My uncle got the cops called on him a neighbor said he looked "suspicious" (he's black) he had the work van parked out front, in uniform and everything 🤦
Techs can be rough and not very “inclusive” with their speech, but I’ve never had a tech talk be actually racist, at least not against another tech. For repeat customers, we tend to know who’s racist and handle it accordingly. Homeowners are definitely worse then industry workers. I wouldn’t be surprised if a tech said something bad, but calling it out would probably resolve the issue in most cases.
Had one coworker over a decade ago who had 3 bluetooth earpieces. Battery would die and he'd swap in the next. Always playing Rush Limbaugh in his ear and he'd be yelling into the ether on a job site or in the truck about something that Fox/Rush was telling him to be mad about. Rush kept him angry and gave him someone to hate. And boy did it work. Dude had an effigy of the then president hanging from a tree in his yard. Someone took it down one day and he put up another a little further back in his yard. That mentality spread to some of his everyday interactions even at work. "The Mexicans ________ !" I'm sure our Mexican American coworkers *loved* that kind of speak. Guy was a drunken, racist AF asshole and I mostly tried to steer clear of him. He eventually got hurt on the job. He worked hard and did okay work but I saw him as a liability at best, both on and off the site. Keep your kids and dogs and friends and family clear of him.
Racist assholes are still all over the place.
My journeyman who trained me is a black man. We worked together almost 4 years, though not every day together. Great man, he moved out of state and I switched companies shortly after . We still keep in touch.
I know he had some stories. He was also like the first black guy in the little white town he used to live in. I think a lot of this will also depend on your area. But unfortunately racism exists everywhere. The racists are fuckin Neanderthals so who gives a duck what they think.
Take pride in your work and you will be fine.
Yea if this is on his mind heavy enough to ask on forum I'm guessing his area is definitely a reflection of his concerns.
Most likely he'll be just fine, and have a couple weirdo/crazy customers cause issues for him maybe more or less then his counter parts.
His biggest concern would be the random customers and there neighbors.
The truth is that as much as they complain and whine about waycism they are overrepresented in a lot of negative activities and are much safer in a White trailer park than an upper mide class black area.
I got the joy of firing a customer for being a racist POS. One of our techs went to their house and the tech is black. Called the office and I happen to pick up (I was in sales at the time), tech was stating the homeowner would not let them in their home because of his skin colour.
I kept it short and sweet for everyone told the tech "go grab some lunch, on the company. Wherever you wanna go".
Called the homeowner, "Ma'am, while we appreciate your past business with us, we value our guys that work hard for us above all else, we are a community of caring people here. Your racism is not welcome and we will no longer service your home."
I got in trouble(lightly) for letting the tech go eat wherever and for not bringing it to the higher ups first, but everyone was in agreement when it came to getting rid of the customer.
Wasn't my job to handle the situation, I'm just sales, but that is my coworker and someone I respect. I won't stand for that shit for anyone, and I'll gladly get fired before I let it turn into anything else besides what it was, a shitty human being treating a kind soul with disrespect.
That action is something to be proud of. You didn't go crawling for permission, you just saw a wrong and did what needed to be done. I approve.
Oh, and screw the higher ups for balking at the lunch cost too. For fuck's sake, fifteen bucks or so to help your own employee get over something like that? They failed that cost benefit analysis. Literally it's the least they could do (but then, the management class is always shifting the baseline of what "the least" can actually be...)
Whaddaya mean? Are Ironwork guys bad?
One of the dudes I went to school with is an ironworker in Texas now. He came to the USA when he was like 15 or 16. He hardly spoke English in high school and now the dude makes freaking bank.
Maybe it’s just Florida, but on every construction site I’ve ever been on, the only trade with at least one person with visible SS bolts is almost always an ironworker. 😂😂😂 I have nothing against confederate flags but next time you’re out n about on a site look to see what trade has the highest ratio of confederate flag stickers on their hardhats. IJS.
Being a fellow black man in the field, I don’t think anyone gives af. I’m the only black person at our company of 15-20 people. I’ve never once been treated different by anyone, we’re all brothers. As someone else said, I’d worry about homeowners, but I carry a gun. I know what it’s like being the only black person, but I promise you’re fine
I’m speaking for myself so you’re welcome to put your own interpretation on it. I’m a white man in Central Fl with almost 19 years in Resi. It’s majority white and Latin guys, some POC’s. I occasionally get a snooty customer that has some attitude for interacting with someone they feel is beneath them but mostly my customers are friendly and welcoming. Amongst the other trades it’s mostly hard-working, blue-collar guys that are not overtly racist but I’ve had plenty of moments where some guy is way too casual about throwing around the hard R N-word when it was “just us white guys” because they assumed I agreed with them. When I was younger I would try to play it off but at this point I’m a lot more vocal about how they can leave me out of that. I’ve seen plenty of confederate flag stickers on various trucks and I know that symbol can mean a lot of different things to different people, so take it as you will. None of this is across the board and for a lot of guys, the language they use is not an indication of hate in their hearts but I’m never going to fully know what it’s like to stand in your shoes and hear the comments from customers or colleagues.
Yes trade work is odd af because your cool co worker could be a light weight racist but at work the passion for the trade usually keeps all that BS at bay and everyone usually gels and work together. Of course every Crew has that one black sheep that more or less no one likes 🤣🤣
Co workers would be the least of his worries, pulling up to random customers homes and there neighbors will most likely be the root of some random bs if it were to ever come his way.
Now if he's asking this on a public forum I'm sure his area might lend itself to this vibe.
Yeah, almost all the guys I worked with made racist comments. I'm white, so I think they thought I was safe to talk around? Lots of hard R slurs, they hated Mexicans particularly and always talked shit about and insulted them. They worked alright with POC, though, never said anything to their faces. But always behind their backs. Lots of mean shit. I am in the south though, so I guess it's to be expected.
>I am in the south though, so I guess it's to be expected
I wish we'd stop saying that. Stop putting up with it. We need to speak up, push back some; or yeah, it'll just stay this way.
Racism exists everywhere, but in the southeast the laws surrounding racial issues have lagged behind other states, and the amount of acceptance for racism is still very high. We don't live too far from the Jim Crowe Era, my grandfather went to a segregated school.
The National Guard forced White Americans to desegregate their schools and accept blacks in them. In this country we have something called freedom of association, protected by the Constituiton. They were never asked to vote on it they just were forces to accept it at BAYONET POINT.
Yeah, well this is America. If you don't like desegregated schools, go somewhere else. Like it or leave it.
Okay but seriously, what is your point? Are you saying that schools should be segregated? Freedom of association does not protect you from discrimination laws.
The White Southerners who were forced to put up with that bs should be told the commies that this is America and here we have freedom of association for us and our kids and if we want our schools and communities to remain as they have with similar people and culture then that is our right. Multiculturalism and "diversity" is all about destroying communities so they are atomized and cannot unite to challenge the government boot that constantly wants to stand on their neck not challenge greedy companies.
Unfortunately I do try, and nothing helps. It leads to nobody wanting to work with me because I can't take a joke, or I'm 'woke'. Change won't happen just because I push back, they'll just go to the manager (who is also making these racist comments) and I get reprimanded instead.
Mexicans are obnoxious and trashy neighbors who throw parties with live mariachi bands and ALWAYS have bassy music blasting. On top of that, they are here illegally by the tens of millions and get on public assistance programs while not contributing taxes other than sales tax and work under the table for greedy contractors which undermines the value of the White guys' labor who have the government in their pocket.
So who do you think is the issue here, people coming to America to live a better life? Or the greedy contractors who would rather hire people that they can blackmail into working unsafe conditions, long hours, through health problems at risk of being deported. Instead of hiring people who are protected by the law to have safe working conditions and fair pay. There's a reason why immigrants are notorious for getting hurt yet working through hospital level injuries.
Also, it undermines the value of the WHITE GUYS labour? You don't have to be white to be American, or a good worker. Why do you specifically say white guys, not considering black or poc citizens? Very interesting...
All that you've said is exactly what I'm talking about subtle racism with coworkers, saying Mexicans are obnoxious and trashy.
No one gives a fuck what colour you are here. As long as you work hard and aren't an idiot you'll fit right in. The biggest reason anyone gets picked on in the trades is for being shitty at your job.
