TL;DR skip to final three paragraphs I have a question. Otherwise enjoy this narrative about dinkhead that isn't a dinkhead but people say he is. I don't get it but maybe I don't fully internalize when people say "Sam you suck at [insert task here]".

Funny story before I wash my car in the dark. I think all tradies know a guy/gal like this. I hope for the better; this past month I've been assisting my company's master network cameras installer. He's famous for being meticulous, passionate, and sometimes mean. I've heard the stories and how he's made people cry and how he's made a lot of people leave this company. To a point though, I believe that there's too many weak-willed millennials that can't take criticism or really haven't been yelled at in their entire lives. They mistake someone raising their voice in an effort to assert their point, the significance of their statement, as "yelling". My grandfather did the same thing this installer did, but my grandfather was a screamer so much so that it was funny. Yelling or not, this man truly cares about the quality of his work. He'll take the time to instruct an apprentice; sort've "watch and learn, really absorb what it is and how I execute this single device". Gradually, he's trusted me to do more and more devices as the days went one. Yesterday and today, he's actually trusted me to do every single camera.

Yesterday though, he pulls me to the side says "Hey buddy, lemme talk to you a moment [try to picture a heavy dialect too. He's from Israel, not that it matters but the heavy dialect makes me giggle at times]. Do you know why we caulk the devices? If I ask you to caulk a device, which is better, a lot or a little? If you're not gonna waterproof my camera then you're gonna do my cameras on my job". I swear I was and every time he mentioned it that I made a conscious effort to better coverage in the spots he asked. Seven cameras later, he comes up and he snips my RJ-45s and says "Dood, is this how I teach you!? These look like my ass [I matched the colors but the wires are crisscross. They're supposed to look perfectly straight]. I can caulk the cameras myself, fine, but if I can't trust you to do a single connecter then I'm going to ask you to pass me tools and nothing else. This is my job and I won't let you screw me over coz you no care for quality. I don't care I check every single camera if I have to. Also I next time use the CAT5 Jacks with a channels in them".

It was at that point that I learned that a modular plug is not a modular plug. Pass-throughs and single piece suck; anything besides the one with the perforations to separate the wires were designed to embarrass me[img]//assets.bodybuilding.com/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif[/img]At the end of that shift though, I thanked him for the further instruction. Then he got all sweet "ooooh, it's okay. Sam, I'll show you twenty times if I have to I don't care. I will not, however, allow it that I go to finish this project and find fifty of my cameras no work". To which I respond, "...'coz that's two more weeks of work". He exclaims "Right! Hey man have a good rest of day *fist bump*".
I can get why most cucks won't work with him, for he's a master at his craft and treats every detail as if it were his life savings. Every single device, every single screw, every single RJ-45; more technicians outgha be like him. All that said, this is the final phase of the project, which is trimming out. There are no more ditches to dig, there is one more wire run that we're waiting on a scissor lift for. If he seriously demotes me to donkey/"pass-me-the-tool" guy, I'm gonna tell him "Yo [insert name here]. I didn't ask to work with you so I could get an easy paycheck. I asked so you teach me to be a better technician." If he seriously responds to the effect of "Dood, not on my job. You ain't hanging my cameras I no trust you", then I'll ask my company office to re-assign me.

I've been actively assisting and since I started here eight months ago. I'll be damned if I let a man demote me to donkey after not only exercising more responsibility than that, but also been apprenticing under this man for more than a month. Did the last paragraph seem like a good plan? I love this guy's approach to teaching and he's proactive to reduce post construction troubleshooting. He's our company's master at surveillance cameras. He's not as bad as everyone else makes him out to be. He will not, however, degrade my reputation as a good helper/apprentice.

Phuck, I hate being called a helper; an apprentice is learning to be better at their field of work, a helper is a good-for-nothing muddaphucker who finds more pleasure in checking their phones and wonders why "their life is soo hard". "Helper" in my brain = dispensable. I'm not a helper, I'm a technician that has "helper moments", lol.

Thanks for reading.

HEY! DIS AINT BALLAS TURFF (GTA San Andreas reference, video game and the rival gang's uniform color was purple).I got goatse'd

Read it all and I can offer cliffs












































"Tradies gon trade, labourers gon labe"

Lol, you made scroll AAALLL the way down my page. You've warmed my heart Schnitzel. As per usual though, now I'm waiting on leader to show up. The day starts at 7am, I at the school at 7am. He says "oh, I have to drive for hour and half". Same here bruh! Btw I hope my company doesn't see me as cheap labor. That would do the opposite of warm my heart.

