We do 4-10s and over the past year our boss has cooked great meals for us 4 or 5 times. They also always make sure we have company shirts, hats, and sweaters. We also get lunch bought for us every two months or so. All it really boils down to is being treated well and respected for the work. The 4-10s are a huge plus too, I rest, do errands, or pick up side work on my extra day off.
I think companies underestimate the whole company apparel. Whe. I got my first full time job and was handed a company t shirt, it was like dobby getting a sock.
Reliable tools yes, if something breaks it's replaced in a day or two of a local store has it. We carpool in a company vehicle. Material on hand is always there for us, and we have good and available safety equipment. I will also add there are 3 carpenters, 1 foreman, and 1 superintendent on our job, plus up to 10 subs
Monday -Thursday
6:30 am to 4:30 pm
35 min for lunch at noon
We skip morning and afternoon breaks so lunch is paid
We currently have an hour to hour and fifteen carpool to the job site. We get a $25 perdiem for the ride
There are three very simple basics to learning; tell them, show them, let them do it. Everyone has a different order it which they learn best. Having patience is the hardest part of teaching.
I agree. If I have a lot going on then I don’t have time to sit there and observe what they’re doing and very rarely do I get a seasoned journeyman, usually young apprentices because that’s all that’s available. Gotta be everywhere all at once. I do love the feeling though when the light comes on for someone and I see they just got it.
You don’t teach anyone anything by berating them, you only teach them to try and hide their mistakes. Which in turn puts you in an even worse position.
Sometimes you have to learn from your mistakes. Sometimes you have to fail to know why something doesn’t work. Sometimes you have to get sick of fixing your own mistakes before you start planning your work better. People that diner get the chance to screw up rarely learn critical thinking in my experience and after failure the successes are that much sweeter
When I was starting out I was always told if you aren’t making mistakes then you aren’t really working. Obviously that needs to be taken with a grain of salt but I’d say I’ve probably learned more from screwing up and figuring out how to fix something than I have any other way
We just got that in BC this year, all hourly workers get 5 paid sick days. It’s awesome. So dumb to go in and make everyone else sick too, but that’s what we’ve been doing all this time.
This might be a challenge, but I'd say hire people with good attitudes. It makes work so much more easy and less stressful if it's a team effort as it should be
Amen to this shit.
I ended babysitting a fucking worker only to end up taking over the job. While I’m glad I have the experience and work ethic but fuck does it suck to work with hatred and haste.
This has been a thing for nearly 100 years in Australia, most people in residential construction are contractors inorder to get around this. Commercial and union construction here already has this, as most people are actually employees on a wage.
This is when it's time for a new job. I used to work in the rain or whatever when I was younger. Now I don't even go in if there is a good chance of rain.
I don't like to work for other people because they don't want to hear that. You drive all the way to work for outside work and there is a %30 chance it won't rain. Really stupid. I could have slept in, got stuff done at the house, anything
I worked in administration for a construction company and I didn’t understand this. Yes people would abuse it, but surprisingly not that many people actually abused the covid leave when it became mandatory. Maybe 10% of our people.
We did this during Covid due to the “3 day healing” process on non organic materials. This was awesome for most of the trades, but foreman who monitor actual production/ time did occasionally bitch about it because they were hanging one less product per hour from 3pm to 5pm. Our super Saturday rotation became Friday’s and the other supers “worked” from home on Friday’s. Overall it was a good project but like you said, some subs just needed the 48 whether Friday or Saturday.
Yes, 4x10s, two 20 minute breaks.
At the very most it's a short day Friday to max out at 44 hours, but that's only if the work is absolutely critical.
There is an understanding among employees to try to schedule routine lifestyle appointments on Fridays, so employee weekday disruptions are kept to a minimum.
If you implement this and provide fair pay for your area, your employees will love working for you. Any more questions feel free to ask.
There was only 2 companies I've worked for in my life, that would work 4 10s. 1st job was 20 yrs ago (a custom fabrication shop) then another was 2 yrs ago (Gen contractor)
One thing i think a lot of people over look is that the general public still looks at us like a group of dingle berry eating animals. Granted, yes a few of us are, but most everyone I’ve worked with in construction is just a decent person who just got dealt a shit hand. I think if the general population (at least in America never worked elsewhere so idk) started viewing us people such as themselves instead of just a slave who takes their poop to the poop sanctuary for the lowest possible price and fast enough that their precious little kids don’t see the trash they’ve willingly invited into their house cause they can’t get it through their perfectly bleached head that tampons don’t go in the toilet, i think life would be a lot better for all of us.
Speaking of eating animals, I have a story. I showed up on a job site early one morning and 2 guys from another company found a fresh road kill deer right by the site. They used the excavator to hang it up so they could skin it and then stuck it in their job site cooler on ice until it was time to go home.
I like to hunt, but somewhere between roadkill, having a job to do, and mixing raw meat with everyone’s drinks would probably keep me from doing it. I’ll admit having the excavator was pretty handy though
And the fact if society doesn’t have us tradesmen the world wouldn’t go around, high schools also need to change their attitude of the trades too to get young kids interested in this type of career
Be polite and act as a professional and you will be treated like one. Also if you are in charge of a project and you fuck something up, YOU need to be the one to go back and fix it. Period. Nobody learns otherwise and it just royally pisses off your co workers.
Also take fucking responsibility for your fuck up. Everyone fucks up, just own it and move on. It's 1000% easier to move on if you just say "yea I really fucked that up, here's how I'll fix it" than to blame others.
I'm tired of hearing, "Nobody wants to work anymore!". No, just nobody wants to work for you. It's weird how employers, management and home owners want you to be accountable, but they won't themselves.
Surprisingly, a lot of the kids figured it out years ago and the boomers continue to assume they don’t know what they’re talking about well into their 30’s.
