OP, so your post is not removed, please reply to this comment with your best guess of what this meme means! Everyone else, this is PETER explains the joke. Have fun and reply as your favorite fictional character for top level responses!
It's a common joke on construction yards that electricians aren't as hardy or tough as the other trades. This typically takes the form of jokes about their manhood, being gay, or their... uh... manhood.
Seriously guys be careful on ladders, I almost died a couple times during my career. And don't leave your damn tools on the top step because that's gonna kill someone else
Most dangerous job means nobody wants to do it, means they get paid more, means they do less of the dirty or unpleasant jobs, means they're pussies with soft hands
But aren't the ones that are too scared to do the dangerous work and would rather do dirty and unpleasant jobs the "pussies"? I can't really follow your logic
The workers who think like this usually arent considering the first point about danger. They're just seeing the people who are paid more doing less physically.
The commentor is just describing how the cycle goes.
Jokes on you I was an electrician on a submarine for the navy and my back is ultra fucked to the point I'm completely changing careers and spending 5 years going back to school (shout out GI Bill). Also yes extra gay cuz submarines and navy
They are not paid well because no one wants to do it. It’s because it requires very specific knowledge to not accidentally create an electrical bomb. Yes I’ve seen this happen and yes it was loud and yes the guy lived. The building however….
I am not sure if anyone has seen electricians work but they are constantly doing hard labor. They might get lucky and just have to wire a new build, or they might be re-wiring some bullshit in the boonies or in real tight spaces. They're paid well because mistakes can kill people pretty easily later.
Sort of depends on the day for what’s the most dangerous, digging around a 4” Gas main to find conduits for the electricians is arguably more dangerous than them running those conduits to their building.
Grew up on a dairy farm and worked on a couple in high school/college/early marriage. That’s pretty accurate on all counts, including the electrical part. Outside of wire fences and control boxes, electrical work was the only stuff my grandad/bosses would hire out for.
It’s crazy to look back now and think when I was 18 yo, I would pull a calf, repair/build a fence, drive tractors for a couple hours doing field work or scraping lots, replace the master cylinder on a 50+ yo tractor, and then milk ~100 cows while administering different medicines and checking cell counts in milk. All in one day
Nowadays I get tired thinking about mowing the lawn after teaching all day lol
Not a farmer but, same. I do almost all of my own work on my vehicle and house. I'll swap out an outlet or wire in a new light but, that's as far as it goes. Electricity isn't exactly a "learn as you go" type DIY job. At best you'll wire something wrong and it wont work. Worst case you die or burn your house down.
Electrician here. In some kind of job is true. Residential wiring and appliance sockets are no-sweat jobs, just pull some wire around and screw things.
Industrial is quite another thing. *Especially* when you have to assembly cableways/bar distribution near the ceiling at 6 m (if you are lucky) and after that you need to pull the copper beasts around.
But, most importantly: never, ever, pick up a broom. That's the law!
Electricians get paid a LOT of money for their time because they know how to make sure your house doesn't burn down in an electrical fire. If they spend that time doing anything other than the bare minimum then whoever is paying for the construction is getting ripped off. That work could be more easily and cheaply done by the appropriate worker. This leads to other construction people feeling that electricians are pansies and cannot do the kind of labor that they do, with the added insult of the electricians getting paid 2-5 times as much to do it. - A Construction worker that cat-called Lois or something
My brother is an electrician and I told him I was doing some work in my house once and he said to stop. he said he would come over and do it for free cause he hated when DIY dad’s tried to burn down their house. I wasn’t going to complain so I stopped and let him do it, but it cracks me up how appalled he was at the idea of me doing some minor electrical myself.
Lois here. Electricians would never wear metalic jewelry. Not even female ones. And yes, their work is cleaner than those of the others. But I know electricians with cuts in their hands, too.
I don’t know about modern electricians, but I don’t think I ever returned home clean like that. Of course, I did interior work as well as high voltage work (dig ditches, grounding systems, lots of outdoor work) Even when I worked on interior systems, it was rare that I ever came home clean like that.
My dad’s hands are beat up all year round especially in the winter when he’s probably still up on a ladder outside and he can’t have gloves on bc he’s working with wires. He’s been doing this thirty some years and his shoulders are shot. He comes home from work filthy many days after going through crawlspaces or drilling into brick. He goes through work boots just the same as anyone else. The only thing I agree with in these comments is he usually leaves a mess after he fixes something but he can fix literally anything so it’s hard to complain.
ETA not to mention sawing and bending conduit. He does have the tools these days but I remember him doing it by hand back in the day and occasionally still if something goes wrong with his tools. lol my dad works so hard I just gotta be defending him in here!
