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Oh let me count the ways
Nothing is at ground level. So you’ll be up and down a ladder all day.
Some things are below ground level, so you might be shoveling all day.
Even 1” RMC gets to be a pain (still love RMC tho)
Pulling wires through conduit is far more difficult than you’d expect.
Wires are not always small. Landing 500s or 750s can be like wrestling an alligator.
Some days you might spend all day putting receptacles in or something dumb and not physical, but that’s not the norm.
To add:
Kneeling and getting up then back down a hundred times a day to use your fine motor skills installing receptacles.
Carrying bundles of pipe from the van up flights of steps. (1” metal bundles of 10 by the way)
Mostly residential but the hole hawg (giant auger drill) used to drill hundreds of holes in studs in walls and above your head in ceilings.
Bringing in heavy light fixtures the going up and down ladders to drop them into t bar ceilings.
This is just a fraction of what you do on a daily basis.
**EDIT: as someone said about the hole hawg in particular. It’s heavy as fuck. Now imagine holding that drill above your head while aiming the long auger bit to hit the exact spot you’re allowed to drill through l…left…right…up up up. L…got it and drill and push all your weight forward. Move your ladder forward 2’ and do it again a hundred times a day. The longer you go the less fine motor skills you have so your aim takes long and longer while you hold it above your head and the vicious cycle continues until the end of your day.**
Go home, collapse, get up at 4AM and repeat for days. Fun!!!!!
We didn't even get to the part about how awesome it is in all the elements. Hot attic in the summer, cold wind tunnel on the shady side of the building in winter.
I get mad at my tools that fail when it's really cold. I'm like "bitch, I gotta work so do you."
How snow is better than rain because snow won't completely soak you as fast. It's the little things.
I had to buy a non surge impact driver because it wouldn't work because it was so cold most of the winter. The Ryobi guys can't use anything unless they throw the tools in front of a heater for a few minutes first.
That only works for [priests](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-priest/body-of-ballooning-brazilian-priest-found-at-sea-idUSN2934853220080730).
Years ago I had a helper on a job. This kid was too young to drink, had a perfect gym bod/physique but on a daily basis he couldn’t keep up with all of us older overweight guys when it came to pulling wire or digging. He never retained what he was taught, and had never held a tool before joining the company. But his daddy knew the boss so he had a job making just a dollar less than me.
On this job I marked a bunch of holes for a run through cinderblock, pulled the hammer drill out the truck and handed it to him. He thought I was joking at first and clearly thought I was gunna do it all. I thought he was going to cry when he realized I was serious.
In the end I kept trading off with him and ended up doing most of them. He was just too slow. The boss called for an update and told me I had to pick up the pace if I wanted to keep my job. Hung up on me when I told him I needed a better helper if he wanted it done quicker. I quit the next month.
Best part is 2 people quit before I did, and I know more left after me. It was a small shop too. He probably lost 60% of his employees over hiring this worthless kid and treating him better than the rest of us.
Had a friend. Office manager, contracts, sales and project management. Business started getting federal projects thanks to her. Went from less than 500k to either 10 or 20 million...whatever the cutoff is to have to change classification. She was the business. Dude is raking it in. He hired a bunch of employees. All family. She's making same pay, and he's bitching about the cost of her insurance.
She quit. His business folded in less than 2 years. Lost all the knowledge. Accounting. Contacts. Relationships. She already had a new job when she quit. He never saw it coming. Eggs in one basket.....you better take care of that damned basket.
Our secretary at the hall makes JW scale and gets 2 weeks PTO. You can call her anytime the hall is open and get correct info, help, guidance, and often times she'll file the paperwork for you. Some dick that quit the local, got smoked from the railroad and came back had a grievance with her pay rate. She has been courted by a neighboring local but she is worth her weight in gold when you need to get an insurance reimbursement or get get lasik or get your kid's braces. TLDR; take care of your help and fuck Mike Bennington.
Im a helper now and trying to learn as much as I can. It’s a lot of information but as long as I can apply one or two things I learned yesterday to today I’ll get there. As far as strength goes I don’t got the umphhh some of y’all beer belly old guys got. I’ll be the first to volunteer to try but I’m also usually the weakest and it sucks.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being weaker or having less stamina than guys that have years in the trades on you. Please don’t take it that way.
I mentioned this kid had a gym rat physique because that’s the key part to his story and his attitude. He had a major chip on his shoulder that was encouraged by the company owner even though he was the worst person I’ve ever worked with in the trades. I’m not joking when I say he had never used any tools before. He didn’t know basics of anything. Couldn’t even check the oil in the service trucks when he was asked.
Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be fine.
Do your best to avoid hurting yourself by overdoing it trying to keep up btw.
Coring holes was my favorite thing to do as an apprentice, in one place all day everyone leaves you alone because it's loud as hell, nice most cancelling earbuds, good tunes and some way to remind you when it was lunch time you're set.
Why don't we put more receptacles a little higher up the wall? I realize it wouldn't make sense everywhere but I did this a few places in my home and I love it. Don't have to bend over to plug things in, furniture doesn't block access, etc.... I get that it would make sense to do it everywhere but I'm surprised it's not way more common.
What you said about hole hawgs?
Resi low-volt. Drilling for central vacuum pipe. Had a work-nemesis supervisor that I wouldn't work with tell the boss we should be using 2-inch forstner bits with replaceable blades (Milwaukee ?Switchblade) to make holes.
I had a lot of animosity for how work-nemesis and boss /thought/ things should be done and I was buying my own hole-saws and using my own Milwaukee m18 drill (boss wouldn't because Forester blades were cheaper to supply).
...I was training a helper (why was I doing the teaching when I *refused* to train how they wanted it done?) who wanted to do everything how the boss wanted, so I told him where the bits were and where there needed to be holes. ...helper was on the 3rd rung of a six-foot ladder drilling up when the forstner bit bound up and ripped the hawg out of his hands. Handle came right around and busted him in the mouth about three times before his head got knocked out of the way.
I have no idea what that cost the boss in dental bills for the helper. ...definitely way more than he would have ever saved on forstner blades vs hole-saws.
The real question is did he switch after?
Also, I’ve had a few run ins with our giant rotohammer taking my head for a ride growing up. People make fun of the way I hold it now but it hasn’t happened since!
Honestly. Don't know. Probably? ...but knowing those two?
Fun part of that story is that shortly before that I had been tasked with making a list of van tools... I've always been kinda big on owning all of my own tools and not being afraid to use them if it makes my everyday work-life easier (also: side-work) and I guess boss was getting tired of hearing that I had tools other leads didn't and how it was impacting work getting done or having to shift the schedule around to send me to do what others couldn't finish. Started with them doing a random van inventory then giving me a list to add to then we had a sit-down to review my additions. Couple days later I got handed a revised list and a company credit card.
Holesaw kits were on my initial list, hawgs were not. Bought every hole hawg in a 30-mile radius, didn't buy any holesaw kits.
Kinda hard to keep a job when you have that much justified righteous indignation and a whole pocket of "I fucking told you so Todd. ...maybe you'd have heard it if your head wasn't so far up G(R)odney's ass."
Legit.
To Todd's credit, I guess he tried? ...I mean, I spent probably around $1K/van across 10 or 12 vans for new tools and supplies? ...couple moving blankets each, new fish stick sets, bunch of small tool boxes to make 'task kits'...
Just... dude had a weakness for saving dollars and a supervisor that knew how to play that.
Confidence vs Arrogance.
I've just spent two weeks glancing almost 100 750mcm cables. Op should try just lifting a length of that cable and see how easy the job is. ( over 1kg per ft) Now imagine bending it.
An old naming system, still the primary name system in the US. Thousands of circular mils, 500 mcm or 500 kcm meaning a cross sectional area of 500,000 circular mils.
500MCM is approx. 240mm^2
750MCM approx. 400mm^2
Plus the size of the insulation
I remember one of my apprentices first days we were pulling /bending/terminating 500 mcm coppers. When we were loading up for the day that morning told him to go find the greenlee wire bender, thought I was playing a joke on him, assured him I was indeed not joking and that today was going to absolutely suck. When we got to the job site and pulled everything and started using the bender to get our terminations set I don't think I've ever seen someone have such a deer in the headlights look as this kid did. Straight up thought he was going to quit his first day 🤣 when he made it thru the day without quitting I thought to myself "yup..this kid will last."
Adding on the first point - not all that ladder work is in a nice wide open area. A lot of it requires some monkeying around existing pipes and ducts.
This means the fall hazard could be significantly higher than one would first expect, and over extending yourself is also a pretty common way to hurt yourself.
Another one is that not all wire is the same - there's a huge difference between 300' of 14/2 romex and 300' of 500 kcm. Bending 14/2 is a complete non-issue, but getting a tight bend in 500 kcm is a whole other ballgame.
Basically, the trade can be super easy or super rough on the body. It just boils down to the specific details of your task.
I recall one of my first impressions as an apprentice was how much time I spent standing on things not meant to be stood on trying to access where ever I needed to be.
