Trades Mindset: The Parts Changer

What's up guys? It's Mike from the HVAC Mentors Podcast. Welcome to the first part of what I hope is going to be a long-running series on the trades mindset. Those ideas, those cultural kind of philosophies that we live by when we're working in a trade. The theme is always going to center more around my own trade, which is commercial kitchen refrigeration and HVAC. But I do believe that no matter what trade you're in, no matter what industry you're in, there are going to be little nuggets of wisdom that you might find valuable. By no means have I got it all figured out, but what I do know and what I have learned, I will gladly pass along to others in hopes that it might help them. So today's theme is you should always trust, but also verify. And there are several reasons that we should do that and think that way. But before we go there, I want to tell you a little story. So this one day I was sent out on a service call. It was a large commercial dishwasher. It had a couple of parts that I was sent along with to take with me. My boss is one who wants to set us up for success. So I didn't really get what he was thinking at first, but then it finally clicked after a while. He wants to— I was being sent with extra parts just in case I needed them. Because the symptoms matched some stuff that he had run into in the past, he wasn't just wanting me to throw parts at it; he just wanted to make sure that I had what I needed to do the job. So when I arrived, assuming that there was somebody else that diagnosed this and that I was being given these parts to complete a job, I just swapped the parts and then fired up the machine and found that this this this isn't at all. The solution, and I tried to find out like who diagnosed this. What was their? What was their process? What did they find? What led them to believe that these parts were the solution? And as I later found out, I was actually sent there to diagnose. I wasn't sent there with a bunch of parts to complete a job, which that does happen. But I was the first tech on the job. It was my job to have diagnosed that dishwasher, and I ended up. Taking about 3 more trips to that customer's location to finally get the job done right. So through this, I learned that I should trust my boss because if he hands me parts to a job, it's very likely that what he thinks the problem is could actually be the problem. But by no means is he telling me that this is a definitive answer. You need to be the technician and diagnose it. So that's the thing. I think as technicians or as tradespeople, What we wanna do is trust the people who are teaching us, trust the people who have told us how to do our job, right? The senior guys, the journeymen who've been at this maybe longer than we've been alive, we wanna trust them. And, you know, to check their work almost seems like we're saying that we're better than them or we know more. But the truth is that as in my trade, as a technician, it is my job to verify that piece of equipment. You know, I've really had to learn over time to embrace that verifying isn't questioning. It's not a lack of trust. It's actually honing and honoring my craft. The truth is that when you go into a job and you are the one who has to diagnose, or if you're the one going in with parts because maybe the symptoms line up with somebody who took the call, took the call's experience and something that they've run into, so they think this might be helpful. Or you're being sent with parts because somebody legitimately was there first and they diagnosed that this is the problem. Either way, you are now responsible for this machine. So it is your job to go back to step 1 in your diagnosis and verify that, you know, that this is actually the problem, that there is what the problem is, and really to treat every job as nobody's ever been here. Because truthfully, you're gonna be going back, even if you are the first one there on this particular job, you're likely going to be touching machinery that somebody else has already touched. And, you know, those people were operating at various skill levels from expert to, you know, Chuck in this magical pickup truck. But the truth is that when you are there, that is your responsibility. So if I'm putting my name on this machine, I want to make sure that I really know everything that's going on with it. So you need to learn to embrace that verifying is not questioning, but instead it's honoring your craft. The other thing to keep in mind is in this modern day and age, we have access to all the manuals, all the diagnostics. Most manufacturers have a product support line that you can call. You have ample access to— How this machine works, what, what it's doing, what these symptoms mean. And I've even had manufacturers help me to diagnose over the phone when I was puzzled about something. Because at the end of the day though, once you walk in there and once you pull out your tools and once you take off panels, as soon as you lay hands on that machine, you own it. It is yours. Congratulations. You are now the contestant in the line of service technicians who's been there to work on that thing for better or For worse, it's all you now. And think about it this way, up until this point, whether they did it right or not, in the eyes of the customer, that machine was working. Now you're the one who gets to come and fix it. So really, when we take a service call, what we're doing is we're accepting responsibility for it. Whether we're the second guy, third guy, first guy, um, on this particular call, you are saying that I'm willing to take responsibility for the condition of that machine when I leave. Now, it's reasonable to think that Sometimes the condition isn't going to be great. Some machines are not repairable. Some machines are going to require extra visits or more extensive service. So that's not to say that you're going to fix 100% of the machines on 100% of the visits. What that does mean is that you are going to make sure that that machine is being well taken care of from the moment you get there. And that you are willing to accept responsibility for that machine's condition when you leave. So where do you even begin? Because truth be told, even the most seasoned techs sometimes stand in front of a broke-down machine