I'm a technical engineer for a prestigious company. It begins with b!

[bigjack]

WOW. Never thought I'd write on a forum about work! Its more of a rant actually!

(This is for ppl hoping to get into the industry and for ppl in the industry.)

Does anyone else think that us guys are massively under payed over worked and generally treated like rubbish. (Tracked,anti social hours, forced to sell.- Can't even go for a pee without being questioned! Then your being monitored on the amount of work you do, a double A4 page every month on your performance. If figures aren't reached managers deal with you. We have to deal with irate customers expecting everything done 20minutes ago and god help you if the parts not on the van
and you can't do the job there and then, even if its 7 oclock on a Sunday!

(I am speaking generally, not just the company I work for.)

Its a shame because if the job market hadn't got so saturated, we would probably be on the money we deserve now. (I know I sound bitter and hard done by! I am glad to have a job. I know, I know!).

One of the reasons I'm writing this post is that I just had lots of work done on my house. Lots of tradesman in, got lots of quotes recommendations etc. Nearly every one of these guys was earning more than me! Even the SKY man! They're jobs were no comparison for what we have to know,do and put up with!

I've been doing the job for 13 years. I am competent as many others in ELECTRICS/WIRING FAULT FINDING/WIRING/PIPEWORK/SYSTEM DESIGN/ELECTRONIC COMPONENT,HYDRAULIC COMPONENT UNDERSTANDING AND TESTING/COMBUSTION TESTING AND KNOWLEDGE OF COMBUSTION/PLUMBING SYSTEMS KNOWLEDGE/COUNTLESS SAFETY REGS. AND OF COURSE KNOWLEDGE ON ALL DOMESTIC GAS APPLIANCES, REPAIR INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE.

Almost each point could be a job in itself. To be honestly and properly competent in all these areas with proper training it takes at least 8 years. (Not 8 weeks).
Its a hard job a stressful job, its mentally demanding/lots of serious things to worry about/lots of pressures deadlines/physically demanding- leaning,twisting,lifting.

- Ps Can anyone recommend a decent company to work for? Valliant etc??

Rant over!

 

[GQuigley67]

why not become an "insulation technician" seen them advertising in paper starting salary £25k up to £40!!!!!!!!

 

[bigjack]

Thanks! I'll look into it! Just had a bad day at the office- if you didn't notice! Lol.

 

[GQuigley67]

i know the feeling im absolutely scunnered in my work the now, only a few weeks guaranteed work they are expecting us to burst our chops on an hourly rate by opening more houses a day

 

[hammers4spanner]

Gas engineers i know earn about 40k a year with o.t call outs etc which imo is very good
I would say being a subby has burst its bubble with agencies driving down rates

 

[Millsy 82]

I know where your coming from I work for a local company although we dont have to sell (I still manage to get them loads of installs though) I have a tracker fitted and the girl in the office went mad on it for a bit (until she realised the more she tracked me the less work I did that will teach her).
As for the antisocial hours during the winter I was working 12-13 hour days all the time (If I was finished by 6 I never booked overtime as summer I usually finish early) and now they seem to have forgotten that and still want me to work untill 6 when others get to finish at 3-4.
When you see some of the work that so called plumbing/heating engineers do it annoys me as I went through 4 years of crap money getting all the crap jobs and they come in spend 2 months training then go and mess peoples systems up.

 

[Millsy 82]

Gas engineers i know earn about 40k a year with o.t call outs etc which imo is very good
I would say being a subby has burst its bubble with agencies driving down rates

Where abouts is that Ive been a gas engineer for about 11 years and struggle to get 30k. and thats working 35 miles away as around me its about 25k

 

[scotty plumber]

:rant:

 

[bigjack]

I'm on about that. living around London. floor layers,builders are on the same.
My point is it's a lot of crud for little reward.

 

[AWheating]

When you can get a better wage stacking shelves than some advertised Gas Engineer job's i think its time the industry needs a long hard look at itself and what standards it wants to be held to.