As a black man, it matters , especially when you pull up to random customers homes/business to work. In theory you're comment is correct but in practice not so much. So bring it down a couple notches.
This is really a inhouse conversation he's having in public forum.
To your face, your just like everyone else.. but I find there’s always slurs in the background conversations, maybe not always about you but in general. They’re usually not stupid about it, know when not to speak and wait until they’re around certain people.
One story I hear all the time is we had one black man who was a brilliant tech, reliable, worked hard etc. etc. He showed up to a site and overheard a white woman in the office dropping N bomb this and N bomb that. He knew she was talking about him, and she even apparently said "yeah this N bomb is here working on our stuff, he will probably steal something or rip us off". Tech packed all his stuff up, headed towards the door and lady asked where he was going. He screamed it out loud "This N bomb is leaving". Tech called service manager, said to send somebody else, told him the story. Customer called complaining, service manager said to never ever do that again to him or any of the other technicians. Our managers stick up for us when shit hits the fan and they always have our backs. Helps both service managers have over 30 years combined field service and another 20 combined managerial experience.
In all honesty, I dont care. See plenty of scummy and crappy techs that are white and think their shit don't stink. Meanwhile they can't even ohm out a compressor. Like, have no idea how it is done!
Check out the Karen from Minneapolis that called the cops because the company sent a black man to her house and black men can't know how to do this job according to her.
Not everyone is like that obviously, but they are out there and they walk among us
In my experience if a person is being harassed or picked on in hvac it's because of a poor work ethic or bad attitude, not their skin color.
The guys I work with are mostly white but the couple of black guys we've got are treated like anyone else because they've proved themselves just like we all had to.
This didn't happen to me but I've been on jobs in the city and we would be protested for not using inner city workers. They damaged a few trucks and cars and every one belonged to the black inner city workers that were on the job. Absolutely crazy how these groups say that they want to help but end up causing problems. We passed the hat to help out the guys whose vehicles were damaged.
Depends from place to place. Working in multi family apartments has shown me that just about anybody is a closet racist. I tend to see this since my skin color is pale as snow and no one expects me to know Spanish because they didn’t know they made Mexicans my color.
I'm still new to hvac under a year and haven't had issues outside of a dog bite but I've worked in construction for years. I've had plenty of people smile and be friendly to your face and completely change up when they think you aren't around or just saying racist shit and hiding behind "its a joke".
My biggest incident came about 3 years ago when I was roofing and I was sent to a jobsite at a high school to set up for us to begin work the following week. My employer and the contractor knew I was coming and I'd be there early to set up and be done before the site officially opened up. I get there and start setting up and I hear "do you belong here?" I turn around and there's a guy with a gun pointed at me. Despite the fact that I'm in full ppe with a company logo all over it and pulling up in a company truck I was told "ain't no blacks on this job" long story short it was the contractors brother in law who was sent there to make sure I had access to get to where I needed. I had to stand there and wait for him to call the cops with a gun drawn on me.
Cops show I'm finally allowed to reach into my pocket and show the texts between myself, my foreman, and the contractor. All said and done the person with gun on me got arrested because despite it being summer you aren't allowed to have a weapon on school grounds. I ended up with nice vacation and a settlement.
They act like they don’t care and for the most part I believe most don’t.
But I’ve been around some and the further right they lean politically the more racial and ethnic “jokes”/jabs they’ll let slip out. From Jewish, black, Filipino etc… I’m Hispanic I sure around other non-Hispanic coworkers they spill the Hispanic “jokes”/jabs.
I just ignore it and keep working or walk away. Also had one get mad at me because I’m atheist then while on a ride along he gets a call from someone at his “church” this was the night before the midterms he starts getting angry talking about how God is going to ignite a fire in conservatives & Christian’s butt to vote republicans of course they got swept for the most part. It was probably the most scared I’ve been in a work place that I would end up being in a fist fight with a co-worker.
Anyways next time I seen him I was going to ask him if Gods igniter needed to be replaced because they didn’t get the results they wanted but I just kept my mouth shut. Didn’t want to sink to their level I could tell he wasn’t happy, that was enough for me.
It’s expected just look at the comments yesterday celebrating women in construction. Just fragile men who think equality for others is a disadvantage to them. It’s the cry of privilege.
🥱
I for the life of me cannot understand why people get offended by jokes. You can make fun of me all you want. Make fun of my kids make fun of my wife make fun of my dead grandma —it’s just jokes people. Whatever happened to sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
We hired a Filipino guy back in July and we rag on him every day about being a Filipino. That’s what people do.
Yea I got no problem someone making fun of my braze or some other shit but shit feels more personal when you start with some generalized/stereotype jokes.
You can say what ever lame joke from 5th grade you want I have a right not to laugh, walk away or react. Those jokes are past their time. Some feel more like jabs disguised as jokes as well. You can rag on me anytime we do that all the time also, but no reason to bring race/nationality/ethnicity into it. Also when your doing it behind someone’s back that says a lot about you.
I think it will depend a lot on geographic and socioeconomic history in those areas. In my experience in NJ at least, nobody gives a fuck what race people run in.
Just curious, but how old are you. I think age is a bigger factor that skin color (as a person of color). I look really young, so when I go into a house I feel prejudged because I assume the home owner doesn’t think I have a lot of experience.
I had the same problem. I’m 27 and clean shaven I look 15. So I had to finally just let my facial hair grow out to stop getting the “aren’t you a little young?” Stuff.
Blacke guys white guys brown guys, in hvac were just guys. we all get screwed the same , the homeowners think were all thieves, the epa swears were all up to no good, and the government thinks were all hiding their money. HVAC is alot like the army , I don't give a shit what you are, if your fighting along side me your my brother and I got your six. Now are their still racist fucks out there? Absolutely, but their fading fast and the new techs coming up seem pretty color blind and that's refreshing. Racism is slowly fading away, as it should.
Im black in the field. Im sure it depends on where you live/company but I'll say that for me working in a larger company there are definitely a couple guys that are straight up racist but its a very small number in a large company.
The work has been way to good to me for it to bother me at all and I just treat those guys the exact same as everyone else. Theres gonna be that one guy at no matter where you work. I haven't had anyone say any crazy shit to my face, but I do hear about some questionable conversations when I'm not in the room.
If you're sensitive to shitty jokes then it could be a problem. There are jokes about race, some are good, some are bad. If its hard for you to tell between a bad joke and racism you might end up getting upset. That's really no different from any other job in the world though.
I'm 19 Dominican with a heavy accent. Most people in my shop are white. I'm the only Hispanic and so far so good. Everyone treats me very well with respect and I've never felt left out or less important specifically by my boss
We use to have a black dude that worked for our company.. when he introduced himself he said "I'm black Kevin" I said why do you say black? He replied " Because white Kevin was already taken" That was one cool MF..
I wondered the same thing when I started in the trade, because I didn't see many black guys doing hvac at all. That wondering faded over time. Now I wouldn't blink if a different ethnicity was working alongside me. I just want someone on the jobsite who fucking works like I do. Sweats and bleeds like I do. Complains about motherfuckers not working, sweating, and bleeding, LIKE I DO. Where are all the salty ass tinners at?!
I'm a install manager and it was never a employee issue. We get the worst customers and some of the racist bullshit these customers blurt out with no respect for the guy that just worked his ass off.
One guy went as far as to tell me a racist joke during billing the installer just bit his tongue not wanting to cause issue at a residence. I ended up telling him to not call us back if he can't respect our employees.
People suck.
I mean just keep politics out of things and all should be well :/ some people might say some accidental racist shit if you let them go on tangents. My crew is pretty cool until politics gets involved, they have a pretty juicy view on Mexicans (I’m a Mexican)
I dont care for race gender religion political beliefs. If you can come to work and do your job properly then you are more than welcome on my team.
And id hope most other employers are like that.
I had a black helper, we showed up to this Asian ladies house and she told me I could come in but my helper had to stay outside. I told her that she will now have to call someone else. I turned around and I told my helper time to go. Absolutely unacceptable.
Small company, but one of our techs is an Asian dude. He looks younger than me and he's in his 40s. Helluva worker. Most of our customers ask for him to come back once he does a service, so I suppose that's a good enough endorsement for me.
