Techtrain Solutions Podcast Ep 2 Behind Every Tradesperson… A Family Paying the Price

Episode 2 of the TechTrain Solutions Podcast dives into a side of the trades that doesn’t get talked about enough—the families.
Behind every early morning, long shift, shutdown, and late-night callout is a family making sacrifices right alongside the worker. In this episode, we talk about the real impact trade work has at home—from missed holidays and long hours to the strength and resilience it builds in the people who support us.
This is an honest conversation about what it takes—not just to work in the trades—but to live it.
💬 In this episode:

The reality of trade schedules on family life
Sacrifices spouses and kids make
Mental and physical toll brought home from the job
The strength and pride of trade families
Advice for balancing work and home life

👉 If you’re in the trades, this one is for you—and for the people who support you every day.
Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share this with someone who stands behind a tradesperson. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello guys. I apologize for the late start time. I was having some problems with my software. Today we're talking about the families behind the trays. Have you ever seen or uh everybody sees the finished kitchen, they see the new lights, the restored power, but no one sees the father or mother working to 10 p.m. to get those lights working. And who's back? Your kid. Who you probably missed some kind of birthday, some kind of an event because you were working late hours. That is what it's like to be a tradesperson. It is not easy. It's kind of like the military where you're never around. You miss birthdays, you miss holidays, you miss multiple things. Sometimes you miss sleep. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. We're gonna talk about behind the scenes of the families with my experience. This episode is gonna go behind the scenes of the family. I've been in the army for 31

Missed Over 60% of birthdays

SPEAKER_00 1:07

years, a tradesperson for 26 years, and I've missed over probably 60% of birthdays, celebrations, events. Because not only was it due to the military, because basically I had no summer, I just retired two years ago, and now I finally have summers. Woohoo! Thank goodness. But before that, I didn't have summers due to the fact I was working as a tradesperson and army reserves. It's been a tough life. You got to think of the exhaustion, the tiredness. You have to go still raise your kids. So a trade person, why is it painful for the kid? Well, one time I had a person sit down and say, Sean, I don't know what's wrong with my kids, man. They're just bad. I have no idea what's going on. I pulled them aside, sat them down. I said, dude, I'm gonna be blunt. You work freaking 16 to 18 hours all the time. I heard this is the way you'd always been. And due to that fact, you don't see your kids, and your kids are acting out because they miss you. You gotta spend some time with them, man. You can't just totally ignore them. He got so pissed at me, wrote me in his book, and he was done with me. But I have to be honest, being a family man and being a soldier, being away for a year gives you a different aspect or a different view, right? Because your family's there by themselves, they're doing things that would be you be doing, but you're not there. Well, the tradesperson, when you're working those long hours, your significant others doing that, they're taking care of your kid, they're changing the diapers, they're at it for 12, 14, 16 hours while you're working. And I hate to say it, raising kids is work, so it's exhausting. So they're getting beat up just like you're getting beat up at work, but you're just making the money, they're not. So let me share another story. When I was young with my family, I just got into the electrical industry, what decided to start a family maybe sooner than I should have. Poor is all get up. I was making $14 an hour. I had to find side work,

Working crazy hours, dangerous jobs to make money

SPEAKER_00 3:26

I had a fine extra jobs to do. It was tough. I had a newborn baby, my wife at home, she teaches. So, what I would do, I would go work residential, and be working my butt off. I'm talking hard because I like to hump, get it done. I'm working, and then I finally had to call her and say, look, this is about nine hours into it. I'm not gonna be home till at least eight, nine o'clock at night. Oh my gosh, she was so mad at me, and I understand why, but she was so mad at me, not the company. My wife has this phrase, you know it as Murphy's Law. Well, my wife calls it Quinn's Law because you never know what you're gonna get. Underestimating, overestimating, or just finding those odd things while you're working. Dealing with old construction is a pain in the butt because you never know what's in that wall, and that happened multiple times. So, again, I was working residential, I had to do a lot of sidework. I would come home, get a quick bite to eat, hang out with the wife, head out the side work, my brother-in-law. We would have all these odd jobs, and we would work till one in the morning in most cases because we had to get the job done. I'm talking nasty work. A lot of homes in Philadelphia are not the neatest. You got the slumlord system going back in the day. So, but we were fixing those slum lord areas, and it was nasty work. I'm an electrician, but I'm doing carpentry, I'm doing labor work, concrete, whatever I could to make money. One side job, which I'm glad I didn't die. One side job, it was working, doing a service on aluminum ladder with extension ladder, with cardboard. And I'm doing the service and it started to rain. I was puckering, and the guy's like, Oh, just do it. I was a young buck, I didn't know any better. But the problem is I was supposed to get done at five. I didn't get done until seven, eight o'clock. I the daughter's birthday was that day, I think it was one year old, and I missed it. I missed it because I was working that sidework. I was supposed to be home at four, I didn't get home until nine o'clock at night, and I missed it. That's the first main event I missed. Again, I missed about 60% of this. You gotta think of what they're going through. You're working,

