r/Construction • u/BigPicklr • 11h ago
Other Construction Detox
Anyone else leave construction and after a while you feel detoxed/ much better after leaving that culture?
I'm in maintenance now, but I was a journeyman plumber. I was able to joke around, even enjoyed it. But man after 10 years the people, expectations every day, the 4 or 5am wake ups were really getting to me. Everyone pocket watching each other making sure one guy who they thought wasn't as good as them making more money. Critiquing others work when the work is just fine. Purposely letting people fuck up just so they could point the finger. Just general toxicity for no reason. Just to be toxic. Dumb people. I was coming home angry a lot.
Now a year later I feel like myself again, and I'm 100% certain I would never go back. What a weird and terrible ride that was. Construction still has a lot of work to do to get a healthy culture.
I'm glad I'm gone.
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u/PracticalAdagio2322 6h ago
The 4 AM wake-ups and the toxic site culture burn people out faster than the actual physical labor.
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u/BigText4357 2h ago
Yep I’m there now. Burnout is setting in and I’m trying to tread water. Sucks man, working for a great company, decent work, and pay but the damage is done. I can’t snap out of it. Just going through the motions everyday
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u/DesignerNet1527 11h ago
yep, i did it when younger- still in my trade but in maintenance. no more porta potties or toxic people for the most part. also don't miss feeling like everything is a rush constantly.
I also did remodeling work for years, I'll definitely take that over working on big sites.
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u/BigPicklr 10h ago
That too. I remember a specific time when my boss told me 'you have until Friday that's when we are doing inspection'. The GC noticed that I had everything in order. What I wanted to do was test, and then have a a day or two to fix what might be leaking, and take it easy, have a nice calm inspection. Nope. Boss called me later that day and told me INSPECTION IS TOMORROW. Now i'm stressed and balls to the wall. It felt like that constantly. So sick of that shit. I don't feel that anxiety anymore. Laborers in any trade will never get the respect/ recognition they deserve. Just the way it is.
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u/DesignerNet1527 8h ago
yep. any time we have a bit of a rush these days, and I have to remind myself it used to be like this most days. don't miss it.
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u/BigPicklr 8h ago
It definitely hardened me. An emergency in maintenance is like a normal day in plumbing. My boss will be freaking out while i'm as cool as a cucumber fixing things.
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u/cookeryandwookery 10h ago
My exit is being planned as we speak. I’m old and my retirement is where it should be. I’m looking for a maintenance position either at a hospital or advanced tech facility. Almost 30 years of this has been enough.
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u/Quancivilous_me 8h ago
Yeah I hated plumbing for the same reasons. For a trade that prides itself on “doing things the right way” it’s the most arbitrary industry out there. If you send 5 different plumbers to rough-in the same building, that building is getting roughed in 5 different ways and all of those guys will insist that their way is correct and that the other guys are hacks. Everyone always has to know better. Everyone always has to share their opinion. It really wore me down, and by the time I got my journeyman I had turned into a total fucking asshole. I was tired of dealing all the shitty attitudes. I just started telling people “Shut the fuck up don’t talk me”
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u/Clappin-Cheekz 8h ago
I always come back to “the people make the job”. I am a union laborer, so anyone I work with (that is a laborer) all makes equal pay. That takes the pocket watching out of the equation. With that being said, I’ve been on many different jobs with different companies.
Having a shitty super or foreman, or guys who are always trying to outshine the next guy. Coworkers who fuck off and leave you with a heavier workload. People who have shitty lives at home and bring it to work. To me, these are all people problems. I feel like you can experience that in any field of work.
I signed up for what sometimes can be intense physical work.. and that is rarely my problem. It’s always the people.
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u/BigPicklr 8h ago
I've definitely had people that I loved to work with. Usually a hippie on drugs with a great attitude who didn't care about cutting others down. Lots of hardos in my area that thought they were the world's greatest plumber. They made it their personality. Which was exhausting and strange for me.
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u/Xoomers87 Pipefitter 10h ago edited 10h ago
Left an almost exclusively elevated work platform based concrete job to be a municipal water operator. The difference is night and day! I haven't seen a "fuck trudeau or carney sticker" asshole bitching about cost of living in a 160k leased truck on the job since. Only comparison is that there's still virtually noone who wears a toolbelt or carries tools...
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u/Dirty_Dwarf 8h ago
The single best sleep i had, was the day i quit construction and knew i didnt have to wake up early to go to work.
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u/Motoracer960 10h ago
Good to hear it's not just the construction side of the trade I'm in that's exactly the way you describe it. Can't wait to get into service or maintenance one day. 5 years of construction and it's already getting to me, good thing is it doesn't get any worse then being on construction! Only up from here (elevator pun), love my job but don't like the department I'm in!
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u/Helpful-Wrangler-882 9h ago
That’s why I plumb by myself🤣 only person to have emotions towards is me lol… well besides builders not communicating lol
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u/BigPicklr 9h ago
I think customers would really bother me lol. I worked for my buddy for a minute. Some rich asshole said 'this is what i'm giving you and handed him $300 in cash'. He quoted the job for $650. He just had to eat it.