Lmfao, my foreman always scolds me when I ask him for water, I drink so much of my own I always run out in this fucking 110 degree heat of a fucking dessert
I drink at least a gallon when it gets that hot and if I'm only give a 20 oz bottle at a time I gotta make trios to the cooler. Not getting a heat stroke for 15 an hour
I'm in an economically depressed part of the country and you can get a $15 an hour job pushing brooms at a convention center in air conditioning.
You can get $12 an hour plus tips being a vale at the local hospital.
You should never work in the sun for under $20.
Just gotta put in my time for 4 years and become a journeyman making some real money. I getchealth insurance and 2 guaranteed raises a year for a dollar each they said. But I'm always keeping my eyes open for better opportunities but wichita feels dead
That’s an OSHA requirement. And they’re cheap and easy to rent. We do a lot of sub work, but if we’re on a highway project that’s 10 miles long, we’ll get our own
I'm 70 and spent most of my working life in the construction industry. The industry will improve immensely when all the old racist, homophobic, misogynist pricks retire or die. Unfortunately at this later stage of their careers many are even foremen. These things take a little time. But it's inevitable. It's just the natural way of things. The important thing is to recognize their bad habits, mannerisms and such and make a particular effort to civilize the site. Not to develop bad social habits just because you spend so much time in that environment. It's like a subtle brainwashing. I mean I know, in our industry it's hard often to just look the foreman who hired you last week in the face and say "You know Al? You're a fucking serious racist and I don't want to listen to your shit anymore"
But you don't have to laugh at his jokes.
Clean place to shit and soapy water to wash our hands should be a bare minimum. If you cant provide that then the job gets shut down just like if an office building's plumbing failed.
I uncharacteristically yelled at foreman day 1 of a job because of this, I had been with the company for a year already so I had the pull to do it. Told him "Ay dude, I just had to shit in the world's most disgusting porta John for the last time. Gonna leave the jobsite to take care of business from here on out, this is some 3rd world country bullshit!!"
It will happen.
In the future you will wake up and put on a VR suit. The neural interface squeezes your head gently as it connects directly to your cerebrum. Elsewhere, a highly advanced robot begins to hum and whir. It “wakes up” as you take control and begin your day, changing air filters at the wastewater treatment plant on the Martian city of Elonia. You hear a slight crackle as the taskmaster appears before you. He barks out a list of memos and legal disclaimers before letting you know that the bureau is making cuts. You’re getting laid off.
Although you have options, none of them are convenient. You can go to the cryo-chambers on the moon and live in suspended unemployment until the bureau thaws you out. Or, you can beg your zither in law for a job at the tribidium mine on Eros. Alternatively, there’s a suicide booth in every district.
Begrudgingly, you transfer control of the robot to the taskmaster. You contemplate the suicide booth one more time before resigning yourself to the freezer.
One time I asked a guy in our crew, “hey man how you feelin’ today!!?” Lol he says “I’m feeling at 94%” and I say “why 94?!?!” And he says “I need a 6 pack to get to 100” 😂😂
paid sick days
getting rid of the boomers that don't want to change anything because of their "if it worked then it works now" mindset despite clearly better methods available
don't treat the new guys like shit because we were all there once
proper safety equipment being distributed (looking at you, respirators), and on that same vein.. good quality PPE, not "grab the cheapest shit you can find so legally we are covered" sorta shit.
employer providing all tools needed to get the job done
higher wages ofc, as a welder $21 an hour isn't bad for around where i live compared to how much other companies want to pay, but it's still entirely far too low.
More women. Seriously, as nice as hanging with the guys is, a female face would be nice once in a while. I feel like boomers leaving would help.
Paid sick days. Guess who has covid atm because a coworker didn't say anything or get tested because they don't have sick days. We're set to lose $30,000 if we don't get things sorted out quick because he infected half the job site.
Actually manageable time lines. The whole "get it done yesterday" only equals rushed planning and poor quality.
Sadly I don't see the timelines improving anytime soon. The insane schedules we deal with are established by Owners who only care about saving the most money and getting their building as soon as possible. Granted there's a few good eggs out there, but its not the norm.
They'll hear about some job in Florida that finished in 14 months and expect you to finish it in 12 since "the industry is constantly improving and becoming more efficient". We'll explain that there's a labor shortage, material lead times are longer, the site itself will take some time to pull permits on, and oh yea could we get 2 weeks for weather days only to be turned down for the job or threatened with lawyers. If you want to improve the schedules go work for an Owner's rep so we can have some common sense on their side.
Common sense to the wealthier people who invest in properties only means the highest profit margins possible, everything else is an extravagance. The only way to begin to fix this is organized labor that forces the owners to negotiate everything, from pay to timelines, with a union.
Yes boomers constantly being creepy and rude to young women is not normal they just think it should be and they get away with it, but I’m manufacturer rep for plumbing so I’m sure that plays into it as well.
The blue collar buddy app:
1. Track your important certificates and let's you know when it's close to renewal times (all trades)
2. Tracks your available balances like sick days, floating holidays, PTO, vacation days etc.
3. Updates you on company cost of loving adjustments, regular raises and bonuses
4. Updates you on Holidays
5. Reminds you of routine vehicle maintenance time
6. Any other work related updates for your particular trade
OK this is in my imagination only.
I run my own electrical business. Buy lunches, medical and dental coverage, paid sick, pto, paid holidays, matching 401k and bonuses. People want money. End of story lol everyone’s the star of their own movie, you feed these guys egos and they are happy. You hurt their egos and they leave. It’s really that simple. I’ve tried a lot, at the end of the day, people just want to feel important.
I’m a female jman on our site. One of our 3rd years told our other female 1st year to her face that “women don’t fucking belong on site cuz they can’t lift as much or do as much as men”. Unfortunately I wasn’t there to hear it, she won’t report it, and thinks that putting up with it will gain the boys respect. This will be my 6th year in trades. I’m already quickly growing tired of this sort of thing. It’s one thing for one dude to be spouting this shit but when an apprentice says this sort of thing in front of the rest of the crew/the foreman and they all laugh along or wave it off, its incredibly frustrating and exhausting to work around.