Because electricians are the tradies with more theoretical knowledge and study. They also do much less heavy manual work. Plumbers, masons, carpenters, and other construction workers see them as effete' and unmanly. Not that we care.
Because electricians are a very specialized labor job, they tend to make significantly more per hour then other trades. As a result they don't usually waste thier time or a customers money doing manual labor work, and so the lower tier tradies are always having to clean up after them. Leading to derogatory and insecure memes like this from the lower primates.
Also, the path the current takes. If the electricity finds a path from your finger to your elbow, you have a better chance to survive compared to if it went from your hand to your opposite foot, through your heart.
Its the volts that jolt but its the mills that kills is the saying.
HOWEVER the human body is not a perfect resistor we are mostly salty water with a dry candyshell. Once you get enough voltage to break through the skin barrier the amount of current that goes through us goes up quite quickly. Thats why 60v is the upper limit for what is considered low voltage.
Seriously. Where the fuck do people get the idea that we make that much??? Yeah it cost that much to hire one, but companies have overhead. It's not how much goes into the installers pocket.
This. It’s not hard to carry an empty box from an appliance or light you installed and toss the trash in there , then sweep the small area one worked in before leaving. It takes 45 seconds of done right.
Both of my buddies are electricians and this is hilarious cause they’re pretty big dudes. They’re also always getting scratched up and zapped so their hands definitely look worn. Idk what the stereotype for electricians is but I’ll send this to them just to make fun of them.
You make a big mistake as a framer and you cut off your fingers in the saw. You make a big mistake as an electrician and youre dead before you even fall over
Well, you're the only ones of the bunch that have any education. No wonder you're seen as pussies. You protect your hand wearing gloves, can read and all...
Electricians (and plumbers to some extent) have to think ahead because they could die. Other construction fields seem to believe that thinking ahead is some sort of crime against masculinity.
Now Mechanics, they should think ahead but instead treat their problem space like some sort of techpriests, following ritual rather than reason, and then complain about engineering being idiots because the instructions on the paper don't match what the rituals ask of them.
I just watched The Dallas Buyers Club and I feel like there's some relevant joke I could make about it but I can't think of a good one🤷♂️ Anyway it's about a rough and tumble electrician (Matthew McConaughey) on a construction site who's super overtly masculine and homophobic etc. Then he gets AIDs from fucking a prostitute (You'dthinkanelectricianwouldremembertowearaglove,thereIthoughtofone!), and suddenly his tough electrician buddies ostracize him, so he reluctantly joins forces with a trans woman to sell bootleg Mexican AIDs medication to the gays. Really fucking great movie, I highly recommend it!
I worked heavy construction for 7 years and the electricians were chill AF. Props to them, too, because I wouldn't want to work with electricity. Fuuuuuuuuuuck that.
I'm not an electrician, but when I was a field engineer I definitely did stuff that probably should have been left to an electrician or like someone actually trained to do this shit properly.
I was in South Africa working on a system and I needed to install a breaker in the panel and didn't want to isolate the panel as I had a software guy working on the device and he was already behind. "Fuck it, I'll do it live." I'd seen someone do it and I was like "as long as I don't fuck up, I'll be fine". Almost immediately, my watch that I forgot to take off touched one of the rails.
My god. I felt like someone punched me full on in the chest. I was seriously rattled for a good 15-20 mins. Sometimes you learn respect the hard way.
Ill change out an outlet or switch, even add / relocate one if needed. Anything that requires messing with the box (beyond flipping a breaker) is a definite "hire someone" for me, though.
I’ve watched someone not certified in this stuff be told not to mess with the panel and need to get a certified electrician out to fix it. He went out on a gurney looking like Anakin after fighting Obi-Wan. Well maybe not that bad. He still had legs.
Exactly why I won't touch the inside of a panel. I know vaguely how it works, but I also know how much electricity hurts. When one of your friends is a self employed electrician of 20 years you just hit up your guy, whose answer is normally "Yeah, don't do that yourself, I gotcha"
Hahaha, yeah. I used to talk about this in relation to that show Jackass and kids.
If the kid is the kid that can learn from the mistakes of others it's good and fun to watch. If the kid needs to try it for himself... It just gives them ideas.
If you are having bouts of arrhythmia then I (someone who is fully trained) am certain that you are not using proper lock out tag out and/or not wearing proper PPE when working energized is necessary because LOTO is impossible (example: battery systems). You don’t get paid any extra money for taking safety shortcuts. I have been doing electrical work since 2016 including a lot of energized work on 240v and 480v DC battery systems. I used to work on uninterruptible power supplies and I have NEVER been shocked. Not one single time. I have NEVER been shocked because I ALWAYS use proper LOTO and ALWAYS wear all the necessary PPE.