Two hour tradie lunch break bump. Btw he seriously is not allowing me to hang cameras today. He left for a minute to make a phone call. He says "chill, wait here". I, of course, don't just stand there, and I hang the camera he set up. He comes back like 20min later, he checks it, then says "this is a good camera, but your caulking needs to be neater".

I take it as a win for today, but I don't know if I'll stay with this man for too much longer. To me, there's nothing more embarrassing than seeing a school with teachers and children all watching me just stand like an idiot during their class transitions. I pretended to be organizing our tool cart after that camera. Either way I think I'm a little over paid to be just standing there and passing him tools.

Being a new guy is often about showing up and helping pass every tool the experienced guys dont bother carrying any more and learning by helping along the way. That being said some guys are control freaks and condescending, lots of them are also the laziest when they arent in charge. Most of the other experienced guys actually hate these guys. Is it too hard to do it the way hes asking or is he just nitpicking to be a dick you need to ask yourself and either do it right or sortof reclaim your dignity and just become an uhhuh guy until you get to a different crew. No job is worth being mistreated for, if they cant communicate positively dont give them your effoet and take the checks until you get somewhere better. Theres always some ball busting teaching new guys but the constant condescending harpers get a bad reputation because thats different. You need to feel out the situation and do what you think is right.


Theres a guy who talks **** to all the new guys at my job, for example if you say your name is Mike he will call you Michael in a weird voice just to be condescending. Seen guys run around like crazy trying to please him. Also seen one guy tell him to shut the **** up, you arent god and you arent my dad, the guy starts stuttering well well then go home. Fast forward a few months everyone would rather have the guy who stood up for himself than be anywhere near the other guy, all the bosses talk **** about him when he isnt around and the old timers talk **** right to his face because they know how he treats people

This means you have the best teacher possible though, accept the challenge he provides for it will build you into a beast for that job, they will take note that you took his shtick in stride.

Also, how da phuk are you doing RJ-45 with no channels? I used to do a dozen 4 plate jacks most days, only channel tips here, much easier to crimp and not risk the browns or blue/green twisting back around.

There's a difference between demanding a high quality of work and being so pedantic and controlling that you find it impossible to delegate anything. If it's the latter then it's the reason he has never got any higher than his current position

Similar to my technician. Coworkers have all said "Datboi loves to be in charge. If he's on anyone else's job he sorta takes a back seat and always finds a reason to leave sooner". I love to ask Datboi the occasional question, and he loves to share his knowledge regarding how to better arrange your CAT5/CAT6 for an RJ-45, how to better run conduit and pull wires. Datboi is very polite in conversation, but it's another thing if he loses all hope if he sees a single important detail mis-done.I'm serious, the product he likes is Ideal's '"CAT5e/RJ-45 Jack". I grabbed the box that said Ideal's "CAT6 Single Piece". The single piece has channels but not big enough to really chorale the wires in a neat fashion. Datboi doesn't like pass-throughs either but neither did I unless I have a pass-through crimper. I'll admit I have screwed up three cameras yesterday, none before that, and I had cameras facing slightly too close to the wall. Two was a criss-cross jacks and one was bad caulking.

Misc, I've called my home office and am speaking with the president of our company soon. I don't hope to degrade Datboi's reputation, he good people's. I will not, however, allow what little electrical trade skills i have atrophy coz of a lack of experience.

Great news everyone! I spoke with Mr. President regarding the matter. Datboi may or may not might be upset with me next time he sees me. That being said, SpeculatorSam just got a raise and is getting retro-paid for the past month too. You misc boy makes $14/hr now... doesn't seem like a huge improvement in writing, but I was positively elated when the president decided to call so urgently AND made my six months review as short as "Oh, and another thing. Based on your job reports from your superior technicians, you've improved well since your hiring. I'm going to increase your wages by one dollar and pay you that difference retrospectively for the pat past month as well. You have a good weekend Mr. Sam. Keep learning as much as you can from this trade".

Welp, time to go mod Morrowind for the remainder of this weekend.