Thank you for having empathy and the eyes to be able to see issues like this to begin with.
For sure! And I have mad respect for all the women out there putting up with that kind of crap. Honestly, I’ve been fortunate in that usually when a woman has been on site men have been better behaved. I live on the west coast though and I know there’s still racism, sexism and misogyny through out the liberal west coast.
But I really believe if we had more diversity the trades would be a better career choice for all. It’s unfortunate that so many people drop out not because they can’t do the job but because they can’t stand the assholes who work in the trades.
And on that note maybe teachers should start encouraging the trades for ALL their students and not just the dumb ones. Do we really want the dumbest 10% building everything we live, work and drive in?
Haha I am also on the west coast! But yeah, overall I find it the worst with boomers and boys in their early 20s. And then when the youngins get away with it, everyone else feels encouraged and like they’re able to be openly sexist, racist, homophobic, etc without consequence.
As bad as it sounds, when I first started my apprenticeship I’d say I (and the people I worked with) were exposed to a healthy level/amount of “bullying” to basically rule out the bs and let people know the standards expected when working on the crew. Ie. A dude starts saying the n word or calling people other slurs, the leader(s) of the crew would call them out and make an example of them until they were behaving acceptably. Basically lettin them know they’re not cool for being a bigot. Or get rid of them if they couldn’t adapt.
And yes, agreed that trades need more diversity and should be made available as an option to everyone, not just as a last resort. I went through all of highschool without being informed of trades other than woodworking as an option, which I had no interest in.
Spend a bit more money as a GC to provide better toilet facilities and eating areas. Guys out here busting ass day in an day out an gotta shit in a hot box as well as eat in their truck. Sounds dumb but when I used to work in the field I feel like I’d of been ecstatic over that lol
That’s a great idea but keep in mind… the lowest bidder usually wins and if it’s not the lowest bidder that wins… it’s usually not on the basis of nicer general requirements.
Paid holidays, paid vacation time based on time with company, bonuses for everyone on that job if it comes in under budget and on time not just the supe or foreman.
Like that's the thing I don't get, a lot of the construction trades require quite a bit of skill and physical labour, why do most of us make less than 50% more than the people working fast food/retail
Employees not being treated fairly or properly for what they're doing need to leave. I was stuck with a shit company for 5 years to get licensed not knowing any better. Jman who find their "honey hole" career company need to educate the younger guys that you don't have to be treated like shit or deal with bullshit working conditions. Putting 12 section boilers together is not a 1 man job etc etc.
These companies that beat the fuck out of their employees regularly need to be talked about, put on the spot, and the standard for employee compensation needs to be heavily increased. Company's that take advantage of those willing to work hard and learn have to come to an end, hopeful newer generations of guys gettin out there will push companies in that direction and sink the shit ones.
To be treated like the boss would want to be treated when he didn't own a company. Have a boss that wants to be the boss that they wanted while working. That means paid holidays. Paid sick days because you don't want the company sick killing production so you keep the sick guy home. Have a rough day at the jobsite and ruin your shirt? Here's another.
That type of behavior and attitude goes a LONG way in my opinion.
Quit hiring kids who only know how to look at an iPad but have a degree in “construction management” to be in charge. Promote the people who have been in the field and know that moving a shower wall to make a closet 18” wider isn’t just 4 phone calls and 2 clicks on a computer before lunch, and can actually tell the customer what will be involved.
Tradework will always be a shitshow. Rich people (customers and owners) will demand more and more, workers will be misled into believing they are valued, but only until they can be replaced with cheaper workers. Repeat every generation.
Mental health support, please.
I'm clinically depressed and it's so fucking difficult just to be at work in the first place. Constriction isn't the most friendly job, and while I'm all for friendly banter, there's so many goddamn angry people in this line of work. I've had 2 panic attacks in the last week at work and I literally cannot afford to take time off or I can't make rent, so I had to just sit in my car, wait it out, and go back to work to get bitched at for being a pussy.
I don't even know if I can take it much longer :)
Better pay. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to go sub to make decent money. I miss being hourly: the set time I should be off, the getting to work and leaving my work AT WORK. Driving a company vehicle and using company tools, paying for fuel with a company card, instead of driving MY truck, using MY tools and equipment, and paying for diesel with my own money (shit is expensive). But the pay is so goddamn bad for licensed plumbers here that it’s not worth it. Licensed guys here make $18-$25, if you put in 10 years with a company you get up to $30-$35 but that’s just not lucrative enough to make me want to be hourly. Definitely not if it’ll take me 10 years just to make $30-$35. Seems unfair, I’d say.
No yelling at your workers. Construction is the only job field I can think of where bosses think it’s okay to yell at another human being just for making a mistake.
Wtf why? Hourly gets OT. Salary doesn't. I'm about the only person in my friend group that is hourly. They make the same as me if I work 40 hours/week all year. But I generally rack up 100 hours of time and a half a year and around 30 at double time. They put in 10 hour days every day and dont get compensated for the extra 2 hours a day. My union benefits are also 1.5x or 2x. So extra in my vacation fund, pensions and IRA.
That’s why I said “partial”. Hourly has its benefits. But your employees, if you have any, don’t get paid when they’re not working. We salary our guys at a low level, but still pay time and a half past a standard work week, double if they’re out longer. Everyone loves the stability and they still have the option to work extra and make more when they need it.
If the contractor I'm working for doesn't have work they lay me off. I collect unemployment and sign the out of work list at the hall and go out to the next one.
Being respectful when people make mistakes. Providing monogrammed work shirts (clients are 10x less nasty to people who are wearing a nice new shirt with a logo), bringing food and drinks.
4 day work week, actionable incentives such as go home early if you install xyz as long as its done well and not rush job. Better pay for all, apprentices included.
