A former marine biologist now works as a heating engineer and finds customers often assume she's male, then ask if a male technician is available instead. She describes the emotional toll of the work she loves versus the financial pressure to earn enough for a house or travel.
Certain people, they want Holly to turn up because she's a female. It's a shame that men don't get that same automatic trust because there have been, you know, bad tradespeople in the past. I'm sorry, but they've all been men. At the very beginning, you just want to take all the work on and please everyone, but then at the cost of yourself because you then get very tired, get overwhelmed. He's been exposed to what I term reverse sexism. I've had to learn to say on the phone when people book in a service, "Are you okay with a male engineer?" Which is something which is so odd. They never have to ask that because they just assume a man is turning up.
Because if you think about that question the other way around, yeah, if you said there's a female coming out, is that okay? Is that okay? It would be— it wouldn't go down very well. It wouldn't.
Do I have no money but do the job that I love, or do I try something else which gives me more money to buy a house, go on holidays, you know, live? You're sort of told, oh, you can do what you want, and the reality is completely different because life requires money.
Your Profit Is More Than Your Salary: Pricing A Trades Business w/ Doug D'Aubrey
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