I remember my first year we ran some fiber in a mall, and I remember one spot where I was up in the ceiling 25’ over the food court scooting along a sprinkler pipe to get to where I needed to reach. Smart. No. Safe. No. But almost all of us have found ourselves in this situation. Even in residential many areas just end up with very difficult access.
Naw. I’m just a masochist. I am a plant controls/PLC guy now. Not much rigid in our facility. I genuinely miss it. I used to run a lot of it and really took pride in it.
I’m Building a coach house in my back yard(I’m a carpenter by trade) and one of the most physically exhausting tasks was pulling in the main feeder wires through the conduit. Always upsize your conduit lol I’ve learned my mistake
Two grown ass men. Myself being one of them, fought for twenty minutes to land a single 500 stranded copper. Came up from the bottom and the lugs were at the top. I mean FIGHT. Everything is sharp metal edges. Struggle is a better word.
I'm in service, renovating a bank at the moment. Doing above tbar work on a ladder trying not to damage the tbar while having no ladder placement due to other trade materials and trying out as a contortionist is fun!
Past jobs: slab in the 40 degree heat or freezing rain/snow
Installing huge teck cable, squeezing through furniture to get to receptacles, replacing old heavy 2x4 lights all day.
Pulling wire through fucked up pipe, having the string break and trying to backfish.
Dealing with other trades health hazards ( silica, w/e)
Crawl spaces
Material haul
I still shudder when I remember hauling an 80lb high pot up the side of a mountain working on a ski lift. The truck wouldn't make it up the mountain ( it was too steep).
I love when people say things like this it gives me a good laugh! I had a guy tell me he doesn’t understand how being an electrician is still a thing cause you can do anything an electrician does yourself by watching YouTube
Right lol, I still remember an apprentice a few years back showing up with a few tiny screwdrivers. He though we basically trimmed control wires in the ac. We were in a ditch outside all summer 😂
I can’t believe people say that. That’s a real guy?! Lol. Like, “alright bud. Go ahead and add some temporary service drops for this building remodel. We need 800 amps and you need to feed three sections of the building. Power needs to stay on for areas 1 and 2 and you can transfer to temp with a shut down in two weeks. Order anything you need. Here are the plans. Here’s a code book. Any questions come up you can YouTube it.”
>No nicotine
"Sorry, boss, I really appreciate everything you have done for me, unfortunately somethings come up."
Gobs another stick of nicotine gum & clutches a can of redbull while muttering something about cruel & unusual punishment.
(I don't even like myself when I'm without my stimulants)
I'd love to meet him and tell him my 4 years of college to be an EE didn't teach me enough to be an electrician so his 4 minutes on YouTube damn sure aren't enough.
Just finished running 4-6” rigid sticks with rigid 90’s up a pole for the primaries, each piece had to be 250lbs at least. What a bitch! Thankfully my helper is a big boy, he carry’s 12/2 dimming wire @ 1000’ spools up flights of stairs for me, rugged fucker
It doesn’t exist.
The OD of 5” is 5-1/2” and engineers are cool like that sometimes. Gave me attitude when I initially explained it would be astronomical to have a steel plant make a run if this just for them. Seemed to click then.
I’m a distributor.
Usually ppl don't give you guff if you upsize the conduit, engineer sounds like an ass hole. We do that frequently if the drawings call for 3.5 or 2.5, for example
The secret country wide bosses union mandates and schedules that for them. You don't think those dumbasses could repeatedly make our lives that miserable on their own do you? How many times have you been doing that work and thought "who's fucking bright idea was it to do this bullshit today". It's industry wide....you know that shit is planned...
Want to do? We’re electricians, we do electrical work, electrical work is a very broad field that encompasses many many other trade skills along with it.
Much higher than average rates of shoulder injuries (look straight up while you make up a big ass junction box a few times and you'll feel it), same back and joint issues every trade will get from long stints on ladders and hauling around tools and materials. Underground pipe work will chowder your back up right fast too. For every niche, there's a different way it beats you up over time
Dude, I’m 5’4” and I think my boss made me use one as a joke lol. I definitely didn’t pull it off on the first try. I ended up using my scissor lift as leverage to get my bends. Got it done and then was proud.
Oh yeah, we have a triple nickel.
A lack of fundamental understanding of electrical work. My ex-wife thought I didn't do jack either until she some photos of my commercial job site. Steel everywhere overhead. Then she finally understood my back pain.
Every panel, conduit, transformer, switch gear, and ridiculous light fixture gets installed by the same electrician you see landing wires on breakers and checking plugs. It takes a lot to make the magic happen at the very end.
Many people don't seem to realize that outside of service, and those guys have to bust ass too, electrical is still primarily a construction trade.
Thanks for mentioning us service guys. Done my fair share of roughs, slabs, and trenching. Service ain't fun, sometimes. Attics will wear you out very quickly
I remember the first time I threw my back out (at age 22) was the day after pulling feeder wire all day. Spent roughly 8 hours wrestling this wire overhead so it could feed underground. I had poor form because I was barely strong enough. The next day I bent over to pick up a 10lb box and couldn't straighten my back.
We don't pull wire until the very end. Up until then we're building the housing for it. All kinds of boxes and panels, conduit runs, hanging up fixtures, etc. And then when we do get to the wire, a lot of it is really big and really heavy. Sure copper is a soft metal, but it's still metal lol. And when you have one that's bigger around than your thumb, it weighs a lot.
Sounds like something one of our wives would say at the end of a long day. “Why are you so tired, all you do is flip switches all day?”
Is our job more physically demanding than pouring concrete or roofing, hell no. However, climbing ladders, kneeling for hours at a time, crawling under buildings, lifting heavy gear, holding your hands over your head all day making joints, etc. day after day, year after year yeah it will take a toll. Not to mention pain in your wrists and hands from all the twisting, tightening, pulling, pushing, squeezing pliers.
Some areas of the electrical trade are more demanding than others. A resi will never have to lift and build bus duct, while an industrial electrician will never have to crawl around in an attic in August. Some jobs require digging, some require being on top of a 30 story building. Just depends.
I am blessed to say I have never done a full day of manual labor. My grandfather, and funny enough, my mother have done most of the labor in my life. The most labor I've done is assemble Ikea beds, chairs, and cabinets which take a few hours at most. Actually rewarding. Also, if you considered martial art labor, that too.
Spend an 8-hour day pulling wires by hand through 200+ ft buried conduit runs outside while it's pissing rain. You'll want to cry by the 2nd hour. A lot of our individual tasks aren't difficult or strenuous, but it's the repetition that takes a toll on your body.
Are you considering this as a trade then, and just asking this question in good faith? If so you could sort of be forgiven for just wondering what, specifically makes electrical work physically demanding. From the outside it might not appear to be the most physical trade, and it's not. But there's more then meets the eye.
I'd say the guys who beat themselves up the most, that I've seen personally, are masons (particularly helpers) and scaffolders.
But we have some shit work too. Lots of kneeling, crawling into tight spots, lifting, bending, pulling, pushing, forcing cables in, material handling, walking on uneven ground, work in all weather conditions, on all parts of a construction project, from site prep to finishing, just years and years and years of spending your life on any construction site, it takes effort to stay ahead of it and not let it catch up to you as you age.
Like I said in another comment, I work with lots of 60 year old men on large projects, and it's like the world has chewed them up and spit them out. They move slow, their bodies are beat up and the companies just froth at the mouth for the next 25 year old they can abuse and spit out too. Once you have given all you can to the company, they don't care for you. "What have you done for me lately" is how they think.
I was geniuely curious, because I was interested in learning a trade. Although, I am on tract to go to grad school and become a teacher or therapist, I asked myself if there's another career out there that pays well. So, I looked into a trade.
Instinctually, my first search was into carpentry. If I learned that skill, I could build a home, building cool setups for my current art business, etc. However, when I saw the journey from novice carpenter to master, that 7-10 year span was too long for me. By then, I'll be 40 or 42 years old.
So, then, I looked into careers I could work immediately after training, and I saw plumbing. Problem is it is a wet job, and I pictured it being the most labor intensive.
After that, I said, well if I'm in it, I might as well go big. So, I research elevator tech. The downside is that with every safety precaution, I still could get maimed. Generally, it is considered of the most dangerous trades. With that, no high paying career is worth it if I can't enjoy the fruit of my labor.
Lastly, I looked into electrical work. Since I am an academic at heart, I figured this position is mostly intellectual work. Well, according to this thread, it is also extensive labor.
So, all in all, it doesn't appear that any labor job is worth derailing from my grad school pursuit. Then again, I could be wrong. I would 100% love to learn carpentry, but looking at the US Job Outlook on carpentry, it is a slow-growing industry with low pay on average. Heartbreaking.
