still require you to have your own storage solutions like in the case of mechanics.)
As someone who spent the last 5 years in trades, and is now going to retraining: nobody is willing to pay enough for you to destroy your body by the time you’re 50.
Tried getting into tiling/flooring, could feel it absolutely destroying my knees. Got out of that pretty quick. Totally not worth it.
AND, another instance of my hoping to be taken on as an Apprentice, only for the guy to be a complete prick and take me for a ride. What a waste of my time and energy and physical well being
Yeah apprenticing sucks. All the old guys seem to think apprentices are just floor sweepers and aren’t there to learn. And they all like to brag about what slow learners they are. “It took me twenty years to learn this!” So they refuse to teach you because when you learn faster than them it makes them feel stupid.
So glad I don’t work with anyone like that anymore.
Shuuuuut the fuck up old man, you grew up in an era where the government was practically THROWING homes, cars, jobs and land at you. Now you’re pissy that a younger generation is just wanting to be treated fairly in a world that’s become increasingly hostile and greedy. Get your head out of your geriatric ass.
“Apprenticing” is shit. Work with a crew starting out, but also spend time with trade magazines, browsing supply stores, make friends with supply personnel. Learn the trade without relying on experience to do it.
Practical experience go a long way though, there’s some things you just don’t learn unless you’re exposed to it.
That being said, the fact that the people who are seemingly obligated to teach these kinds of things don’t want to bother with that
I LOVE teaching it, but sometimes it’s hard to teach. There is a certain amount of basic physics that a person needs to be able to grasp, and some just do NOT get it. It’s also hard to know every situation that you might encounter…I am in an area that only adopted the international building code in 2012 and the situations I encounter here are just wack. (which of course ehould not be an issue in other more civilized areas)
Countries ought to vary your retirement age based on the work you do. It’s absolutely wild that I will retire at 67 (heck you Australia for raising it) after working mostly in an office, but a tradie also only qualifies for the pension at the same age, despite doing back breaking labour their whole life.
Guess what!
There’s a whole generation of old men about to pass away, most of them tradesmen. And in my experience, crotchety and unwilling to teach.
Because this generation generally has less interest in trades, likely from being viewed down upon (see above), there is going to be a severe shortage of people working in the trades.
This will possibly mean two things:
Companies are going to scramble desperately to get new apprentices, so -good news- more jobs. But, expect a startling lack of quality in the years to come.
There’s a startling lack of quality a lot of the time now, it’s gonna get hella bad when the trades-boomers go.
True enough. I can only hear “NoBoDy WaNtS tO WoRk AnYmOrE” so many times before i figure who’s to blame for that
Exactly. Nobody wants to work for unliveable wages. It’s a wage shortage, not a labour shortage.
Or, after being tired of being lowballed for work and offers to be paid in exposure, “fuck you, pay me.”
A local (and very well off) welding company wanted me to pay for my own courses and equipment when I applied. It would have been hundreds of dollars out of my pocket, for MAYBE a chance to be taken on as an apprentice, if I withstand being the shop bítch for long enough.
PART TIME.
yea,
FUCK OFF
Those “small business” owners:
“Buying my third luxury car is so expensive, why are prices going up? Must be the government”
Unreal. What do they expect you to live off?
This is so crazy to me. I got into a low voltage trade and everything was paid for. I brought minor hand tools, but everything over 100$ was provided. And that is like standard around me (for new guys). Also amazing wages once you’re a well experienced worker. (Talking 5 years or so).
Maybe not welding, or electrician, but pipefitters, plumberd, fire guys, all great trades.
What kind of work is that if I were to go looking? I really enjoyed control wiring for HVAC systems, didn’t enjoy lugging boilers up flights of stairs or brazing compressors in place in Manhattan with 1/2sqft of space to work in…
My work specifically i very company dependant, but data wire, access control, fire, cameras, all the fun “low voltage” stuff. Normally you’ll find Access, Security, and Cameras bundled. Sometimes with Fire, sometimes Data. All depends on who ya look for!
