Electricians Lodging away - What do they get up to?

You're an electrician.

There is a great opportunity for a job where you will make some good money.

IT'S LODGING OUT!! Away from home for a few weeks.

Do you say no thanks, I would rather be at home with my family

Pack your bag and jump in the van to get on the road!

The work is out there, it's just if you're prepared to lodge out or not?

There are a number of perks to lodging out, and a number of downfalls too.

This podcast is going to weigh them up.

Tool box talk for electricians - helping electricians reduce stress, gain back time and earn more money.

Hello once again to the toolbox talk for electricians podcast.

Some of you guys may be in the van on a monday morning on the way to site for a busy week lodging out.

Are you happy about it or have had enough?

As soon as I got my apprenticeship I was in the lodging out category.

A 19 year old all put up in a hotel in Manchester with dinner paid for and a few pints was a dream come true for me.

I was living at home with my Dad and brother, none of us could be bothered to cook a good meal most evenings, so I went out to the pub.

Getting paid to do just that was exciting.

That's just what I did for most of my apprenticeship.

These days at the ago of 42, when i am offered work to lodge out, it's got to be some real good money and be able to take the dog.

I actually got a job that did happen too.

Lodging out is mainly when your working on big jobs that require you to be on site. In my opinion it's not hard graft.

And thats a good thing.

Because what else is there to do at night after you have sat and had a pub lunch? Have a few more beers, 2 turn into 3 and that's enough for you to say - lets get on it!

That's how most nights turned out when lodging away.

It was exciting because you never really knew where you were going to be every week.

As the apprentice you went where you were needed, the company I worked for had contacts all over the world too.

As a first year apprentice I was travelling to places like luxanberg, italy, amsterdam.

Before this job the furthest I had been was germany to visit family.

The crazy thing was that the work we were sent to do was at night. It was maintenance work on DC Power systems discharging batteries in an air conditioned room - just taking reading.

As you can imagine that work was EASY!

The job started at 10pm and we were out of there by 2am, and that was usually a long night.

So in the day we went sightseeing.

We couldn't drink during the day because of the work we had to do at night.

This only got better when the company I worked for also got contacts - all over the world.

Australia, Japan, guatemala, hong kong……

Thinking back not! I was a lucky lad back then.

Travelling the world sightseeing and getting paid to do it.

These opportunities are still around, I get offered all the time from people I met in the DC Power industry to go work in india, dubai, miami….. And the money is still pretty good.

Its just its not for me anymore. I have a family and my dog.

The experience a person can gain by working all over the world is a massive bonus too. You have to learn that country's colours of wiring, 54 volt DC as well as 240 supply.

The people you meet with a language barrier is a massive learning curve too.

One of the actual installs we did in Tokyo Japan, this was a job I was on for around 13 weeks.

Being a load of blokes who lodged in a hotel with no facilities to make a pack up to take to work was taking it toll on me.

For the first few weeks, mc donalds was the go to for lunch.

For kids and once in a blue moon mc donalds is great - but not every day!

On site there was a clark of works, and american guy who lived in tokyo and worked on the site we were installing.

We soon become friends, as he was out tranlator for the other people on site. The local labour who gave us a hand, who to be fair were probably clever than us.

If the Japanese want to learn something, they go all out and learn every detail.

But I was fed up with mc donalds, so asked the clark of work if I could come to lunch with him.

The other guys too the piss, but i was sick to death of a big mac every day.

I was taken to a shoddy part of tokyo and taken down some stairs, told to take my boots off and sit on the floor.

This room was filled with guys in suits, all sitting on the floor, legs crossed around tables.

I had never seen anything like this, I was a fussy teenager eater, had I messed up here was going through my head.

A bowl of rice was put in front of me! A tasteless bowl of rice. You can't be rude in situations like that - so I picked up the chop sticks and got dug in - I was starving!

5 minutes later it turns out the bowl of rice was to use to put with the noodles, chicken and whatever else came out onto the table.

I ate like a god dam king! Im sure some of it was dog, but it was better looking than a bic mac.

All of the food was less than the price of a big mac meal too.

Once I got familiar with the little old lady who ran the place, and learnt how to say thank you in Japanese. I was there every day.

Meeting all these people all over the world has made me the chatter box I am today.

The most favourite place in the world to me is australia. Its HUGE, they speak english and love a BBQ!

The days we had free over there were alway fun.

Horse riding - I haven't got a clue why we did that

Skydiving, and late nights of playing pool in kings cross sydney.

Of course we did work there too, but the work we did was the same anywhere we went.

Lodging out as a young lad took me away from a small town I grew up in, and opened my eyes to what's out in the world.

However, its not for me anymore. I have 3 pints and im drunk.

Those all night party days are over for me.

The last time I lodged out was in wales. I was asked to wire a barn conversion. It was privately owned in the middle of nowhere.

I stayed in a caravan on site with the dog. I worked early morning until late at night to get their property finished.

That's my style of lodging out these days.

I would never say never though. These contacts come up all the time and if you have a good network of people in different industries you can get a job anywhere.

I have never worked direct to

Virgin Media

Sky

But through one subcontractor or another have worked on all their sites around the UK.

If you are prepared to have a year of lodging out as an electrician I would say you can build up a good network of contacts who you can call on and never be out of work.

You see being an electrician doesn't necessarily mean you will earn good money just for being qualified.

I think it comes down to a lot of WHO you know NOT what you know sometimes.

So build up your network along with your knowledge and jump inside the tool box talk for electricians group on facebook.

Who knows where it will lead you….

I will see you there.