Last Week Shenanigans
Finally decided I had enough after taking a demotion (two demotions really, down to porter) after some serious burnout leading to the flu, then pneumonia a few weeks later, and finally nerve damage due to crazy hours and skeleton crews requiring me to work through injuries and do the work of 3+ techs (I know a lot of us are in the same boat, isn't lost on me) because my Wine Mom Boss Bitch™ property managers run all of my decent guys off. Finally had a chance to get off the phone or away from my laptop, get home at a somewhat decent hour (8pm instead of 10pm lol) and figure out where I want to be in my career and came to the conclusion this ain't it. I know I'm not the only resi guy fed up as my good buddy, a 20 year maintenance vet, is pretty much begging me to help him get his foot in the door elsewhere as this is all he's done from 20-42. After tons of rejections and uncomfortable interviews with commercial HVACR companies where I tried to dust off almost decade old refrigeration memories I finally landed another commercial refrigeration job. Just figured I'd post in here because we get a lot of posts about fed up/directionless resi techs who have been told their skills don't matter and they aren't worth a decent living by other tradesman or their bosses. Keep on learning, take as many classes as you can, make one aspect of our trade your bread and butter and just apply, apply, apply. Hell, HVACR companies need help so bad right now I'm barely making less than I was as a supervisor and I get a tool allowance, truck, sign on bonus, 100% paid employee health insurance, and 401k match. You facilities/industrial guys who are happy with your jobs, keep on killing it. In the meantime I'll be sticking around to give advice and laugh at unhinged service requests and office worker's demands.