Electrician tells out-of-town job crew what they need to get the job done, gets ignored, company ends up having to pay double the fees: ‘He should have listened...'

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Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
May 21, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

If you have ever worked in the blue collar industry or know someone who has, then you know that all of the trades tends to try to one-up each other. Electricians think they're the best, but they don't know how to clean up after themselves. Painters have the easiest job, but the least amount of braincells from the fumes they're constantly inhaling. Etc. It's all fun and games, until you have to share the job site, and then it's a dog-eat-dog world. 

 

Here we see a seasoned electrician going up against an uncertified plumber… The odds are obviously not in the plumber's favor, but do you think he cared? No way. He had to be the correct one and thus, he ended up costing the company DOUBLE the fines… 

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  • OH, and they put a work stop on all activity. So this entitled plumber not only cost the company tons of money in fines, but also in lost labor. Perhaps the company deserved it, perhaps not. We don't know. All we know is that the electrician came out the victor in this battle of the trades. See what happened below! 

  • Cheezburger Image 10507628800
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "I told you so"

    Some years ago, I was an electrical contractor working in a fairly large city in the South. We were nearing completion on a large truck parts facility. It was Friday afternoon when the out of town
    via Peepaw50
  • irrigation/sprinkler crew arrived on the jobsite. Of course we had stubbed out pipe for his irrigation timer and controls. While I was showing him where this was located, I asked him if he had gotten his low voltage electrical
    via Peepaw50
  • permit yet. He said "We don't get permits. That's your job." I assured him that he would indeed need to get a permit, as this city was a real stickler for such things.
    via Peepaw50
  • His crew worked through the weekend planting small trees, shrubs and laying sod as well as installing a complete irrigation system. Monday morning I had a scheduled inspection for
    via Peepaw50
  • some underground conduit for a sign out by the street. My electrical inspector asked who installed the landscaping and irrigation. I immediately threw this guy under the bus and
    via Peepaw50
  • told him what that contractor had said about not getting permits. He went nuclear. Not only did he double fee the business licenses and permits, he put a stop work order on the entire project until all
    via Peepaw50
  • licenses, permits and fines were paid. The next day it was bittersweet to watch this have to dig up the entire system so it could be properly inspected. (By electrical and plumbing inspectors)
    via Peepaw50
  • He should have listened the first time.
    via Peepaw50
  • Cheezburger Image 10507631616
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Chum_Gum_6838 Any job big or small, do it well or not at all.
    via Chum_Gum_6838
  • nightshade00013 When dealing with bureaucracy playing the "it's better to ask forgiveness than permission" game often end up in the player losing. The bigger the job the greater the risk when playing the game.
    via nightshade00013
  • Tossing_Mullet Lawd, this sounds very familiar. If you were on the panhandle of Florida, "Hi, friend!" I had this happen on a military base to one of my projects.
    via Tossing_Mullet
  • Three-thousand feet (small small scale to whole job, but still) of pipe laid & then the Corp. Of Engineers pulled up. I am sure you know... gawd love 'em, they can do AH better than anyone on earth, kick you off the base, pull contracts, fine you, and generally be all over your head for eternity.
    via Tossing_Mullet
  • rancidgore I've always said "if you don't have time to do it right the first time, you certainly don't have time to do it twice"
    via rancidgore

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