The school I went to, you were basically sold to the employer LOL. They paid for your school when they hired you. You just had to agree to work there for a couple of years.
What trade? I’ve heard of that happening to auto techs
That’s the one
lost Italian?
uh
Sorry, it’s just that in Italy it’s the exact, same thing
I wasn’t aware, that truly blows…
I wonder what generation that kind of attitude will end at. There’s nothing to gain by not even letting people get their foot in the door
Most trade jobs don’t pay enough. As an auto tech The offerings are not good, because most dealers keep most of the profits. Nurses are getting screwed left and right too. I tried switching over to being a truck driver and they actually pay less now than they used to, this is after the supposed shortage and I was out 14hrs a day.
??? How can they have a shortage of workers, but try to justify paying people less???
I swear to fucking god, the mental gymnastics these fuckers do is phenomenal
I’m a former auto tech who got into sales, after seeing my complete moron coworkers who knew nothing about their jobs and wrote bad checks that I was supposed to cash, making twice as much money as me.
Or in my case: “cool no one wants to pay me, I guess I’m taking the $1000 out of savings and starting my own businesses.” It’s way more stress, but I’m making enough money that I can think about buying a house and retiring before I die.
Waiting for Lemmy anti-capitalists in 3… 2…
He started a business with a grand and got lucky. How many people wouldn’t be successful with that grand? How many people don’t even have that money to spare?
Skill shortage probably comes the same way as bankruptcy: gradually, then suddenly. We are probably in the slowly running out of tradesmen phase of the craftocalypse.
Lemme explain why that is: When I got into construction, a construction company was an owner/salesman and four guys who did everything from digging the foundation to putting in the last cabinet screw. When the housing boom happened, everyone learned only one part of the process and none of the rest. Capitalism stepped in and said “we need to sell products with the least amount of skill to install them!” and we got shit like wire closet shelving with sheetrock anchors instead of installers who know what a stud is and how to find one. I have to do every trade now, and I also have to deal with guys who needed a job so they ran to Home Depot and bought some tools and are calling themselves handymen without any experience and they’re fucking up everything right and left because they don’t know even the most basic physics concepts. One of them grew and sold weed all his life and now he’s out of business because of legalization. He has no other option but to be a laborer and he’s not smart enough to understand the job he’s doing. Another was a pro water sports guy and he is actually destroying the things he is hired to work on and I am having to redo all of it. He ran plumbing in a house with no P-traps and stunk the house up with sewer gas ffs.
DEY TERK ER JERBS!
Things are built to spec. Everybody wants that 4500sf house but most people don’t know what quality looks like. When I was house shopping, the new construction homes homes already made me very disappointed and leary. I eventually bought an older home with a Stablok panel and felt better about that. 😂 Swapped the panel out after close, I’m not nuts.
My house had a Bulldog panel with the original 1960s inspection sticker still attached to it. Swapped it for a modern 200 amp panel when I had my solar panels installed.
It’s hard to buy a new house in my area… They’re so expensive, and the quality just isn’t there.
Leery is a synonym of wary. Leary is an angry man named Dennis that we thought was funny for a year or two.
Also a tenured Harvard psychologist turned spiritual guru through drug experimentation.
RIP Timothy Leary.
And apart from that, he’ll be so kind, and consenting to blow your mind
I doubled up on homes too. \o/
I’m 42 now and I left the trades a year ago after getting the life beat out of me for most of my life. It’s not that no one wants to do the work, it’s that no one wants to pay for a good tradesperson. When I left my last job they were only hiring techs for $16-$20 and hour. That was with HVAC certification. It’s laughable.
Matter of fact, the company I worked for withheld raises from one of their teams for 3 years and they pikachu faced when they all left. Literally the best tech team in the company too. (This team had over 100 years of total experience in the trades. Plumbing, electrical, you name it. They’ve done it.)
Not to mention like 99% of the companies require you to own your own tools and will not replace/repair anything that breaks while working for their company. Got a nice new impact and it broke doing a job? That $200 is coming out of your pocket. Always.