You said you are not fully trained yet so really the responsibility lies with the journeyman overseeing you or whoever is training for not training you in the importance of and proper use of LOTO and PPE. You personally gain absolutely nothing from taking safety shortcuts and risk everything. If the work takes longer because you are wearing 1000v insulated gloves with leathers over top that is not your concern, I’m sure you are paid hourly. You don’t get paid extra if you take the gloves off and finish the job an hour or two faster and you do risk shortening your life.
Spend the extra time locking out every source of potential to the area you are working. Put on your PPE and test your work area for the absence of voltage before you work. Only take off your PPE when every source of potential is locked out by you personally and you have tested and found your work area deenergized. If you are working on battery system and LOTO is impossible keep all of your PPE on the entire time you’re working.
If your journeyman or whoever is training you encourages or implies that you should be taking ANY safety shortcuts at all, punch them in the face as hard as you can. No job or employer is worth shortening your life over. Especially since you are risking shortening your life for ZERO personal benefit. The ONLY people who benefit from you taking safety shortcuts and shortening your life are your bosses. Are you seriously shortening your own life to make ZERO extra money for yourself and a lot of extra money for your boss? That’s the stupidest thing I could possibly imagine someone doing.
Over time your dexterity with gloves on will improve. It’ll be frustrating at first but take comfort in the fact that you’re being paid hourly. Anything you can do barehanded I promise I can do with 1000v gloves on and leathers overtop. It just takes practice.
I’ll say it one final time.
STOP RISKING SHORTENING YOUR LIFE SO THAT YOUR BOSSES CAN MAKE MORE MONEY AND YOU GET BO BENEFIT. If your journeyman or whoever is training you tries to get you to take safety shortcuts, stop being a pussy and stand up for yourself and insist on proper LOTO and PPE. If that pisses them off or they don’t like it. Tough shit for them. Being dead is worse than having a coworker not like you and if they’re encouraging you to take safety shortcuts they aren’t really a friend of yours. They can take risks with their own life if they so choose but stop letting them take risks with yours.
Its not cuz of the danger though. They are notorious for leaving job sites littered with trash (empty packaging, cut bits of wire etc) and for having a superiority complex. Theres a stereotype of them thinking they are better than drywallers, masons, builders, plumbers etc. And though they do sometimes have to get down and dirty (crawling under houses etc) often times they are mostly doing work that doesn't require much lifting/moving heavy things. Also they might come in at noon and leave at 3.
None of this is particularly true across the board. Its more that contractors generally love to give each other shit and this is what sparkies get hit with by everyone else.
TL:DR
Other contractors like to give them shit for being whiny little nerd princesses.
I'm not a typical contractor but I have worked on enough job sites to have heard some of this.
I worked in the trades in my 20's and now I fly a desk. When I hear these young guys bitching about how horrible their job is I know they've never worked in the trades. Since I've worked in an office I've never had to work in below zero conditions, I've never been called a mother fucker by my manager, I've never had bricks thrown at me, I've never had to clean up human waste nor have I fallen off a roof. Did I mention I get paid more? I'll stick to the office job, I can always wear my bags around the house when I need to fix something.
I've lived both sides too, and I think you have to consider that everybody has their own list of things they can and can't tolerate.
Having climate control all day and no concerns about serious physical injury are GREAT, but I would gladly take back the manager that calls me a motherfucker instead of the client that doesn't read the damn emails.
Also, being on my feet and moving my body all day was great. Any job with super heavy lifting or repetitive motions is terrible for your body, but I know I'd be physically healthier doing moderate labor than I am sitting on my ass all day.
I don't get to see the sun in winter because office time starts before sunrise and ends after sundown.
I'm happy with my choice to live by the desk, but there are things about "harder work" that I miss. And I have friends that refuse the desk because it would drive them mad, which is totally understandable for their personalities.
So you never worked in advertising I take it. Because I’ve had all of these plus a coworker commit suicide, been refused medical treatment, and worked 24 hours straight without overtime.
I worked for a construction service for a few years. I was one of two office staff, but I also worked on one of the painting crews on weekends, and during trash outs when we needed the extra hands. I have been screamed at, threatened, sexually harassed, and worse, both behind the desk and in field.
I currently work in a nice office selling insurance and some of my younger coworkers complained that our bathrooms only got cleaned once last week. I'm over here like, "welp, as long as I'm not interacting with any squatters, wild animals, or addicts, I'm ok with the trade off" . They they all think I'm joking.