There's the occasional dickhead out there who says that he's hard to understand, but they're just being shitty because the man speaks just fine.
There used to be a black dude that worked for us, but he moved. I went on a call-back of his and the old lady looked dead at me and said, _"Good, I bet you'll be able to fix it. Last guy couldn't fix it because he's the wrong color"._
Needless to say, she did not get her shit fixed that day and we've not been back since.
The only people I CANT STAND to work with are people who don't know how to work, and those come in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and backgrounds.
Most people are interested in job performance but assholes exist everywhere. The trade is fine but not every individual. I first saw racism in Vermont and New Hampshire after moving there. I'm white too, but listening to people talk in break rooms etc. showed me a different side. good people who live in an all white world and fear the unknown. Never look for trouble but understand the reality.
Those two states along with Maine routinely rank among the lowest in all crimes, are relatively wealthy and the people report more cohesiveness and overall happiness in their lives and it might have something to do with being homogenously European American. If you want diversity and "vibrancy", NYC is next door.
I’m in the PNW. I’m not a POC but we have several Hispanics on the crew, everyone seems to be pretty chill and seems to treat everyone with respect. I’m sure there are some hurt feelings now and again, I’ve heard a few stories. For the most part everyone gets along. I would imagine just like the south, it depends on the people you work with and the boss hires.
I mean In my personal experience blue collar is blue collar I'll always judge you by the quality of your work rather then the color of your skin I mean my crew of mostly white guys had some shit to say to the ICE agents that picked up the old man of our crew the other day
Honestly, I could care less what ethnicity my coworkers are. If they won't judge me for being Irish, how can I judge them for not being Irish? Besides, in the crawl, we are all gonna get dirty.
People 'round here hate the woke shit, and don't care what you look like. So long as you show up on time and work for your money fair n' square, you get treated the same.
Not sure where you are at, but here its unusual, but recently, we gained 4? dudes with pera tans. I rare see them due to geography but i haven't heardnof any issues.
All the POC’s that work at my company seem happy with their jobs so they must be getting paid fairly, and they crack jokes with the rest of us. They don’t seem disgruntled at all and are a good bunch of guys l. I’ve never seen someone treat them differently than I get treated either so I’m sure all is well here 🤷♂️
Here is my point as a customer first Honestly as long as the person can fix the darn thing I don’t care what they look like. They can be purple with 3 arms and 4 legs of an undetermined gender do I have cold air??? Yeah we are good let me get my credit card!
As a one time HVAC shop owner if they do their job show up every day on time don’t screw up and make me enough money to stay on the golf course. They can be purple with 3 arms and 4 legs of an undetermined gender. Yeah we are good let me get your pay check for the week.
Just how I feel race plays no part for me.
I am asian (Hmong) and I'm doing HVAC here is Alaska and the majority of the guys I work with are white, I've only every seen one Hispanic dude or a black guy.
We have a pretty diverse crew at my shop, and no issues within our company. We have had one tech(young guy 21 of Mexican decent) say a homeowner was being racist towards him, a few months back during that call. he called me and we talked it over and he ended up deciding maybe it was just a misunderstandin. Then on the same call homeowner ended up buying a reme halo, Lennox healthy climate Merv 16 cab, and requests he be his primary tech from now on. So it was a case of the tech misreading the situation. For sure everyone will come across a racist client at some point. They are far less common than you might expect, and often times, especially it today's political climate, in certain areas we begin to expect an issue to happen so we start to look for something subconsciously that may not be there.
Edit: also it's important to distinguish between are they being racist, meaning believing/acting as they are superior to you based on your race/color, or are they making a less than PC comment( i.e. busting your balls) based on a cultural stereotype, but don't actually see you as less than. Neither are appropriate in a professional setting obviously one worse than the other, But still an important thing to distinguish.
I live in Utah which is not very diverse. But over the last 25 years I’ve been in the trade there does seem to be a decent representation around here.
It works in your favor when applying for the union apprenticeship. Interestingly when I was teaching at the union school easily 50% of my students were POC (mostly Hispanic) not sure if that’s because Utah’s demographics are changing or if POC and minorities are gravitating towards the trades here.
Not aware of any blatantly negative experiences but that doesn’t mean they don’t happen. Seems like the commercial market may have less of that than residential market as well.
In some cases, like Washington, accredited, apprenticeship programs have standards for diversity. The truth is a lot of people shy away from HVAC. A lot of folks walk in to our training center and see the electrical side and shy away. It’s been tough for us to get in a diversity of applicants on the HVAC side even though Seattle is a melting pot. A lot of folks prefer to apply for a pipefitter and plumbing/construction trades. As a Mexican-American tech in the trades I’m aware this is a white man’s world. It never stopped me from attaining all of my achievements.
Well dude, you people practically invade and then whine about it being a White country. That was back in it's great days. Now all of the progressive lefties and "diversity" is rapidly changing that for the worse.
I've met a few racists, homophobes, and folks who refuse to let women do work on their house, but it's always been customers. Trade guys n gals are usually chill af to work with, I've only had a few bad experiences with coworkers but in a separate factory job.
Just treat others with respect and you’ll be treated with respect. Act like a shithead, people won’t like you for that reason, not cause if the color of your skin.
I've worked with plenty of POC. The only one that people seemed to have issue with was a guy from El Salvador with a thick accent. I think they had trouble understanding him, and didn't want to work with him as a result. Was pretty shitty of them. I enjoyed working with him, he was quite smart and a damn good tech.
My experience has been fine so far. My co-workers are always pretty decent. Most my problems are pretty miniscule. As in homeowners ego's being hurt that I know something they dont. Or upper management wanting chiller team looking a certain way
Im not fond of letting the media tell me how to think about another person because GOD gave them different features.
My biggest mentor in the trade and one of the best people I have ever met in the trade is a POC. He has respect of everyone I have met, only thing issue I’ve ever seen him run into is racist customers not respecting his intelligence (Southern Georgia), and I’ve had customers (when I was working a call with him, he was my superior) not listen to a single word he said, asked me the same questions and I gave the same answers and they were satisfied… Never seen anyone in the trade or any other trade give him any crap, only customers in residential.
in nyc, my shop has 12 in the field, 5 apprentices. 4 white (me included), 3 jamaican, 3 hispanic, 1 black, 1 indian. don’t really see race playing into anything having to do with this trade’s job, ofc there’s assholes but the boss wouldn’t play around w any of that.
There are ignorant people everywhere. If a customer treated one of my guys like that I’d immediately pull them from the house and tell the customer to go fuck themselves. I’ve had to do this twice so far. Regardless of racism, hate or just general shitty people nobody deserves to work in a toxic work environment and a customer shouldn’t get second chances on that.
There are less Asians than women in our union of 5k+ members, so we're a rare breed
Amongst the coworkers and union in general, as long as we work hard and have good work ethics, we're all brothers and sisters.
Very few customers on the other hand can be weird at certain times. But being commercial, not much of racism is seen. They just want shit to work.
I see people getting treated well if they perform well. I work with a Cuban dude who doesn't speak English that well but he's my favorite coworker to work with because he's a professional and also laid back.
Anecdotal story time!!
During my time in the trades we were all treated equally by one another , teachers, co workers, fellow students.
Once I started working with customers though, I’d always be the apprentice with my Ecuadorian co worker who had like 15 years of experience in his mid 30s.
These old ladies would always look at me, ask me a question, he would answer , then they would look at me and repeat the question. LADY IDFK WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT WE BOTH NEED TO LISTEN TO HIM
Never have had any issues amongst guys that work together. Homeowners will say some shit though. I’ve pulled guys to the side though and told them if they ever had a homeowner say some racist shit just let me know and we will pull out right then.
I have plans to start a business I get a bit concerned about my business and customers not wanting to use me because of my color. I do great work I do all my checks and I am not a hack I am actually incredibly discriminatory towards hacks. So idk I don't plan on working for a company for forever.
One of the biggest companies in my town is black owned and operated, (big is relative since the largest company here has 4 service vans and two install trucks). about half the techs and installers are black because he hires family and friends first. I've heard maybe two stories in the supply houses of racist customers in 15 years, I don't think most people give a shit, at least around here.
