Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 21Jan 14, 2009 10:30 am Joles, I was one of four girls, and we can all give the guys a run for their money in the bad language stakes. It's just picking the time and place... Alone in the car in peak-hour traffic, I'm shocking!
Now I have three sons....not one of whom would DARE swear in front of me. My 21-year-old may be a lot bigger than me, but I bet I could still wash his mouth out with soap, because I'm a lot faster than him. Hmm, there's an idea for when the brickies start next door - I'll stock up on bars of soap now. Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 22Jan 14, 2009 10:32 am ^My mum used to do that to me! Taught me well obviously... Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 23Jan 14, 2009 10:34 am Bam Yep, its a known joke around my friends that I am a... whats the word? mental blank! Dont swear, dont drink... maybe the word Im looking for is 'boring'? Nah Bam, you're not boring... you're lovely! I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 25Jan 14, 2009 11:31 am Maybe its all the testosterone on building sites ... I remember turning up at our site one day and witnessed two tradies head butting one another like rams and their supervisor was grinning like an idiot. Blood everywhere ... fwits.
Women and men should be represented equally if they wanna be. I work in a female dominated industry and we are always looking for more males to provide specialised services for men. I have a few single female friends who have built and they would have preferred female tradies. One friend complained bitterly that her builder never listened to a word she said because she was female. And our SS told me that the tradies and subbies were not easy to work with because they didn't respect him (he was short and young). We had a maintenance guy out here once who asked me to fill in a form that provided feedback on his work, behaviour and suitability to work with women. Apparently it was a register for women who wanted to get male builders/tradies that would listen to them . But just because women work on a building site doesn't mean it would be cleaner. DH used to clean nightclubs when we were students and he reckons the female toilet was 100x worse than then males . And my language is worse than his . I reckon it would be great to see more females in the building industry and not only in the menial lower paid positions . Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 26Jan 14, 2009 12:05 pm No girls worked on our house.
The swearing discussion recalls to mind a day when I visited the house and a team of 4 or so plasterers were there. As I approached the Head lasterer called out 'Mind the language fellers'. I didn't know whether to be pleased or offended And Jo don't worry whenever you swear to me it just comes out as **** Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 27Jan 14, 2009 12:32 pm We nearly had a female plasterer on our new house. I found out just after we'd signed with our builder that one of my student's mums runs a successful plastering company. Unfortunately I found out about a week too late. We had been asked if we wanted to request any tradies for our job and at that stage I didn't know what she did. She told me she is very insistent that the guys who work for her respect the build. No rubbish, foul behaviour etc. She also said it was tough at the start because the other tradies would go out of their way to be foul mouthed, and trash jobs trying to blame her tradies for it. etc. Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 28Jan 14, 2009 12:56 pm joles . Bel, Petal and Donuts can attest to how bad I am. : So true!!! I can still remember covering DD's ears in fright at what came out of your mouth Jo!! Only Joking of course DH is the world's worst swearer....he doesn't even know he is doing it My karma ran over your dogma Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 30Jan 14, 2009 1:47 pm Our tilers are a husband and wife team and at the moment she is doing most of the work as her DH has hurt his back
He was staggering around with a back brace on doing what he could,but mainly supervising ...he looked a lot better yesterday though, when I saw him. They are quite slow,but are doing an excellent job Cheers Mel Building on 9 acres Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 31Jan 14, 2009 2:28 pm joles Cynarion, can count on you to liven the discussion! Yeah, I think I have too many opinions. Perhaps I should sell some? joles I'm certainly not suggesting there has to be or should be equal representation in the building industry. But there are a certain number of woman and girls that are/have been interesting and I'm just interested to see if any are coming through. If they aren't, the next logical question is "Why not?" Now that is absolutely a question worth asking of the industry. I just know it will always be pointless to tell an industry "you need more equal representation between males and females" and expect them to sort it out themselves. The industry's job is not to seek equal representation. The industry's job is to do whatever it is the industry does. Well. And earn profits. There's not a great deal of profit in spending time drumming up applicants that are a different gender to the norm. Having said that, it's certainly worth ensuring the barriers of entry aren't too high for those of non-industry-normal gender. joles As for the girly calender...... my view on such things... (actually on most things).... is if they are not offending anyone... they are not offensive. Once they do offend someone, they are. If that makes sense. I can see the logic in that, but it makes for a very uncertain life for the person who owns the calendar. Being told to take it down one day because one (new) person is offended by it would most likely lead to resentment from the calendar's owner, and any other people who've enjoyed having the calendar around. Consider another parallel example. A white collar office-based organisation hires a new person, who happens to be a Muslim. Every Friday afternoon before the end of work, the entire office typically has an informal get-together in the office, including alcohol. Nobody gets drunk, it's just everyone