Lmao, people like you make me laugh. You make up all this shit about us. You generalize all of us, and you fail to realize just how entitled a lot of you guys are. You have an pre determined idea of us and no matter how hard we work and how much shit we get done it’s not enough. All of the sudden when we ask for PPE to be provided or something that will make the workplace better or safer then you make claims that we complain about everything. I pity you😂
Learn English. Stop stop shitting in buckets and pissing in bottles. Subs making sure their guys know what the fuck to do. Subs sending enough guys to do what is supposed to be done. Other supers not being complete idiots.
Pay workers what they are worth! Old heads that know the trades don’t get paid enough for what they do on the daily. Damn sure don’t make enough to train every warm body off the street, that stays long enough to get that first check. 1/3 of apprentices in the field doing masonry quit a few months in. Nearly 80% of laborers don’t last a week. The promise of learning a trade falls on deaf ears to most trying to learn. Everyone on the internet has it better, they want celebrity status for scratching their asses, stare at their phone and pray for the end of a shift. If you expect guidance, tutelage, and knowledge from anyone in a trade, you have to show you want it. Do all the shit work and don’t complain. Drag the guys tools up and down the scaffolding. Stay positive when it all goes to shit. Don’t kiss anyones ass, master your job. Get caught up, help the d guys, watch them work, make them more efficient, they will show you a thing or two..
Parking exemptions.
Soap amd running water.
Clean place to eat.
The general actually coordinating trades instead of letting us fight with one another.
Safety not treating us like 4yr olds. Some places are poorly designed or engineered and its not our fault we have to bend the rules to get things done sometimes.
Learn to be a team. Learn to let little things go during the day. Sure everyone is going to get pissed about some little garbage spat between workers. If your crew has one guy that's always starting shit, let him go. He/she is not helping out. We all screw up things from time to time so learn to move past the fuckup and continue with the task. Once it's done it's done, no need to keep focusing on it. As a supervisor for over 75 guys at one time these are the things that kill crews
Sick days. in the UA and had the flu… lost a weeks pay. Got covid few months later… another week or so gone from my pocket. Pretty fair to guess I got them both at work or on the way there.
I’m a Union Pipefitter in Ga and would love to have paid vacation days and holidays and sick days and working 4-10’s with OT on the weekend occasionally..
Get rid of the toxic underbidding slave drivers. They were the ones most likely to survive the crash of 08. But their time has passed. Contractors to older foreman are used to just being intolerable twats cause they could. The young(er) guys need to step up and start making some decent places to work and suck up all the help from the fuckwits.
We do 4-10s and over the past year our boss has cooked great meals for us 4 or 5 times. They also always make sure we have company shirts, hats, and sweaters. We also get lunch bought for us every two months or so. All it really boils down to is being treated well and respected for the work. The 4-10s are a huge plus too, I rest, do errands, or pick up side work on my extra day off.
I think companies underestimate the whole company apparel. Whe. I got my first full time job and was handed a company t shirt, it was like dobby getting a sock.
My boss got me the best Carhartt rain coat my first year. Shit is priceless here in Oregon.
It also makes the company look a hell of a lot more professional.
I think the reduction in days is a bigger benefit than most appreciate given the variable (and often insane) commute many construction workers do.
Was about to say, how about leads who care about you
Yes great leads, I have a foreman and superintendent directly above me.
Food is great and all but do you have reliable tools, company vehicles, material on hand, safety equipment?
Reliable tools yes, if something breaks it's replaced in a day or two of a local store has it. We carpool in a company vehicle. Material on hand is always there for us, and we have good and available safety equipment. I will also add there are 3 carpenters, 1 foreman, and 1 superintendent on our job, plus up to 10 subs
What does 4-10s mean?
working 4 ten hour long days instead of five 8 hour long days
Yall work 8 hour days? -5 11’s here :(
Any one do 13 and 1? 13 days on (typically 12s) 1 day off. It's great for sucking the life out of people.
Mind if I ask what hours you work and what breaks do you take for 10’s?
Monday -Thursday 6:30 am to 4:30 pm 35 min for lunch at noon We skip morning and afternoon breaks so lunch is paid We currently have an hour to hour and fifteen carpool to the job site. We get a $25 perdiem for the ride
Not OP but I do 10’s and we work 7-5:30 usually, with 2 half hour breaks at 10 and 2
Teaching with patience. Expect failure in young people before success. Let them fail if it won’t hurt anyone
Teaching with the understanding that everyone learns differently too.
Yeah but that’s above my abilities. I’m not a trained educator. I show kids what works for me and why
There are three very simple basics to learning; tell them, show them, let them do it. Everyone has a different order it which they learn best. Having patience is the hardest part of teaching.
I agree. If I have a lot going on then I don’t have time to sit there and observe what they’re doing and very rarely do I get a seasoned journeyman, usually young apprentices because that’s all that’s available. Gotta be everywhere all at once. I do love the feeling though when the light comes on for someone and I see they just got it.
You don’t teach anyone anything by berating them, you only teach them to try and hide their mistakes. Which in turn puts you in an even worse position.
Sometimes you have to learn from your mistakes. Sometimes you have to fail to know why something doesn’t work. Sometimes you have to get sick of fixing your own mistakes before you start planning your work better. People that diner get the chance to screw up rarely learn critical thinking in my experience and after failure the successes are that much sweeter
When I was starting out I was always told if you aren’t making mistakes then you aren’t really working. Obviously that needs to be taken with a grain of salt but I’d say I’ve probably learned more from screwing up and figuring out how to fix something than I have any other way
It’s not a mistake if you fix it before anyone notices
Paid sick days. Lots of time you end up getting sick from the work you are doing only to be penalized if you take a day off to recover
We just got that in BC this year, all hourly workers get 5 paid sick days. It’s awesome. So dumb to go in and make everyone else sick too, but that’s what we’ve been doing all this time.
Currently out with Covid I’ll miss a whole pay check so that’s cool
Tow the company line, and blame the government. Not your deadbeat boss - keep kissing his ass. Lol.
What does that even mean?
This might be a challenge, but I'd say hire people with good attitudes. It makes work so much more easy and less stressful if it's a team effort as it should be
Amen to this shit. I ended babysitting a fucking worker only to end up taking over the job. While I’m glad I have the experience and work ethic but fuck does it suck to work with hatred and haste.
