Taking Care of Business: Rocky and Indy Give Old Techs Hope
Last year saw the return of Rocky Balboa starring the ageless Sylvester Stallone. This year we will see Indiana Jones again, starring another famous senior citizen Harrison Ford. Those two guys make me feel like a youngster, although they look a little better than me (at least with all of the pancake makeup on).
It makes me think there is still hope for all of our aging HVACR service technicians. Wasn’t it just a few decades, err, years ago that our service techs averaged 41 years of age? Now I hear from an informed source that the average has now passed the 50-year milestone. Imagine that, a new “old” generation of service techs ready to take on the evil likes of Russian boxer Drago or the Nazi Empire. Pardon me, my mind slipped back to our ageless Hollywood heroes. I meant to say that our service techs are now battling the evils of sore backs, sore knees, cranky customers, and unsympathetic bosses, to name a few.
I have to give these everyday heroes their dues - it can’t be much fun fighting these evils when they should be counting the days to their retirement. The thing is, we need these aging techs to keep the HVACR trade steady and moving forward. Any sign of slippage will usher in a whole new generation of inexperienced and unprofessional workers, employed by lowballers and garage businesses. We need to make our techs feel appreciated and needed, because there aren’t many good ones coming along to replace them.
Just like Rocky and Indy, many of our techs are irreplaceable. When they leave, they leave gaping holes in the credibility of HVACR contractors and the trade as a whole. Maybe it’s time to give them a little hope for their future as well as ours.
Why not do a search for the oldest service tech in America and gave him or her some “hero” status? Let’s show the other trades that being a service tech is not such a bad thing. Let’s make this person the Rocky or Indy of HVACR fame. Who’s with me?
It makes me think there is still hope for all of our aging HVACR service technicians. Wasn’t it just a few decades, err, years ago that our service techs averaged 41 years of age? Now I hear from an informed source that the average has now passed the 50-year milestone. Imagine that, a new “old” generation of service techs ready to take on the evil likes of Russian boxer Drago or the Nazi Empire. Pardon me, my mind slipped back to our ageless Hollywood heroes. I meant to say that our service techs are now battling the evils of sore backs, sore knees, cranky customers, and unsympathetic bosses, to name a few.
I have to give these everyday heroes their dues - it can’t be much fun fighting these evils when they should be counting the days to their retirement. The thing is, we need these aging techs to keep the HVACR trade steady and moving forward. Any sign of slippage will usher in a whole new generation of inexperienced and unprofessional workers, employed by lowballers and garage businesses. We need to make our techs feel appreciated and needed, because there aren’t many good ones coming along to replace them.
Just like Rocky and Indy, many of our techs are irreplaceable. When they leave, they leave gaping holes in the credibility of HVACR contractors and the trade as a whole. Maybe it’s time to give them a little hope for their future as well as ours.
Why not do a search for the oldest service tech in America and gave him or her some “hero” status? Let’s show the other trades that being a service tech is not such a bad thing. Let’s make this person the Rocky or Indy of HVACR fame. Who’s with me?