First day in new job today

[Bhoydavid]

Doing servicing, flung in at the deepend with 10 jobs of which 3 had fires and 1 was a system boiler. Was a bit overwhelming for a first day but got there in the end. Just need to remember I'm still learning loads as I go having only done 5/6 months of servicing previously as an apprentice.

I'll get there in the end :book:

 

[Killy Bing]

Good going, get your head in those books on clearances and ventilation

 

[Bhoydavid]

Good going, get your head in those books on clearances and ventilation

Cheers yeah I'm going too. see for talking sake in absence of MI's would I refer to gas regs for boiler and fire clearances, gas rate value, combustion reading etc?

Also I know you can get all manuals for free online but my phone had a problem downloading today so I'm going to buy that app for £30 after saying I wasn't haha

 

[A1P]

Hell of a day!Seems a lot for a day.Wouldn't fancy trying to get through that lot.Fires are a pain and often not serviced properly.

 

[Rickster123]

10 services? I'd say they're taking the wee wee a bit.

 

[stevetheplumber]

i did 9 out of thirteen on the pda today but its to much you miss stuff when under preasure

 

[Bhoydavid]

Hell of a day!Seems a lot for a day.Wouldn't fancy trying to get through that lot.Fires are a pain and often not serviced properly.

Yeah that's what i thought today very dusty and loads old smoke pellets in the opening.

10 services? I'd say they're taking the wee wee a bit.

Yeah just a bit. Getting 8 tomorrow so see if I go any better with that and get in a bit earlier hopefully.

 

[AWheating]

Any decently run service contractor would name and make available the instructions before you attend any jobs as not having the instructions in theroy means walking away without doing the work.

when i worked on a servicing contract i knew if i was going to have problems or not by the name of the last engineer to visit. Certain initals on the appliance service label and id expect to be there for a while. It was not uncommon to remove a closure plate which had debris up to and above the spigot hole.

 

[townfanjon]

Flung in at the deep end, jesus you nearly drowned pal . Far far too much work load for one man, dangerous IMO. potentially too much stuff could be missed.

 

[bigman]

Worked for several firms in London on housing association work in the last couple of years the jobs went from around 6 to 8 a day to 13 to 16. Left one large firm after a fortnight as they were giving 20 jobs a day 15 of them services

 

[kirkgas]

In this day and age and depending on the contract, 10-12 jobs a day is no problem, TT, FGA and visual, if all ok move Next door or to the flat above, it's not uncommon to be in one street for 2-3 weeks so that accounts for a lot of time saved, and you get people in the street asking to be done at certain times, again cutting down the down time, if it's social housing the negative is sometimes high NA rate, but if you have a full list list of the street you can still get a decent quota done

 

[tamz]

In this day and age and depending on the contract, 10-12 jobs a day is no problem,

Thats easy for you to say :wink:

 

[kirkgas]

Thats easy for you to say :wink:

Haha, yes you are right, I have no problem telling you or service 10 boilers a day, "you don't know you are born son, in my day we had to blah blah blah"

 

[Bhoydavid]

Any decently run service contractor would name and make available the instructions before you attend any jobs as not having the instructions in theroy means walking away without doing the work.

when i worked on a servicing contract i knew if i was going to have problems or not by the name of the last engineer to visit. Certain initals on the appliance service label and id expect to be there for a while. It was not uncommon to remove a closure plate which had debris up to and above the spigot hole.

That's unreal. Few fires I've went to have had about 25 used smoke pellets in the catchment area. Why do people not Hoover or remove them? I know it's good practice to leave your burnt out pellet in the catchment space so the engineer that next services/has to check the opening knows that it was previously bombed.

 

[Bhoydavid]

In this day and age and depending on the contract, 10-12 jobs a day is no problem, TT, FGA and visual, if all ok move Next door or to the flat above, it's not uncommon to be in one street for 2-3 weeks so that accounts for a lot of time saved, and you get people in the street asking to be done at certain times, again cutting down the down time, if it's social housing the negative is sometimes high NA rate, but if you have a full list list of the street you can still get a decent quota done

would be ideal if it was like that. Services are just dotted all over really which doesn't help

 

[AMGasServices]

I do 8 services per day. But we got a crap system that takes ages to fill out. And have to do sooo many stupid checks.

 

[DaveTidy]

Only advice I can give you is make sure your van stock is up to date, tools are van are well organised, plenty of consumables and spare paperwork.

If you are on a contract where they only have a small range of appliances, print the MI's off to save time (try and do in office one night if they have the facility).

Get local merchants stock lists and tel numbers so you know where to get things when out and about.

Biggest failure areas when doing a 'Book of servicing work' is not getting to the first job on time (make an early start) and spending too much time making a decision when a problem comes up.

Get a list of all the manufacturers technical numbers and call them.