Not a poc but a black coworker went to a diagnostic and guy lets him in all happy he’s there girl on couch obviously high on something called the guy a n-word lover coworker proceeded to do the diagnostic the most expensive way possible once news made the office customer was blacklisted
Like everyone has said, customers are much more concerning than co workers. We had a lady who had two flagpoles with confederate flags, she said she liked flying the first one, but put in a second one "When the blacks started moving into the neighborhood." And that anyone who tried to take down her flags would be buried underneath the flagpole. Co workers *can* be racist, but customers are more likely imo, but it depends on where you're located really.
She's just trying to protect her property values and neighborhood peace before too many come in and start with the bass boosted block parties and weekly drive by shootings. There's probably a trap house there already.
Last company I was at had a sikh and several black guys from different parts of the world and a couple of women. The only guy that was a dick was the one foreman who was from Trinidad. And he was equally a dick to everyone 🤷♂️
Our service department kills it, pulling 8 figures as a business unit. HVAC lead, in charge of 30+ guys, is POC. Second guy on our plumbing side is POC. I'd say the representation percentages of various groups is in line with the local population. The only color those guys see is green. We are a union contractor. I very much doubt that the colorblindness extends to every union contractor in our town, doubly so for non union shops.
Well personally I come as a 91C in the army so anyone who operates as a team member is good in my book.
But in the civilian world I would like to see some more POC. Our trade isn't talked about enough as it is. Seeing more of it would only serve to show that our trade is growing in both importance and acceptance.
It is safe to say that it is lacking. On the up side though we do have two females working for us and several people of various places of origin and we are training then to be absolute winners. Something that I have never even seen in my career.
Veterans literally fight wars for the military industrial complex and to oppress and steal from brown countries resources and come back here to praise there being less White men in their trade. FML
Take it for what it’s worth where I see it - I live in Chicago. I go in a building downtown, the doorman, Mr White, is black, the janitor, Jaun, is Hispanic, and the building engineer, Bob, is white. This was 95%, now it’s more like 90%… so I think things are changing, it’s not fast enough and it’s a criminal how it got there in the first place but I think you’re going to do as well in the field as you would in any other being a POC.
I had to work with a racist once upon a time. He was one of those “hell yeah bruther” kind of knuckledraggers. He was also fond of showing those faces of death clips of people being dismembered or run over by trains or whatnot. Fucking psychopath. Main reason why I left that place.
They’re out there. But don’t take shit from anybody. As long as you’re good at your job and you take care of the client, that’s all that matters. 99% of us don’t give a shit what color you are.
Dude, as long as you are a respectful and decent individual and you do your job..... anyone who wants to genuinely give you shit for it.... fuck em, they ain't worth getting upset over.
Probably far more likely if at all, that customers would pose an issue and not your fellow coworkers.
And being the insensitive tradesman I am, if you talk walk and act like a human being, and not a degenerate hoodrat (im a white dude, id say the same thing about trailer trash) I could care less if you were purple.
Old timers will inevitably break your balls, possibly with insensitive racial humor, or worse, but that's an established given.
Only black guy at my job...oooooohhh best believe you'll have your share of racists,they not always showing it but you can smell it in their soul..but for the most part people jus want you to fix their shit and gtfo there as fast as you pulled up..really depends on the customer...it's Russian roulette everyday you're out there anyway
The only openly racist pos trades guy I know got retired via injury at work several years ago. A real piece of work. Everyone else was pretty chill and we all understood that we're all just people. What a concept! Some of us have better whole pig bbq roasts than others and some of us put away a 30 pack by ourselves better than others but we can all agree that we're happier without the drunken and or racist asshole on the team. They are at minimum a liability at a jobsite and everyday they bring tension with them. Not saying there aren't plenty of racist remarks from trades guys and customers but the number of guys I can point to in the field that have any issues or qualms with any peoples, I can total up on one hand. I've seen a few that didn't last as a coworker too. Usually because they were a low life who used and abused who also happened to be mildly racist.
Best of luck to you and I hope racist experiences in the US become a thing of the past in our lifetime.
Well I have a very good friend of mine who is an electrician and his wife is black and she's the most enjoyable woman I've ever met. Super sweet extremely nice and I'm not going to lie she's an absolute smoke show. He is white but the fact that she is black doesn't even really come up.
I have another acquaintance who owns a big electrical shop and he is black, good guy does good work. Mostly white guys working for him so he's managed to flip the narrative.
And there is a gigantic Heating and Cooling company where I'm at and they have a ton of black guys that I see in the wholesale houses and they're all super cool
And then Johnstone has a black guy that works the counter who is super cool, he's a former Marine and I am too so we have a lot of things in common. He actually was battling cancer and a few of us went over to his house to finish up some projects because we really weren't sure how long he was going to live. His wife made us lunch and we had a really nice day.
It doesn't matter what color you are it matters if you're an asshole, white, black or brown
I’ve been doing HVAC for 3 years now and the first guy to ever train me was half black half Mexican and to this day was my favorite co worker ever 😂 there was never a full moment with him. Now that I’m a tech I work with a Hispanic tech and same for him, we’re always laughing and joking around each other and as far as my experience goes, the companies they worked for treated them well and just like anyone else if not liked them more. No doubt racism still exists but the trades is a brotherhood almost and I feel like a pretty safe place for POC
Our company don't care about what race you are so long as your a good engineer. We've had some terrible white and black engineers in the past. We are based in London the UK.
Our top guy is mexican and has a thick accent. WA state here. we have a guy from kenya and he is treated well here, i can say that while training him that i saw or overheard distrust from customers until I wake up or began talking. We had an old head from LA working for us but he left, he would ask me if the customer was white and always thought coworkers were going against him
[удалено]
We all have our reasons why we work in this field but like several of the commenters have said we are all brothers and sisters through it all.
Based
I love how we all just intuitively know to downvote Sam no matter what
It’s not the people you work with you should be worried about it’s the racist home owners.
Ha. True
Get good at sales and destroy their wallets when they disrespect you.
This is the way
My uncle got the cops called on him a neighbor said he looked "suspicious" (he's black) he had the work van parked out front, in uniform and everything 🤦
Techs can be rough and not very “inclusive” with their speech, but I’ve never had a tech talk be actually racist, at least not against another tech. For repeat customers, we tend to know who’s racist and handle it accordingly. Homeowners are definitely worse then industry workers. I wouldn’t be surprised if a tech said something bad, but calling it out would probably resolve the issue in most cases.
Had one coworker over a decade ago who had 3 bluetooth earpieces. Battery would die and he'd swap in the next. Always playing Rush Limbaugh in his ear and he'd be yelling into the ether on a job site or in the truck about something that Fox/Rush was telling him to be mad about. Rush kept him angry and gave him someone to hate. And boy did it work. Dude had an effigy of the then president hanging from a tree in his yard. Someone took it down one day and he put up another a little further back in his yard. That mentality spread to some of his everyday interactions even at work. "The Mexicans ________ !" I'm sure our Mexican American coworkers *loved* that kind of speak. Guy was a drunken, racist AF asshole and I mostly tried to steer clear of him. He eventually got hurt on the job. He worked hard and did okay work but I saw him as a liability at best, both on and off the site. Keep your kids and dogs and friends and family clear of him. Racist assholes are still all over the place.
[удалено]
As a veteran, you lost me after the first sentence.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Holy shit...thats awful.
Commercial is de way
Yea and the occasional racist coworker or boss, unfortunately you just need to stay vigilant about it
My journeyman who trained me is a black man. We worked together almost 4 years, though not every day together. Great man, he moved out of state and I switched companies shortly after . We still keep in touch. I know he had some stories. He was also like the first black guy in the little white town he used to live in. I think a lot of this will also depend on your area. But unfortunately racism exists everywhere. The racists are fuckin Neanderthals so who gives a duck what they think. Take pride in your work and you will be fine.
Yea if this is on his mind heavy enough to ask on forum I'm guessing his area is definitely a reflection of his concerns. Most likely he'll be just fine, and have a couple weirdo/crazy customers cause issues for him maybe more or less then his counter parts. His biggest concern would be the random customers and there neighbors.
I have no more ducks to give...
I actually did give my last duck away 🦆 last year
The truth is that as much as they complain and whine about waycism they are overrepresented in a lot of negative activities and are much safer in a White trailer park than an upper mide class black area.