Exhausted: Still play with your kid

SPEAKER_00 5:57

and you're working hard, and you're making that money. Thing is, you're working hard, you're coming home, you should not stop. You need to work hard at home too. Take care of that kid, take care of the wife or husband. You go in there, nice have a conversation, go play some tackle football with your kid, do something fun, make them enjoy your company. But as a trades person, you don't want to do that. You want to go home, you want to relax, you want to go drink a beer, you want to watch TV, you want to go to your barn, do some work, and you're gonna ignore your kid. If you continue doing that, your kid's gonna start acting out, and it's not gonna be good for you. So, what am I trying to say? The reality of the tradesperson, you got early hours, right? You're working, you're getting up at four, five in the morning, you get those emergency calls, you're hanging out with your family, you're watching some sports. Luckily, you both had separate vehicles, you get that call, right? You're part of a service group, it's your weekend. I know you're watching your kid, but you got and you gotta drop what you're doing, say bye to soccer, head to the service call. You go to the service call, it's not easy. Next thing you did there for eight, nine hours. Don't forget about the long commute. When I worked residential, my commute wasn't part of my hours. I had to work during that time out there and back, sometimes hour and a half for free, because they didn't count the travel. It was tough. Long commutes. You come home, dark, your family's sleeping, you go in there, you go take a quick shower and go right to bed. This is beating up your Synic Vanilla and your kids. It is wearing them out, just like military kids, right? You're never around, they're gonna start getting angry, they're gonna start acting out and doing things. So you come home, you're mentally checked out, you want nothing to do it. Sometimes I also the worst part that I've done too, and I learned to stop this, is whenever I got angry, ticked off, angry at whatever, at at work, I took it home. I I took it out on my family. Not may not really mean, but I still took it out. I didn't have any patience. A kid would say my uh boy would do something and I just flip out, and I'm like, oh gosh. It affects them. Yeah, I think you're gonna be times where you're gonna be working mandatory 12 to 16 hours without any stopping, right? It's gonna be tough for you to do this. Working in the traits and having a family, it's like an oxymoron. You are owned by that trait, and you at me personally, you feel that you need to finish that task. There's times I'll have something that's going on with my

Called into work: Overtime addiction

SPEAKER_00 8:56

family. Uh, they'll want to go somewhere like Dorney Park, and I want to go to Dorney Park. But what's happening? I get right, I get called. Some companies, you allow to ignore the phone call, but this company I couldn't. I got called, I had to go into work, I had to troubleshoot machines. My family went to Dorney Park and I missed out, and they were hurt by it, and I could see it. And all the apology in the world doesn't work, even though you could do the argument, well making money, this is what I have to do. It still doesn't change the fact. The kids don't know that until they get older, they really care about that. They care about you, they want you. So that's why I always tell people try to work within your means. Do it, you got your chance. Now, have you ever missed holidays or some major event? I missed some major high holidays between the military and and trades. I missed uh I did mostly all Christmas, so I was lucky there. But every holiday, I've missed at least two to three, maybe four of each, because I had to go to work. I had to go fix machines, I had to do something. Or I got addicted to overtime and talked to the wife, and the wife's like, You just go. You're just saying that. She just wants me to do what I want. So I go to work. I work 16 hours on holidays while my family's at home celebrating. I come home, they're all sleeping. You got that guilt when you walk in, you got a little card from the kid, maybe some artwork, which is beautiful, and you're breaking her heart. And that's the tough part. But the one thing that really was even worse is when work slowed down. That was tough. When work slows down, and you got to take care of your family, and your breadwinner, that makes it the worst because you're disappointing your family, you're not taking care of them. That works on your mental. Uh the kids see that, or at least feel your scaredness, your fear, your anxiety, and it just becomes tough to see your children seeing that. Again, in the trades, they get affected. But let me tell you a little funny