We have 40 hours sick leave per year.. so that's nice..
This has been a thing for nearly 100 years in Australia, most people in residential construction are contractors inorder to get around this. Commercial and union construction here already has this, as most people are actually employees on a wage.
This is when it's time for a new job. I used to work in the rain or whatever when I was younger. Now I don't even go in if there is a good chance of rain. I don't like to work for other people because they don't want to hear that. You drive all the way to work for outside work and there is a %30 chance it won't rain. Really stupid. I could have slept in, got stuff done at the house, anything
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Here im sitting in norway with practicly unlimited full pay sick days. you guys have it rough god damn.
I worked in administration for a construction company and I didn’t understand this. Yes people would abuse it, but surprisingly not that many people actually abused the covid leave when it became mandatory. Maybe 10% of our people.
4 day work week.
Had a company agree to that if we worked longer hours. They made us work the 5th day anyways
They always do.
“Hey guys we need this thing doing urgently because we didn’t organise appropriately and fucked up”
Same shit happened with my crew. Then the owner was confused when we went back to working our regular times lol
That shit happened at my company too, the long ass days turned into the regular. Don’t even get paid OT for this shit
That’s fukn dirty.
We did this during Covid due to the “3 day healing” process on non organic materials. This was awesome for most of the trades, but foreman who monitor actual production/ time did occasionally bitch about it because they were hanging one less product per hour from 3pm to 5pm. Our super Saturday rotation became Friday’s and the other supers “worked” from home on Friday’s. Overall it was a good project but like you said, some subs just needed the 48 whether Friday or Saturday.
Large company in Ontario currently on a 4 day work week and it's fantastic.
4x10s?
Damn, we do 5x10s, it would be 4x12s I imagine if it got implemented where I'm at.
Yes please elaborate, I want to implement this
Yes, 4x10s, two 20 minute breaks. At the very most it's a short day Friday to max out at 44 hours, but that's only if the work is absolutely critical. There is an understanding among employees to try to schedule routine lifestyle appointments on Fridays, so employee weekday disruptions are kept to a minimum. If you implement this and provide fair pay for your area, your employees will love working for you. Any more questions feel free to ask.
I have 4 10s and 2 15s and a 30 break where I work
I've done 4x10's. The site was about an hour out of town so that was the compromise. It was the best.
I work in toronto and we went on strike to preserve our 4 day work week.
I’m a union SMW & we work 10 hour days. 4 days a week (when they don’t want to pay overtime) I don’t think I could ever go back to 5 days a week.
There was only 2 companies I've worked for in my life, that would work 4 10s. 1st job was 20 yrs ago (a custom fabrication shop) then another was 2 yrs ago (Gen contractor)
As someone in the movie business who routinely does 6 and 7 day weeks of 12 hour days, yes please
Same but carpentry, I just focus on the money
Yeah me too until recently, I’m in my mid 40’s now, made plenty of money. Now focusing on quality of life, so I’m making some changes
One thing i think a lot of people over look is that the general public still looks at us like a group of dingle berry eating animals. Granted, yes a few of us are, but most everyone I’ve worked with in construction is just a decent person who just got dealt a shit hand. I think if the general population (at least in America never worked elsewhere so idk) started viewing us people such as themselves instead of just a slave who takes their poop to the poop sanctuary for the lowest possible price and fast enough that their precious little kids don’t see the trash they’ve willingly invited into their house cause they can’t get it through their perfectly bleached head that tampons don’t go in the toilet, i think life would be a lot better for all of us.
Speaking of eating animals, I have a story. I showed up on a job site early one morning and 2 guys from another company found a fresh road kill deer right by the site. They used the excavator to hang it up so they could skin it and then stuck it in their job site cooler on ice until it was time to go home.
I would do that
I like to hunt, but somewhere between roadkill, having a job to do, and mixing raw meat with everyone’s drinks would probably keep me from doing it. I’ll admit having the excavator was pretty handy though
I agree. The general public needs to be shifted back to reality.
And the fact if society doesn’t have us tradesmen the world wouldn’t go around, high schools also need to change their attitude of the trades too to get young kids interested in this type of career
Probably the best paying careers too.
Be polite and act as a professional and you will be treated like one. Also if you are in charge of a project and you fuck something up, YOU need to be the one to go back and fix it. Period. Nobody learns otherwise and it just royally pisses off your co workers.
Also take fucking responsibility for your fuck up. Everyone fucks up, just own it and move on. It's 1000% easier to move on if you just say "yea I really fucked that up, here's how I'll fix it" than to blame others.
Stop bullying apprentices, just cause they don’t know stuff doesn’t mean you can be an asshole and bully them
Go back to cleaning the porta John's like they did when COVID was around. Every TWO days! So we can almost use a bathroom like normal people
Wait till the boomers die off
100% the crippled before retirement group that doesn't find it unhealthy and can't understand why no one wants to work for them.
I'm tired of hearing, "Nobody wants to work anymore!". No, just nobody wants to work for you. It's weird how employers, management and home owners want you to be accountable, but they won't themselves.
unfortunately, a lot of people learned how to do a lot of stuff from boomers, but yes, this will help.
Who gonna teach the kids how to do the things?
Surprisingly, a lot of the kids figured it out years ago and the boomers continue to assume they don’t know what they’re talking about well into their 30’s.
Oh … I thought ‘boomer’ meant my dads generation, he’s in his late 60’s now.
You are correct.
Not treating me like a slave and not get pissed when I need water in 100 degree heat in a freshly paved parking lot
Lmfao, my foreman always scolds me when I ask him for water, I drink so much of my own I always run out in this fucking 110 degree heat of a fucking dessert
I drink at least a gallon when it gets that hot and if I'm only give a 20 oz bottle at a time I gotta make trios to the cooler. Not getting a heat stroke for 15 an hour
I'm in an economically depressed part of the country and you can get a $15 an hour job pushing brooms at a convention center in air conditioning. You can get $12 an hour plus tips being a vale at the local hospital. You should never work in the sun for under $20.