enjoying the start of the weekend. The new Muslim person claims to be offended by the consumption of alcohol, which is against his/her faith, and requests that no alcohol be provided in future, as it makes him/her feel extremely uncomfortable. Who's in the right? How would you feel if your formerly really enjoyable Friday afternoons were changed because of the requests of a single person whose value system you don't share? How, if at all, is this situation any different from the girly calendar? What would you expect to happen at the office? How enjoyable do you think life would be for the new recruit? It would be nice to think that everyone could be an adult about it, but unfortunately more often than not such is not the case. And worse, if we end up with a system of rules to ensure that nobody can be offended by anything, we're going to find ourselves becoming a sterilised, bland society with no drive for change or excellence. There's no right answer, unless somehow everyone around the entire world simultaneously realises that they shouldn't try to enforce their own beliefs on others--which both parties in both examples are doing. The boys will say the calendar is fine and they don't really objectify every woman they come across, the girl will say it isn't fine and it's degrading (for example); whereas the office workers will say that there's no harm in a drink every now and then whilst the Muslim person will say that alcohol is declared as evil in the Koran. Who's right? Problem is, everyone's right because beliefs are things that apply only within your own personal space. One can't expect to force one's own beliefs on someone else. Besides, if one's beliefs are really intrinsically "better", they'll be adopted in the end anyway. It might take a long time, but it does happen--women have the vote, slavery has been ended in most of the world, and so on. The best thing to do is get those beliefs out there to be examined, turned over by others, and perhaps a few people will choose to pick them up along the way and adopt them as their own. It's how societies change--when small groups of passionate people with good ideas make enough noise to be heard over the drone of reality TV, celebrity culture and all the other novocaine for the mind being peddled by today's media. It might start with people like Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on a bus, but it ends up going much further than that. But now I'll return you to your regularly scheduled programming. --Mike Everything I know, I learned from SBS. LATEST: Frame Complete http://metricon-mercer.livejournal.com Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 32Jan 14, 2009 3:31 pm to_do_list Sharee If women were more represented in some of these trades it might be interesting to see if and how the industry standards might change a little... The implication being? There is no excuse for sloppy workmanship...or should that be workpersonship...I don't see why being male or female should make any difference to the work quality. That's driven by training, pride in your work, chasing the dollar, taking on too much work, and the attitude of GAF the tends to prevail. Jo is right, I was referring to the language. I'm with you Kek - I can swear with the best of them and as long as I'm in the company of adults who aren't offended that is fine. It does REALLY annoy me that there seems to be a lot of builders who don't take notice of who is around them before they speak. DS is a little parrot, there are 9 houses being built in out street at the moment, that is a lot of tradies and alot of 'F' ' bombs, and my 2 year old has already repeated it in context! (WIth that language and the tricks like 'pull my finger' that DH has taught him, I have a battle on my hands! ) Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 33Jan 14, 2009 3:37 pm Sharee to_do_list Sharee If women were more represented in some of these trades it might be interesting to see if and how the industry standards might change a little... The implication being? There is no excuse for sloppy workmanship...or should that be workpersonship...I don't see why being male or female should make any difference to the work quality. That's driven by training, pride in your work, chasing the dollar, taking on too much work, and the attitude of GAF the tends to prevail. Jo is right, I was referring to the language. I'm with you Kek - I can swear with the best of them and as long as I'm in the company of adults who aren't offended that is fine. It does REALLY annoy me that there seems to be a lot of builders who don't take notice of who is around them before they speak. DS is a little parrot, there are 9 houses being built in out street at the moment, that is a lot of tradies and alot of 'F' ' bombs, and my 2 year old has already repeated it in context! (WIth that language and the tricks like 'pull my finger' that DH has taught him, I have a battle on my hands! ) Cool...I always wary of scoping out any contractors on the basis of the usual (budget, time, ability) but also whether they can be "civil"...sounds old fashioned but more often than not these are also the same tradies that can handle a 4 year old being intensely fascinated about about they are doing and asking questions...ask our poor painter...DS chewed his ear off when he saw his ute and found out he had a Harley. mmm....donuts Homer Simpson 1956- Links: Site Costs Ready Reckoner | H1 Addiction Medical Advice | Château TDL: The Backyard Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 34Jan 14, 2009 3:48 pm Hi Kexkez,
Quote: I found out just after we'd signed with our builder that one of my student's mums runs a successful plastering company. In S-W or Perth Metro ? Chris My father rode a camel, I drive a car, my son flies in a jetliner, his son will ride a camel.Saudi saying Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 35Jan 14, 2009 4:41 pm funny thread jo.. female tradies
