Mistakes or mentality?

It’s said that there is ‘no such thing as a stupid question.’ I have heard many people say this, my Mom, Grandfather, Aunt, and even Andy, the master electrician I was working under as an apprentice last summer. This last summer I was working with Regional Electric, they are one of the bigger electrical contractors in Central Maine so they get a lot of high-profile jobs all around Maine, the particular job that I was assigned to was located down in Portland. As I was working on the job with other fellow apprentices, alongside two journeymen and a master, I found myself in a position to learn from seasoned masters of the trade while also observing the mistakes made by my less experienced fellow apprentices. This occasionally led me to second-guess myself and ask what I perceived as a “stupid question” multiple times.

The job I was working on was a huge condo building, it was a six-story apartment/condo with around 12 rooms on each story, each of which was selling for around one million dollars, so safe to say it was a pretty huge job with many little meticulous things to be messed up, especially when it comes to the electrical required. This interaction occurred in the later months after starting, towards the end of the job so one of the other apprentices and I were on the lower floors working on the receptacles or plugs in the hallways. Part way through the day I looked over at his receptacles and realized that he was using Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter or (GFCI) receptacles, which are more expensive and mostly used in areas where there is water or moisture present, which was not the case in this scenario. That’s when my nerves started kicking in and I began to doubt myself and everything I was ever taught. Was I the one using the wrong ones? Maybe there was some reason we needed to use them in the hallways and I just wasn’t informed. No, no way, why would we need to put them here? Then I thought to myself, okay, I’ll just go ask Andy then, however I began to second-guess myself. What if he thinks I’m dumb, that’s an obvious question, but still, I felt so unsure. Regardless I built up the courage and went to go ask him. Now this was a relatively big job site, so I had to go searching for him but the more I searched and searched, the more I second-guessed that I should ask him in the first place. This was until I heard him yell from behind me “Josh!” “What do you need?” so I turned around, swallowed my pride, and said, “I was putting in normal receptacles in the hallway but I noticed that (other guy) was putting in GFCI receptacles, were those supposed to be GFCI?” he looked at me a second confused, chuckled, then said, “no, could you go up there and show them what they’re supposed to be doing please?”

I went back downstairs feeling a wave of relief wash over me. I called out to him and asked him why he was using GFCI receptacles. He turned around, gave me a blank stare, and said “I don’t know, I saw these ones first” I gave him a look that probably read “Are you serious?” So then I explained to him what they were, and why we use them. Afterward, I showed him where the normal duplex receptacles were and helped him take out the GFCI receptacles he had installed and replace them with the correct ones.

I think this story is a perfect example of why there is no such thing as a “stupid” question. Even though I was afraid to ask something for fear of sounding stupid, especially in front of my boss, I still asked. There’s a lot going on in people’s lives, and sometimes you miss small details or maybe you’re ignorant of it as a whole in the first place, but that’s fine. Any decent person wouldn’t mind taking time out of their day to teach you the right way of doing something as opposed to having to help fix your mistakes that could have easily been avoided by asking a simple “stupid” question.

“Apprentice Electrician” by Chris Hunkeler is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

“Solar installation, electrician wires secondary breaker P1000688” by CoCreatr is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.