and ask, what on earth is going on? What on earth am I even supposed to do here? Now, obviously, the more you encounter a broad array of machinery, the more those Questions of where do I go from here, or where do I even start, don't really plague you. Sure, you might take a minute to kind of take it all in and think, but the truth is that as time goes on, as experience builds, you will actually be less confused. But the simple answer to that question of where do you even begin is really not that complicated. It's the basics. It's basic electricity, refrigeration basics, thermodynamics basics. How, you know, how does this machine get power? Where is power interrupting? Where is the sequence of operations stopping? It's not like you're being asked to re-engineer the machine. I remember one time, this was back when I was in residential HVAC, myself and my boss were on a trailer furnace job for probably half a day because what amounted to some well-intentioned maintenance person decided to try to bypass this, that, and the other thing until the furnace just Wouldn't work anymore. We basically had to completely rewire the furnace back to factory. It's a few, a few thermal limit switches. And I think, I wanna say we replaced the pressure switch too. And then we got the furnace running. It took us all day because stuff had been bypassed, stuff had been rewired. But understanding the sequence of operations on a machine is going to be where you really excel or where you really need to focus on diagnosing your machine. Is it breaking down at step 6? Well, then there's your problem. Is it, is the sequence operation going up until step 3? Then investigate step 3. The fact is that every single technician, at least ones that I've met, unless there's somebody else out there that says different, but every single one of us seems to get most caught up on the simple stuff. It's not the big complicated, convoluted, technical things. It's, oh yeah, there's a switch there. Or, you know, oh yeah, the TXV is not opening. God, why didn't I, why didn't I think of that? It's always something basic. It's always something simple that hangs us up. So remember your basics. At the end of the day, we need to remember that our thoroughness and our unwillingness to simply put a bunch of parts into a machine and then leave is what sets us apart as professionals. Being thorough protects your reputation. It means that you are a professional. You're somebody who the customer will look forward to seeing when you arrive. Somebody who just rushes through and replaces parts and leaves and doesn't verify the machine's working, that's not a person the customer's gonna want. And how many times do you think you can be requested by the customer to not be sent to their place of business or to their home before you just don't have a job? So being thorough, making sure that everything's working, that's protecting your reputation, but it's also protecting the company's reputation. Okay? If you're gonna be thorough and make sure that you stick with it and refuse to give up until this machine's up and running, or at least until you understand why, that's going to make you look like the type of technician that your company wants. That's gonna make you the type of technician your boss is proud to send to his best and dearest, longest-term customers. But all that aside, efficiency, reputation, And remembering the basics and remembering that once you touch it, you own it. That's all important stuff. But what's even more important with trust but verify is that of safety. A buddy of mine who I used to— I worked with a while back, he told me a story from back in the '80s when he was a young tech in an industrial setting. He basically was going to complete a repair on this machine. He didn't really make sure That the circuit was safe. And this was a 4-4 evil machine, by the way. He thought that the machine's operator was going to be gone on break. Well, he was not correct. He told me that the last thing he remembered was he was rewiring, and then in the next instant, he was waking up in the hospital. What had happened was the machine operator stepped away for a second. My friend went to work. The machine operator Saw that the machine wasn't working, didn't know why. The work was being completed out of sight of where my friend was, and the machine operator went back, turned on the breaker. Why is this breaker off? That's weird. As soon as that breaker was energized, boom, hospital visit. Had my friend verified that the circuit was locked out and tagged out, that wouldn't have happened. He would've not Gone to the hospital. The thing of it is, and especially with certain technicians, sometimes you get the mindset that, oh, it's just quick, I don't need it. You know, it's kind of ridiculous. Nobody else does lockout/tagout. Think about it this way. Everybody else who didn't go to the hospital didn't use lockout/tagout, but the person who did go to the hospital wished he had locked out and tagged out his his machine before he went to work on it. Be the one who uses lockout/tagout, please. You owe it to your family. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your colleagues to not be one of the guys who gets sent to the hospital or worse because you didn't follow lockout/tagout. And, you know, I'm sorry if this brings things into sort of a dark and sad tone, but the truth is that we need to make sure that we're being very careful with our lives and our health. Again, we take our jobs very seriously, and we need to take our safety even more seriously. You need to make sure that even after you lock out your circuit, that you're verifying with your meter that the part of the system that you're working in is de-energized. Check your wiring, check everything. Don't ever take for granted that a circuit is safe until you verify. Trust your work, trust your judgment, but please verify that everything Everything is as you think it is before you proceed. Because at the end of the day, the philosophy of trust but verify does ensure professionalism and safety. We work every day to serve our customers and take really good care of them. We also want to be great representatives of our company, but above all else, we want to go home safe every day. So next time you're on a call, trust but always verify.