re: construction worker stereotypes and stories... Got any good ones?

I worked construction every summer in college and even took a year off to work once. There are some good guys out there, but most have been married and divorced multiple times and pay a ridiculous amount of child support and are always broke.

I was always able to live comfortably off of what I made and saved up, bought a truck, and still had plenty of money. These dudes would work every minute of overtime they could, drive beat up old truck or cars, and be broke.

There are also a lot of alcoholics. I knew a lot of guys that had to ride with people to work everyday because they didn't a license from getting too many DUI's.

And don't get me started on women....man some very mediocre girls could pull any man they wanted if they went to the plant. An IRL 5 is like a plant 9

^^Spot on

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And don't get me started on women....man some very mediocre girls could pull any man they wanted if they went to the plant. An IRL 5 is like a plant 9

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Plant "hot."

I had a few ace stores which sold lumber, commercial construction products, gps, total stations, outdoor power equipment, and light equipment rental. We also provided construction roll offs, portable toilets, and eye washes. I ran into a lot of people most people would call scary but we're good people.

I met some guys and women that were rough. Funniest thing when it came to gps machine control and survey equipment they picked it up fast. Shape files no big deal they could do that better than I could. Some of them ran gps survey equipment better than the surveyors. It was hard to see a woman with tatoo of all her kids faces on one arm, tatoo mom on the other arm, tatoo of her boyfriend who was in jail, nose ring, and mow hawk that was built like a nfl lineman laying out a jobsite using gps.

She could run a job well and spoke rough to her crew while talking business professional to the architect or engineers.

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Funniest term I heard was when a guy got a lot of overtime he said he was getting an "any hole check".......I said what's that? He said a check so big his wife would let him stick it in any hole

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Non-Mexican painters are the weirdest people around.

Car is always broke down, son always getting kicked out of girlfriend's trailer, and under 5 feet tall with needle heads.

Mexicans just smoke weed on the job. During my parents renovation there was always a slight cloud in the house.

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90% of the hispanic workers that you try to talk to on a jobsite that respond "No Inglés" speak the crap out of some English and there is probably a 50% chance they went to school in the US.

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That's interesting. What's the upside of pretending to be some dude who just walked across the border?

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I worked construction one year while I was in college. It was all the motivation I needed to study my arse off and keep my GPA up. I swear it was collectively the dumbest group of people I've ever been exposed to. I think the majority didn't even finish high school and they were likely in the remedial classes as well.

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Exactly. I think every high schooler should work for a summer out at a construction site. Gives you all the motivation you need to never go back out there

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Exactly. I think every high schooler should work for a summer out at a construction site. Gives you all the motivation you need to never go back out there

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Had the opposite affect on me. I saw the amount of money that could be made and the opportunity to play with big heavy machinery every day.

I worked as the inspector on a dredge for a several months - all Mexican crew. I had daily lunch with the captain, lever men, and their inspector. They were all very nice.

The whole first month the rest of the crew (laborers) never said a word.

Then the only laborer who spoke to me was the boat driver who picked us up/dropped us off. He started saying hello. Apparently that was a big deal according to the captain - it meant they actually liked me.

Most of these guys were from Mexico and working on green cards, the younger ones always spoke English and Spanish. The older ones often only spoke Spanish and just understood English.

That's the job where I learned tuna fish+ boiled potatoes + salt and pepper then rolled into taquitos is quite good.