Electrician Talk banner
21 - 40 of 48 Posts
I’m 60.
I plan to completely retire at 62, take all of my retirement early.
I don’t consider my business to be very transferable as I do design build projects.
I would consider carrying my customer base for the right person, I can consistently do 10k to 15k per week in revenue and spike into the 20ks if projects bump into each other.
We have about 500k in projects on the books to complete plus my nightmare plan and spec school board job with about 125k left to invoice.
I can take more of those jobs but, they are small margin and pay slow so I decline any offers they have.
So you are starting the backout?

In Feburary I will have two to go as well.
 
What am I missing here? Why do people even bother with privately owned shops? I went through the 4 year IEC program, turned out and have been part of a shop for a little over 5 years, 1 year as a journeyman. The other day I ran into some Union workers on the job and they sold me pretty hard.

Right now I'm getting severely underpaid and our shop has put a halt on all pay raises. Not only that but I make $7.50 less than my local union. On top of that I pay $60/week for health insurance. My company matches 401k but they take the $ out of our bonus pot. So you can hardly even call it "matching". There is no pension. No matter what it is regular pay unless I'm 40+ over. So if I'm not at 40 yet and I'm working on a holiday at 3am in the morning you best believe it's straight pay.

The pros are that I do have a van and a gas card, and my company does keep me busy with 40-45 hours a week. That's been consistent even through the rough times we're going through with covid. We are basically a service shop, we don't do any ground ups. I like the work, I don't get stuck bending pipe for 2 months straight, or changing out lamps and ballasts all day. The work I do is something new every job.

What am I missing though, why would anyone join a private shop? Did the Union guys lie to me just to show off the incredible benefits they told me they have... Anyone know the local benefits of joining the Union in the Houston area? I'm just so blown away at how night and day different Union and private shops are, am I thinking correctly? Did I join a cheap private shop? It's the only one I've been a part of so I can't really compare it to anything else.

**Using a throwaway account, would like to stay anonymous. Some of my co-workers be coming on here.
If IBEW is so much better than IECA or any other, then why didn't you start out IBEW, in the first place?
 
I live in the South just like you. Florida and Texas are pretty much the same with the work mentality.
We are more groomed to just take what we are handed and do really stick together as well as what I call the "founding" states.
I started out in the trade working non-union.
The boss had a big house, a nice boat and all of the trimmings. He paid his guys crap and would even have them come over to his house and work. Some of the shop worms would wash his boat.
I thought it was a smack to do such things but, they were so proud to tell each other how nice and big his house was and the nice place he had on the golf course.
Needless to say, I got out of that crap and into a union apprenticeship program.
We do make about $15 more than the non-union guys in our area plus we have about $15 or so an hour in benefit they don't get. Its still pretty anemic compared to other good union states but, Its what we can get due to the working mentality in our region.

I've worked for union contractors that had me go work on their homes, not sure that is really an issue.

I have worked both sides of the fence and feel union training and compensation packages are just better (area dependent).
 
I've worked for union contractors that had me go work on their homes, not sure that is really an issue.
I am a union contractor. When I have service truck guys, I pay them for 40 hours a week regardless of how few hours they actually work. (Sometimes they just have a couple of hours of work.) So if I need some work done at my house that is even the least bit electrically related, and I have a guy who is sitting around, I will him come over and do it. Seems fair to me. I don't have them come over and rake leaves, but they can wash my work truck.
 
I am a union contractor. When I have service truck guys, I pay them for 40 hours a week regardless of how few hours they actually work. (Sometimes they just have a couple of hours of work.) So if I need some work done at my house that is even the least bit electrically related, and I have a guy who is sitting around, I will him come over and do it. Seems fair to me. I don't have them come over and rake leaves, but they can wash my work truck.
Seems like a good thing to me.

I've had good employers that I often was very friendly with outside of the office.

Been to their vacation houses, out on their boats, etc
 
I am a union contractor. When I have service truck guys, I pay them for 40 hours a week regardless of how few hours they actually work. (Sometimes they just have a couple of hours of work.) So if I need some work done at my house that is even the least bit electrically related, and I have a guy who is sitting around, I will him come over and do it. Seems fair to me. I don't have them come over and rake leaves, but they can wash my work truck.
If you are willing to pay union wages to have someone rake leaves, I don't see a problem.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dan the electricman
Union vs Non-Union is for suckers.

If you really want a future, you should be thinking Employer vs Employee.

Employers make out much better than an employee is in this trade.
 
If you are willing to pay union wages to have someone rake leaves, I don't see a problem.
Paying the wages and what they do for those wages are two separate issues. Service electricians are hard to get so I don't want to lose any.

Service jobs vary in length from one hour to several days. I try to arrange the schedule to maximize the number of billable hours per day, but sometimes you just end up with two one hour jobs which means a lot of down time. Yet, service electricians still expect to get paid 40 hours per week. If I want to avoid having them quit, I have to pay them 40 hours. It's really not a matter of "willing to pay". The truck breaks even on labor at 20 hours so this usually is not a problem.

Electricians (especially union electricians) get prickly if you ask them to do work that is not electrical work. I don't want to piss them off and have them quit, so I avoid asking them to rake leaves unless the leaves are covering switchgear or a trench I want dug.
 
Union vs Non-Union is for suckers.

If you really want a future, you should be thinking Employer vs Employee.

Employers make out much better than an employee is in this trade.
Employers don't always make out better than employees, especially in small new companies. I've been both, and prefer being an employer, though.

However, some people are not cut out to suffer the long days, steep business learning curve, constant customer acquisition, and handling difficult employees.
 
It is so.
Not true.

Many electricians aren't capable of running a shop, many employees want a job with a good wage, good bennies and some sort of security with a stable wage and retirement that follows them throughout their career.
 
Some sure feel like they could run your business better than you.
Maybe behind my back never heard any real bitching to my face.

Had a few guys talking to me a few years back explaining how the man always screws the worker.

I reminded them I was "THE MAN"
 
21 - 40 of 48 Posts
Top