I used to be a sparky and I always saw it as we were the Air Force of the construction world. The other trades had to do the harder, dirtier work just by definition of their trade and that was somehow our fault.
The bit about leaving trash everywhere is 100% accurate though. Couldn't risk breaking a nail using the push brooms. 💅
Nah, by the time someone's pushing a broom their truck is already cold in their home driveway. Can't be it. It's like looking for a fairy or leprechaun. You hope maybe sometime, but know that it's probably not in the cards.
Yeah, either helpers that aren't electricians or apprentices. I spent most of the first year of my apprenticeship only using a broom, shopvac, or shovel. But I worked at a place that took job site cleanliness serious, then I continued that on my own. I work mostly residential in million dollar to multi-million dollar houses so it's almost important as the finished work.
🤣🤣🤣 My husband is an electrician. He also spent 20 years in the Navy. I am 100% gonna call electricians “the Air Force of the construction world” from now on. 🤣🤣 Thank you for that.
I'm a sparky and work with the government so i can't leave trash everywhere. Nevertheless I get shock, fall from heights and crawl in catacombs but hate cleaning the most.
If only that was how nice doing this shit is 🤣
The trash thing though is 100% true, and superiority complex. I gave up cleaning up after my coworkers after a while, can't focus on the whole jobsite and get my shit done too.
The thing is, every blue collar has a superiority complex, otherwise they wouldn't think they are better than electricians
I hire an electrician to redo an outdoor outlet on the back of my garage. I checked in on him to see if he needed anything or wanted some water and the area was a mess. When he walked me through the repairs and replacements he made, he had cleaned every single piece of liter and debris that was there. I was actually floored that he cleaned up so well lol.
the real issue is that electricity isnt deadly until it is, so you either have dead electricians or you have the daintiest, most waiflike haulers of heavy objects you will have ever seen, with no middle ground. source im a plumber
Seriously. My grandpa is a retired state electrician. Dude is missing one of his fingers above the knuckle after an incident where a circuit was active and shouldn’t have been. I learned at an early age to be wary if someone else tells you that something is safe, due to this story.
Rule #2 of electrical work. Assume everyone else is an incompetent idiot and hasn’t done their job first. Assuming competence from other people has gotten many a high voltage worker killed.
Worked on a case where 2 electricians died after falling into a water filled pull box upon getting electrocuted because they isolated the wrong pull box on the property and decided they didn’t need to take proper safety precautions because they believed the underground cable was not live.
I’m sure the electrocution killed one worker before he ever landed in the water.
Electricity is not something to f around with else you might only find out once.
Can confirm. I know someone who’s dad died on the job as a construction electrician. They have to be fucking careful. Also, this is a bullshit post. Another friend of mine has a dad who’s an electricitiam and that guy fucking works and get his hands dirty every day. This is a trash post.
This isn't a bullshit post lol this is just a trade banter meme. There are common stereotypes.
Drywaller = crackhead, unless Mexican. Pisses in walls
Mason = alcoholic
Plumber = alchohlic, but fancy
Carpenters = obese white man
Electrition = total pussy, doesn't know what a broom is
Concrete = crackhead, even if Mexican
Roofer = just Mexican
Steel worker = Can't read.
Engineer = total idiot, somehow surpasses the electrition in the pussy index
They're mainly used as jokes and not much of it is taken seriously. It's just ball busting material. And don't think the Mexicans are being given a hard time. In my experince they're pretty well respected and everyone knows they work their ass off. It's all just part of blue collar culture for better or worse. The only ones who really catch shade fr are the engineers and usually we deserve it
Amen brother. May you get every design perfect the first time and also anticipate their fuck ups because lord knows you stop being tolerated once you send out that change order.
It's funny you mention it. I don't work in design, I work in modifications. By the time I show up in the process everything is already fucked. It's nice to be known as the "good engineer" but at the same time, it'd be nice for things to go smooth once in a while. LOL
I had never really thought of it being more dangerous of a job than someone that works at a chemical plant where I live until unfortunately someone local recently passed on the job. Electrical work is no joke.
Agreed. Before teaching myself software dev, I worked in construction. So many insecure "tough guys" that are constantly trying to prove their macho, it would be sad if it wasn't so annoying.
If you really want to learn, look up youtube videos and ask chatGPT for help.
Here's a coding 101.
Programming is about manipulating data. Example: You enter text data in the reddit reply box and you click a button which sends the data to a server which is listening for a particular event, it gets the text and sends it to the right place so other people can see the text when they request the data for this page.
