As promised, I’ve asked dozens of electricians about their lives outside of work and the results are in and not surprising…based on all the Electricians I’ve asked, their life outside of work falls into two main categories, family and fun. Most considered those two things one in the same.
What was surprising to me was the majority of them shared the exact same fun and family activities. It seems like electricians really do enjoy the great outdoors and activities like fishing, camping, and hiking. Made even more fun when bringing along their children and spouses. I asked why the outdoors when you spend so much time outside during work hours. I probably shouldn’t have asked the question because the answer now seems so obvious. Being outdoors is one of the reasons they love their jobs as electricians. Being around co-workers as long as they are also creates the sense of family among them.
I thought long and hard about why these people seem to all live similar lives and asked a good friend and fellow electrician to help me figure it out. Again, not surprising at all, it was all about safety. Electricians like to be safe, so they spend their time in safe zones…having fun with their families. No doubt teaching their families all about safety.
We decided to do a little math to understand this safety issue better. How much does an Electrician really know about safety? Let’s just look at their first four years as apprentices:
1 tool box talk every week = 200+ tool box talks over 200 weeks
1 Safety briefing every morning, specific to the tasks of the day = 1000 briefings (250 days x 4 years)
Over 160 safety worksheets in the IEC 4 year curriculum – 188 classes total.
Countless safety meetings and safety stand downs.
Now if I’m doing my math right, there are 250 work days in a year, 1000 over 4 years. An electrician participates in over 1360 safety related talks in those 1000 days.
No wonder they have family and safety on the brain!
Posted for:
Mike Basham VP of IEC Chesapeake Education Department
Master Electrician, Father, and all-around Good Guy
Jenny Boone,
VP of Business Development IEC Chesapeake