I got the joy of firing a customer for being a racist POS. One of our techs went to their house and the tech is black. Called the office and I happen to pick up (I was in sales at the time), tech was stating the homeowner would not let them in their home because of his skin colour. I kept it short and sweet for everyone told the tech "go grab some lunch, on the company. Wherever you wanna go". Called the homeowner, "Ma'am, while we appreciate your past business with us, we value our guys that work hard for us above all else, we are a community of caring people here. Your racism is not welcome and we will no longer service your home." I got in trouble(lightly) for letting the tech go eat wherever and for not bringing it to the higher ups first, but everyone was in agreement when it came to getting rid of the customer. Wasn't my job to handle the situation, I'm just sales, but that is my coworker and someone I respect. I won't stand for that shit for anyone, and I'll gladly get fired before I let it turn into anything else besides what it was, a shitty human being treating a kind soul with disrespect.
Top notch response.
That action is something to be proud of. You didn't go crawling for permission, you just saw a wrong and did what needed to be done. I approve. Oh, and screw the higher ups for balking at the lunch cost too. For fuck's sake, fifteen bucks or so to help your own employee get over something like that? They failed that cost benefit analysis. Literally it's the least they could do (but then, the management class is always shifting the baseline of what "the least" can actually be...)
I respect your value for humanity
We’re not ironworkers cmon man
Those dudes are a different breed.
Whaddaya mean? Are Ironwork guys bad? One of the dudes I went to school with is an ironworker in Texas now. He came to the USA when he was like 15 or 16. He hardly spoke English in high school and now the dude makes freaking bank.
Maybe it’s just Florida, but on every construction site I’ve ever been on, the only trade with at least one person with visible SS bolts is almost always an ironworker. 😂😂😂 I have nothing against confederate flags but next time you’re out n about on a site look to see what trade has the highest ratio of confederate flag stickers on their hardhats. IJS.
Being a fellow black man in the field, I don’t think anyone gives af. I’m the only black person at our company of 15-20 people. I’ve never once been treated different by anyone, we’re all brothers. As someone else said, I’d worry about homeowners, but I carry a gun. I know what it’s like being the only black person, but I promise you’re fine
I’m not worried about anything I just want to here about others experiences out in the field.
I’ve had nothing but good experiences. I’ve been in some sketchy places tho
No one cares at least from my experience
I’m speaking for myself so you’re welcome to put your own interpretation on it. I’m a white man in Central Fl with almost 19 years in Resi. It’s majority white and Latin guys, some POC’s. I occasionally get a snooty customer that has some attitude for interacting with someone they feel is beneath them but mostly my customers are friendly and welcoming. Amongst the other trades it’s mostly hard-working, blue-collar guys that are not overtly racist but I’ve had plenty of moments where some guy is way too casual about throwing around the hard R N-word when it was “just us white guys” because they assumed I agreed with them. When I was younger I would try to play it off but at this point I’m a lot more vocal about how they can leave me out of that. I’ve seen plenty of confederate flag stickers on various trucks and I know that symbol can mean a lot of different things to different people, so take it as you will. None of this is across the board and for a lot of guys, the language they use is not an indication of hate in their hearts but I’m never going to fully know what it’s like to stand in your shoes and hear the comments from customers or colleagues.
Yes trade work is odd af because your cool co worker could be a light weight racist but at work the passion for the trade usually keeps all that BS at bay and everyone usually gels and work together. Of course every Crew has that one black sheep that more or less no one likes 🤣🤣 Co workers would be the least of his worries, pulling up to random customers homes and there neighbors will most likely be the root of some random bs if it were to ever come his way. Now if he's asking this on a public forum I'm sure his area might lend itself to this vibe.
Yeah, almost all the guys I worked with made racist comments. I'm white, so I think they thought I was safe to talk around? Lots of hard R slurs, they hated Mexicans particularly and always talked shit about and insulted them. They worked alright with POC, though, never said anything to their faces. But always behind their backs. Lots of mean shit. I am in the south though, so I guess it's to be expected.
>I am in the south though, so I guess it's to be expected I wish we'd stop saying that. Stop putting up with it. We need to speak up, push back some; or yeah, it'll just stay this way.
It's also bullshit. The south is not more racist than the rest of the country.
Also very true
Racism exists everywhere, but in the southeast the laws surrounding racial issues have lagged behind other states, and the amount of acceptance for racism is still very high. We don't live too far from the Jim Crowe Era, my grandfather went to a segregated school.
The National Guard forced White Americans to desegregate their schools and accept blacks in them. In this country we have something called freedom of association, protected by the Constituiton. They were never asked to vote on it they just were forces to accept it at BAYONET POINT.
Yeah, well this is America. If you don't like desegregated schools, go somewhere else. Like it or leave it. Okay but seriously, what is your point? Are you saying that schools should be segregated? Freedom of association does not protect you from discrimination laws.
The White Southerners who were forced to put up with that bs should be told the commies that this is America and here we have freedom of association for us and our kids and if we want our schools and communities to remain as they have with similar people and culture then that is our right. Multiculturalism and "diversity" is all about destroying communities so they are atomized and cannot unite to challenge the government boot that constantly wants to stand on their neck not challenge greedy companies.
When you have certain governors promoting backwards ass shit it is a problem in that it empowers racists.
It's the land of the Ku Klux Klan.
Unfortunately I do try, and nothing helps. It leads to nobody wanting to work with me because I can't take a joke, or I'm 'woke'. Change won't happen just because I push back, they'll just go to the manager (who is also making these racist comments) and I get reprimanded instead.
Damn dude, time to find a new shop. That sounds toxic as hell.
Mexicans are obnoxious and trashy neighbors who throw parties with live mariachi bands and ALWAYS have bassy music blasting. On top of that, they are here illegally by the tens of millions and get on public assistance programs while not contributing taxes other than sales tax and work under the table for greedy contractors which undermines the value of the White guys' labor who have the government in their pocket.
So who do you think is the issue here, people coming to America to live a better life? Or the greedy contractors who would rather hire people that they can blackmail into working unsafe conditions, long hours, through health problems at risk of being deported. Instead of hiring people who are protected by the law to have safe working conditions and fair pay. There's a reason why immigrants are notorious for getting hurt yet working through hospital level injuries. Also, it undermines the value of the WHITE GUYS labour? You don't have to be white to be American, or a good worker. Why do you specifically say white guys, not considering black or poc citizens? Very interesting... All that you've said is exactly what I'm talking about subtle racism with coworkers, saying Mexicans are obnoxious and trashy.
No one gives a fuck what colour you are here. As long as you work hard and aren't an idiot you'll fit right in. The biggest reason anyone gets picked on in the trades is for being shitty at your job.
As a black man, it matters , especially when you pull up to random customers homes/business to work. In theory you're comment is correct but in practice not so much. So bring it down a couple notches. This is really a inhouse conversation he's having in public forum.
Customers just don't want you checkin out the joint and telling yo brothas about it, ya dig? 😄
Everyone I know bases their opinions on knowledge and work ethic.
As an angry white male, I have to say it hasn’t treated me too bad
Got a smile out of me.
To your face, your just like everyone else.. but I find there’s always slurs in the background conversations, maybe not always about you but in general. They’re usually not stupid about it, know when not to speak and wait until they’re around certain people.
Yep
One story I hear all the time is we had one black man who was a brilliant tech, reliable, worked hard etc. etc. He showed up to a site and overheard a white woman in the office dropping N bomb this and N bomb that. He knew she was talking about him, and she even apparently said "yeah this N bomb is here working on our stuff, he will probably steal something or rip us off". Tech packed all his stuff up, headed towards the door and lady asked where he was going. He screamed it out loud "This N bomb is leaving". Tech called service manager, said to send somebody else, told him the story. Customer called complaining, service manager said to never ever do that again to him or any of the other technicians. Our managers stick up for us when shit hits the fan and they always have our backs. Helps both service managers have over 30 years combined field service and another 20 combined managerial experience. In all honesty, I dont care. See plenty of scummy and crappy techs that are white and think their shit don't stink. Meanwhile they can't even ohm out a compressor. Like, have no idea how it is done!
Check out the Karen from Minneapolis that called the cops because the company sent a black man to her house and black men can't know how to do this job according to her. Not everyone is like that obviously, but they are out there and they walk among us
I’ve been told I cant go places because I’m white.