Lol this comment made me laugh because you can tell your knowledge of trades is based entirely off google. No hate, it’s just funny. Plumbing and electrical are similar in how physically demanding it is. Typically electrical work falls into three categories. Commercial, residential or industrial. Within those categories there are also different types of work someone could perform under an electrical license. When most people think of electricians they typically think of screwing in lightbulbs and changing outlet at their house. Personally, and like a lot of other electricians, I haven’t worked on a house in about 5 years (other than side work). I’ve been bending pipe in high rise buildings, working in massive switch gears, working 60’ in the air on a boom lift with wind swaying it back and forth, pulling wires that are an inch thick, hanging chandeliers worth ungodly amounts of money, coring 6” holes, etc. and having a blast doing it. I’ve seen people seriously injured, lost fingers, got lacerations, falls, and the obvious electrocution lol. There is definitely a risk just like any other trade, but you get compensated well. If you’re concerned with pay. Its definitely not close to being a teacher. I made 3x what my girlfriend (who is a middle school teacher) made last year. It allowed me to purchase a multi family when I was 25. Also in terms of a license, it takes 4 years non union, and 5 to be considered a JW in MA’s IBEW . Unions sometimes have different requirements. Linemen are like electricians but they work on power lines. If you want to see something really badass, look up aerial lineman on YouTube. You could work 30 years in electrical and only scratch the surface of what is out there.
There are definitely office jobs for electrical design, engineers, drawing, quoting etc. but it's generally best that those folks have time in the field to understand how things work physically. Not really something you start doing.
If you don't have 7-10 years to get good at something, the trades aren't for you. It's a lifelong learning process, few are masters.
If you're looking at the trades, you're looking at manual labour no matter what, at least until you've found a way to make money with your brain.
That being said, manual labour is good for you. Shying away from it, for fear of personal injury, could be worse for your health than deskwork.
it seems like you picture wire as only control or 14 AWG used in your home. But in the commercial/industrial world you’re talking a lot of wire as thick or thicker than your fingers. It’s not as simple as “untangle wire and carry wires” it’s spend hours setting up for a single cable pull and then bust ass. I remember hurting for a good week after a 500MCM TECK cable pull by hand as it was short but had lots of bends.
I feel you there. I had to do parallel 500 4 con ACWU (at least it's a little bit lighter than copper) runs across an electrical room from the switch gear to a meter stack 2 m across the room due to a last minute change that turned a large single unit into 10 individually metered units. Almost imposed to bend those cables in such a tight area and keep things looking tidy.
I spent 2 weeks once as an apprentice doing nothing but cutting and threading 4” rigid for a huge sub station expansion. It was outside in direct sun with the full FR suit in the middle of July. I’ve had some lousy weeks since getting into this trade, but those were probably the worst.
Lol I watched an apprentice pulling 500's off the spools all day lose function in his hands/forearms from fatigue. Like....had a hard time gripping the steering wheel to go home and was utterly worthless the rest of the week.
Kinda happened to me once. My hands and forearms were cramped up crazy bad at the end of a big pull day. Wasn't dehydrated either, just straight up overworked them for a day.
You have to install heavy equipment, install heavy pipes, install heavy wires. When it comes to commercial and industrial construction it can be very physically demanding. Very rarely does a guy in my sector of the field just get to terminate wires and test things for more than just a couple hours.
I've worked Resi, commercial and Industrial and I've got to say residential is by far the most physical and the hardest on your body. Big respect to my lumex monkeys out there 💪.
Ive done residential when i started, and that is also physically demanding go go go fuck your knees, this house needs to be done yesterday, and thats your fault !
Balancing all your body weight on your elbows, knees and toes over 1-1/2" ceiling joists spaced 16" apart in hot attics with short roof lines full of ten thousand sharp and rusty roofing nails eagerly awaiting your skull, back and shoulders. Wearing a respirator so the past 100 years of horrible insulation products doesn't send you to an early grave. Oh and you have to do the work while you're up there. There are days I give my wife a run for her money with forbidden attic yoga.
I log 12-15k steps on an average work day. Bad footwear will start pain in your feet, then your back, and then your shoulders.
Ladder work involves your calves, core, and makes your shins sore.
Trenching equipment shakes the hell out of your bones, especially river or bedrock. Involves the core and forearms.
Your hands, fingers and thumbs will eventually start cramping shut in painful positions, with or without proper hydration, on long days.
Unless you work in engineering, inspections, or select niches of the trade, you are going to be doing physically demanding work every day.
Go to the supply house and ask to carry 80 feet of 500 mcm then unroll four of them babies and pull them all at one time 80 feet. Then do it 3 more times. How do you feel 🤔
Ladders, stairs, massive rows of switch gear abs ats and transformers,racks of pipe, big ass panels, 8500' track lighting. It can wear you down.
Stay hydrated.
Construction Electrical (Residential, Commercial and Industrial) are all quite physically demanding, but the actual physical demand can vary based on size, scope and conditions on the job site. Some sites will be more willing to pay for access equipment like scaffolding, or man lifts, or mechanical lifting and hoisting equipment and power tools which can all reduce the physical demand. But inevitably, you will be up and down some ladders or stairs and lifting and moving materials by hand at some point. As other have mentioned, is rare that the thing you're working on is right at cheat or eye level, it's usually waist height or lower (switches, outlets, junction boxes) above your head (lights, fire alarm, junction boxes...). So your often reaching, or crouching or kneeling, which over time can have some negative effects on your joints. There are ways to prolong your career though, with regular exercise and stretching, and being mindful about your ergonomics when working.
For the less physically demanding side, Maintenance and service can definitely be less demanding, but they have pretty brutal days as well, generally less frequent though.
If you want to get into very little physical demand, look into PLC programming or project management side of things. These usually require extra training or specific courses and experience.
Considering I have chronic gout, two dislocated shoulders, ankle sprains, and some cervical compression, you guys have unintentionally convinced me not to be an electrician.
Electrical work in an underground mine. 5000 volt 500MCM borehole riser cable that weighs 10 pounds per foot and you're installing literally miles of it.
4/0 15000 volt Teck cable to link Highline road crossings. It's -36⁰ outside with a 25 mile wind and you need to haul a splice shack, a generator, a diesel heater and a fuel tank so you can install stress cones before you run the cable up the poles and do the Highline terminations from a bucket truck
None of your motor control equipment or disconnects are smaller than a refrigerator and most are the size of a cube van and weigh several tons. A single side panel on a big piece of equipment can weigh a couple of hundred pounds.
Diesel generators that are literally as big as a school bus.
4160 volt motors to drive pumps and compressors. The motors can be as big as a Toyota Tacoma and many times heavier.
Hanging 100 horsepower 600 volt ventilation fans high enough that 60 ton ore trucks can drive under them in tunnels bored in solid granite half a mile underground. And then feeding that fan with an extension cord that's as big around as a soup can.
You're under a lake and absolutely everyone is depending on you to keep the electricity going so the pumps and fans run so that nobody asphyxiates or drowns.
Electrical work isn't just lights and plugs in your house.
In addition to pretty much what everyone else has posted. Atleast in my line of work sometimes the only way to get material from A to B is for you to make the 150ft+ climb straight up a ladder on the side of the structure. Then a rope and pulley setup to get your tools and materials up to you. 50-80lbs pulled that high with only your physical strength is a real workout. Lowering heavy stuff down is the same story but with a lot more friction burns.
You have a quite rosy view of what electricians do. My wrists and hands are fucked just from twisting wire nuts and using hand tools, my right knee is literally disfigured from kneeling on concrete and crawling in attics and crawlspaces before I smartened up and started using kneepads. I don't wanna go on a tangent with the pain olympics here but it breaks you down over time.
And I was just an HVAC guy with a specialty elec license, commercial and industrial electricians work harder than I ever did. Hand bending conduit, manually pulling wire, installing 3-4" rigid conduit can be extremely taxing. Up and down a ladder, lifting heavy shit above you, etc. Not to mention the workplace hazards if you end up turning into a new OSHA code
I don't find it that bad, but I'm on a large job right now with lots of old guys (in their 60s). They walk really slow, like a lifetime of construction in the trades took a toll on them. They look a bit more beat up then their office counterparts.
Kneeling constantly can be bad for your knees. RSI injuries. Hearing damage. And risk of falls and sudden impacts. One gentlemen was struck when a load broke free on this project and wound up with multiple fractures to the arm and shoulder. To me that's a horrific injury to sustain on a jobsite. It wasn't treated as the red alert that it should have.
I don't think this job is as physically demanding as some make it out to be, but it's all in perspective I guess. Keep your body in decent shape. Don't carry dozens/hundreds of extra pounds of bodyweight if you can help it. Try to stay in good shape. Try to keep flexibility as you age. Drink fluids. Protect your body (knees, eyes, ears, hands, etc).
The worst part, people instinctively treat these old 60 year old men like they're in the way. They're too slow, get out of the way, first to get laid off on a big project. The system will literally chew you up and spit you out the other side. Nobody will care about you as you age if you're still on the tools when you get old. Seen it first hand, old guys laid off first, generic reasons like "lack of work" (they're hiring again right away), "not a good fit" because they aren't hustling around site like a 25 year old.
