JacksonburgFarmer

I have hired another apprentice, yesterday was his third day. I dont think this is gonna work...The BOY dont get it...Yesterday, he had to go home at 1:30 to, no ****, he said "clean his room" WTF??? Today he could come in untill 9 am because he had to watch his niece.

SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO PEOPLE THESE DAYS???

The kid was then mad because I told him to stay home the rest of the week. This kinda crap is why the country is in the shape it is in. This boy is 18 years old. Cant correctly ID a HOLE hawg and Band SAW laying side by side when i ask for the drill to drill through 6X6 beam, or the saw to cut a peice of 2" EMT. Didnt know how to use a file, list goes on and on....

I knew when i hired him he didnt have much knowlege or experiance, but good night, this is rediculous......I think it is about time for the firin' ax....

Bkessler

Sometimes it's tough to fire someone so fast but you gotta let him go. He will give you high blood pressure and it's obvious he does not want to work.

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alcoelectrical

Never hire two apprentices that know each other & travel together in one vehicle. While I tried trusting them on a residential rough stage wiring in a secluded area, I found that they spent countless hours ramming rx staples in rows up in the rafters, scribbling artwork with a marker on the above side of the trusses and charged me for full day production.
When separating them, neither of them were worth anything and then asked me for a letter of recommendation when I let them go.

While they assured me of their experiences in other matters, Later, I found that they wired 24 hour timers backwards and excepted beer from a customer and then drove one of my company trucks back while under the influence.

I couldn't get away with not even being one minute late when an apprentice in my day, much less make my own self interests an ounce worth more than the company I worked for.

alcoelectrical

Since this subject had opened regarding 'Help', I'll attempt to share all that I remember concerning my experiences with apprentices & unlicensed journeymen.

• An apprentice using a customer's brand new bath tub to throw up this nasty red colored, nose-hair curling, stomach convulsing mess that the employee didn't clean and then denied doing when the only worker on site in a week.
• Another apprentice used service calls to meet women. Initial complaints were handled with doubt, but then as the complaints continued and the denials climbed, our employee turned out to not only have a very healthy libido, but another chance of looking for a job.
• A unlicensed journeyman came at the usual time, loaded his tools and took a company truck for his assignment. Then he went directly home and went back to bed. A chance visit at the job site revealed that he didn't arrive at the job site all week long, but claimed 40 hours in his time sheet.
• Another unlicensed journeyman picked fights with the superintendent and was barred from the jobsite. Then again from two more projects.
• Another apprentice was caught sleeping on a piece of cardboard but claimed a full days work. The sleeping incident was brought to my attention only after he decided to quit.

• Another apprentice hid in a jobsite porta-pot for four hours while the whole time on his nextel radio - While being observed and timed by owner.

So little is to be said for today's apprentice. And much testing and scrutiny of any potential employee.

chenley

Lazy kids who don't want to do anything and draw a paycheck, so they can go out and party all night.

Guess I was raised the "old school" way... Father was in the military so it was show up early, leave late. Talk only when spoken too. List goes on, lol.

Bkessler

Kids think electricians don't have to work hard and get paid a lot. Then reality sets it. OR they get fired.

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Frasbee

I thought I didn't start work until my 2nd year in...

sparky970

Our maintenance manager was to have a meeting with an apprentice yesterday to discuss classes he needed to take. 2 hours before the meeting, he had an emergency and had to leave. Turns out, he had to go home and water his lawn.

bobelectric

Don't want to work,go Home!

leland

#1) Bad excuse. (clean rm.
#2) watch Niece... Your let go... Not fired.
#3) Not knowing stuff.. tools etc. That is your job to teach. If you're too busy to teach basics a better screening process is needed.
Or a better advertising for what you need.

Personaly, I love teaching the kids, But and only if they want to learn. This only takes a day or 2 to figure out. He does not appear to be one of them.
Sometimes, the best helpers are.... the ones that stay in the truck!!!

As Far as what is wrong with people today....... You can't yell at or demand anything of them as you may "damage their phsyc"
I say too F$#@%^&G Bad!!!!!
Thats how you learn. Get demands placed upon you!!!

SH*& or get off the pot!!! This is life!! deal with it or find something else to do!

Most times you can get more done alone.