Bumped Off First: Almost commited Manslaughter

SPEAKER_00 11:17

story. I was working first shift, right, at this company, and I was another guy who was working third. He was my trainer at first. He got on medical right away because they're hurting you forever. And I told him, dude, you're gonna die if you don't get that taken care of. So you want medical got taken care of. He comes back, he wants third shift. I went first, I'm working, and I'm getting a lot of kudos. Everybody's starting to like me. And that third shift guy started getting jealous. Starting getting jealous. So we had this union rep that kept a gentleman's agreement where I do first, he does thirds. It was great. Then that person got he got fired. So this third shift guy looks at me and goes, and then the next day, union rep pulls me in, not the one with the gentleman's agreement, and goes, Look, senior man wants first shift. I'm bumping you to third. Uh, I got so mad, I was flipping out, I was cussing. If he would have came over, I probably would be in jail today for manslaughter. I was that angry. I'm flipping union calling me, calming down. You leave me the hell alone, you come over, I'll kick your butt. Oh, unfortunately, salary came in, didn't try to calm me down too. They walked away because I was that hot. I'm I text my wife, I'm pissed off. She calls, she's like, shut her down. Like, literally, yes, son. Angry to that, and everybody's like, What the hell was that? I'm like, dude, I made it up. She yells at me, I'm calming down. But because of the anger, it affected my personality and affected my wife, and we got an argument, but she calmed me down. See, work affects families. Other things you have is with that, I gotta say, working first and the third. I thought I would dread it. It was a blessing in disguise. Talking about bonding time with my kids. So, how it works in third shift, it's 11 to 7 a.m. I come in at 10:30, I'm working, and then I go home, and then I get to hang out with the family. It's amazing. I was able to go to PTG. Uh, actually,

3rd Shift, Best thing ever

SPEAKER_00 13:34

let me back up. All right, hold on one second. There you go. I got a new camera. What happened here is now I'm third shift. Amazing. I'm able to do things with my kids that I would never be able to do if I worked first shift. First, off the bat, my wife works at 7 a.m. So she had a hard time getting the kid ready to go down. Well, I come home at 7. So I come home, relieve her duty, she goes to work, I get my kids ready for school. Dude, no child care. Talk about saving money. They go. I go back and try to sleep. It doesn't work. I don't sleep, be honest with you, from Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night when I finally sleep. I don't know how you guys in third shift or shift work does it, but I had a hard time. But I worked at it for three years, so I finally gave up and just decided every Thursday I'll try to sleep before that, but every Thursday I go to sleep. So let's just say, I wake up, my wife comes home at noon, we hang out, have lunch, I go back and take a quick cat nap, and then I go to work at 11. But I get to spend time with the family, we get to have dinner together. I'm telling you, that was a blessing in disguise. I was able to go to all my kids' IAP meetings, I was able to hang out with their school field trips. I was with them a lot. It was amazing. I was able to get in coaching, I was able to uh oh, that's it. So after one of these meetings with the principal, me and my wife, I go walking out. The principal stops me and goes, uh Sean, you ever think of uh something called PTG? I'm like, I have no idea what that is. I won't you come join it and check it out? So working third shift, I have time. So I go to the PTG meeting, uh, parent teacher group, PTA, whatever you call it. So we get to go to the meeting, and I'm talking to them. And next thing in, they're like, yo, you're the vice president. I'm like, what? No way, vice president, me. Uh, not very politically, not very good, um, being serious more than five minutes, uh, but they picked me from that experience of working third shift. I have all the first shift available. I was able to go to field trips to the museum in Philadelphia. Uh, I went to Hershey, other places because of third shift. It was great. Now, let me tell you a little funny story. Needs