Also get a couple of friends on there quick and help them when you can (when you get na's) as it sounds like you will need help on a regular basis!!!

If not, get some experience of working under pressure and what to do to illeviate it and then work for yourself when the time is right.

Good luck!!!!

 

[JeffD]

Doing servicing, flung in at the deepend with 10 jobs of which 3 had fires and 1 was a system boiler. Was a bit overwhelming for a first day but got there in the end. Just need to remember I'm still learning loads as I go having only done 5/6 months of servicing previously as an apprentice.

I'll get there in the end :book:

You'll be ok with houses with no fires but doing 10 or 12 a day with fires I'd say it would be a long day, most council house fires are radiant fires 4 screws n off

 

[gasmanrob]

i used to work at a place that would expect the earth especially out if youngest employees (me and 3 others at the time). Knocking on the first door at 7am regardless of where it was you had a list of jobs and worked till it was done 12 days on 2 days off. leaving home at 5am getiing back in at 1am then same again the next. although the boss of the firm was out from 5am till 10pm never on weekends though.. and we didnt get to spend 3 months of the year living on a private island in thailand..

before them i had never serviced a boiler or attempted a fault find after a while you got good and you got fast if you didnt you were out the door as quick as you came in, the biggest problem i had was living in kent and having to go to luton 3-4 days a week then get into camden or clacton on sea or romford for 7am

in the end it broke me. i remember it crystal clear i was sat in the van in illford at 12:30am after wrestling a vaillant for 90 minutes to get the main heat ex out. i looked at the van full of empty purdey bottles and relentless cans and i sobbed for for the entire drive home, i couldnt do it anymore id already done too much for too long i was naive and eager to prove myself.

all that said once i was away from it and could take everything in i learnt ALOT in that time. and without it i wouldnt know half what i do now just wish i said no more often and stood my ground

 

[DaveTidy]

It really pees me off when I read posts like that as those many hours or appliances a day is a joke in anyones world.

If I remember, we are all in the gas world working on appliances that can kill people and yet we have a gas body policing safety, visiting companys with available evidence as this is commonplace.

Throughout social housing, contracts miss workload benchmarks to stop companies abusing gas engineers, taking risks with other peoples health and safety and customers well being.

The work is all tendered at costs which the whole industry knows is unsafe and unrealistic to make a profit without cutting corners.

Ridiculous travelling against silly numbers of appliances to work on. How can a company sometimes give an engineer 8 houses to service and a cp12 without knowing how many appliances are there?

How can these companies then be checked by third party qc companies, gas safe and the local account manager for the social housing landlord and not one of them finds an issue to change the structure.........

I know how and I'm sure you all do but what a joke considering what is at stake. I've seen a lot of people break down over the years and many with stress, heart attacks or bullying when they are just trying to be a good engineer doing a good job as they happen to be a correct thinking individual in a greedy, pitiful service arena.

As you can tell, I don't have a lot of time for some of the companies and organisations that forget where their real responsibily lies.

Phew... sorry about the tone but I hate it when companies are that rubbish that their employees are at breaking point and they couldn't give a **** as they still get what's theirs!

 

[kirkgas]

It really pees me off when I read posts like that as those many hours or appliances a day is a joke in anyones world.

If I remember, we are all in the gas world working on appliances that can kill people and yet we have a gas body policing safety, visiting companys with available evidence as this is commonplace.

Throughout social housing, contracts miss workload benchmarks to stop companies abusing gas engineers, taking risks with other peoples health and safety and customers well being.

The work is all tendered at costs which the whole industry knows is unsafe and unrealistic to make a profit without cutting corners.

Ridiculous travelling against silly numbers of appliances to work on. How can a company sometimes give an engineer 8 houses to service and a cp12 without knowing how many appliances are there?

How can these companies then be checked by third party qc companies, gas safe and the local account manager for the social housing landlord and not one of them finds an issue to change the structure.........

I know how and I'm sure you all do but what a joke considering what is at stake. I've seen a lot of people break down over the years and many with stress, heart attacks or bullying when they are just trying to be a good engineer doing a good job as they happen to be a correct thinking individual in a greedy, pitiful service arena.

As you can tell, I don't have a lot of time for some of the companies and organisations that forget where their real responsibily lies.

Phew... sorry about the tone but I hate it when companies are that rubbish that their employees are at breaking point and they couldn't give a **** as they still get what's theirs!

That's one of the reasons I moved out of that side of the job, I was in charge of about 35 guys doing social housing gas contracts, quite liked the job but not all the management BS that went with it, couldn't keep fighting the money men to keep the standards up while the guys got pummelled financially

 

[rbno22]

i admire you mate for sticking with it....i find it absolute madness to be given 10 or 12 jobs a day 8 is enough even if they are next door to each other add in a fire and/or a hob your doing ok...just remember do it right ...you dont ever want to stand in front of a man in a white wig explaining why you as the rge didnt.....