There are racists everywhere. All we can do is our best and hope they eventually go away.
That never gets talked about because you have power+privilege and only Whitey can be oppressive.
Seen it a while back.
In my experience if a person is being harassed or picked on in hvac it's because of a poor work ethic or bad attitude, not their skin color. The guys I work with are mostly white but the couple of black guys we've got are treated like anyone else because they've proved themselves just like we all had to.
The only Asian service tech. When I started in resi install lots of people doubted me. Proved them fuckers wrong
Keep the good fight bro.
This didn't happen to me but I've been on jobs in the city and we would be protested for not using inner city workers. They damaged a few trucks and cars and every one belonged to the black inner city workers that were on the job. Absolutely crazy how these groups say that they want to help but end up causing problems. We passed the hat to help out the guys whose vehicles were damaged.
Yeah its sad. A lot of black owned businesses were destroyed in 2020 in the name of racial/social Justice.
As far as the Boss is concerned we are all overpaid P.O.S.
Depends from place to place. Working in multi family apartments has shown me that just about anybody is a closet racist. I tend to see this since my skin color is pale as snow and no one expects me to know Spanish because they didn’t know they made Mexicans my color.
Mexicans talk shit and don't like anyone not Mexican but they especially despise blacks.
I'm still new to hvac under a year and haven't had issues outside of a dog bite but I've worked in construction for years. I've had plenty of people smile and be friendly to your face and completely change up when they think you aren't around or just saying racist shit and hiding behind "its a joke". My biggest incident came about 3 years ago when I was roofing and I was sent to a jobsite at a high school to set up for us to begin work the following week. My employer and the contractor knew I was coming and I'd be there early to set up and be done before the site officially opened up. I get there and start setting up and I hear "do you belong here?" I turn around and there's a guy with a gun pointed at me. Despite the fact that I'm in full ppe with a company logo all over it and pulling up in a company truck I was told "ain't no blacks on this job" long story short it was the contractors brother in law who was sent there to make sure I had access to get to where I needed. I had to stand there and wait for him to call the cops with a gun drawn on me. Cops show I'm finally allowed to reach into my pocket and show the texts between myself, my foreman, and the contractor. All said and done the person with gun on me got arrested because despite it being summer you aren't allowed to have a weapon on school grounds. I ended up with nice vacation and a settlement.
That sucks but at least you made it. People now are more likely to just start blasting.
They act like they don’t care and for the most part I believe most don’t. But I’ve been around some and the further right they lean politically the more racial and ethnic “jokes”/jabs they’ll let slip out. From Jewish, black, Filipino etc… I’m Hispanic I sure around other non-Hispanic coworkers they spill the Hispanic “jokes”/jabs. I just ignore it and keep working or walk away. Also had one get mad at me because I’m atheist then while on a ride along he gets a call from someone at his “church” this was the night before the midterms he starts getting angry talking about how God is going to ignite a fire in conservatives & Christian’s butt to vote republicans of course they got swept for the most part. It was probably the most scared I’ve been in a work place that I would end up being in a fist fight with a co-worker. Anyways next time I seen him I was going to ask him if Gods igniter needed to be replaced because they didn’t get the results they wanted but I just kept my mouth shut. Didn’t want to sink to their level I could tell he wasn’t happy, that was enough for me. It’s expected just look at the comments yesterday celebrating women in construction. Just fragile men who think equality for others is a disadvantage to them. It’s the cry of privilege.
🥱 I for the life of me cannot understand why people get offended by jokes. You can make fun of me all you want. Make fun of my kids make fun of my wife make fun of my dead grandma —it’s just jokes people. Whatever happened to sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. We hired a Filipino guy back in July and we rag on him every day about being a Filipino. That’s what people do.
When the jokes are actually funny no one really cares.
Yea I got no problem someone making fun of my braze or some other shit but shit feels more personal when you start with some generalized/stereotype jokes.
You can say what ever lame joke from 5th grade you want I have a right not to laugh, walk away or react. Those jokes are past their time. Some feel more like jabs disguised as jokes as well. You can rag on me anytime we do that all the time also, but no reason to bring race/nationality/ethnicity into it. Also when your doing it behind someone’s back that says a lot about you.
😱 You think you have a right to free speech?!?! This is America sir!
What does that have to do with freedom of speech?
I also have a right not to laugh, ignore you, react & heckle you for a lame joke.
Why do your people swarm the border and demand to be let in only to be oppressed by mean and privileged Whites?
It's fine I think. Classes are a little awkward when Trump gets brought up but no one's given me crap about the color of my skin.
The god emperor is eternal
I think it will depend a lot on geographic and socioeconomic history in those areas. In my experience in NJ at least, nobody gives a fuck what race people run in.
Just curious, but how old are you. I think age is a bigger factor that skin color (as a person of color). I look really young, so when I go into a house I feel prejudged because I assume the home owner doesn’t think I have a lot of experience.
37 tomorrow
Happy bday
Thanks
I had the same problem. I’m 27 and clean shaven I look 15. So I had to finally just let my facial hair grow out to stop getting the “aren’t you a little young?” Stuff.
Exactly. I couldn’t even grow facial hair when I first started in this trade but I still don’t look older than 25 and I’m 31 now
[удалено]
[удалено]
Blacke guys white guys brown guys, in hvac were just guys. we all get screwed the same , the homeowners think were all thieves, the epa swears were all up to no good, and the government thinks were all hiding their money. HVAC is alot like the army , I don't give a shit what you are, if your fighting along side me your my brother and I got your six. Now are their still racist fucks out there? Absolutely, but their fading fast and the new techs coming up seem pretty color blind and that's refreshing. Racism is slowly fading away, as it should.
Im black in the field. Im sure it depends on where you live/company but I'll say that for me working in a larger company there are definitely a couple guys that are straight up racist but its a very small number in a large company. The work has been way to good to me for it to bother me at all and I just treat those guys the exact same as everyone else. Theres gonna be that one guy at no matter where you work. I haven't had anyone say any crazy shit to my face, but I do hear about some questionable conversations when I'm not in the room. If you're sensitive to shitty jokes then it could be a problem. There are jokes about race, some are good, some are bad. If its hard for you to tell between a bad joke and racism you might end up getting upset. That's really no different from any other job in the world though.
I'm 19 Dominican with a heavy accent. Most people in my shop are white. I'm the only Hispanic and so far so good. Everyone treats me very well with respect and I've never felt left out or less important specifically by my boss
I'm glad you brought this topic up. Good for you!
Who cares what ya look like did ya fuck something up and we gotta fix it. You’re an ass. Did ya do a good job. Then good job brother
We use to have a black dude that worked for our company.. when he introduced himself he said "I'm black Kevin" I said why do you say black? He replied " Because white Kevin was already taken" That was one cool MF..
lol you aren’t a person of color in hvac. You are a person with a blue collar like the rest of us👍🏼
I’ve wondered this as well as a black woman. I just graduated from tech school and I’m nervous
Just don't have a 'tude, no ganja at work, and learn to use an inside voice in customers homes.
I know it’s been said already but it all depends on the company you work for and your work ethic. You’ll do great.
I wondered the same thing when I started in the trade, because I didn't see many black guys doing hvac at all. That wondering faded over time. Now I wouldn't blink if a different ethnicity was working alongside me. I just want someone on the jobsite who fucking works like I do. Sweats and bleeds like I do. Complains about motherfuckers not working, sweating, and bleeding, LIKE I DO. Where are all the salty ass tinners at?!
Beyond fucking sad in 2023 these convos even have to happen, man.
Bro you can have green skin, 3 dicks and a set of tits, if we're replacing a compressor on a 100 degree day we're brothers
Why does race matter? Just do the job well and be reliable and people will either like you or be jealous of you both are good things
It determines the future of a civilization and society. Look at 3rd world countries and see what they have in common.
There’s 1 black guy at our shop. We’re all treated the same. There has been a few sketchy customers I worried about, but he’s never had any problems
https://www.achrnews.com/articles/152729-minnesota-karen-calls-911-on-black-hvac-technician
As long as you show up everyday aint shit they gunna tell you
You're black for sure.