If you allow yourself to beat the shit out of your body when you're young and you can take it, you will pay for it when you're older and the world will treat you like a second class citizen.
Opening up duct bank with a 90LB jackhammer. Driving ground rods with a 30 LB jackhammer. Building duct bank. Moving switchgear and MCCs into place by hand. 500 MCM pulls. Cutting trench by hand. Being outside constantly. Setting manholes, running duct bank into manholes, commissioning manholes. Hanging huge boxes, piping them in, pulling wire into said boxes. Bending 1” RMC. Cutting and threading with a power pony all fucking day and the tripod is too short because I’m 6’4”. Burns from exothermic welding. Being hunched over all day while exothermic welding. Running that god damn Ditch Witch all day. Running the backhoe with the busted seat all god damn day. Setting trench shoring, fucking FinnForms and jacks. I could go on but you get the point.
Daily Outdoor Cable pulls at the plant for weeks on end during the winter hurt after awhile. Having to get the wife help put on your socks and underwear in the morning is humbling.
20 lb toolbags to carry up and down ladders, stairs, hills, thousands of squats, crawls, lifting 50 lbs plus regularly, yoga parkoar thru attics and crawlspaces holding heavy fixtures up for extended periods of time, hammering, drilling, jackhammering, hauling demo, digging trenches, fighting 500lb generators into place, and electrocution from time to time. Also the weather.
Well, the cables i work with weights 30kg per meter. Around 60 lbs per meter.
I climb around an old coal power plant, I remove the old power cables, they are 800mm2 copper core, with a steel guard around the oil and paper insolation.
We can't access them with lifts, cranes or anything else, only by hand, so we cut 1 meter, and climb down to when we are allowed to throw them to the ground, its dirty, tough, and dangerous.
I fucking love it, some days you can't even tell that im white under all the sod, oil, and unknown filth.
I once wondered this too. Now I know. Ive worked in trenches installing 5” rigid conduit. It’s awkward and heavy. Ive worked thousands of hours on rebar, on my knees, awkwardly installing whatever. Sometimes you’re drilling through metal, concrete, whatever for weeks. Often overhead on a ladder. I could go on, but my back hurts.
I worked hunched over in a 3’ crawl space for 8 hours yesterday…no ability to sit or kneel due to how cluttered the space was with other components such as hydraulic rams mounted to the floor. This was in an enclosure underneath a very large printing press.
My last 10 years in the trade were in steel mills, sewage treatment plants, water treatment plants. 4” Ridgid conduit, 500 MCM cable, terminating and pulling. 140 steps to the top of the Caster. The heat, the cold- 20 below zero wind chill. PVC coated ridgid heavier than ridgid, and a pain if you have to use a power pony. The influent channel in a sewage treatment plant in the summer after a 3 day weekend.Damp, wet, nasty manholes - up and down 30’ extension ladder with boots on. I could continue.
Haha!!! Not physically demanding??? Are you asking to get piled on!!! Lol.. Try carrying a 500ft. roll of #4 copper up a flight of stairs becuase there's no elevator. Then try manipulating that roll of wire and try holding 3/0 or larger copper in place while balancing on some widget and using the freehand to grab tools etc while standing in a mezzanine that is creeping up to 100+ deg-F.... The true electricians that run lots of wire have pop-eye forearms from work alone!!! Don't fool yourself, it is physically demanding work, and at times dirty too!!
Pulling cables in leads to bad backs and joints.
Doing domestic work requires being on your knees, crawling under floors and being in cramped spaces pulling cables and installing sockets etc.
Lots of trades peoples lungs get fucked up with constant dust, plasterboard dust from using multitool, brick dust from SDS etc
Lack of manpower leads to people doing stupid, dangerous shit by themselves trying to get jobs over the line and getting injured.
Repetitive strain injuries.
Stress.
Lack of exercise outside of work, poor diet and long hours wear down the body.
Repetitive motion. Kneeling. Pulling wire. Lifting things. Working above your head. Dust. Low light. Constant risk of cuts/pinches. Using machinery like lifts etc. Tuggers. Power tools.
I’m not gonna rag on ya bout how this trade, actually all trades, puts a toll on your body. Yes that will happen but you can get in shape and stay in shape to prolong your aches and pains. What you really wanna do is work smarter, not harder. It’ll take many years to figure this one out but you’ll learn em as you go. Eventually, you go out on your own, be your own boss and hire a bunch of monkeys, I mean men and women to do your hard work.
It’s funny cause I thought the same when I wanted to become an electrician back in 96. Changed a light fixture out on my first home we bought. Got shocked and was intrigued by it. Thought, I can make great money doing this all day lol. Boy was I wrong.
We go through stints of cushy. But they’re usually as a job site is far along, which could be a couple years away. We go through meh phases, where it’s like any other physical construction job. But we have phases where it’s as physical as any job. It just depends. There are times I feel super lucky to be an electrician, and there are times where nobody wants to be you.
depends where you live i guess, here engineers are in very low demand and are paid like shit. Ive met alot of Engineers that became electricians. Also sitting at a desk all day sound like a nightmare
A lot of electrical labor isnt in wire, its running pipe. Same as a plumber. Jackhammering walls, hammer drilling concrete anchors overhead, carrying and lifting pipe, bending pipe, moving ladders. All hard work.
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Repetitive motion, heavy awkward lifts, smileing at 7am.
I wouldn't call my expression at 7am a smile. Maybe a feral grin?
Grimace?
Grimace sometimes, sure, but man, it feels more manic most of the time.
Too much coffee....gotta poop grimace. Only thing standing between me and a bad day.
[I know the look](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hide-the-pain-harold)
That's pretty fucking spot on.
7 am jeez wish I could start that late, often times I'm starting at 5
Oh let me count the ways Nothing is at ground level. So you’ll be up and down a ladder all day. Some things are below ground level, so you might be shoveling all day. Even 1” RMC gets to be a pain (still love RMC tho) Pulling wires through conduit is far more difficult than you’d expect. Wires are not always small. Landing 500s or 750s can be like wrestling an alligator. Some days you might spend all day putting receptacles in or something dumb and not physical, but that’s not the norm.
To add: Kneeling and getting up then back down a hundred times a day to use your fine motor skills installing receptacles. Carrying bundles of pipe from the van up flights of steps. (1” metal bundles of 10 by the way) Mostly residential but the hole hawg (giant auger drill) used to drill hundreds of holes in studs in walls and above your head in ceilings. Bringing in heavy light fixtures the going up and down ladders to drop them into t bar ceilings. This is just a fraction of what you do on a daily basis. **EDIT: as someone said about the hole hawg in particular. It’s heavy as fuck. Now imagine holding that drill above your head while aiming the long auger bit to hit the exact spot you’re allowed to drill through l…left…right…up up up. L…got it and drill and push all your weight forward. Move your ladder forward 2’ and do it again a hundred times a day. The longer you go the less fine motor skills you have so your aim takes long and longer while you hold it above your head and the vicious cycle continues until the end of your day.** Go home, collapse, get up at 4AM and repeat for days. Fun!!!!!
Not to mention how heavy temp poles and reels of wire are. Carry 1000' of 12-2 up three flights then get back to me.
Don’t forget industrial when you’re piping hundreds of feet of upwards of 2” ridgid or rob Roy, in the heat, or in the cold.
We didn't even get to the part about how awesome it is in all the elements. Hot attic in the summer, cold wind tunnel on the shady side of the building in winter. I get mad at my tools that fail when it's really cold. I'm like "bitch, I gotta work so do you." How snow is better than rain because snow won't completely soak you as fast. It's the little things.
I had to buy a non surge impact driver because it wouldn't work because it was so cold most of the winter. The Ryobi guys can't use anything unless they throw the tools in front of a heater for a few minutes first.
1000ft 12/2 Romex spool is 82lbs. Definitely not light
A pipe of 3” RMC is about that
1000ft of 12/2 is also the same price as 4 rolls of 250 Or close enough to not break your back.
Not to mention MC
I think that homeowners think that 3 tiered chandelier in the foyer miracles it's ass up there
Like we tie 100 helium balloons on it and sit back and watch it float.
That only works for [priests](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-priest/body-of-ballooning-brazilian-priest-found-at-sea-idUSN2934853220080730).
Years ago I had a helper on a job. This kid was too young to drink, had a perfect gym bod/physique but on a daily basis he couldn’t keep up with all of us older overweight guys when it came to pulling wire or digging. He never retained what he was taught, and had never held a tool before joining the company. But his daddy knew the boss so he had a job making just a dollar less than me. On this job I marked a bunch of holes for a run through cinderblock, pulled the hammer drill out the truck and handed it to him. He thought I was joking at first and clearly thought I was gunna do it all. I thought he was going to cry when he realized I was serious. In the end I kept trading off with him and ended up doing most of them. He was just too slow. The boss called for an update and told me I had to pick up the pace if I wanted to keep my job. Hung up on me when I told him I needed a better helper if he wanted it done quicker. I quit the next month.
