Hard earned lesson

[Dave Appleby]

My posts here are normally either humorous or a plea for help.

In this case, something slightly different.

Yesterday I got complacent, lazy and careless.

All the job was was changing two light fittings. I'm sure I'm not the only one, even if others don't care to admit it, that just checks the lights themselves are off at the switch. A very bad habit, and, I learned the hard way.

See photo attached. I have no ideas how they managed it. But I got a massive belt and a real scare.

Lesson learned!

Regards all.

Dave

 

[Mikegh]

If you mean polarity there

There's a lot to be said for the humble volstick in addition to proving dead

 

[littlespark]

So was the whole fitting live when the switch was on? Or was that bare copper sleeved previously?

Someone needs to invent gloves or something with a built in voltage detector. So when you get near to touching live, it beeps or screams at you to make you stop.

 

[Marvo]

Bad habits will invariably catch you out eventually. I think everyone takes a chance once in a while and this is a good reminder not to get complacent or lazy.

 

[James]

Welcome to the club.
we all make mistakes every now and then, not all of us admit to them.
use it as a learning experience.

 

[Dave Appleby]

The earth fly lead is attached to the PL loop.

No sheathing, bare copper.

Ouch.

Jus glad I was only 2 steps up the ladder and landed on my feet. Do have two tiny burns.

There's a pilot saying that you start with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the experience bag before the luck empties...

Dave

I've been doing this long enough I should know better!

 

[littlespark]

On the permanent live! Bloody hell!

“as easy as changing a lightbulb” not in this house…. Likely to get electrocuted!

Now that’s a C1 if ever I saw one.

 

[brianmoooore]

Voltstick in first. ALWAYS

 

[Dave Appleby]

Indeed.

As my post said. Lesson learned!

 

[plugsandsparks]

Very good post. I do admit i am a light switch person, as i often work in populated offices and turning lights off at the breaker gets noticed , lol - In a house though, although i dont do much house work, the breaker would be my first choice.
Glad you are OK

 

[Mikegh]

Voltstick in first. ALWAYS

100%

 

[ruston]

Remember the old adage. " There are old electricians, there are bold electricians, but there are no old bold electricians. "

 

[telectrix]

Remember the old adage. " There are old electricians, there are bold electricians, but there are no old bold electricians. "

yes there are. I'm still here. ??.i've had more shocks than Ted Bundy.

 

[littlespark]

yes there are. I'm still here. ??.i've had more shocks than Ted Bundy.

He said BOLD…. not bald

 

[telectrix]

He said BOLD…. not bald

just fyi, i am not bald. got a full head of home grown hair, fertilised by beer.

 

[Rockingit]

Welcome to the club.
we all make mistakes every now and then, not all of us admit to them.
use it as a learning experience.

One of the things that age and greying hair has taught me is actually the value in 'owning' our own screwups. Not only does it stop us from getting complacent but I genuinely think it raises others' opinions of us and our professionalism.

For example, I don't as a rule make too many mistakes but when I do they're normally spectacular: last week I 'dropped' a 2000L bunded diesel tank off the end of my telehandler. There were mitigating reasons as to why/how it happened, of course there were and I'm not careless, but, fundamentally it was my watch, my load, my fault. And 2000L of red diesel isn't to be messed with - thankfully the tank held and it didn't do a full flip over and there was zero spill but it's the kind of thing that has Environmental Agency fines and investigations written ALL over it. I had two choices - I either trusted a colleague who'd witnessed it to keep quiet (and, he probably would have done) or I..... took a bunch of comedy pics with me smiling like a loon in the background grinning like a Chesire cat and posted them onto my teams whatsapp group before proudly walking into the site office and announcing that I needed to report myself to the dept of idiots and mishaps before firing myself immediately.

Rather than spend days enduring being the butt of jokes and the usual 'what an idiot he was' stuff, instead I got ten mins of sympathy and was I OK and don't worry crap happens everyone's been there.

HOWEVER.... don't get me started on accidents that happen due to other peoples laziness or general lacking, there is absolutely ZERO excuse for that at all, and it costs lives.

 

[James]

Just to add to @Rockingit and his excellent post,

I have found that a screw up and subsequent chat in the customers office along the lines of
"I have made a mistake and this is broken now"
It's my fault, sorry, This is what I am going to do rectify it.
obviously, It is important to actually follow through and fix or replace it.

More often than not, You will have earned a customer for life, Most people accept mistakes happen and by applying honesty and integrity to the problem you gain more Trust and customer service brownie points than simply doing a job well without anyone noticing.

 

[7029 dave]

Nice booby trap

 

[pirate]

If you screw up, always own up!
Many years ago, putting new bathroom light in a Wimpey house, I switched off the FCU and went into the loft...I do not know why I did what i did, but I checked the L was dead...the checked the N...it was live.
Now I check eveything...
Twice!

 

[Mikegh]

It's definitely easy in hindsight saying what you should have done

I've done a lot of stupid stuff

But that voltstick comes out now and lights up on a live source first everytime, probably a lesson learned along the way