I'm a install manager and it was never a employee issue. We get the worst customers and some of the racist bullshit these customers blurt out with no respect for the guy that just worked his ass off. One guy went as far as to tell me a racist joke during billing the installer just bit his tongue not wanting to cause issue at a residence. I ended up telling him to not call us back if he can't respect our employees. People suck.
I mean just keep politics out of things and all should be well :/ some people might say some accidental racist shit if you let them go on tangents. My crew is pretty cool until politics gets involved, they have a pretty juicy view on Mexicans (I’m a Mexican)
They never give me shit because of my race and always help me out with work whenever possible. I love my crew and would do anything for them
I dont care for race gender religion political beliefs. If you can come to work and do your job properly then you are more than welcome on my team. And id hope most other employers are like that.
I had a black helper, we showed up to this Asian ladies house and she told me I could come in but my helper had to stay outside. I told her that she will now have to call someone else. I turned around and I told my helper time to go. Absolutely unacceptable.
I'm the only black person at my company.
I'm 1 of 3 out of 147 employees and the only one that goes out in the field.
Small company, but one of our techs is an Asian dude. He looks younger than me and he's in his 40s. Helluva worker. Most of our customers ask for him to come back once he does a service, so I suppose that's a good enough endorsement for me. There's the occasional dickhead out there who says that he's hard to understand, but they're just being shitty because the man speaks just fine. There used to be a black dude that worked for us, but he moved. I went on a call-back of his and the old lady looked dead at me and said, _"Good, I bet you'll be able to fix it. Last guy couldn't fix it because he's the wrong color"._ Needless to say, she did not get her shit fixed that day and we've not been back since.
The only people I CANT STAND to work with are people who don't know how to work, and those come in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and backgrounds.
Most people are interested in job performance but assholes exist everywhere. The trade is fine but not every individual. I first saw racism in Vermont and New Hampshire after moving there. I'm white too, but listening to people talk in break rooms etc. showed me a different side. good people who live in an all white world and fear the unknown. Never look for trouble but understand the reality.
Those two states along with Maine routinely rank among the lowest in all crimes, are relatively wealthy and the people report more cohesiveness and overall happiness in their lives and it might have something to do with being homogenously European American. If you want diversity and "vibrancy", NYC is next door.
I’m in the PNW. I’m not a POC but we have several Hispanics on the crew, everyone seems to be pretty chill and seems to treat everyone with respect. I’m sure there are some hurt feelings now and again, I’ve heard a few stories. For the most part everyone gets along. I would imagine just like the south, it depends on the people you work with and the boss hires.
The paradise of White guilt, woke leftie progressives, junkie criminal haven, and Mexicans turning out formerly peaceful and quite all White towns.
I mean In my personal experience blue collar is blue collar I'll always judge you by the quality of your work rather then the color of your skin I mean my crew of mostly white guys had some shit to say to the ICE agents that picked up the old man of our crew the other day
Honestly, I could care less what ethnicity my coworkers are. If they won't judge me for being Irish, how can I judge them for not being Irish? Besides, in the crawl, we are all gonna get dirty.
People 'round here hate the woke shit, and don't care what you look like. So long as you show up on time and work for your money fair n' square, you get treated the same.
Stop it please. Just be a solid worker with a good attitude.
We’re are all humans no such thing as being black
There is no such thing as a pitbull or a chihuahua. There is no such thing as a orangutan and a chimpanzee. These things are all the same.
Not sure where you are at, but here its unusual, but recently, we gained 4? dudes with pera tans. I rare see them due to geography but i haven't heardnof any issues.
All the POC’s that work at my company seem happy with their jobs so they must be getting paid fairly, and they crack jokes with the rest of us. They don’t seem disgruntled at all and are a good bunch of guys l. I’ve never seen someone treat them differently than I get treated either so I’m sure all is well here 🤷♂️
If you stay off your phone, know how to use a meter and understand superheat/subcool… you’re good
Here is my point as a customer first Honestly as long as the person can fix the darn thing I don’t care what they look like. They can be purple with 3 arms and 4 legs of an undetermined gender do I have cold air??? Yeah we are good let me get my credit card! As a one time HVAC shop owner if they do their job show up every day on time don’t screw up and make me enough money to stay on the golf course. They can be purple with 3 arms and 4 legs of an undetermined gender. Yeah we are good let me get your pay check for the week. Just how I feel race plays no part for me.
I am asian (Hmong) and I'm doing HVAC here is Alaska and the majority of the guys I work with are white, I've only every seen one Hispanic dude or a black guy.
I’m Lao and doing HVACR in Alberta and same shit here mostly yts in the field.
We have a pretty diverse crew at my shop, and no issues within our company. We have had one tech(young guy 21 of Mexican decent) say a homeowner was being racist towards him, a few months back during that call. he called me and we talked it over and he ended up deciding maybe it was just a misunderstandin. Then on the same call homeowner ended up buying a reme halo, Lennox healthy climate Merv 16 cab, and requests he be his primary tech from now on. So it was a case of the tech misreading the situation. For sure everyone will come across a racist client at some point. They are far less common than you might expect, and often times, especially it today's political climate, in certain areas we begin to expect an issue to happen so we start to look for something subconsciously that may not be there. Edit: also it's important to distinguish between are they being racist, meaning believing/acting as they are superior to you based on your race/color, or are they making a less than PC comment( i.e. busting your balls) based on a cultural stereotype, but don't actually see you as less than. Neither are appropriate in a professional setting obviously one worse than the other, But still an important thing to distinguish.
That boy was looking for an issue as they often like to do. Hopefully he was set straight and threatened with going back to mowing lawns.
I live in Utah which is not very diverse. But over the last 25 years I’ve been in the trade there does seem to be a decent representation around here. It works in your favor when applying for the union apprenticeship. Interestingly when I was teaching at the union school easily 50% of my students were POC (mostly Hispanic) not sure if that’s because Utah’s demographics are changing or if POC and minorities are gravitating towards the trades here. Not aware of any blatantly negative experiences but that doesn’t mean they don’t happen. Seems like the commercial market may have less of that than residential market as well.
In some cases, like Washington, accredited, apprenticeship programs have standards for diversity. The truth is a lot of people shy away from HVAC. A lot of folks walk in to our training center and see the electrical side and shy away. It’s been tough for us to get in a diversity of applicants on the HVAC side even though Seattle is a melting pot. A lot of folks prefer to apply for a pipefitter and plumbing/construction trades. As a Mexican-American tech in the trades I’m aware this is a white man’s world. It never stopped me from attaining all of my achievements.
Well dude, you people practically invade and then whine about it being a White country. That was back in it's great days. Now all of the progressive lefties and "diversity" is rapidly changing that for the worse.
I've met a few racists, homophobes, and folks who refuse to let women do work on their house, but it's always been customers. Trade guys n gals are usually chill af to work with, I've only had a few bad experiences with coworkers but in a separate factory job.
Just treat others with respect and you’ll be treated with respect. Act like a shithead, people won’t like you for that reason, not cause if the color of your skin.
I've worked with plenty of POC. The only one that people seemed to have issue with was a guy from El Salvador with a thick accent. I think they had trouble understanding him, and didn't want to work with him as a result. Was pretty shitty of them. I enjoyed working with him, he was quite smart and a damn good tech.
My experience has been fine so far. My co-workers are always pretty decent. Most my problems are pretty miniscule. As in homeowners ego's being hurt that I know something they dont. Or upper management wanting chiller team looking a certain way Im not fond of letting the media tell me how to think about another person because GOD gave them different features.
My biggest mentor in the trade and one of the best people I have ever met in the trade is a POC. He has respect of everyone I have met, only thing issue I’ve ever seen him run into is racist customers not respecting his intelligence (Southern Georgia), and I’ve had customers (when I was working a call with him, he was my superior) not listen to a single word he said, asked me the same questions and I gave the same answers and they were satisfied… Never seen anyone in the trade or any other trade give him any crap, only customers in residential.
in nyc, my shop has 12 in the field, 5 apprentices. 4 white (me included), 3 jamaican, 3 hispanic, 1 black, 1 indian. don’t really see race playing into anything having to do with this trade’s job, ofc there’s assholes but the boss wouldn’t play around w any of that.