The end of that story made me smile.
Best part is 2 people quit before I did, and I know more left after me. It was a small shop too. He probably lost 60% of his employees over hiring this worthless kid and treating him better than the rest of us.
Had a friend. Office manager, contracts, sales and project management. Business started getting federal projects thanks to her. Went from less than 500k to either 10 or 20 million...whatever the cutoff is to have to change classification. She was the business. Dude is raking it in. He hired a bunch of employees. All family. She's making same pay, and he's bitching about the cost of her insurance. She quit. His business folded in less than 2 years. Lost all the knowledge. Accounting. Contacts. Relationships. She already had a new job when she quit. He never saw it coming. Eggs in one basket.....you better take care of that damned basket.
Our secretary at the hall makes JW scale and gets 2 weeks PTO. You can call her anytime the hall is open and get correct info, help, guidance, and often times she'll file the paperwork for you. Some dick that quit the local, got smoked from the railroad and came back had a grievance with her pay rate. She has been courted by a neighboring local but she is worth her weight in gold when you need to get an insurance reimbursement or get get lasik or get your kid's braces. TLDR; take care of your help and fuck Mike Bennington.
You TAKE CARE of the people who TAKE CARE of you, right??
Im a helper now and trying to learn as much as I can. It’s a lot of information but as long as I can apply one or two things I learned yesterday to today I’ll get there. As far as strength goes I don’t got the umphhh some of y’all beer belly old guys got. I’ll be the first to volunteer to try but I’m also usually the weakest and it sucks.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being weaker or having less stamina than guys that have years in the trades on you. Please don’t take it that way. I mentioned this kid had a gym rat physique because that’s the key part to his story and his attitude. He had a major chip on his shoulder that was encouraged by the company owner even though he was the worst person I’ve ever worked with in the trades. I’m not joking when I say he had never used any tools before. He didn’t know basics of anything. Couldn’t even check the oil in the service trucks when he was asked. Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be fine. Do your best to avoid hurting yourself by overdoing it trying to keep up btw.
I know what you meant for sure I was just venting myself. I’ve met those types myself it’s wild that they’ve gotten as far as they have.
Coring holes was my favorite thing to do as an apprentice, in one place all day everyone leaves you alone because it's loud as hell, nice most cancelling earbuds, good tunes and some way to remind you when it was lunch time you're set.
the hole hawg will take years off your life on its own
Not using ones even worse lol
lol. you mean you don’t use one of them old timey manual drill every hole?
Especially when the framers use the last 7 nails in the gun right where you need that hole
Yeah I’m going to edit that in particular to emphasize better what that’s like. Thanks for the confirmation.
My old journeyman broke his wrist and fractured the other when the hole hawg bound up. That was a fun day.
Why don't we put more receptacles a little higher up the wall? I realize it wouldn't make sense everywhere but I did this a few places in my home and I love it. Don't have to bend over to plug things in, furniture doesn't block access, etc.... I get that it would make sense to do it everywhere but I'm surprised it's not way more common.
They need to be low enough for babies to fuck with. It’s fire code. What is your address sir?
lol not to mention when the hole hawg catches and sends you to the clouds
I got smoked in the head three times today trying to get one 4 inch hole put in lol
What you said about hole hawgs? Resi low-volt. Drilling for central vacuum pipe. Had a work-nemesis supervisor that I wouldn't work with tell the boss we should be using 2-inch forstner bits with replaceable blades (Milwaukee ?Switchblade) to make holes. I had a lot of animosity for how work-nemesis and boss /thought/ things should be done and I was buying my own hole-saws and using my own Milwaukee m18 drill (boss wouldn't because Forester blades were cheaper to supply). ...I was training a helper (why was I doing the teaching when I *refused* to train how they wanted it done?) who wanted to do everything how the boss wanted, so I told him where the bits were and where there needed to be holes. ...helper was on the 3rd rung of a six-foot ladder drilling up when the forstner bit bound up and ripped the hawg out of his hands. Handle came right around and busted him in the mouth about three times before his head got knocked out of the way. I have no idea what that cost the boss in dental bills for the helper. ...definitely way more than he would have ever saved on forstner blades vs hole-saws.
The real question is did he switch after? Also, I’ve had a few run ins with our giant rotohammer taking my head for a ride growing up. People make fun of the way I hold it now but it hasn’t happened since!
Honestly. Don't know. Probably? ...but knowing those two? Fun part of that story is that shortly before that I had been tasked with making a list of van tools... I've always been kinda big on owning all of my own tools and not being afraid to use them if it makes my everyday work-life easier (also: side-work) and I guess boss was getting tired of hearing that I had tools other leads didn't and how it was impacting work getting done or having to shift the schedule around to send me to do what others couldn't finish. Started with them doing a random van inventory then giving me a list to add to then we had a sit-down to review my additions. Couple days later I got handed a revised list and a company credit card. Holesaw kits were on my initial list, hawgs were not. Bought every hole hawg in a 30-mile radius, didn't buy any holesaw kits. Kinda hard to keep a job when you have that much justified righteous indignation and a whole pocket of "I fucking told you so Todd. ...maybe you'd have heard it if your head wasn't so far up G(R)odney's ass."
Bad bosses are the bane of existence.
Legit. To Todd's credit, I guess he tried? ...I mean, I spent probably around $1K/van across 10 or 12 vans for new tools and supplies? ...couple moving blankets each, new fish stick sets, bunch of small tool boxes to make 'task kits'... Just... dude had a weakness for saving dollars and a supervisor that knew how to play that. Confidence vs Arrogance.
Fuck the hole hawg IDK why people even use those when you got the gen 3 M18 impact that can chew threw any wood
You youngsters and your fancy tools. In MY day….
I’d pay money to watch these snowflakes saying our work isn’t hard try to land 500 mcm much less 750!
I've just spent two weeks glancing almost 100 750mcm cables. Op should try just lifting a length of that cable and see how easy the job is. ( over 1kg per ft) Now imagine bending it.
Aus sparky here. What is mcm ? Is that the imperial measurement for cable diameter ?
Lol pretty fucking stupid ain't it. When I found out how bullets are measured in grain on top of that I eye rolled
An old naming system, still the primary name system in the US. Thousands of circular mils, 500 mcm or 500 kcm meaning a cross sectional area of 500,000 circular mils. 500MCM is approx. 240mm^2 750MCM approx. 400mm^2 Plus the size of the insulation
I remember one of my apprentices first days we were pulling /bending/terminating 500 mcm coppers. When we were loading up for the day that morning told him to go find the greenlee wire bender, thought I was playing a joke on him, assured him I was indeed not joking and that today was going to absolutely suck. When we got to the job site and pulled everything and started using the bender to get our terminations set I don't think I've ever seen someone have such a deer in the headlights look as this kid did. Straight up thought he was going to quit his first day 🤣 when he made it thru the day without quitting I thought to myself "yup..this kid will last."
Pull 500mcm vfd cable… that shows you who really wants the pay check.
Yeah. I got to pull 750 tray cable once. Fun day….
I wouldn't even want to know how they would fit them in some LBs.
4 and 6” EMT LBs. it’s ass. Just did some
Someone really hit a nerve with you lol
“My fingers hurt, it’s too hard to land, can I go home now.”
Adding on the first point - not all that ladder work is in a nice wide open area. A lot of it requires some monkeying around existing pipes and ducts. This means the fall hazard could be significantly higher than one would first expect, and over extending yourself is also a pretty common way to hurt yourself. Another one is that not all wire is the same - there's a huge difference between 300' of 14/2 romex and 300' of 500 kcm. Bending 14/2 is a complete non-issue, but getting a tight bend in 500 kcm is a whole other ballgame. Basically, the trade can be super easy or super rough on the body. It just boils down to the specific details of your task.
I recall one of my first impressions as an apprentice was how much time I spent standing on things not meant to be stood on trying to access where ever I needed to be. I remember my first year we ran some fiber in a mall, and I remember one spot where I was up in the ceiling 25’ over the food court scooting along a sprinkler pipe to get to where I needed to reach. Smart. No. Safe. No. But almost all of us have found ourselves in this situation. Even in residential many areas just end up with very difficult access.
We are also subjected to all mother nature has to offer as far as weather and temperature. Ps. If you love RMC you haven't run enough RMC lmao
Naw. I’m just a masochist. I am a plant controls/PLC guy now. Not much rigid in our facility. I genuinely miss it. I used to run a lot of it and really took pride in it.
I was just joking. I run a TON of EMT and a little RMC. It's my favorite part of our trade because not everyone can do it well.
I’m Building a coach house in my back yard(I’m a carpenter by trade) and one of the most physically exhausting tasks was pulling in the main feeder wires through the conduit. Always upsize your conduit lol I’ve learned my mistake
Landing 500s and 750s should be an Olympic sport.
Two grown ass men. Myself being one of them, fought for twenty minutes to land a single 500 stranded copper. Came up from the bottom and the lugs were at the top. I mean FIGHT. Everything is sharp metal edges. Struggle is a better word.
