The Unskilled Technician

An unskilled technician sounds just as likely as responsible government spending. A technician is supposed to be skilled in their given field. If they are not then they are called trainees.

I just got back from a sales meeting where the manufacture was showing those of us in my field the lasted products to make our lives, and the customer’s life easier. The presentation was dry, but the products were a great improvement, enough so, you wonder why they didn’t do it earlier. What caught me by surprise was one of my fellow tradesman. He wanted to know if the new product was idiot proof enough to keep someone from installing a wire without stripping the wire back far enough. To put this into perspective the wire needed to be stripped back between ¼” to ½”. He was worried that his guys wouldn’t strip the wire back far enough, and a couple of other people joined in, worried about the same thing. The question, I have is, if there technician is skilled enough to hook up a couple of dozen wires to a control panel, how can they not be skilled enough to strip the wires back the proper distance.

In the days not to long past we used to have to make our own control center with relays and individually wire them together. Now with today’s electronics what we use to do with dozens of relays, can be controlled with on electronic panel that works much better.

Every day there are new tools coming out in the industries across the board, which are designed to help the unskilled do their job. The tools don’t make things faster or better for those who are skilled, usually it’s just the opposite, but they are here because the skilled work force has been declining at an alarming rate. I don’t know if its laziness, or if people are just not caring, but for some reason people aren’t wanting to learn. Maybe their just too impatience to take the time to learn, or they never experience the simple wonderful joy of learning and improving their ability.

I wish I was talking about just our younger generation, but unfortunately I have noticed parents and grand parents acting the same way.

This is America, the land of the Free and the Proud. Its time we rolled up our sleeves and got to work, and stopped excepting mediocrity from everything, including ourselves.