It could be worse tho, you could be getting shot at while trying to protect your country for a crap wage!!

 

[scotty plumber]

It is true, Hourly rates are dropping and people are taking the jobs as there is not a lot of jobs on the go! Too many so-called plumbers on the go as well

 

[Millsy 82]

Yeah I saw 1 for £8 an hour What a joke I got that just coming out of my appenticeship.

Also all these ACS training centers dont help, How many people do you know that have actually failed them?

 

[AWheating]

£8 per hour, minus van,petrol,tools,insurance,etc..... better off picking strawberrys or growing pot

 

[scotty plumber]

I was on £9.21 in my fourth year of my apprenticeship 2007

 

[AWheating]

I was on £9.21 in my fourth year of my apprenticeship 2007

£85 a week in my fourth year, running a car, paying board. but my gaffa was a @*&%

 

[scotty plumber]

£85 a week in my fourth year, running a car, paying board. but my gaffa was a @*&%

Was this many moons ago??

 

[Millsy 82]

When I started my apprenticeship I was on £44 a week and working 45 hours a week and didnt get overtime pay I left them as soon as I could (2001) as I had made it upto £120 a week and somebody offered me almost treble, Still it started me off well and kind of paying for it now.

 

[tamz]

This trade has never been well paid. It has always been on par with other trades. Just below the average wages. Yes there are ways to make double that (or more) but those jobs are usually for the top guys who are willing to chase the money, put in the hard graft and the hours. Certainly not the stuff to suit a family man unless you are looking for a way out.
If you are on above average wages which are around 27k and a bit higher in London you are doing ok.
What has changed though is the amount of regulation and responsibility that is passed to employees. This should make us better paid in comparison to other trades but it never will.
You want bigger wages the only way to get them is work harder faster and longer for them. The way it has always been.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

so you either work for Baxi or BG which is it?

 

[tamz]

Probably BG. I have a couple of mates who work for them and they moan of the same stuff. Not a bad wage tho if you can put up with their shyte :wink:

 

[Guest123]

It's time for this industry to be far more heavily regulated. To stop the flood of fast track earners believing this is an easy game with high earnings, the training schools need to be reigned in and forced to tell the truth in their advertisising. Plus I believe regulations should be put in place where fast track plumbers doing very short courses should not be allowed to work alone and unsupervised and should go through a probation period where their work is vetted. When they reach the required standard, they can then work alone. Quite similar to Gas Safe registration and might force down the huge numbers of new self employed plumbers in every area that have brand new vans and no work.

I'm NOT against fast track plumbers, but there are far too many competing for work in an industry where work is tight.

 

[mountainman]

I wouldn't mind being in 30k a year!

 

[Bernie2]

Hmm!

What a moaning lot!!! I also moaned about the same things 40 odd years ago and more. This game has never been high paid as Tamz said. Unless of course as Tamz also said you want to chase the cash. The ACS, Gas Regs and Gas Safe scheme though have piled up responsibilities which in the past although there were not so much pushed forward and certainly no fancy prices where attached to them.


Just as interest not as a moan. As an apprentice in the early 60's I worked 45 hour 5 1/2 day week as standard. The wages for an apprentice were, usually about £1.15p a week. If on local or site work you were usually required to use handcarts as well. The thing is local could be up to 5 miles away. The game is not so physically demanding like that now, thankfully. The difference today is all the responsibility paper and exam passing pressures put on the worker. That in itself makes up for the pushing of handcarts.

Somebody once said to me "The difference between a Plumber and a labourer is one uses tools and the other doesn't"

 

[Guest123]

Hmm!

What a moaning lot!!!

I know, but the plumbers on this forum care enough to come on here and spend time talking about their work, which says a lot of good things about their work ethics. Most of us are in this to make a living, we'll never be rich doing this, but when we feel that our livelihood is being threatened, it brings out the Victor Meldrew in us all.

One Foot in the Grave should have been written by plumbers.

 

[ecowarm]

One foot in the grave and scrambling to get out