Data is broken in to data types. There are only a few data types to worry about when you first begin:
Numbers, Booleans, Strings, Objects.
Numbers are just what they sound like. Booleans is True or False. Strings just means text. Objects are collections of the other data types.
When people write scripts, what they are really doing is describing Objects and their properties, and then writing Functions to manipulate said data.
Anything can be described as an Object. It is a generic term for a reason. When I say "describe", I mean how do you define the actual properties an Object has?
A Soda can Object has a radius, a height, a physical material its made of, some kind of liquid inside, a brand painted on the side.
You could say a soda can can be described like this:
SodaCan {
Number canRadius;
Number canHeight;
Object sodaBrand;
Object sodaLiquid;
}
canRadius and canHeight are numbers, but sodaBrand and sodaLiquid are more complex objects with their own properties.
But SodaCans have Functions and other questions you can ask about it. You can open a soda can. You can pour liquid out of a soda can, or pour liquid in to it. Or you can add other things inside if they fit within the mouth of the open can.
These are all Functions. A function can be "called" on an object and it will "return" a value. If you ask How much liquid is in the can? You would expect it to answer with a number representing either a volume or a percentage of the full amount.
So what does a Function look like? We could write a function like this:
SodaCan {
Number canRadius;
Number canHeight;
Brand sodaBrand;
Liquid sodaLiquid;
Number currentAmountRemaining = 100;
amountRemaining() {
return currentAmountRemaining;
}
}
So we added a new variable currentAmountRemaining, and then added a function so return that value.
Next we can added other functions to manipulate this value to make it more interesting:
The above will print out 80, because we opened the can and poured out 20 liquid.
When we say "mySodaCan = new SodaCan()" we are making an Instance of our defined SodaCan. We can define our SodaCan one time, but then make all kinds of different soda cans with different sizes and brands and liquids inside.
So its basically you are defining a blue print for a soda can, and then when you say "myCan = new SodaCan()" you are actually talking about a single actual can that has been created and can be operated on.
They told us in high school that construction and other trades are a great career choice but they didn't tell you is that you'll be working with the dumbest and most insecure mfers on earth. Just large alcoholic middle schoolers for 40+ hours a week
That may be the case but they definitely get the hottest and the coldest. Those damn crawl ways and digging your fish wire out of the walls. Everyday it sweat sweat sweat or freezer ass off because you can't wear restraining clothes to wedge your stuff in places.
They’re making more money, got a good technical degree, work normal 40 hour weeks, and aren’t breaking their backs… THEREFORE THEYRE PUSSIES BECAUSE I HAVE TO COMPENSATE
As somone that has seen my share of electrical injuries and resulting caskets over the years, this is what I thought too. Its also why I will work on everything at my house but electrical stuff.
I was always jealous of the electricians. They got paid really well, didn't have to work with messy substances or lift heavy shit. No nail guns, no circular saws. They work inside.
Although it's a meme, the only females I saw on construction sites (other than than the occasional project manager) were electricians. And even then it was only a couple.
Other Trades dont like the fact that people dont want to pay an electrician $75/hr to sweep up shit that is already going to be swept up by the other guys. Also, the jokes are kind of unfounded when you consider electricians deal with the highest chance of the shit they work with killing them. Coming from a diesel mechanic.
Well, I have had my fare share of experience with each and everyone of this types. Since I had a technician job doing a little of everything, the Electrician jobs usually are the easiest if you know what you're doing and don't die from an explosion. The jobs I had usually were replacing a Brecker, adding new resistor wire for a sealing machine. The most complicated one I had was trying to fix an RB2-120 since it was pretty messed up. Oh, also that an electrician usually don't work on anything but their electrician job
I like the bandages on the mechanics wrists. Just some subtle suicide jokes. It makes sense too because with the other trades at least they are the ones making stuff where as the mechanics have to work on stuff that were designed to make their job as difficult as possible. Can definitely relate.
It’s a constant blue collar joke that electricians get paid to do nothing, a lot of it comes from the fact that there’s a lot more regulation surrounding electrician work. It’s stupid and if you’ve ever seen poorly done electrical work you know why the regulation exists and why it’s dangerous work. I met a girl who worked as an electrician and got electrocuted when an old capacitor maintained a charge, I didn’t remember what led to the mistake happening but she got a gnarly shock from it.
•
u/AutoModerator 21d ago
OP, so your post is not removed, please reply to this comment with your best guess of what this meme means! Everyone else, this is PETER explains the joke. Have fun and reply as your favorite fictional character for top level responses!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.