Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine September 2022

HVACR NewsMagazine 2022

Tech News

If you handed them a hot dog, and they had never made one before, they would look at you, blink, and then ask some version of, “How do I cook this?” They will keep standing there until someone gives the answer, and in their mind, that is how cooking food works. Someone tells you what to do, and then you do it the way you are told; this is how you cook, and this is how having a job works in their world. For the technicians out there, is that how you learned? Is that how you solve problems? The idea that we would wait until someone tells us how to do everything before we do it is laughable. Technicians find out why and how things work to make sense of solving problems, even problems they have never encountered before. That doesn't mean a technician has all the answers; there are far too many questions for anyone to have all the answers. A technician just works on a problem until they understand the factors involved and can diagnose and repair it, even if it's imperfect.

True technicians may be light-hearted or severe, introverted or extroverted, but they all take their work very seriously. When they put their name on something, it means something; they never want it to be said of them that they were careless, lazy, or sloppy in their work. In a technician's mind, their work is nobody else's responsibility, and they want to get it right the first time.

A Technician Doesn't Need to be Affirmed Continuously

Technicians Take Their Work Seriously

I've noticed this new phenomenon where workers expect not only to be recognized for their achievements above and beyond the usual but to get verbal affirmation just for the regular execution of their job. It's as if every job task completed without a serious mistake is a huge accomplishment and requires commentary. Technicians get satisfaction from a job well done. They pursue excellence for excellence's own sake, not for the accolades of others, ESPECIALLY not when it's given because it's expected.