i know a female house painter, a builder and a high end finish carpenter. The painter is in melbourne too so someone is bound to get her one day. Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 36Jan 14, 2009 6:44 pm cynarion I can see the logic in that, but it makes for a very uncertain life for the person who owns the calendar. Being told to take it down one day because one (new) person is offended by it would most likely lead to resentment from the calendar's owner, and any other people who've enjoyed having the calendar around. --Mike Under EEO and Workplace Relations Act its pretty clear what constitutes harassment and bullying and ppl have been successfully sued in Australia for items like the a calendar. cynarion Consider another parallel example. A white collar office-based organisation hires a new person, who happens to be a Muslim. Every Friday afternoon before the end of work, the entire office typically has an informal get-together in the office, including alcohol. Nobody gets drunk, it's just everyone enjoying the start of the weekend. The new Muslim person claims to be offended by the consumption of alcohol, which is against his/her faith, and requests that no alcohol be provided in future, as it makes him/her feel extremely uncomfortable. In fact if you ignore or exclude one of your colleagues by regularly inviting others to social occasions and not him/her you could be sued for bullying . Employers are liable as well as employees. Its a very expensive business. cynarion Who's in the right? How would you feel if your formerly really enjoyable Friday afternoons were changed because of the requests of a single person whose value system you don't share? How, if at all, is this situation any different from the girly calendar? What would you expect to happen at the office? How enjoyable do you think life would be for the new recruit? everyone has the same rights ... therefore a single persons value system can impact on the workplace. Basically the workplace is a no go zone where no one should feel insulted or offended. cynarion It would be nice to think that everyone could be an adult about it, but unfortunately more often than not such is not the case. And worse, if we end up with a system of rules to ensure that nobody can be offended by anything, we're going to find ourselves becoming a sterilised, bland society with no drive for change or excellence. hmm would that be political correctness gone mad = my workplace where we spend endless hours trying to find the latest inoffensive language. BTW I am not saying I agree with the above ... just that I spent a week hearing what it would cost me/the organisation if I decided to be different Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 37Jan 15, 2009 2:18 am Very well said Mike!
If everyone is adult about it and tries to work out a situation it doesn't necessarily mean the result is bland/boring/stale - I would say that in most cases a compormise can be reached... Like in the workplace example, maybe they could go down to the local pub instead meaning it becomes the choice of our Muslim friend whether he goes or not (and he could have the option to go home early when everyone else leaves). Or with the Calendar, I don't know what the extent of the laws are, but maybe it could be put up in the male toilets instead where the female can't see it (this might still be considered offensive though), or if it is a male that finds it offensive then put up a Calendar that everyone can agree with (e.g. Top Gear - still testosterone filled but not offensive) Disclaimer: these are examples only and may not be suitable for your workplace. They are only listed here to show that a compromise can be reached without ruining all the fun. I should note that, while not being Muslim, I don't drink due to my religious persuasion. It wouldn't bother me if there were friday drinks at the office, but I would expect to have either soft drink supplied or be allowed to leave early. I would also find a girly calendar offensive, and if swearing got too out of hand I would resepctfully request that it decrease. For me it's all about choice - I can choose not to partake in the drinking, but if a girly calendar is being displayed then it is being 'forced' - same if I am 'forced' to listen to my colleagues yelling swear words across the office area (even if they are in their own office) Paul After 2 false starts, a year living overseas, two more world trips and 3 years of uncertainty we are now starting the build process again - hopefully for real this time! Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 38Jan 15, 2009 2:28 am Just realised I have gone waaaay off topic
I think the same rights and opportunities should be given to women to pursue a career in any area they wish to go. If it is a male dominated industry (like construction/trades) then maybe it needs to be made easier, but if most women choose not to go down that path then it shouldn't be forced upon the industry that 'you must have x percentage of women in the workplace' Being equal opportunity and all, it should also be the flip side for males in a female dominated industry (e.g. nursing). Oooh and this is my 200th post! Hurrah! After 2 false starts, a year living overseas, two more world trips and 3 years of uncertainty we are now starting the build process again - hopefully for real this time! Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 39Jan 15, 2009 6:29 am i'm a female trady. I haven't really worked in the building industry though.
The amount of times i have been asked to do work for other women, because they feel more comfortable with a chick doing it is amazing. i have considered going contractng a few times Re: Has anyone had any female tradies? 40Jan 15, 2009 8:27 am muzzman Just realised I have gone waaaay off topic In one of my threads??? How rude! I'd never dream of going off topic on a forum. Oh hang on...... Quote: Oooh and this is my 200th post! Hurrah! YAY!!!!!! I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Elvis has left the building... The site supervisor quit after 2 month on the project. I guess he was just instructed to bark at people, but didn't like when he was… 26 20903 Thank you so much. This has been very helpful. We definitely wish to settle and get these people out of our life. They are trying to charge us interest on late… 7 14276 That is a really good attitude Akin to you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I do enjoy watching that tik tok inspector from Victoria but he does go a little… 12 81886 |