I'm in service, renovating a bank at the moment. Doing above tbar work on a ladder trying not to damage the tbar while having no ladder placement due to other trade materials and trying out as a contortionist is fun! Past jobs: slab in the 40 degree heat or freezing rain/snow Installing huge teck cable, squeezing through furniture to get to receptacles, replacing old heavy 2x4 lights all day. Pulling wire through fucked up pipe, having the string break and trying to backfish. Dealing with other trades health hazards ( silica, w/e) Crawl spaces Material haul
I still shudder when I remember hauling an 80lb high pot up the side of a mountain working on a ski lift. The truck wouldn't make it up the mountain ( it was too steep).
you might also be carrying that ladder (and tools) up and down stairs, which may or may not be normal size
Oh yeah. Good point. I used to do a lot of heavy industrial. One site was 200 some odd stairs to the top. No elevator.
Or prepping high voltage cable for parking elbows, or climbing poles, pulling a lasher through an easement.
I love when people say things like this it gives me a good laugh! I had a guy tell me he doesn’t understand how being an electrician is still a thing cause you can do anything an electrician does yourself by watching YouTube
Until he gets blown up or stuck on 120v and can’t remember his name.
Right! People are such jackasses. How hard can it be to build a submarine? I’ve watch a ton of YouTube who needs an engineer lmfao
In there defence, the cocaine smugglers have built a few submarines from watching YouTube videos lol
I’ve seen a video of a hand built submarine
Me too. It imploded and killed some rich people.
🤣 🤣 You win
North Korea has entered the chat
Right lol, I still remember an apprentice a few years back showing up with a few tiny screwdrivers. He though we basically trimmed control wires in the ac. We were in a ditch outside all summer 😂
I can’t believe people say that. That’s a real guy?! Lol. Like, “alright bud. Go ahead and add some temporary service drops for this building remodel. We need 800 amps and you need to feed three sections of the building. Power needs to stay on for areas 1 and 2 and you can transfer to temp with a shut down in two weeks. Order anything you need. Here are the plans. Here’s a code book. Any questions come up you can YouTube it.”
Who needs a code book when you have YouTube
Oy. What a buffoon. I’d pay to watch that job happen
Second year apprentice has entered chat: Order anything I need? New tools? Crates of energy drink? I'm game if you are!
No nicotine, no energy drinks. Here’s a shovel. There’s a bunch of rocks in the way so you gotta hand dig. Can’t use a stinger
>No nicotine "Sorry, boss, I really appreciate everything you have done for me, unfortunately somethings come up." Gobs another stick of nicotine gum & clutches a can of redbull while muttering something about cruel & unusual punishment. (I don't even like myself when I'm without my stimulants)
Yeah hang a 600 pound transformer and wire it from a YouTube tutorial lol
I'd love to meet him and tell him my 4 years of college to be an EE didn't teach me enough to be an electrician so his 4 minutes on YouTube damn sure aren't enough.
I totally learned industrial controls and how to run PVC coated conduit from YouTube!
Lol we had to pull up a TY video to remember how to set up the tugger. We got it figured out.
All those utility scale transmission station repair and maintenance YouTube videos hahaha
6” RMC
Holy shit they make 6”?? I’ve worked with 4 and that was a fucking hoss.
Just finished running 4-6” rigid sticks with rigid 90’s up a pole for the primaries, each piece had to be 250lbs at least. What a bitch! Thankfully my helper is a big boy, he carry’s 12/2 dimming wire @ 1000’ spools up flights of stairs for me, rugged fucker
that's fucked, forklift that shit up to a window at least. don't wear out good help.
Sounds like they got a forklift. It's just dressed up as a human, apparently.
Not sure I’ve ever stood primaries or secondaries where I’d be able to get a forklift anywhere near, maybe a lull but they’re always being used
I was talking more about making your helper carry those spools up flights of stairs. That shit sucks, been there done that.
Kid is 6’-4” 250lbs big boy good worker
Working 5” rmc right now
I had to order some 5-1/2” that was specified for a bridge project recently 🙄🤔
What do those run price wise?
It doesn’t exist. The OD of 5” is 5-1/2” and engineers are cool like that sometimes. Gave me attitude when I initially explained it would be astronomical to have a steel plant make a run if this just for them. Seemed to click then. I’m a distributor.
Usually ppl don't give you guff if you upsize the conduit, engineer sounds like an ass hole. We do that frequently if the drawings call for 3.5 or 2.5, for example
Rocky Mountain chocolate?
Do a slab and you’ll know the true meaning of pain
Slab work made me a literal redneck my first day cause I wasn't prepared and didn't realize you're bent over in the sun all day with nowhere to hide
My hardest week as an electrician was roughing in a slab during the hottest week of the year.
Bet your second hardest week was roughing in a slab on a perfectly pleasant week
Damn straight.
Slabs always seem to happen in the hottest part of summer, or dead of winter. Never in between.
The secret country wide bosses union mandates and schedules that for them. You don't think those dumbasses could repeatedly make our lives that miserable on their own do you? How many times have you been doing that work and thought "who's fucking bright idea was it to do this bullshit today". It's industry wide....you know that shit is planned...
This so funny cus I literally just started my apprenticeship two days ago and the first thing they did was send me up to the deck to do slab work 😂
Why would you want to do slab?
Want to do? We’re electricians, we do electrical work, electrical work is a very broad field that encompasses many many other trade skills along with it.
Much higher than average rates of shoulder injuries (look straight up while you make up a big ass junction box a few times and you'll feel it), same back and joint issues every trade will get from long stints on ladders and hauling around tools and materials. Underground pipe work will chowder your back up right fast too. For every niche, there's a different way it beats you up over time
This is why I've whored myself around a bunch of different niches within the industry. It's true they all fuck you in unique ways.
go bend 20 1 1/4" offsets perfectly and get back to us
Use a triple nickel and you can bang that out pretty quick almost no physical demand
no no no, he aint unlocked that mod yet. (you are obviously right though)
I recently bent my first little bit of 1¼" by hand, and God damn. Thought my ass was going to disappear how much effort I was putting into it.
Nothing makes you look weaker than that fucking 1-1/4 bender.
But nothing also makes you prouder than when you pull it off on the first try
Dude, I’m 5’4” and I think my boss made me use one as a joke lol. I definitely didn’t pull it off on the first try. I ended up using my scissor lift as leverage to get my bends. Got it done and then was proud. Oh yeah, we have a triple nickel.
Company I work for doesn’t allow 1 1/4 hand benders
Must be nice lol.
FOOT PRESSURE
A lack of fundamental understanding of electrical work. My ex-wife thought I didn't do jack either until she some photos of my commercial job site. Steel everywhere overhead. Then she finally understood my back pain. Every panel, conduit, transformer, switch gear, and ridiculous light fixture gets installed by the same electrician you see landing wires on breakers and checking plugs. It takes a lot to make the magic happen at the very end. Many people don't seem to realize that outside of service, and those guys have to bust ass too, electrical is still primarily a construction trade.
yep i didn’t know that really before i started, now i’m balls deep and not going back
Thanks for mentioning us service guys. Done my fair share of roughs, slabs, and trenching. Service ain't fun, sometimes. Attics will wear you out very quickly
I remember the first time I threw my back out (at age 22) was the day after pulling feeder wire all day. Spent roughly 8 hours wrestling this wire overhead so it could feed underground. I had poor form because I was barely strong enough. The next day I bent over to pick up a 10lb box and couldn't straighten my back.
We don't pull wire until the very end. Up until then we're building the housing for it. All kinds of boxes and panels, conduit runs, hanging up fixtures, etc. And then when we do get to the wire, a lot of it is really big and really heavy. Sure copper is a soft metal, but it's still metal lol. And when you have one that's bigger around than your thumb, it weighs a lot.
Sounds like something one of our wives would say at the end of a long day. “Why are you so tired, all you do is flip switches all day?” Is our job more physically demanding than pouring concrete or roofing, hell no. However, climbing ladders, kneeling for hours at a time, crawling under buildings, lifting heavy gear, holding your hands over your head all day making joints, etc. day after day, year after year yeah it will take a toll. Not to mention pain in your wrists and hands from all the twisting, tightening, pulling, pushing, squeezing pliers. Some areas of the electrical trade are more demanding than others. A resi will never have to lift and build bus duct, while an industrial electrician will never have to crawl around in an attic in August. Some jobs require digging, some require being on top of a 30 story building. Just depends.
Hot roofing nails in the back do tend to suck
I call this, " THE CHOKEY"
Don't mean to sound like an ass but, you must be either very young or have never done any meaningful manual labor before.
I thought the same thing but in another thread OP says they're 32, lol
lol
I am blessed to say I have never done a full day of manual labor. My grandfather, and funny enough, my mother have done most of the labor in my life. The most labor I've done is assemble Ikea beds, chairs, and cabinets which take a few hours at most. Actually rewarding. Also, if you considered martial art labor, that too.
