u/Feberto

I’m a first year commercial apprentice in Southern California. I’ve been working only solar systems. I find joy in the process of creating, especially when it comes out nice. I’ve had a great journeyman and the rest well… they didn’t hit me. I haven’t been getting any of the hours the apprenticeship promised. I’m glad I got it I waited for years but to only be treated like a burden. I’m not your average apprentice but I’m not without faults. That which I am persistently working on. Sometimes I don’t arrive 15 minutes early and sometimes I’m even a little bit late. It’s not ideal and some would even say it’s the worst. I do accept that could factor my relationship to this contractor, of course when it comes to my work. I am not boastful but I have never failed an inspection, because of my experience with solar I’ve been able to travel to different places in the country. That which I am grateful for but I am not grateful for the lack of honesty, integrity, and just humanity. I had a near miss with an energized circuit that one of the superintendents supposedly locked out. Only to find out he half assed the investigation of the circuit we were working on. Luckily that great journeyman walked me through that nightmare of a superintendent. The guy with 34 years of experience was getting outclassed by a 15 year journeyman hourly. Daily minimum, it was sad watching that journeyman bend over backwards for that fatass loser. I dont hate the work, but i hate the fact that I have to pay for all these tools and risk getting them stolen and not even have a tax write off. I have to pay just to park because parts of california have no free parking and the company wont reimburse me. So even if i got my hours i don’t like how they treat people. I can expect them to shit on me as an apprentice but when the journeyman clearly gets shafted up and down I just don’t want that to be my work life in the future.