“It’s nothing personal. I think all electricians are %$&!s”
While the above quote from a mechanical colleague is somewhat harsh, electricians do have a reputation for complaining. As an engineer it is in your interests to keep them happy.
Electricians like the same things at work as most people:
• It is nice to do a good job and unsatisfying to do a temporary bodge. Especially if the bodge takes more work.
• No-one likes doing a job twice if it only needs to be done once. Or start doing a job one way then do it again a different way.
• It’s frustrating to do a difficult job when, with a bit thought, it could have been an easy job.
• They want to get on with the job. Two hours connecting a motor is more satisfying than 15 minutes connecting a motor and 1 hour 45 minutes getting the bits.
• No-one likes wasting their time. Even if they are being paid for it.
There might be exceptions but mostly electricians want to get stuck in and won’t be happy if your poor organisation is stopping them. Some examples…
Suppose you are the engineer in charge of a plant area. If it breaks down outside normal hours the night shift fix it as best they can and you sort whatever is left in the morning. It is easy to assume the night shift’s goal is to fix nothing and leave everything for you but this is unfair.
Imagine you are an electrician called to a tripped water pump at 3 am in the morning. Although there is no drawing you can see a contactor relay is not pulling in. The panel smells of burnt insulation and the relay looks a bit overheated. You check the control supply and it is dead. The 2 amp fuse is blown. You tell the production team leader you have found the problem and switch over to the standby pump.
Back to the cabin and you spend 20 minutes searching the stores system for a replacement contactor relay. You find one that might do although you are not certain and also a fuse. By the time you arrange night time access to the stores it will be nearly 5am and you finish at 5.30. Meanwhile you’ve just had a shout on the radio to reset a crane…
A good electrician will get the parts from stores ready for the next shift. Perhaps they will dismantle an adjacent panel to borrow the parts they need (resulting in double work for them and still leaving you with a relay to replace in the spare panel). A bad one will either do nothing or leave a long, grumpy report cursing the poor reliability of the equipment and the incompetence of the day team who maintain it. Either way, you start your day with a problem and no-one involved is happy.
With a little organisation this can all be avoided. Kit your substations and other areas out with drawings, preferably in a fireproof cabinet. I used to use the metal ones normally meant for offices. You can buy them second hand if you want to save money. Keep a small stock of fuses, crimps, cable ties and any small components likely fail. If you can identify specific larger items that are likely to be needed, keep them too if the cost is not too great.
Picture now our electrician attending the same fault. A clean, up to date drawing guides them to the fault. A replacement fuse and contactor relay are available in that very substation to match the types used in the starter panels. 30 minutes later both are replaced and the electrician is happy that he has done a good job.
At the morning meeting you are asked about the problem and can say it has already been dealt with, even though it is only 8.30am.