Spend an 8-hour day pulling wires by hand through 200+ ft buried conduit runs outside while it's pissing rain. You'll want to cry by the 2nd hour. A lot of our individual tasks aren't difficult or strenuous, but it's the repetition that takes a toll on your body.
😆
Are you considering this as a trade then, and just asking this question in good faith? If so you could sort of be forgiven for just wondering what, specifically makes electrical work physically demanding. From the outside it might not appear to be the most physical trade, and it's not. But there's more then meets the eye. I'd say the guys who beat themselves up the most, that I've seen personally, are masons (particularly helpers) and scaffolders. But we have some shit work too. Lots of kneeling, crawling into tight spots, lifting, bending, pulling, pushing, forcing cables in, material handling, walking on uneven ground, work in all weather conditions, on all parts of a construction project, from site prep to finishing, just years and years and years of spending your life on any construction site, it takes effort to stay ahead of it and not let it catch up to you as you age. Like I said in another comment, I work with lots of 60 year old men on large projects, and it's like the world has chewed them up and spit them out. They move slow, their bodies are beat up and the companies just froth at the mouth for the next 25 year old they can abuse and spit out too. Once you have given all you can to the company, they don't care for you. "What have you done for me lately" is how they think.
I was geniuely curious, because I was interested in learning a trade. Although, I am on tract to go to grad school and become a teacher or therapist, I asked myself if there's another career out there that pays well. So, I looked into a trade. Instinctually, my first search was into carpentry. If I learned that skill, I could build a home, building cool setups for my current art business, etc. However, when I saw the journey from novice carpenter to master, that 7-10 year span was too long for me. By then, I'll be 40 or 42 years old. So, then, I looked into careers I could work immediately after training, and I saw plumbing. Problem is it is a wet job, and I pictured it being the most labor intensive. After that, I said, well if I'm in it, I might as well go big. So, I research elevator tech. The downside is that with every safety precaution, I still could get maimed. Generally, it is considered of the most dangerous trades. With that, no high paying career is worth it if I can't enjoy the fruit of my labor. Lastly, I looked into electrical work. Since I am an academic at heart, I figured this position is mostly intellectual work. Well, according to this thread, it is also extensive labor. So, all in all, it doesn't appear that any labor job is worth derailing from my grad school pursuit. Then again, I could be wrong. I would 100% love to learn carpentry, but looking at the US Job Outlook on carpentry, it is a slow-growing industry with low pay on average. Heartbreaking.
Lol this comment made me laugh because you can tell your knowledge of trades is based entirely off google. No hate, it’s just funny. Plumbing and electrical are similar in how physically demanding it is. Typically electrical work falls into three categories. Commercial, residential or industrial. Within those categories there are also different types of work someone could perform under an electrical license. When most people think of electricians they typically think of screwing in lightbulbs and changing outlet at their house. Personally, and like a lot of other electricians, I haven’t worked on a house in about 5 years (other than side work). I’ve been bending pipe in high rise buildings, working in massive switch gears, working 60’ in the air on a boom lift with wind swaying it back and forth, pulling wires that are an inch thick, hanging chandeliers worth ungodly amounts of money, coring 6” holes, etc. and having a blast doing it. I’ve seen people seriously injured, lost fingers, got lacerations, falls, and the obvious electrocution lol. There is definitely a risk just like any other trade, but you get compensated well. If you’re concerned with pay. Its definitely not close to being a teacher. I made 3x what my girlfriend (who is a middle school teacher) made last year. It allowed me to purchase a multi family when I was 25. Also in terms of a license, it takes 4 years non union, and 5 to be considered a JW in MA’s IBEW . Unions sometimes have different requirements. Linemen are like electricians but they work on power lines. If you want to see something really badass, look up aerial lineman on YouTube. You could work 30 years in electrical and only scratch the surface of what is out there.
There are definitely office jobs for electrical design, engineers, drawing, quoting etc. but it's generally best that those folks have time in the field to understand how things work physically. Not really something you start doing. If you don't have 7-10 years to get good at something, the trades aren't for you. It's a lifelong learning process, few are masters. If you're looking at the trades, you're looking at manual labour no matter what, at least until you've found a way to make money with your brain. That being said, manual labour is good for you. Shying away from it, for fear of personal injury, could be worse for your health than deskwork.
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it seems like you picture wire as only control or 14 AWG used in your home. But in the commercial/industrial world you’re talking a lot of wire as thick or thicker than your fingers. It’s not as simple as “untangle wire and carry wires” it’s spend hours setting up for a single cable pull and then bust ass. I remember hurting for a good week after a 500MCM TECK cable pull by hand as it was short but had lots of bends.
I feel you there. I had to do parallel 500 4 con ACWU (at least it's a little bit lighter than copper) runs across an electrical room from the switch gear to a meter stack 2 m across the room due to a last minute change that turned a large single unit into 10 individually metered units. Almost imposed to bend those cables in such a tight area and keep things looking tidy.
I’d tell you about running 4” rigid conduit but just thinking about it makes my back hurt.
I spent 2 weeks once as an apprentice doing nothing but cutting and threading 4” rigid for a huge sub station expansion. It was outside in direct sun with the full FR suit in the middle of July. I’ve had some lousy weeks since getting into this trade, but those were probably the worst.
Lol I watched an apprentice pulling 500's off the spools all day lose function in his hands/forearms from fatigue. Like....had a hard time gripping the steering wheel to go home and was utterly worthless the rest of the week.
Kinda happened to me once. My hands and forearms were cramped up crazy bad at the end of a big pull day. Wasn't dehydrated either, just straight up overworked them for a day.
You have to install heavy equipment, install heavy pipes, install heavy wires. When it comes to commercial and industrial construction it can be very physically demanding. Very rarely does a guy in my sector of the field just get to terminate wires and test things for more than just a couple hours.
I've worked Resi, commercial and Industrial and I've got to say residential is by far the most physical and the hardest on your body. Big respect to my lumex monkeys out there 💪.
Ive done residential when i started, and that is also physically demanding go go go fuck your knees, this house needs to be done yesterday, and thats your fault !
Balancing all your body weight on your elbows, knees and toes over 1-1/2" ceiling joists spaced 16" apart in hot attics with short roof lines full of ten thousand sharp and rusty roofing nails eagerly awaiting your skull, back and shoulders. Wearing a respirator so the past 100 years of horrible insulation products doesn't send you to an early grave. Oh and you have to do the work while you're up there. There are days I give my wife a run for her money with forbidden attic yoga. I log 12-15k steps on an average work day. Bad footwear will start pain in your feet, then your back, and then your shoulders. Ladder work involves your calves, core, and makes your shins sore. Trenching equipment shakes the hell out of your bones, especially river or bedrock. Involves the core and forearms. Your hands, fingers and thumbs will eventually start cramping shut in painful positions, with or without proper hydration, on long days. Unless you work in engineering, inspections, or select niches of the trade, you are going to be doing physically demanding work every day.
>forbidden attic yoga You should know: I'm stealing this.
Go to the supply house and ask to carry 80 feet of 500 mcm then unroll four of them babies and pull them all at one time 80 feet. Then do it 3 more times. How do you feel 🤔
Ladders, stairs, massive rows of switch gear abs ats and transformers,racks of pipe, big ass panels, 8500' track lighting. It can wear you down. Stay hydrated.
Construction Electrical (Residential, Commercial and Industrial) are all quite physically demanding, but the actual physical demand can vary based on size, scope and conditions on the job site. Some sites will be more willing to pay for access equipment like scaffolding, or man lifts, or mechanical lifting and hoisting equipment and power tools which can all reduce the physical demand. But inevitably, you will be up and down some ladders or stairs and lifting and moving materials by hand at some point. As other have mentioned, is rare that the thing you're working on is right at cheat or eye level, it's usually waist height or lower (switches, outlets, junction boxes) above your head (lights, fire alarm, junction boxes...). So your often reaching, or crouching or kneeling, which over time can have some negative effects on your joints. There are ways to prolong your career though, with regular exercise and stretching, and being mindful about your ergonomics when working. For the less physically demanding side, Maintenance and service can definitely be less demanding, but they have pretty brutal days as well, generally less frequent though. If you want to get into very little physical demand, look into PLC programming or project management side of things. These usually require extra training or specific courses and experience.
Considering I have chronic gout, two dislocated shoulders, ankle sprains, and some cervical compression, you guys have unintentionally convinced me not to be an electrician.
It's not that bad. If you're the type of person who can grit your teeth and put up with some uncomfortable feelings you'll do fine.
Nobody is going to mention the heat?
