Whats happening with youngsters

[Mike Johnson]

For "Character Building" read Bullying or Apprentice initiation some stay scared for life because of it.

 

[Baddegg]

Had more than a few rucks on building sites and dockyard because some fat t£&t thought the best way to teach a kid was to humiliate and bully them......funny how the initiation ritual is reserved for those that can’t/won’t fight back!....never agreed with and never will ive always found that taking the time and talking to the youngsters as equals gets the best results....

 

[ferg]

Honestly I think it's just us getting older.
Every generation is the same moaning about the next one.
I remember being the one getting moaned about 30 some years ago.

 

[OnlQQker]

Building sites were a nightmare...

I managed to put a brick chisel through my hand when I was 17, I totally missed it with the lump hammer and the jagged steel edge of the chisel tore through my hand. I must of passed out.
When I came back to the land of the living the groundworkers had kindly placed me in a wheelbarrow next to the noisy old diesel cement mixer. I worked the rest of the day with my good hand.
When I got home and told my mum we went to A&E then she went up the site the next day and started complaining. She never got anywhere because they all started wolf whistling her.

Groundworkers were something else back then, in a way they taught me the battleground mentality, if it's raining you wont get rusty, don't stand there looking at it, it wont do itself, if it's hard be hard with it!

Oh and the complete A-Z of swear words.

 

[littlespark]

I don’t give a monkeys whether is character building or not... bullying has no place in any workplace.
And as for thumping your hand with a hammer and being left to work it off?? Should have been an A&E job there and then.

 

[OnlQQker]

I don’t give a monkeys whether is character building or not... bullying has no place in any workplace.
And as for thumping your hand with a hammer and being left to work it off?? Should have been an A&E job there and then.

I agree, and I was the directors son of a large building company. Never really got on with my dad though, I was just not interested in becoming a architect, surveyor etc like he had plans for me when he stuck me in Bircham Newton training centre at 15. I got expelled.
The craziness of it all though was I shouldn't of even been in there and still at school. But I guess the masons back then had some clout in places I didn't think possible.

I grew up looking out for people that were bullied, the one big favour he did me was the punches. Kids my age could not hit like he could hit so I never backed down from bullies and stuck up for loads of kids along the way. So I guess he did me a favour in a rather odd way after all.

That's how I look at it anyway though I know none of it was right!

 

[KennyKen]

There were a lot of bullies on building sites years ago, probably due to the lack of repercussions and the lack of “Vetting” which some sites have today.
One hard faced ------- used to rip off conduit runs off the wall with a claw hammer if the conduit wasn’t perfect on the level. Poor young bloke was under the pump and could of easily rectified the issue with a slight tap on the saddle. Just miserable bullies with major personal issues. His wife left him so probably wanted to take it out on the boys.

 

[Mike Johnson]

It' another version of the "Peter Principle" "Everybody is eventually promoted to the level of their own incompetence."

 

[ipf]

I remember, as a kid, working on a social club extension in Sheffield in the 70's during the builders strike. There were about a half dozen builders with us and the plumbers on site. A couple of union blokes turned up and instructed to down tools. It was a private firm so everyone just carried on but the day after a couple of hundred nutters turned up and roughed up the lad in charge and threatened big damage to the site.....proper bullying on a very large scale.
As it turned out, us and the plumbers were allowed to carry on.

 

[Markyd]

Dont tell me what to do....what do you mean get off my phone?...your making me anxious...why do i have to tidy up?...you cant talk to me like that.....The problem is most of them are pussys

 

[DPG]

I remember, as a kid, working on a social club extension in Sheffield in the 70's during the builders strike. There were about a half dozen builders with us and the plumbers on site. A couple of union blokes turned up and instructed to down tools. It was a private firm so everyone just carried on but the day after a couple of hundred nutters turned up and roughed up the lad in charge and threatened big damage to the site.....proper bullying on a very large scale.
As it turned out, us and the plumbers were allowed to carry on.

Some of the old union stuff from the 70s and 80s sounds shocking to be honest.

 

[Pete999]

Some of the old union stuff from the 70s and 80s sounds shocking to be honest.

Depends really, on the Mentor, and the youngster, in my experience, if you keep the Youngster, Apprentice or Lad or Lass with the same Mentor as long as possible, providing the Mentor is a good egg the student will turn out a good un, it's continual changes in their training regime that screws many an Apprentice up, trouble is there is so much pressure on Tradesmen of all disciplines to produce as much profit as possible, there seems to be very little attention paid to training for the future, too much emphasis on fast track BS, someone please bring back the old Apprentice route for building trades, electricians included, how many times do we hear of 24 30 year olds looking for Apprenticeships? on a loser to start with at that age because of the social economic pressure on them.
How many of you have heard of reasonably established Electrical contractors employing a Youngster straight from School, and as soon as they can connect a CU up with a degree of safety and competence, chuck them out on site to run it themselves, it happened to me, but I luckily saw the writing on the wall and got out for a long while to retake Quals, and take more notice of what was available to me, there are many past and present forum members who can attest to this method, one in particular, but he has sadly not posted for a long while, he has his reasons I'm sure, and he is one of the good ones.

 

[DPG]

Depends really, on the Mentor, and the youngster, in my experience, if you keep the Youngster, Apprentice or Lad or Lass with the same Mentor as long as possible, providing the Mentor is a good egg the student will turn out a good un, it's continual changes in their training regime that screws many an Apprentice up, trouble is there is so much pressure on Tradesmen of all disciplines to produce as much profit as possible, there seems to be very little attention paid to training for the future, too much emphasis on fast track BS, someone please bring back the old Apprentice route for building trades, electricians included, how many times do we hear of 24 30 year olds looking for Apprenticeships? on a loser to start with at that age because of the social economic pressure on them.
How many of you have heard of reasonably established Electrical contractors employing a Youngster straight from School, and as soon as they can connect a CU up with a degree of safety and competence, chuck them out on site to run it themselves, it happened to me, but I luckily saw the writing on the wall and got out for a long while to retake Quals, and take more notice of what was available to me, there are many past and present forum members who can attest to this method, one in particular, but he has sadly not posted for a long while, he has his reasons I'm sure, and he is one of the good ones.

I'm not on about apprenticeships Pete. I'm on about union practices.

 

[Pete999]

I'm not on about apprenticeships Pete. I'm on about union practices.

Those were bad days Mate TUs have changed dramatically theses days, do you not5 think?

 

[DPG]

Those were bad days Mate TUs have changed dramatically theses days, do you not5 think?

Hopefully so yes.

 

[Pete999]

Hopefully so yes.

Well from my experience within the TU anybody who is a member of a Union, who was or gas been subjected to bullying in any form would be looked after very well, and I have experienced this duing my time as a TU Rep.

 

[KennyKen]

I’m a union member I believe especially on bigger sites they are better. A voice for the boys.

Pete is right about being with One mentor. I was put with one sparks and eventually worked well as a team. As an apprentice I had to think like him, anticipate what tool he would require and he would just stick his hand out lol.