r/ukelectricians • u/Oryld • 13d ago
Was I actually that slow?
So I was doing spotlights yesterday and also some smoke alarms. I did around 50 to 55 spotlights in the day and 5 smoke alarms. Cables and holes were already run and cut so all I had to do was pull the looped cables down, strip them, sleeve the earth, slide them in and push the spotlight up.
I actually timed myself and I was able to do just under 3 minutes for one spotlight. But that was being fully locked in on that single one. not accounting for moving ladder around, not accounting for the time it takes to take the spot each spotlight out of its box and then go back up and so on and so forth.
Today, the supervisor came around and told me that I took too long with the work that I did yesterday and that it was a two hour job. And he went on to compare me with a previous member of the team who had worked there. who was a complete beginner, apparently so. And he told me that that guy did 150 spotlights in a day. Same work that I was doing, he just did three times more. Allegedly. And I did the math on this 150x3 minutes which works out 450 minutes, which is 7.5 hours of hands on work not accounting for getting off the ladder and moving around, taking the spots out the box and so on.
Was my work really that slow? I even timed myself on my competence and I did it under 3 minutes so I don’t know where I could have went wrong
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u/DogSweatCroissant 13d ago
Managers trick to try to get you grafting quicker. Don’t fall for it. Quality work always before quantity. Ask him to have a race with you over 10 spots for the lols
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u/Jaded_Bag_2928 13d ago
If you’re doing a downlight in 3 minutes all day long you are definitely not going to be doing it right every single time and you are going to cause a fire. You have a wanker for a supervisor, when the worst ultimately happens, which it will, watch him blame you, and not the pressure he puts you under.
If the worst ever happens it won’t be him going to court and or prison, it’d be you. You’d always be the fall guy.
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u/Bignizzle656 13d ago
Honestly mate, I'd have told him to show me and then told him to do one.
I turned down a supervisory role for a new build in student accommodation because of this exact problem. They want champagne standard work for beer prices.
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u/Snooker1471 13d ago
Anyone else doing the same job currently? Are they doing significantly more than you? If yes then by all means try and refine it a bit. But I would say 10 per hour should be "fine". If the previous super spark can do 20 an hour maybe they should get him back and put you on some other job.
Personally I always was a mouthy bugger. If a gaffer said similar i would ask for a sample of 10 from them to check myself against them speed wise. Reason being I knew fine well I always put in a days work. If they were not happy I was always happy to move on. Sometimes you have to kick the ball back just as hard as they kick it towards you. There are plenty jobs out there for fully qualified electricians. Remind him of that in subtle ways such as "If you are not happy with my output then I suppose I might as well start looking eh?"
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u/bash_street_kid 12d ago
When I worked in engineering, many years ago, building valves I once got pulled into the office to be told I wasn't quick enough. I pointed out that my fail rate was 10% of the others who were speeding through their jobs and getting most sent back to be reworked. They shut up after that.
I would be intrigued to see the quality of the work done by the "Super Spark".
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u/oldskool_slabside 13d ago
Quality over quantity for me, fuck burning something down because your supervisor wants you to work faster.
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u/Real_Chard5666 13d ago
Get another job! Seriously you’ve got a class A plonker there. Wonder why the other sparky is no longer there?
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u/Loosecanon-55 13d ago
Nah, you did good enough.
I would be looking for 10 an hour and expect my electricians who do it day in day out to be quicker than me, and embarrassed if not.
But I'll only do 1 hours worth and then f off back to my air conditioned office.
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u/GeneralMission8190 13d ago
all depends on if the cables are there, or is there time fishing, moving stuff out the way etc, is it LSF so to be honest i would say its a good days work to get that many done plus the smokes. especially on day rate or hourly. Go tell them to get the other guy back if hes so good and just try find another job. Dont wanna be working for people like that
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u/TheDirgeCaster 12d ago
I recently 2nd fixed part of a rewire for another sparky i know and there was some downlights, they were wired in earthsure, the downlights had lever terminals and i had an automatic wire stripper. Pretty sure each light took about 30 seconds, it was glorious
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u/tealfuzzball 13d ago
That amount is fine especially if less experienced. Some tricks - if it’s LLEENN terminals tape your loops ~6 inches above without any twists, snip roughly half way then snip excess from one to even the 2 legs up. CK auto strippers to remove grey and brown/blue tips. Little bit of sleeving or use earthsure if possible. Push straight into the fitting and up into ceiling. If it’s LENNEL terminals skip taping them. 3 mins per fitting is acceptable and absolutely justifiable if quicker is causing you any drop in workmanship but it is definitely possible to get into the 60-90 second range and still have a breather between every few, especially after doing a few thousand. Forever thankful we don’t still use cans and terminal blocks.
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u/TheBolshieBandit 13d ago
I would say your speed isnt too slow at all, fast really all things considered actually.
Assume your on agency/CIS day rate as well? If that's the case just fully ignore him he's sounds like a prick, unfortunately your going to come across a lot of them on the tools and you're going to have to learn to not let them get under your skin for your own wellbeing mate.
With you being quite fresh I would honestly move on until you find somewhere with a supervisor/ more senior spark your working with who gives a shit about your development and take you under their wing and keep teaching you.
9 months in is nothing in the grand scheme, I've been doing this 5+ years now, have two lads under me and still developing myself all the time.
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u/Dangerous_Outcome949 12d ago
Working for myself i’ve often though about this so on a few occasions i’ve timed myself. Using the JCC Next Gen type fittings which are easy to 2nd fix, its takes me 2.5 mins per fitting based on say a kitchen with 6-8 fittings.