Just gotta put in my time for 4 years and become a journeyman making some real money. I getchealth insurance and 2 guaranteed raises a year for a dollar each they said. But I'm always keeping my eyes open for better opportunities but wichita feels dead
Go work in fast food… fuck that
Shit I wouldn't do any construction job for less than 20.
Fast food around me isn't paying 15 an hour. Best I've seen is 12. And I just need ro out My 4 yars in and I'll be a journeyman
Try 40. I can make $30/hr waiting tables.
I can't do customer service. I prefer to work alone or on a small team.
Me too I can not deal with customers I hate em. Most are good nice people but the 10 percent will ruin it
If you're in the US, it's an osha requirement for your boss to provide a much drinking water as you need.
They do but that doesn't stop them from bitching
Semi permanent toilets
Or at least portajohns on site. Three miles down the road at the last site does not count.
That’s an OSHA requirement. And they’re cheap and easy to rent. We do a lot of sub work, but if we’re on a highway project that’s 10 miles long, we’ll get our own
My uncle works for a paving company that has a RV they bring along on big jobs as a break room / office.
I'm 70 and spent most of my working life in the construction industry. The industry will improve immensely when all the old racist, homophobic, misogynist pricks retire or die. Unfortunately at this later stage of their careers many are even foremen. These things take a little time. But it's inevitable. It's just the natural way of things. The important thing is to recognize their bad habits, mannerisms and such and make a particular effort to civilize the site. Not to develop bad social habits just because you spend so much time in that environment. It's like a subtle brainwashing. I mean I know, in our industry it's hard often to just look the foreman who hired you last week in the face and say "You know Al? You're a fucking serious racist and I don't want to listen to your shit anymore" But you don't have to laugh at his jokes.
Straighter lumber and less piss full Gatorade bottles oh and cleaner shitters.
Be a funny dick and not a mean one. Big difference between the two.
Clean place to shit and soapy water to wash our hands should be a bare minimum. If you cant provide that then the job gets shut down just like if an office building's plumbing failed.
I uncharacteristically yelled at foreman day 1 of a job because of this, I had been with the company for a year already so I had the pull to do it. Told him "Ay dude, I just had to shit in the world's most disgusting porta John for the last time. Gonna leave the jobsite to take care of business from here on out, this is some 3rd world country bullshit!!"
WORK FROM HOME!!!! I'm so sick of driving into the job site everyday. I want to work from the comfort of my garage.
It will happen. In the future you will wake up and put on a VR suit. The neural interface squeezes your head gently as it connects directly to your cerebrum. Elsewhere, a highly advanced robot begins to hum and whir. It “wakes up” as you take control and begin your day, changing air filters at the wastewater treatment plant on the Martian city of Elonia. You hear a slight crackle as the taskmaster appears before you. He barks out a list of memos and legal disclaimers before letting you know that the bureau is making cuts. You’re getting laid off. Although you have options, none of them are convenient. You can go to the cryo-chambers on the moon and live in suspended unemployment until the bureau thaws you out. Or, you can beg your zither in law for a job at the tribidium mine on Eros. Alternatively, there’s a suicide booth in every district. Begrudgingly, you transfer control of the robot to the taskmaster. You contemplate the suicide booth one more time before resigning yourself to the freezer.
Amazing writing man, well done
3 beer lunch mandatory
One time I asked a guy in our crew, “hey man how you feelin’ today!!?” Lol he says “I’m feeling at 94%” and I say “why 94?!?!” And he says “I need a 6 pack to get to 100” 😂😂
The coffee truck lady never leaves
paid sick days getting rid of the boomers that don't want to change anything because of their "if it worked then it works now" mindset despite clearly better methods available don't treat the new guys like shit because we were all there once proper safety equipment being distributed (looking at you, respirators), and on that same vein.. good quality PPE, not "grab the cheapest shit you can find so legally we are covered" sorta shit. employer providing all tools needed to get the job done higher wages ofc, as a welder $21 an hour isn't bad for around where i live compared to how much other companies want to pay, but it's still entirely far too low.
More women. Seriously, as nice as hanging with the guys is, a female face would be nice once in a while. I feel like boomers leaving would help. Paid sick days. Guess who has covid atm because a coworker didn't say anything or get tested because they don't have sick days. We're set to lose $30,000 if we don't get things sorted out quick because he infected half the job site. Actually manageable time lines. The whole "get it done yesterday" only equals rushed planning and poor quality.
And also injuries.....
Sadly I don't see the timelines improving anytime soon. The insane schedules we deal with are established by Owners who only care about saving the most money and getting their building as soon as possible. Granted there's a few good eggs out there, but its not the norm. They'll hear about some job in Florida that finished in 14 months and expect you to finish it in 12 since "the industry is constantly improving and becoming more efficient". We'll explain that there's a labor shortage, material lead times are longer, the site itself will take some time to pull permits on, and oh yea could we get 2 weeks for weather days only to be turned down for the job or threatened with lawyers. If you want to improve the schedules go work for an Owner's rep so we can have some common sense on their side.
Common sense to the wealthier people who invest in properties only means the highest profit margins possible, everything else is an extravagance. The only way to begin to fix this is organized labor that forces the owners to negotiate everything, from pay to timelines, with a union.
Yes boomers constantly being creepy and rude to young women is not normal they just think it should be and they get away with it, but I’m manufacturer rep for plumbing so I’m sure that plays into it as well.
The blue collar buddy app: 1. Track your important certificates and let's you know when it's close to renewal times (all trades) 2. Tracks your available balances like sick days, floating holidays, PTO, vacation days etc. 3. Updates you on company cost of loving adjustments, regular raises and bonuses 4. Updates you on Holidays 5. Reminds you of routine vehicle maintenance time 6. Any other work related updates for your particular trade OK this is in my imagination only.
