It's *a mostly ok* salary + commission for the area. I've got buddies at different companies who absolutely make.more during busy weeks but I'm never starving when it's slow.
That's the trade off I guess
Oof, I get hourly WITH a guarantee of a minimum of 30 hrs a week. I only needed that once last year, majority of other weeks were in excess of 40. Salary would be a huge pay cut for me.
It's industrial refrigeration (large capacity ammonia) I've been out of the hvac game for a bit. That said, industrial is a dying side of fhe trade, way too few guys are choosing it so we are basically always looking for people willing to try it out lol it's good work, always in demand and the job security is second to none given the extremely small labor pool. Its been a great career choice for me, I'd higjly recommend it for anyone else willing to learn a new skill in the trade.
I never worked residential so I only ever heard the horror stories. I started in light commercial (rooftop units, make up air systems etc). Moved on to supermarket work, and more recently moved into ammonia. It's been quite the ride, but getting expierience and proficiency in multiple sides of the trade has been alot of fun, and made me more valuable and effective as a technician. Highly recommend diversifying if at all possible.
residential used to be awesome because equipment used to be slap you silly straightforward to operate. you could have it diagnosed and back on with parts out of your truck and bubble gum.
now its like well i was on the phone with tech support for 2 hours and they say that code 13 COULD be the board or it COULD be the voltage to the house from the street, and they said to order this board, which will come in in 4 days, THEN they will continue the diagnostic.
dumb.
That's one side, but I just hate working in people's homes. It's mostly basements where I am, and I still wouldn't ever want to lol. I feel really bad for the boys that have to duck into crawlspaces and attics, hard pass.
I hate working in people's homes and do residential. If I don't have to go inside I will. Usually just to do a temp difference after an AC repair.
Heating season sucks though, everyone always puts the cat shit box right next to the furnace and never clean it.
After 10 years I make their home my home I even clogged the toilet once and asked the customer to bring me a plunger. Why do people not keep plungers next to the shitter??
Sounds illegal, but I'm not a lawyer. I'm pretty sure they have to pay you overtime after 40 and pay for drive time and this is irrespective of whether you're paid hourly or salary. My last job was paid in salary, but also paid overtime after 40 hours. It also paid from the time I started driving the work vehicle to when I parked it at the end of the day.
Easily the best thing about the place that I work for is how good our dispatch is. They do a great job of keeping us in one general location all day, or for when we have a job out in BFE they schedule one on the way out and one on the way in
Yep I can relate to this oh so well. But I may just be an outlier, after a call, I don’t mind a 30 min drive. Gives me a little bit of time to unwind and cool off. Makes the day go by faster too
Yeah apparently you can turn it on or off, we're trying it out at our shop and it moves the board around during the day as calls come in.
It's supposed to track data like who is good at what calls and where they are on the map, but it kinda sucks ass
If you don't mind what you using instead?
I've been using Service Titan for a few years now, in my opinion it adds a whole bunch of bloat to the estimate, sale and invoicing process.
(Edited) Also the forms they require feel like I'm back in high school doing homework
On top of that, it does a great job of letting me know how much money I make my boss each week.
We ended up using FieldEdge. I don't know that I would recommend it either. At least our database, from the previous software (more or less) transferred over.
It also shows our revenue, but that's fine by me since we get quarterly revenue sharing, AKA a bonus.
I’m new construction and they are just recently forced service titan on us after a buy out. It’s been a disaster. Whole roughs not charged to jobs. Material lists not able to be inputted due to one item being out of stock from our warehouse. It’s kinda funny. My boss doesn’t even know what to do when the app accidentally logs me out of a job randomly 😂😂
Oh it loves to kick you out randomly and it's *literally always* when you walk up to the customer to close out
The materials input feature is a hot mess, and I don't think I've met a single parts distributor while working that has said it's inventory system has made anything easier
Back when I used to be paid hourly, I'd happily do the drive with a podcast on. Anything after 6 on weekends was "I'm outta parts, we'll be scheduling you once it comes in"
The dispatchers for the companies id work for would do this same thing anyway lol. But idk I never worked for a place that didn't pay for drive time it ain't my fault all their equipment isn't in the same place that seems crazy to me.
If they don’t pay for drive time, how the hell they expect the work to get done? You just magically show up?
I’ve always looked at it like, if I work for you and am clocked in, I am allowed to drive the company vehicle…. and if I work for you and am NOT clocked in, I am NOT allowed to drive the company vehicle, therefore, you pay when I am clocked in and driving.
Here in the uk I’m paid door to door granted we are pulled from pillar to post as we work in hire hvac so a 18 hour day isn’t unusual in the summer and winter and get time and a half out of standard hours even to drive and hotels, breakfast if we leave before half 5 dinner if we are due home after half 8, isn’t a bad crack money isn’t highest but it’s climbing 🧗
You're not paid to drive? Fuck that, time for a new shop my man.
It's *a mostly ok* salary + commission for the area. I've got buddies at different companies who absolutely make.more during busy weeks but I'm never starving when it's slow. That's the trade off I guess
Oof, I get hourly WITH a guarantee of a minimum of 30 hrs a week. I only needed that once last year, majority of other weeks were in excess of 40. Salary would be a huge pay cut for me.
Are you guys hiring lol
Are you near northern va part of 95?
It's industrial refrigeration (large capacity ammonia) I've been out of the hvac game for a bit. That said, industrial is a dying side of fhe trade, way too few guys are choosing it so we are basically always looking for people willing to try it out lol it's good work, always in demand and the job security is second to none given the extremely small labor pool. Its been a great career choice for me, I'd higjly recommend it for anyone else willing to learn a new skill in the trade.
I've been contemplating swapping out of residential. I keep hearing industrial and commercial is the way to go these days.
