Thank you, Adrian Chiles. You genuinely made me feel proud, reading your words (Kids, don’t look to me for career inspiration. Look to your electrician instead, 16 July). For 47 years I’ve been honing my skills as an electrician, the vast majority of that time on a self-employed basis, with the added pressure that can impose.
Work security is a real worry, especially during recession periods. So is chasing payments, the endless paperwork and the added burden and expense of Part P building regulations, which are constantly evolving with updates, new books to buy and exams to sit, plus one day a year spent with an assessor scrutinising your work.
The body takes a battering, which becomes obvious as you approach retirement, and the goalposts on that look set to be moved yet again by those who have no idea what putting in a good shift means, with more years likely to be added to the state pension age.
It’s been great fun and absolutely fulfilling, though, learning how tools can simply and effortlessly be an extension of my hands. Thanks again for the recognition.
Mark Abley
Wing, Buckinghamshire
• Adrian Chiles should do a day of work experience with an electrician. If he has to chase out a cable run in a wall or scramble around a filthy, crowded loft swimming in glass fibre, he would find out what it really is like. I have a degree in chemical engineering; I left a career in that after four years to go into data processing and loved it, retraining on the go. Approaching 50, I had to retrain again, and I was a qualified sparkie for 15 years. It was bloody hard work, finishing the paperwork as late as 10pm. I did it because I had to. Some jobs were fun, but many were a grind. I’d happily have had a desk job on regular pay instead.
Mike Joseph
Chipperfield, Hertfordshire
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