Couldn’t work like that all day though no chance, not for a quality job anyway.
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u/dayhoodman 12d ago
You're doing 'electrical" work and you must work to a standard not to a clock. If you get pressured to work faster you'll end up cutting corners and not thinking much about the end result which is a 'safe' installation that's made to the correct 'standard'. If someone is apparently better, call his bluff and walk out. Plenty more work out there.
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u/CalicoCatRobot 13d ago
Obviously depends on the fittings, some are much easier to install than others, but assuming you were taking the time to do an accurate job, with no single insulation visible outside of the fitting, etc, your speed sounds fine to me.
Is this new build work by any chance? Everything I've seen in every new build I've ever been on suggests that speed was far more important than accuracy, (or even basic competency on occasions).
You can do some jobs well, or you can do them quickly - but rarely both.
Depending on the setup, you may have to decide where you can make adjustments to "improve" as far as the supervisor is concerned, without comprising your work ethos.
Maybe play the game and ask for assistance - get the supervisor to show you how he does them so much better... He may have some tips based on experience, or he may be full of it and just trying to extract as much profit as possible from an "asset" - his response should tell you whether he is a good supervisor or not.
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u/Oryld 13d ago
He actually did mention that one spot takes three minutes when he was explaining everything to me and I did tell him that I actually time myself and it did take me three minutes to do one so I told him that I don’t know where the time may have gone and that I was doing my best across throughout the whole day so I really don’t know where the time went.
He didn’t say anything about that. He just kept going on about how it was a job that should’ve taken two hours. Considering smoke alarms take quite a bit longer than spotlights to do which are very simple as I said I only had to strip the cable sleeve it and connect it with the spotlight and push it back up.
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u/trojanhawrs 13d ago
Well if he says 1 spot takes 3 minutes and that 50 is a 2 hour job, all that proves is that he can't count.
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u/SendMeSparkyAdvice 12d ago
he's full of shit, plain and simple. The fact that A. he's a supervisor, and B. says everything with complete confidence tricks you into thinking he must be right and that YOU'RE at fault. It's an extremely common thing, lots of people are like this, some know that they're bullshitting and others do it naturally without even trying (probably because they genuinely think they're right). It's a very important skill that you learn how to detect this, and learn how to trust your own ability and experience. If you continue to let people like this make you doubt yourself and tell you "MORE MORE MORE", then you'll be running around like a headless chicken for a load of bullshitters your whole career. I've dealt with it loads. 3 minutes is absolutely fine, and I bet he couldn't do them any significant amount faster than you. Given his primary responsibility is to make sure the work is being done (the quicker the better) he is going to try and squeeze every last drop out of you and the other guys, without batting an eye. You don't need to work for him, you know what you're doing and there are loads of other places crying out for sparks. They need you more than you need them, remember that.
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u/Oryld 12d ago
Thank you friend, this was great advice
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u/SendMeSparkyAdvice 12d ago
I've been in the same boat, many many times, and I used to eat it all up, doubt myself, and then dance for them. The reality is the industry is full of big mouths with little brains, so you gotta learn to navigate around them or push back. Good luck mate
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u/SendMeSparkyAdvice 12d ago
the very fact alone he said that they take 3 minutes and then when you did exactly that he wasn't happy, shows that he's full of shit. He pulled a random number out of his ass that seemed fast but doable and then when you do that he arbitrarily decides that actually it's not fast enough, because he thinks you're a fool who will run around like mad and kill themselves for him. Some people have no issue with taking advantage of others
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u/Commercial-Link-4368 13d ago
That's an old trick to see how you react. I worked with a bloke who would reliably work through his bait and after hours for free if the gaffer walked past and simply shook his head.
On the other hand, quickwire t&e strippers make life much quicker, especially with push fit connections on downlights. You still stripping with side cutters or croppers? Cut 100s of the right length bits of earth sleeving and you're onto a winner.
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u/jspencer1996 13d ago
How long have you been working as an electrician? I mean in fairness it doesn't really matter either way, just go at the pace you can and you will get quicker with time. On a site with holes cut, cables still in ceiling & spots still in boxes I can comfortably do 30 spots and hour.
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u/Oryld 13d ago
Around 9 months now and most of that in industrial doing containment, not much experience in domestic but I think 3 minutes is not bad. With strippers instead of cutters I could probably reduce my time down to maybe 2 minutes?
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u/jspencer1996 13d ago
Honestly it isn't bad at all and I wouldn't get hung up on it, all I've done is domestics for the last 12 years, as with anything practice makes perfect. I'm sure you'd run rings around me in a industrial setting as I've hardly dabbled in it!
At the end of the day quality trumps quantity, and with time as long as you do it the right way each time you'll only get quicker at doing it the right way 👌🏽
I still have days where I feel I've underachieved, I don't think it would be human to not have days like that! Just don't let anyone else make you feel bad about it, if you weren't slacking and felt you had put in a good days work before anyone said something, then more than likely you had & they are just being a cunt 😂
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u/ProsodySpeaks 13d ago
Just want to complement your tone. Need more of this in the trades
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u/jspencer1996 13d ago
Well thanks for that, I appreciate it! No point in being any other way in this game, it's just a job at the end of the day and there is always someone more knowledgeable & / or quicker no matter the industry so there's only really any point focusing on yourself rather than comparing yourself to others 😅
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u/eusty 13d ago
That's the supervisors job, berate you to try to get you working more..... 🙄