Fucking, also, all the jobs that require being on call. Got a family? Fuck you, go fix shit at 2am and then make sure you show up to work on time at 6am with no sleep. Work 10-12 hours, go home, get called the next night too.
A-fucking-men… That’s why I backed out too. Nothing worse than the 2am call, or JUST pulling into your driveway just to get a call and have to go back out for god knows how long.
Yes yes “money.” A little bit sure, but not enough to be ok with a company literally owning all of my potential time.
I thought most tradesmen were independent contractors. Doesn’t that mean that you don’t have to put up with shit like that? That’s what it means in IT…
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Nah, you can work for companies and be a W2 employee. There’s a lot of both. I’d say a majority of the ones I’ve met work for a company so insurance is easier. They don’t have to be bonded and insured on their dime because the company does all that.
Whew, my poor cousin worked for CN Rail a while ago. Absolute worst, most inconvenient on-call hours you could imagine.
On-call jobs can go to hell.
The US has a perplexing set of labour laws, and I understand it varies wildly by state but damn, how is it not a federal standard that if you’re an employee, the employer is required to provide you with all tools to perform your work?
It’s a lot less a law thing as it is a work culture thing. Some jobs provide stuff, but you’re required to have the basics. Some provide everything. It all really depends, but it’s prevalent for companies to expect you to have everything but the big stuff. (Which I mean, even then, some still require you to have your own storage solutions like in the case of mechanics.)
As someone who spent the last 5 years in trades, and is now going to retraining: nobody is willing to pay enough for you to destroy your body by the time you’re 50.
Tried getting into tiling/flooring, could feel it absolutely destroying my knees. Got out of that pretty quick. Totally not worth it.
AND, another instance of my hoping to be taken on as an Apprentice, only for the guy to be a complete prick and take me for a ride. What a waste of my time and energy and physical well being
Yeah apprenticing sucks. All the old guys seem to think apprentices are just floor sweepers and aren’t there to learn. And they all like to brag about what slow learners they are. “It took me twenty years to learn this!” So they refuse to teach you because when you learn faster than them it makes them feel stupid.
So glad I don’t work with anyone like that anymore.
Shuuuuut the fuck up old man, you grew up in an era where the government was practically THROWING homes, cars, jobs and land at you. Now you’re pissy that a younger generation is just wanting to be treated fairly in a world that’s become increasingly hostile and greedy. Get your head out of your geriatric ass.
“Apprenticing” is shit. Work with a crew starting out, but also spend time with trade magazines, browsing supply stores, make friends with supply personnel. Learn the trade without relying on experience to do it.
Practical experience go a long way though, there’s some things you just don’t learn unless you’re exposed to it.
That being said, the fact that the people who are seemingly obligated to teach these kinds of things don’t want to bother with that
I LOVE teaching it, but sometimes it’s hard to teach. There is a certain amount of basic physics that a person needs to be able to grasp, and some just do NOT get it. It’s also hard to know every situation that you might encounter…I am in an area that only adopted the international building code in 2012 and the situations I encounter here are just wack. (which of course ehould not be an issue in other more civilized areas)
Countries ought to vary your retirement age based on the work you do. It’s absolutely wild that I will retire at 67 (heck you Australia for raising it) after working mostly in an office, but a tradie also only qualifies for the pension at the same age, despite doing back breaking labour their whole life.
Germans have a word for it. Fachkräftemangel
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I am seeing 3 words there Fach Kraft Mangel… Germans disapprove of Kraft making manual laundry wringing mechanisms?
I only know what a mangel is called because of a Steven King short story
I didn’t know that meaning of Mangel. In this case it’s just shortage and Fachkraft would be translated to professional.
No one looks down upon them. They’re just crappy jobs that take a toll on your body and health over time.
They try to make it so appealing though, “Oh if you get your Red Seal, you can work anywhere I Canada.”
Great, I can be underpaid in ANY province I want.
Southpark’s latest special covers this.
Nobody knows how to do shit anymore!