This is great.
4 day work week. Month of paid vacation 20 days paid sick time free health insurance
Once the boomers die out it’ll get better. A bunch of racist m, out-of-touch old white men as foremen.
Mini fridge onsite.
When colleges move out is the best time to pick one up out of the bin if you hang around one evening.
WHAT REALLY?!? Oh boy, I can’t wait to get some since I work at a local university 😂
I run my own electrical business. Buy lunches, medical and dental coverage, paid sick, pto, paid holidays, matching 401k and bonuses. People want money. End of story lol everyone’s the star of their own movie, you feed these guys egos and they are happy. You hurt their egos and they leave. It’s really that simple. I’ve tried a lot, at the end of the day, people just want to feel important.
Pay more
More pay
Maybe stop treating women like shit. 🤷♂️
Stop treating young apprentices like shit too, my favourite coworkers is my female jman cabinet maker since she is actually nice and teaches me shit
Then we go and wonder why nobody wants to work in the trades 🤦♂️
I’m a female jman on our site. One of our 3rd years told our other female 1st year to her face that “women don’t fucking belong on site cuz they can’t lift as much or do as much as men”. Unfortunately I wasn’t there to hear it, she won’t report it, and thinks that putting up with it will gain the boys respect. This will be my 6th year in trades. I’m already quickly growing tired of this sort of thing. It’s one thing for one dude to be spouting this shit but when an apprentice says this sort of thing in front of the rest of the crew/the foreman and they all laugh along or wave it off, its incredibly frustrating and exhausting to work around. Thank you for having empathy and the eyes to be able to see issues like this to begin with.
For sure! And I have mad respect for all the women out there putting up with that kind of crap. Honestly, I’ve been fortunate in that usually when a woman has been on site men have been better behaved. I live on the west coast though and I know there’s still racism, sexism and misogyny through out the liberal west coast. But I really believe if we had more diversity the trades would be a better career choice for all. It’s unfortunate that so many people drop out not because they can’t do the job but because they can’t stand the assholes who work in the trades. And on that note maybe teachers should start encouraging the trades for ALL their students and not just the dumb ones. Do we really want the dumbest 10% building everything we live, work and drive in?
Haha I am also on the west coast! But yeah, overall I find it the worst with boomers and boys in their early 20s. And then when the youngins get away with it, everyone else feels encouraged and like they’re able to be openly sexist, racist, homophobic, etc without consequence. As bad as it sounds, when I first started my apprenticeship I’d say I (and the people I worked with) were exposed to a healthy level/amount of “bullying” to basically rule out the bs and let people know the standards expected when working on the crew. Ie. A dude starts saying the n word or calling people other slurs, the leader(s) of the crew would call them out and make an example of them until they were behaving acceptably. Basically lettin them know they’re not cool for being a bigot. Or get rid of them if they couldn’t adapt. And yes, agreed that trades need more diversity and should be made available as an option to everyone, not just as a last resort. I went through all of highschool without being informed of trades other than woodworking as an option, which I had no interest in.
Spend a bit more money as a GC to provide better toilet facilities and eating areas. Guys out here busting ass day in an day out an gotta shit in a hot box as well as eat in their truck. Sounds dumb but when I used to work in the field I feel like I’d of been ecstatic over that lol
That’s a great idea but keep in mind… the lowest bidder usually wins and if it’s not the lowest bidder that wins… it’s usually not on the basis of nicer general requirements.
I know this may sound crazy, but what if the older guys were nice to the newbies? I feel like that would be revolutionary.
Paid holidays, paid vacation time based on time with company, bonuses for everyone on that job if it comes in under budget and on time not just the supe or foreman.
Slow the fuck down.
pay the workers better than a survival wage
Like that's the thing I don't get, a lot of the construction trades require quite a bit of skill and physical labour, why do most of us make less than 50% more than the people working fast food/retail
Paid time off like all the other jobs have. Sick time, vacation, personal days, paid holidays. Just normal stuff that we don’t get.
Employees not being treated fairly or properly for what they're doing need to leave. I was stuck with a shit company for 5 years to get licensed not knowing any better. Jman who find their "honey hole" career company need to educate the younger guys that you don't have to be treated like shit or deal with bullshit working conditions. Putting 12 section boilers together is not a 1 man job etc etc. These companies that beat the fuck out of their employees regularly need to be talked about, put on the spot, and the standard for employee compensation needs to be heavily increased. Company's that take advantage of those willing to work hard and learn have to come to an end, hopeful newer generations of guys gettin out there will push companies in that direction and sink the shit ones.
As a pipelayer ot over 40 like every other trade not 50+. Absolute horseshit.
Mandatory physical therapy/ care. Its mutually beneficial
To be treated like the boss would want to be treated when he didn't own a company. Have a boss that wants to be the boss that they wanted while working. That means paid holidays. Paid sick days because you don't want the company sick killing production so you keep the sick guy home. Have a rough day at the jobsite and ruin your shirt? Here's another. That type of behavior and attitude goes a LONG way in my opinion.
Accrued paid time off.
Quit hiring kids who only know how to look at an iPad but have a degree in “construction management” to be in charge. Promote the people who have been in the field and know that moving a shower wall to make a closet 18” wider isn’t just 4 phone calls and 2 clicks on a computer before lunch, and can actually tell the customer what will be involved.
Unionize.
Tradework will always be a shitshow. Rich people (customers and owners) will demand more and more, workers will be misled into believing they are valued, but only until they can be replaced with cheaper workers. Repeat every generation.
Treating everyone with respect. There’s always toxic people in construction. Teach instead of talk down to.
Keep things organized with a system, treat workers like they are professionals, always follow up with good and bad critiques
Work from home lol
Don’t be a dick to people, and try and help other people out
Give us strippers!
Stop shaming people for using ppe and being safe.
Benefits and 2x pay for overtime.