Best of luck. (can him)

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"When one American is not worth the effort to be found, we as Americans have lost" (Rolling Thunder MA 1)

captkirk

In my opinion If this is a young kid, I totally put the blame on his parents for not preparing him to enter the real world. I see it all the time with parents now adays. For some reason it seems that more and more parents totally spoil their kids and they dont want to say no to them. Beileve me I have many examples of this even my cousins treat their kids like that.
My old man was tough with me. Once I turned 16 I had a part time job after school, and their was no discussion on it. He told me "no part time job no wrestling"
This summer I did alot of work at this one builders house that I worked for, and his kid (17 yrs old) would get up at 1:00!!!!!! in the AFTERNOON?. My dad would never let this happen. I remember I used to resent him for being so strict but looking back I cant thank him enough for pushing me. To this day I have a very solid work ethic, as does my wife who had equally tough parents. Dont get me wrong he wasnt totally unreasonable but .....getting up at 1;00 and no job HELLLL no.
Kids are a direct relation to how their parents raised them.

sparky970

I remember one apprentice I had working with me. 1st day on any job, he was 18 and completely green, he tells me, "I had to quit smoking pot to get this job, but I still sell it" I just thought, what a dips**t. After a couple weeks, we were climbing in the racks installing cable tray. We needed some material so I was sending him to go get it. He had no pencil or paper. I told him to hold out his arm, then took a sharpie and wrote the list on his arm, and told him not to forget a pencil and paper anymore, he never did. He ended up washing out several months later

leland

Great points and points taken.
But without going into societies ills (wich I will glady partake in )

If we look at the young ones comming up now, and perhaps thier parents careers. we will probably see most parents are in the Hi-Tech Data splurge erra. With no real mechanical skills as Dad took care of that to put them thru school.
Nothing wrong with that.
I think there is a half a generation that got no practical life skills due to the technical boom.
Along with that came the "Kindler-Gentler" crap.
I'll stop now. Need to keep the BP down.

__________________
"When one American is not worth the effort to be found, we as Americans have lost" (Rolling Thunder MA 1)

captkirk

That's so irritating hearing a story like that. I tried to get in the Union several times years ago and just got a run around. This kid was in and at 18. he could have had himself a nice carear. Some kids wouldnt know oppertunity if it came up and slapped them in the face.

captkirk

Hey man Im alright with that, I cant tell you how many silly service calls ive been on cause no one in the house has any clue how to fix anything and i mean anything. I fixed a ladys toilet once, hung an old ladys curtains another time, and I cant tell you how many light bulbs ive change. I charged this one lady an extra 100 bucks to change 4 light bulbs. Granted they were 25 feet high and I had to navigate and extension ladder through a room full of "Chachkies". But she had no problem with it, she said "oh finally its been 6 months ive been asking my husband to do it"

JRent

I know what you guys are taliking about, i think the problem is that they dont konw what they want. Let me explain, im 24 with 2 years experience, one day an apprentice asked me how come i know so much and know how to do so much, if we almost have the same time doing electrical, and i asked him, is this what you want to do your whole life until you retire? he replied no. he said he didnt know what he wanted to do.
The problem is that these young kids dont want to be elctricians, the just work for the paycheck. Unlike them i want this trade to be my carreer for life therefore i try to learn as much as i can.

leland

You found a good spot to proceed!!

FWIW, I started at 22 yrs too. Laid off truck driver with "issues", 23 yrs later... Best thing I ever did. Best thing.
Alot of good things have followed, but this was the best thing I ever stumbled into.

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"When one American is not worth the effort to be found, we as Americans have lost" (Rolling Thunder MA 1)

captkirk

That's a good point. I too changed careers years ago and I went to college and joined the USMCR. I definitely know that this is what I want to do.

JacksonburgFarmer

I belive that it is mostly his parents fault. They have never taught him how to do ANYTHING, and dont even have a clue to tell him to go to work instead of pussyfooting around. I also enjoy teaching apprentices about the trade...And i have worked with apprentices before that didnt have enought knowlege to get out of a paper bag. BUT This goofballl wouldnt show up enough to teach anything.

dowmace

That is definitely a big part of most of the kids nowadays problem they don't know what they want to do. All they really know is they want money, and for free.

I had an apprentice that everyday on the way to the job would beg to stop by mc'd's for breakfast. Everyday it was the same answer you should have done that s*** before you got in my truck. I finally had to let him go because of crap like that everyday it was some reason to leave the job site, I sent him to go get a small list of parts from Irby. I called the list in to on of the counter guys I'm familiar with and it was ready and waiting for him when he walked in the door, they said he spent 45 minutes drinking coffee and talking. I couldn't believe it 45 minutes he was just sitting there!!!