Ah yes. The lowly maintenance man that doesn’t know anything. Usually a shady, filthy looking, lazy, Jerry-rigging hack that fixes very little in between his naps. Am I right? Nope. Actually dead wrong!

I’m not sure when this happened, but there seems to be a stigma tied to the maintenance trade now days. The stigma being that maintenance guys are all unqualified Jerry-riggers that can barely screw in a light bulb.

I recently saw a Facebook post that became the final straw for me and I had to speak out. The post was from a maintenance tech that posted a picture of a retaining wall that toppled over after a hard rain. The tech noticed that the (know-it-all) contractor building the wall didn’t have proper support at the base of the wall. He spoke up and told the contractor who then proceeded to tell the lowly maintenance man that he knew what he was doing and to get lost. Well, a week or so later a storm with heavy rains brought the wall to a crashing end. Luckily no one was hurt. A child could’ve been crushed under cinder block for Pete’s sake! Instead of swallowing his pride and taking the maintenance techs advice seriously, the contractor now has to look him in the eye while fixing his debacle of a wall. As the “lowly maintenance man” slowly drives by smirking on his golf cart. 

I enjoy learning as much as I can so I am a member of many Facebook groups. HVAC, plumbing, and electrician groups. The free knowledge about new tools and how to make my job easier is fantastic. I’ve made great friends with most of the tradesmen in these groups and 75% of them are good people. But, there’s this 25% whom I guess came out of their mothers womb knowing everything there is to know. Super techs we’ll call them! I see what they say about us maintenance techs. I see their pictures bashing a maintenance guy’s work and sarcastically thanking us maintenance men for their job security.

Usually when a HVAC or plumbing company has to come out and make a repair it’s because a maintenance tech is new, doesn’t have the expensive tools needed, or doesn’t know how to fix it. Or, he botched the repair because it was his first time trying to repair whatever it was needing to be fixed. So why bash? Were these super techs not new and learning at some point in their life? I mean, everyone starts out kind of hacky in the beginning. Right? I know I did! My first braze on a refrigerant line wasn’t pretty. When I was a rookie, I didn’t put things back quite as perfectly as I do now. Who does? I guess these know-it-all super techs did perfect jobs and a perfect braze on their first try ever! Pa-leese.

The maintenance man myth is just plain false and I’m getting tired of the cliche. It’s even spilled over into movies and entertainment. No where in movies or t.v. shows is the maintenance tech represented with respect. It’s always some lazy guy that looks super creepy. Are there lazy guys in the industry that you couldn’t tell if they worked for the company or were an ax murderer off the street? Sure there is! I’m not denying it. I’ve been in the business for 15 years and have worked side by side with them. Only asking them to leave after a few weeks. I need people that want to learn and take the trade seriously. Go-getters! Not people sliding by doing as least as possible for a paycheck. But, lazy hacks are in all trades. From HVAC to plumbing.

That’s one of the few reasons why I created The Dirty Maintenance Show. I had to show the world that us maintenance techs aren’t just glorified janitors. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a janitor. By gosh if you clean bathrooms make sure you do the best job ever and make sure the world knows you were there. But that’s not what we are. We’re qualified in house service technicians that save the property owner a lot of money. Most of us take classes and get certified in everything. From HVAC to swimming pools. If the property owner had to call HVAC and plumbing companies every time something broke, he wouldn’t be in business long. He’d be charged $100 just to look at the problem. Then another $400 to $1,000 to make the repair! We save apartment owners boat loads of cash with our knowledge and skills.

If you’ve been watching The Dirty Maintenance Show a while, you know by now that the stuff I’m working on is 3 year old new construction. Yea, that’s right. It’s only 3 years old! I’m pretty much cleaning up the mess that the “professionals” installed. The same guys who would bad mouth maintenance techs in a heart beat.

New guys, don’t be scared to make a mistake because you’re scared of what someone might say. You’ve got to fail big to learn big! Hands on experience is the best and only way to learn in my opinion. You can read and practice in a controlled classroom environment all you want. That’s the practice range. As soon as you step out in the field on a real work order, it’s a whole other ball game.

WHY I STARTED THE DIRTY MAINTENANCE SHOW

This is a question I get asked frequently. Besides showing what we actually do all day, another reason I started the show is because I got tired of waiting on HGTV and the D.I.Y. channel to make a show about the apartment industry. But, the main reason is because I want to bring some respect to the trade. When I was playing music I had someone say to me,”Good luck scrubbing toilets when you have to go back to your shitty maintenance job.” Scrubbing toilets? Is that what people think we do all day? He said this to me during a whiny, hungover, temper tantrum after what he thought was a bad sounding gig we played the night before. 

Anyway, that guy’s comment lit a fire in me that burns red hot to this day. That was the day I said that when I leave this miserable situation and go back to doing maintenance, I’m going to create a show about apartment maintenance and build one of the largest maintenance empires anyone has ever seen. Funny how one awkward moment can turn into something positive.

CONCLUSION

I want to end this with a message to super techs that work for HVAC and plumbing companies who look down their nose at the lowly maintenance man. Guys, you’re a pro at what you do. I know that. But, you’re a pro at one thing. Us maintenance techs have to be the plumber, the HVAC technician, the electrician, the appliance repairman, the carpenter, the trash hauler, the swimming pool technicians, and much much more. So, I’m sorry if my braze doesn’t look like it came out of the factory. I don’t get to do it every day like you do. I know that plumbing shark bites are totally beneath you but I was extremely busy that day and had 15 work orders to attend to. I was going to go back when I had the time to fix it right. I’d love to see you “Mr. Super Tech” spend a day in my shoes. Oh sure you’ll fix whatever field you specialize in perfectly. But after you do that I want you to go look at that washing machine that doesn’t stop filling with water so I can watch you turn into a parts changer while squirming in a panic. Gives us a break already!

The apartment industry is a culture that people don’t understand. Being a maintenance tech is a thankless job that deserves respect. We may not be perfect. But most of us care and get the job done.

 

Check out these awesome videos talking about the disrespect for the trades industry.

Related Topics:

Good HVAC Tools For Apartment Maintenance Techs- link

Going On Call As A Maintenance Technician- link

How To Get Into The Apartment Industry- link

How To Deal With A Goodbye Talker In The Apartment Business- link

Tools Of The Trade- link

 

 

Lex Vance the creator of Dirty Maintenance Nation is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.