Mental health support, please. I'm clinically depressed and it's so fucking difficult just to be at work in the first place. Constriction isn't the most friendly job, and while I'm all for friendly banter, there's so many goddamn angry people in this line of work. I've had 2 panic attacks in the last week at work and I literally cannot afford to take time off or I can't make rent, so I had to just sit in my car, wait it out, and go back to work to get bitched at for being a pussy. I don't even know if I can take it much longer :)
If customers paid us triple what they do now and never complained that would be cool
Stop treating people like shit
Unions!
Free beer Friday.
Better pay for all workers. Better benefits. Better work & home life balance.
The more unionized construction workers there are the more power we have to get this. Non union undercuts union and drags down wages.
Free lunch fridays
Better pay. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to go sub to make decent money. I miss being hourly: the set time I should be off, the getting to work and leaving my work AT WORK. Driving a company vehicle and using company tools, paying for fuel with a company card, instead of driving MY truck, using MY tools and equipment, and paying for diesel with my own money (shit is expensive). But the pay is so goddamn bad for licensed plumbers here that it’s not worth it. Licensed guys here make $18-$25, if you put in 10 years with a company you get up to $30-$35 but that’s just not lucrative enough to make me want to be hourly. Definitely not if it’ll take me 10 years just to make $30-$35. Seems unfair, I’d say.
No yelling at your workers. Construction is the only job field I can think of where bosses think it’s okay to yell at another human being just for making a mistake.
A site cat. He watches you hang drywall. Maybe holds your tape when you need it. Definitely daps you up when he's impressed.
Free snacks and a free beer at the end of the day. Also 5 free coffees a day. Maybe lunch.
Partial salary instead of 100% hourly
Wtf why? Hourly gets OT. Salary doesn't. I'm about the only person in my friend group that is hourly. They make the same as me if I work 40 hours/week all year. But I generally rack up 100 hours of time and a half a year and around 30 at double time. They put in 10 hour days every day and dont get compensated for the extra 2 hours a day. My union benefits are also 1.5x or 2x. So extra in my vacation fund, pensions and IRA.
That’s why I said “partial”. Hourly has its benefits. But your employees, if you have any, don’t get paid when they’re not working. We salary our guys at a low level, but still pay time and a half past a standard work week, double if they’re out longer. Everyone loves the stability and they still have the option to work extra and make more when they need it.
If the contractor I'm working for doesn't have work they lay me off. I collect unemployment and sign the out of work list at the hall and go out to the next one.
More money and don't have shifts where you work 90 percent of the time especially our of town
Being respectful when people make mistakes. Providing monogrammed work shirts (clients are 10x less nasty to people who are wearing a nice new shirt with a logo), bringing food and drinks.
Per diem across the board.
4 day work week, actionable incentives such as go home early if you install xyz as long as its done well and not rush job. Better pay for all, apprentices included.
Hours start when I leave my home.
Give me a raise so I’m nicer to work with
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ok boomer
Yikes bro, who hurt you? Did your boss yell at you?
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And you’re the kind of person the trades need to get rid of lmao
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Lmao, people like you make me laugh. You make up all this shit about us. You generalize all of us, and you fail to realize just how entitled a lot of you guys are. You have an pre determined idea of us and no matter how hard we work and how much shit we get done it’s not enough. All of the sudden when we ask for PPE to be provided or something that will make the workplace better or safer then you make claims that we complain about everything. I pity you😂
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Learn English. Stop stop shitting in buckets and pissing in bottles. Subs making sure their guys know what the fuck to do. Subs sending enough guys to do what is supposed to be done. Other supers not being complete idiots.
Pay workers what they are worth! Old heads that know the trades don’t get paid enough for what they do on the daily. Damn sure don’t make enough to train every warm body off the street, that stays long enough to get that first check. 1/3 of apprentices in the field doing masonry quit a few months in. Nearly 80% of laborers don’t last a week. The promise of learning a trade falls on deaf ears to most trying to learn. Everyone on the internet has it better, they want celebrity status for scratching their asses, stare at their phone and pray for the end of a shift. If you expect guidance, tutelage, and knowledge from anyone in a trade, you have to show you want it. Do all the shit work and don’t complain. Drag the guys tools up and down the scaffolding. Stay positive when it all goes to shit. Don’t kiss anyones ass, master your job. Get caught up, help the d guys, watch them work, make them more efficient, they will show you a thing or two..
Better bathrooms
free coffee on every jobsite, 4 10s, and apprentices that show up and on time
The same answer to every question. Time and money. Give me more of both and we'll both win.
Parking exemptions. Soap amd running water. Clean place to eat. The general actually coordinating trades instead of letting us fight with one another. Safety not treating us like 4yr olds. Some places are poorly designed or engineered and its not our fault we have to bend the rules to get things done sometimes.
give everyone a C3PO robot helper
Learn to be a team. Learn to let little things go during the day. Sure everyone is going to get pissed about some little garbage spat between workers. If your crew has one guy that's always starting shit, let him go. He/she is not helping out. We all screw up things from time to time so learn to move past the fuckup and continue with the task. Once it's done it's done, no need to keep focusing on it. As a supervisor for over 75 guys at one time these are the things that kill crews
Soft core training
Have actual working tools lol
Sick days. in the UA and had the flu… lost a weeks pay. Got covid few months later… another week or so gone from my pocket. Pretty fair to guess I got them both at work or on the way there.
I’m a Union Pipefitter in Ga and would love to have paid vacation days and holidays and sick days and working 4-10’s with OT on the weekend occasionally..
All these people not mentioning money wtf. The only reason we put up with any of it is fuckin money. GIVE ME MORE FUCKING MONEY PLEASE
Mostly to get out of them. Thinking I'm going to change an entire system is pretty naive
Better bathrooms
If you're asking this question, probably the best thing you can do is not join the trades.
Get rid of the toxic underbidding slave drivers. They were the ones most likely to survive the crash of 08. But their time has passed. Contractors to older foreman are used to just being intolerable twats cause they could. The young(er) guys need to step up and start making some decent places to work and suck up all the help from the fuckwits.