# Tips on efficiency



## sumofit (Feb 9, 2019)

So I finished a three year electrical engineering technology course fresh out of high school. After that, I took on a 309A apprenticeship. I'm a 2nd year apprentice and very close to going back to trade school to advance as a 3rd year. With that said, I am working on a lot of new construction custom homes and renovation homes. Most days out of the week i'm working on these homes by myself. I work at least 9 hours each day. I feel like I get a lot done in a day, but our shop manager thinks otherwise. He will visit my job site and sigh a lot and get passive aggressive with me, constantly saying "How haven't you finished this yet?" (he's a master electrician). Not sure how i'm supposed to deal with the stress of this. Any advice on efficiency and/or how to deal with this?


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## MikeFL (Apr 16, 2016)

It's his job to teach you how.


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## sumofit (Feb 9, 2019)

MikeFL said:


> It's his job to teach you how.


Thanks man. I guess I need a little encouragement. My uncle owns the company. We're short of electricians, so understandably, there's a lot of pressure.


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## Martine (Jan 26, 2018)

In Quebec (and probably all of Canada) you can't work alone as an apprentice. Talk to the boss about someone showing you where they think you're lacking so you can progress and with time become quicker.


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## Navyguy (Mar 15, 2010)

Martine said:


> In Quebec (and probably all of Canada) you can't work alone as an apprentice. Talk to the boss about someone showing you where they think you're lacking so you can progress and with time become quicker.


You are 100% right on about the portion about requesting information to become quicker / efficient. There is at least a bit more to the first part about working alone. There is a phrase that covers all apprentices that is generally accepted by industry is that is "deemed competent".

At least we see this phrase pop up in various pieces of legislation (in Ontario) where if someone is "deemed competent" they are able to work independently. So as an example, if an apprentice has wired a 100 homes in a new survey; it might be argued successfully that he is "deemed competent" to wire houses, or at least wire houses under that condition. If an apprentice has installed 1000s of feet PVC in a trench, then he might be "deemed competent" to do that independently.

Now if a 5th year apprentice (maybe just waiting to write the test) has never installed a motor, checked rotation, megger wires, etc; then despite their experience they may not be "deemed competent".

Apparently however once you write the test you are "all knowing and all seeing"... which it total BS too. I am a Master Electrician and I can tell you with 100% certainly there are areas in the field that I should not be "deemed competent". The difference is of course I have 30 years experience to support and I would hope that I would have the ability to determine if I was over my head or not.

One of my favourite phases that I like to use is when somebody says that "they have been wiring houses all their life and have 30 years of experience" as an example. I wonder if their experience is any different today then it was say 30 years ago.

My general response is that "there is a difference between 30 years experience and 1 year of experience repeated 30 times." All of that to say there is a place and time to be able to say "I am just and apprentice and I don't know how to do this" and a time to say "I can do this job with little or no supervision".

@sumofit

Don't let the title "apprentice" hold you down, but in the same vein don't think that because you are allowed to work independently every so often means you "know it all" and you don't ask the right questions at the right time.

Cheers
John


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