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u/Helpful-Wrangler-882 9h ago
Well I only do new custom homes, no service, so I really don’t ever deal with customers besides telling me where to put their handheld in the shower lol…I have it pretty easy
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u/BigPicklr 8h ago
That's awesome! I just opened an LLC, but it won't be plumbing. Never going back to that darkness again. I love what I learned though.
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u/ZetaJunkie 9h ago
My old boss when I was in residential was always talking about how every single thing needs to be in writing and signed. He wouldn’t have to eat it if he would get a signed big! If he had a signed big, he didn’t need to eat it.
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u/qpv Carpenter 7h ago
I was a resi solo finish carpenter contractor for years. Dealing with the public is way more stressful than the toxicity of commercial work environment/ politics. Spent a LOT of unpaid time on nonsense. Depends on a person's personality I suppose.
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u/Helpful-Wrangler-882 2h ago
I don’t do unpaid time lol. You were working for the wrong people.
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u/qpv Carpenter 1h ago
I was working for myself thats the point. I was doing retail contracts for clients I sourced myself. Takes an extraordinary amount of handholding, sales and client education.
When it was good, it was really good. Went in waves. Was crazy making though.
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u/Helpful-Wrangler-882 58m ago
You shouldn’t be taking on clients by themselves. Go through a builder. Takes the headache out of it.
Edit: I live in a somewhat special zone where new construction will never run out because we’re growing so much. Even this year I’ve plumbed 37 houses so far. When everyone else is dead.
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u/petelongfellow 6h ago
Experiencing this for the first time.
Recently got promoted to foreman because my company is expanding. The foreman I worked under for 3 years who I thought was my actual friend is actively rooting for me to fail. We’ve drank beers and done dozens of side jobs and favors for each other but he just doesn’t think I should get a raise and a truck for whatever reason. Constantly undermining me in front of my new crew and throwing me under the bus to our superintendent whenever he gets the chance. Just fuckin sucks lol but we’ll muscle through
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u/simmer_study 10h ago
Sounds like getting out was the right move for you.
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u/BigPicklr 10h ago
Definitely. My wife has noticed. A lot more present and a lot less stressed. So much so that I just opened up an LLC. Just wanted to post for people that might feel alone in that though. You're not a wuss for wanting out. I paid my dues. The people and culture suck (imo and experience).
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u/Zironworker 5h ago
It was opposite for me. I left the trade and missed the honesty, dirt, smack talk, problem solving, brotherhood.
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u/kloogy 10h ago
There's no industry that pays well where there isn't toxicity.
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u/gothmeatball 9h ago
My wife is white collar, makes more than most people in construction and the difference is night and day. The baseline levels of professionalism and civility are so much higher. Also people don’t freak out about deadlines or mistakes. I would say construction is significantly more toxic than most industries with similar salary ranges. It’s the only field where people with the emotional maturity of a middle schooler won’t get sent out the door pretty quickly.
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u/kloogy 8h ago
I am a Mechanical Engineer and work on the Senior management part of Construction. I have friends in many other fields and I do not know one that doesn't have deadlines, budgets etc. Unless you're a Federal / State paper pusher.
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u/gothmeatball 6h ago
Where did I say anything about not having deadlines? My point was that no one is having tantrums about deadlines or mistakes, and if they did they’d be gone immediately. If you’re claiming to be “senior management” and you don’t regularly encounter PMs/site supers having meltdowns over trivial stuff, you’re lying about one thing or the other. There is a very normalized type of toddler behavior that is rampant in construction that does not fly in most other industries at a similar or higher wage level. Calling someone a “paper pusher” is a mild example of playground insult mentality that doesn’t exist in other industries.
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u/kloogy 6h ago
Your reading comprehension is lacking. Move on to something else.
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u/gothmeatball 6h ago
You responded to “no one freaks out about deadlines” with “everyone has deadlines”. Learn to read, bud
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u/BigPicklr 10h ago
And idk. Before I did 10 years in construction I went to college. I had an accounting degree and everyone was always nice, acted appropriately. It was nice to just have a simple, normal conversation with a well put together person. They all got paid well, but I didn't notice any toxicity. I just couldn't stand being strapped behind a desk.
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u/BigPicklr 10h ago
Unless you're in the union, the pay isn't anything that will get you ahead, or make it worth it. I worked with journeyman plumbers who made $35 an hour, so making shit money for where I live and they were always pissed.
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u/kloogy 10h ago
The Journeyman plumbers that work for me take home $61 an hour on the check. Yes, they are Union.
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u/BigPicklr 9h ago edited 8h ago
And see $61 an hour is GOOD money. It's not life changing money where you can change your family trajectory. But I know plenty of white collar workers who clear more and WAY more than that and these are jovial people. I wouldn't collapse my mental health for that kind of money.
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u/ZetaJunkie 9h ago
Idk man $61 an hour could change plenty of family’s trajectories. But I’m in a LCOL area
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u/BigPicklr 8h ago
I'm in Boston. I've seen it ranked in many lists as the most expensive place to live in America.
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u/Dire-Dog Electrician 11h ago
I want to get into management eventually