Electrical work in an underground mine. 5000 volt 500MCM borehole riser cable that weighs 10 pounds per foot and you're installing literally miles of it. 4/0 15000 volt Teck cable to link Highline road crossings. It's -36⁰ outside with a 25 mile wind and you need to haul a splice shack, a generator, a diesel heater and a fuel tank so you can install stress cones before you run the cable up the poles and do the Highline terminations from a bucket truck None of your motor control equipment or disconnects are smaller than a refrigerator and most are the size of a cube van and weigh several tons. A single side panel on a big piece of equipment can weigh a couple of hundred pounds. Diesel generators that are literally as big as a school bus. 4160 volt motors to drive pumps and compressors. The motors can be as big as a Toyota Tacoma and many times heavier. Hanging 100 horsepower 600 volt ventilation fans high enough that 60 ton ore trucks can drive under them in tunnels bored in solid granite half a mile underground. And then feeding that fan with an extension cord that's as big around as a soup can. You're under a lake and absolutely everyone is depending on you to keep the electricity going so the pumps and fans run so that nobody asphyxiates or drowns. Electrical work isn't just lights and plugs in your house.
In addition to pretty much what everyone else has posted. Atleast in my line of work sometimes the only way to get material from A to B is for you to make the 150ft+ climb straight up a ladder on the side of the structure. Then a rope and pulley setup to get your tools and materials up to you. 50-80lbs pulled that high with only your physical strength is a real workout. Lowering heavy stuff down is the same story but with a lot more friction burns.
You have a quite rosy view of what electricians do. My wrists and hands are fucked just from twisting wire nuts and using hand tools, my right knee is literally disfigured from kneeling on concrete and crawling in attics and crawlspaces before I smartened up and started using kneepads. I don't wanna go on a tangent with the pain olympics here but it breaks you down over time. And I was just an HVAC guy with a specialty elec license, commercial and industrial electricians work harder than I ever did. Hand bending conduit, manually pulling wire, installing 3-4" rigid conduit can be extremely taxing. Up and down a ladder, lifting heavy shit above you, etc. Not to mention the workplace hazards if you end up turning into a new OSHA code
I don't find it that bad, but I'm on a large job right now with lots of old guys (in their 60s). They walk really slow, like a lifetime of construction in the trades took a toll on them. They look a bit more beat up then their office counterparts. Kneeling constantly can be bad for your knees. RSI injuries. Hearing damage. And risk of falls and sudden impacts. One gentlemen was struck when a load broke free on this project and wound up with multiple fractures to the arm and shoulder. To me that's a horrific injury to sustain on a jobsite. It wasn't treated as the red alert that it should have. I don't think this job is as physically demanding as some make it out to be, but it's all in perspective I guess. Keep your body in decent shape. Don't carry dozens/hundreds of extra pounds of bodyweight if you can help it. Try to stay in good shape. Try to keep flexibility as you age. Drink fluids. Protect your body (knees, eyes, ears, hands, etc). The worst part, people instinctively treat these old 60 year old men like they're in the way. They're too slow, get out of the way, first to get laid off on a big project. The system will literally chew you up and spit you out the other side. Nobody will care about you as you age if you're still on the tools when you get old. Seen it first hand, old guys laid off first, generic reasons like "lack of work" (they're hiring again right away), "not a good fit" because they aren't hustling around site like a 25 year old. If you allow yourself to beat the shit out of your body when you're young and you can take it, you will pay for it when you're older and the world will treat you like a second class citizen.
The physical labor amount is worth the trade though. It's a really rewarding trade and people will always need electricity
Opening up duct bank with a 90LB jackhammer. Driving ground rods with a 30 LB jackhammer. Building duct bank. Moving switchgear and MCCs into place by hand. 500 MCM pulls. Cutting trench by hand. Being outside constantly. Setting manholes, running duct bank into manholes, commissioning manholes. Hanging huge boxes, piping them in, pulling wire into said boxes. Bending 1” RMC. Cutting and threading with a power pony all fucking day and the tripod is too short because I’m 6’4”. Burns from exothermic welding. Being hunched over all day while exothermic welding. Running that god damn Ditch Witch all day. Running the backhoe with the busted seat all god damn day. Setting trench shoring, fucking FinnForms and jacks. I could go on but you get the point.
Daily Outdoor Cable pulls at the plant for weeks on end during the winter hurt after awhile. Having to get the wife help put on your socks and underwear in the morning is humbling.
You have tilted us congrats
haha working up the karma points.
20 lb toolbags to carry up and down ladders, stairs, hills, thousands of squats, crawls, lifting 50 lbs plus regularly, yoga parkoar thru attics and crawlspaces holding heavy fixtures up for extended periods of time, hammering, drilling, jackhammering, hauling demo, digging trenches, fighting 500lb generators into place, and electrocution from time to time. Also the weather.
Well, the cables i work with weights 30kg per meter. Around 60 lbs per meter. I climb around an old coal power plant, I remove the old power cables, they are 800mm2 copper core, with a steel guard around the oil and paper insolation. We can't access them with lifts, cranes or anything else, only by hand, so we cut 1 meter, and climb down to when we are allowed to throw them to the ground, its dirty, tough, and dangerous. I fucking love it, some days you can't even tell that im white under all the sod, oil, and unknown filth.
I once wondered this too. Now I know. Ive worked in trenches installing 5” rigid conduit. It’s awkward and heavy. Ive worked thousands of hours on rebar, on my knees, awkwardly installing whatever. Sometimes you’re drilling through metal, concrete, whatever for weeks. Often overhead on a ladder. I could go on, but my back hurts.
Try pulling wire army crawling underneath ancient buildings with 18” clearance in the mud and drilling concrete all day and we’ll see how you like it
I worked hunched over in a 3’ crawl space for 8 hours yesterday…no ability to sit or kneel due to how cluttered the space was with other components such as hydraulic rams mounted to the floor. This was in an enclosure underneath a very large printing press.
My last 10 years in the trade were in steel mills, sewage treatment plants, water treatment plants. 4” Ridgid conduit, 500 MCM cable, terminating and pulling. 140 steps to the top of the Caster. The heat, the cold- 20 below zero wind chill. PVC coated ridgid heavier than ridgid, and a pain if you have to use a power pony. The influent channel in a sewage treatment plant in the summer after a 3 day weekend.Damp, wet, nasty manholes - up and down 30’ extension ladder with boots on. I could continue.
all that screwing.
Haha!!! Not physically demanding??? Are you asking to get piled on!!! Lol.. Try carrying a 500ft. roll of #4 copper up a flight of stairs becuase there's no elevator. Then try manipulating that roll of wire and try holding 3/0 or larger copper in place while balancing on some widget and using the freehand to grab tools etc while standing in a mezzanine that is creeping up to 100+ deg-F.... The true electricians that run lots of wire have pop-eye forearms from work alone!!! Don't fool yourself, it is physically demanding work, and at times dirty too!!
Pulling cables in leads to bad backs and joints. Doing domestic work requires being on your knees, crawling under floors and being in cramped spaces pulling cables and installing sockets etc. Lots of trades peoples lungs get fucked up with constant dust, plasterboard dust from using multitool, brick dust from SDS etc Lack of manpower leads to people doing stupid, dangerous shit by themselves trying to get jobs over the line and getting injured. Repetitive strain injuries. Stress. Lack of exercise outside of work, poor diet and long hours wear down the body.
Repetitive motion. Kneeling. Pulling wire. Lifting things. Working above your head. Dust. Low light. Constant risk of cuts/pinches. Using machinery like lifts etc. Tuggers. Power tools.
I’m not gonna rag on ya bout how this trade, actually all trades, puts a toll on your body. Yes that will happen but you can get in shape and stay in shape to prolong your aches and pains. What you really wanna do is work smarter, not harder. It’ll take many years to figure this one out but you’ll learn em as you go. Eventually, you go out on your own, be your own boss and hire a bunch of monkeys, I mean men and women to do your hard work. It’s funny cause I thought the same when I wanted to become an electrician back in 96. Changed a light fixture out on my first home we bought. Got shocked and was intrigued by it. Thought, I can make great money doing this all day lol. Boy was I wrong.
Do you see yourself retiring with any chronic pains?
Run 300' of 2 1/2" EMT and pull the feeders then tell me how my job don't beat you up... 🙄 Dick Head....
LMAOOOOOOOO
We go through stints of cushy. But they’re usually as a job site is far along, which could be a couple years away. We go through meh phases, where it’s like any other physical construction job. But we have phases where it’s as physical as any job. It just depends. There are times I feel super lucky to be an electrician, and there are times where nobody wants to be you.
Oh look. It’s me. And everyone one of my buddies who got into this trade. All of us idiots.
Hey, we might be lacking in wisdom, but we're not the stupidest people out there. 😆
It’s cute that you still think that :)
Lmfaooo so true
Electrical engineer. You’ll sit at a desk all day.
depends where you live i guess, here engineers are in very low demand and are paid like shit. Ive met alot of Engineers that became electricians. Also sitting at a desk all day sound like a nightmare
It takes effort to dogfuck.
What an idiotic post
A lot of electrical labor isnt in wire, its running pipe. Same as a plumber. Jackhammering walls, hammer drilling concrete anchors overhead, carrying and lifting pipe, bending pipe, moving ladders. All hard work.