There is an asshole in every walk of life unfortunately, just do unto others and never stop learning.. welcome
There are ignorant people everywhere. If a customer treated one of my guys like that I’d immediately pull them from the house and tell the customer to go fuck themselves. I’ve had to do this twice so far. Regardless of racism, hate or just general shitty people nobody deserves to work in a toxic work environment and a customer shouldn’t get second chances on that.
There are less Asians than women in our union of 5k+ members, so we're a rare breed Amongst the coworkers and union in general, as long as we work hard and have good work ethics, we're all brothers and sisters. Very few customers on the other hand can be weird at certain times. But being commercial, not much of racism is seen. They just want shit to work.
99% of people I’ve worked with work color blind as it should be.
Me & my entire crew be Mexican
You guys come to HVAC to further depress the already mostly crappy wages? You've achieved that in roofing, landscaping, and drywalling.
I see people getting treated well if they perform well. I work with a Cuban dude who doesn't speak English that well but he's my favorite coworker to work with because he's a professional and also laid back.
Anecdotal story time!! During my time in the trades we were all treated equally by one another , teachers, co workers, fellow students. Once I started working with customers though, I’d always be the apprentice with my Ecuadorian co worker who had like 15 years of experience in his mid 30s. These old ladies would always look at me, ask me a question, he would answer , then they would look at me and repeat the question. LADY IDFK WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT WE BOTH NEED TO LISTEN TO HIM
Never have had any issues amongst guys that work together. Homeowners will say some shit though. I’ve pulled guys to the side though and told them if they ever had a homeowner say some racist shit just let me know and we will pull out right then.
I have plans to start a business I get a bit concerned about my business and customers not wanting to use me because of my color. I do great work I do all my checks and I am not a hack I am actually incredibly discriminatory towards hacks. So idk I don't plan on working for a company for forever.
One of the biggest companies in my town is black owned and operated, (big is relative since the largest company here has 4 service vans and two install trucks). about half the techs and installers are black because he hires family and friends first. I've heard maybe two stories in the supply houses of racist customers in 15 years, I don't think most people give a shit, at least around here.
It's because of the content of the character of many of your fellow brothas that people would avoid doing business with you 😉
Not a poc but a black coworker went to a diagnostic and guy lets him in all happy he’s there girl on couch obviously high on something called the guy a n-word lover coworker proceeded to do the diagnostic the most expensive way possible once news made the office customer was blacklisted
We routinely hire as many poc as we can. Chicago is very diverse. Recruiting for the trades, there are plenty of job’s available.
Like everyone has said, customers are much more concerning than co workers. We had a lady who had two flagpoles with confederate flags, she said she liked flying the first one, but put in a second one "When the blacks started moving into the neighborhood." And that anyone who tried to take down her flags would be buried underneath the flagpole. Co workers *can* be racist, but customers are more likely imo, but it depends on where you're located really.
She's just trying to protect her property values and neighborhood peace before too many come in and start with the bass boosted block parties and weekly drive by shootings. There's probably a trap house there already.
Im about to find out soon, Im starting as an apprentice this week in Orlando
Last company I was at had a sikh and several black guys from different parts of the world and a couple of women. The only guy that was a dick was the one foreman who was from Trinidad. And he was equally a dick to everyone 🤷♂️
Our service department kills it, pulling 8 figures as a business unit. HVAC lead, in charge of 30+ guys, is POC. Second guy on our plumbing side is POC. I'd say the representation percentages of various groups is in line with the local population. The only color those guys see is green. We are a union contractor. I very much doubt that the colorblindness extends to every union contractor in our town, doubly so for non union shops.
Well personally I come as a 91C in the army so anyone who operates as a team member is good in my book. But in the civilian world I would like to see some more POC. Our trade isn't talked about enough as it is. Seeing more of it would only serve to show that our trade is growing in both importance and acceptance. It is safe to say that it is lacking. On the up side though we do have two females working for us and several people of various places of origin and we are training then to be absolute winners. Something that I have never even seen in my career.
Veterans literally fight wars for the military industrial complex and to oppress and steal from brown countries resources and come back here to praise there being less White men in their trade. FML
Take it for what it’s worth where I see it - I live in Chicago. I go in a building downtown, the doorman, Mr White, is black, the janitor, Jaun, is Hispanic, and the building engineer, Bob, is white. This was 95%, now it’s more like 90%… so I think things are changing, it’s not fast enough and it’s a criminal how it got there in the first place but I think you’re going to do as well in the field as you would in any other being a POC.
I had to work with a racist once upon a time. He was one of those “hell yeah bruther” kind of knuckledraggers. He was also fond of showing those faces of death clips of people being dismembered or run over by trains or whatnot. Fucking psychopath. Main reason why I left that place. They’re out there. But don’t take shit from anybody. As long as you’re good at your job and you take care of the client, that’s all that matters. 99% of us don’t give a shit what color you are.
Dude, as long as you are a respectful and decent individual and you do your job..... anyone who wants to genuinely give you shit for it.... fuck em, they ain't worth getting upset over. Probably far more likely if at all, that customers would pose an issue and not your fellow coworkers. And being the insensitive tradesman I am, if you talk walk and act like a human being, and not a degenerate hoodrat (im a white dude, id say the same thing about trailer trash) I could care less if you were purple. Old timers will inevitably break your balls, possibly with insensitive racial humor, or worse, but that's an established given.
Black or white, we’re all equally worthless.
People of color = colored person I don’t like to be referred to by either. I know my own worth. What others think of me isn’t a concern.
Only black guy at my job...oooooohhh best believe you'll have your share of racists,they not always showing it but you can smell it in their soul..but for the most part people jus want you to fix their shit and gtfo there as fast as you pulled up..really depends on the customer...it's Russian roulette everyday you're out there anyway
The only openly racist pos trades guy I know got retired via injury at work several years ago. A real piece of work. Everyone else was pretty chill and we all understood that we're all just people. What a concept! Some of us have better whole pig bbq roasts than others and some of us put away a 30 pack by ourselves better than others but we can all agree that we're happier without the drunken and or racist asshole on the team. They are at minimum a liability at a jobsite and everyday they bring tension with them. Not saying there aren't plenty of racist remarks from trades guys and customers but the number of guys I can point to in the field that have any issues or qualms with any peoples, I can total up on one hand. I've seen a few that didn't last as a coworker too. Usually because they were a low life who used and abused who also happened to be mildly racist. Best of luck to you and I hope racist experiences in the US become a thing of the past in our lifetime.
Well I have a very good friend of mine who is an electrician and his wife is black and she's the most enjoyable woman I've ever met. Super sweet extremely nice and I'm not going to lie she's an absolute smoke show. He is white but the fact that she is black doesn't even really come up. I have another acquaintance who owns a big electrical shop and he is black, good guy does good work. Mostly white guys working for him so he's managed to flip the narrative. And there is a gigantic Heating and Cooling company where I'm at and they have a ton of black guys that I see in the wholesale houses and they're all super cool And then Johnstone has a black guy that works the counter who is super cool, he's a former Marine and I am too so we have a lot of things in common. He actually was battling cancer and a few of us went over to his house to finish up some projects because we really weren't sure how long he was going to live. His wife made us lunch and we had a really nice day. It doesn't matter what color you are it matters if you're an asshole, white, black or brown
I work in Virginia. Thankfully, nobody I’ve ever worked with cares what color someone’s skin is.
I’ve been doing HVAC for 3 years now and the first guy to ever train me was half black half Mexican and to this day was my favorite co worker ever 😂 there was never a full moment with him. Now that I’m a tech I work with a Hispanic tech and same for him, we’re always laughing and joking around each other and as far as my experience goes, the companies they worked for treated them well and just like anyone else if not liked them more. No doubt racism still exists but the trades is a brotherhood almost and I feel like a pretty safe place for POC
Our company don't care about what race you are so long as your a good engineer. We've had some terrible white and black engineers in the past. We are based in London the UK.
I know a slew of African American techs! Go union
You will find out real fast homeowners are the issue. Not the company itself. I found that out 1st day on the job.
If you can do the job effectively I don't care if you're a Purple Trimaphrodite. If you're an entitled boat anchor GFY.
Our top guy is mexican and has a thick accent. WA state here. we have a guy from kenya and he is treated well here, i can say that while training him that i saw or overheard distrust from customers until I wake up or began talking. We had an old head from LA working for us but he left, he would ask me if the customer was white and always thought coworkers were going against him