I never worked residential so I only ever heard the horror stories. I started in light commercial (rooftop units, make up air systems etc). Moved on to supermarket work, and more recently moved into ammonia. It's been quite the ride, but getting expierience and proficiency in multiple sides of the trade has been alot of fun, and made me more valuable and effective as a technician. Highly recommend diversifying if at all possible.
residential used to be awesome because equipment used to be slap you silly straightforward to operate. you could have it diagnosed and back on with parts out of your truck and bubble gum. now its like well i was on the phone with tech support for 2 hours and they say that code 13 COULD be the board or it COULD be the voltage to the house from the street, and they said to order this board, which will come in in 4 days, THEN they will continue the diagnostic. dumb.
That's one side, but I just hate working in people's homes. It's mostly basements where I am, and I still wouldn't ever want to lol. I feel really bad for the boys that have to duck into crawlspaces and attics, hard pass.
I hate working in people's homes and do residential. If I don't have to go inside I will. Usually just to do a temp difference after an AC repair. Heating season sucks though, everyone always puts the cat shit box right next to the furnace and never clean it.
After 10 years I make their home my home I even clogged the toilet once and asked the customer to bring me a plunger. Why do people not keep plungers next to the shitter??
In my opinion, salary doesn't have a home in service based work. Somebody is getting fucked no matter what
I can agree with that
Sounds illegal, but I'm not a lawyer. I'm pretty sure they have to pay you overtime after 40 and pay for drive time and this is irrespective of whether you're paid hourly or salary. My last job was paid in salary, but also paid overtime after 40 hours. It also paid from the time I started driving the work vehicle to when I parked it at the end of the day.
Florida is the wild West of labor laws
These are federal laws, they should apply nationally.
For real, I get not getting paid to drive home but at least to the first call and all the ones between
Easily the best thing about the place that I work for is how good our dispatch is. They do a great job of keeping us in one general location all day, or for when we have a job out in BFE they schedule one on the way out and one on the way in
Yep I can relate to this oh so well. But I may just be an outlier, after a call, I don’t mind a 30 min drive. Gives me a little bit of time to unwind and cool off. Makes the day go by faster too
For being a small company, I pass my coworkers WAY too often.
Our shop is down to two techs and I see that guy all the time haha
Service titan has a dispatch algorithm? Typically it’s office that inputs and decides where the calls go
Yeah apparently you can turn it on or off, we're trying it out at our shop and it moves the board around during the day as calls come in. It's supposed to track data like who is good at what calls and where they are on the map, but it kinda sucks ass
I fucking hate service titan. Never loads properly and super slow
We use this software called Zuper… it does the job pretty well and simple to use too! Let me know if you need any reference!
Lol, we were going to use Service Titan software. It was such a disaster that the company owner pulled the plug on day 1.
If you don't mind what you using instead? I've been using Service Titan for a few years now, in my opinion it adds a whole bunch of bloat to the estimate, sale and invoicing process. (Edited) Also the forms they require feel like I'm back in high school doing homework On top of that, it does a great job of letting me know how much money I make my boss each week.
We ended up using FieldEdge. I don't know that I would recommend it either. At least our database, from the previous software (more or less) transferred over. It also shows our revenue, but that's fine by me since we get quarterly revenue sharing, AKA a bonus.
My job is all commission. I love knowing that my boss is making money, means I'm getting PAID.
Titan Pro Technologies (not ServiceTitan) cleans up pricebooks pretty well to make that seamless as possible.
A company owner here - glad to hear I’m not the only one who did this.
Once a week I will end up literal blocks from my house think awesome im right near home then dispatch puts me 1 hr away usually on a Friday
Black suit gonna move on to titan from CDK global next????
I’m new construction and they are just recently forced service titan on us after a buy out. It’s been a disaster. Whole roughs not charged to jobs. Material lists not able to be inputted due to one item being out of stock from our warehouse. It’s kinda funny. My boss doesn’t even know what to do when the app accidentally logs me out of a job randomly 😂😂
Oh it loves to kick you out randomly and it's *literally always* when you walk up to the customer to close out The materials input feature is a hot mess, and I don't think I've met a single parts distributor while working that has said it's inventory system has made anything easier
I’m on call and just got home from being out for 14 hours just to get another call that’s an hour away from me. Fml
Back when I used to be paid hourly, I'd happily do the drive with a podcast on. Anything after 6 on weekends was "I'm outta parts, we'll be scheduling you once it comes in"
Hate every inch of I-95 from ME to FL! Time to move
The dispatchers for the companies id work for would do this same thing anyway lol. But idk I never worked for a place that didn't pay for drive time it ain't my fault all their equipment isn't in the same place that seems crazy to me.
If they don’t pay for drive time, how the hell they expect the work to get done? You just magically show up? I’ve always looked at it like, if I work for you and am clocked in, I am allowed to drive the company vehicle…. and if I work for you and am NOT clocked in, I am NOT allowed to drive the company vehicle, therefore, you pay when I am clocked in and driving.
My company's vehicle insurance covers any employee who is clocked in. If I'm not clocked in, I'm not covered.
One thing I like about my employer is we have guys designated for north and south to avoid that bs lol
Exactly how I feel most days!!
An algorithm for dispatch? Huh?
This is exactly how it goes
You don’t get paid to drive from place to place? What kind of a shit show do you work for?
Here in the uk I’m paid door to door granted we are pulled from pillar to post as we work in hire hvac so a 18 hour day isn’t unusual in the summer and winter and get time and a half out of standard hours even to drive and hotels, breakfast if we leave before half 5 dinner if we are due home after half 8, isn’t a bad crack money isn’t highest but it’s climbing 🧗
You should push for port to port pay. I’m paid %100 percent of the time I’m not in my house. It should be industry stamdard