Trying to sleep: Kids fine, wife not so much

SPEAKER_00 16:14

to say, I still try to go to sleep Monday through Friday. I still try. So I'm trying to sleep. I'm getting there, and I'm about to fall asleep, and I hear them come in, which is fine. The kids are playing, which doesn't bother me. But what was really killing me was my wife going, shut up, be quiet. You're dad's trying to sleep. Didn't do it right away, just got to it. And I'm her, she thinks I'm loud, she's loud, and I'm waking up. And I I I asked her, I said, Look, I'll be honest, kids are all right, it's more you. She got so mad at me, dude. She got mad, pissed. And at that point, I just put earbuds in and tried to go to sleep. Because again, my kids coming in were fine. It was just the wife correcting them, was what waking me up. It was tough. So, again, tradesmen and families. It is a tough experience for your kids. You really should be thinking about them when you're working. It's not always about the money. It isn't. It's it should be more about other things. You make the money, right? But don't get addicted to overtime. Work your 40 hours, that's it. As pay your life. Any other overtime after that, that's your spending money. That is your save for college, that is your retirement, whatever. But that overtime, you should be able to cut it loose at any moment because it shouldn't run your life. Your family's important. You want them to grow up, right? Be around, show them who you are, right? Do it. So, the problem is working third shift has some negativities. I'm not there as the defender for the family. My wife hardly could sleep. My kids sometimes had nightmares. I wasn't there for that. They would get sick. I wasn't there for that. Usually a couple there are helping each other out, taking care of the children, take care of each other, but I didn't have that option. I had to go to work while she was sleeping, or at least trying to sleep, worrying about security, right? We just always got to watch out, doors locked, but in the back of your mind, little squirrel wakes her up, she can't fall asleep because I'm not there as a protector. That was the negative of working third shift. It exhausted them, exhausted me, and it just made that part of the life hard. But everything else was great. I'm talking about I'm able to go to bank during the normal bank hours. I was able to go to events, working day. I could have worked overtime if I wanted to, don't really care. So I worked some, but not much. It was definitely an experience working third shift for three years, gained about 45 pounds. Army almost kicked me out. Still reservist, by the way. So I still had to do reserves. That was tough because Friday, Saturday, Sunday is reserved sometimes. Well, I'm technically supposed to work Friday night. I had to find relief. It is what it is. I'm reservist. They had to suck it up.

Pushing through the tired, playing with daughter

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Another time, my younger year, when I was saying I was an apprentice, doing uh these pipe conduits, six inches, almost miles and miles of it. Me, the only one throwing in there. I would come home tired, exhausted. And I see my little girl, she's excited. She knows dad's here. We're gonna play. I can't say no. I'm exhausted. My back's killing me. I'm a young buck, but still killing me. And I decide heck with it. I'll play ready, said hut. Basically, uh, I go grab her tackling, I roll my body, not to hurt her, act like it was her, where she'll come at me, act like she's tackling me. I get thrown to the ground just to keep her happy, just to keep entertained. Or we did an inside game where we had a long family room, we had a ball, we had to throw it to each side, had to block it. I let her win. Which, if you have young kids, don't let your kid win. It's gonna ruin the rest of life. Don't maybe once in a blue moon, but no, don't do what I did where I let them win all. It it be it became a negative. So don't do that to this day. She's so competitive that it's like, oh my gosh, why did I do this? Why? So, with that, you come exhausted, just just fake it till you make it. Come home, go to your kids, spend some time with them, do whatever they would like you to do, have some compassion. I know you spent all day and you're the breadwinner, but they don't know, they just want to be with you. Do it, spend the time with them. Being a tradesperson, military person, away from your family from a long time, it's tough. Definitely for those trade individuals who travel, and they I understand that life, but traveling, when you come home after traveling, your mind should be about your family. You should be wanting to spend time with them, uh, do things with them, shower them with attention, just to let them know you care. Because you don't want to be like that guy's kids, where you know they don't know what the hell why they're acting bad. Well, I do. You're you're not there being with your kids who miss you and feel like you don't love them. So that's what uh I'm just saying. Think about the other times. Miss birthdays. Like I said, I miss 60% of my birthdays at work. Call my daughter a son. Happy birthday. I hope you doing alright. Love you. I I can't leave work. Machine's down.

Machine down: Missed another sporting event

SPEAKER_00 22:09

I have to stay to get the machine running. Not allowed to go unless someone relieves me or work 18 hours. Mistos li life with the family. It it's tough. Alright, I'm just gonna shut a chat. Hopefully someone can say just a tough life. And think about all the canceled plans, too, that you probably had in your life. Your canceled plans with your family. You no longer had time with them. It's tough. Let's just think about something. All right, maybe you have time to go watch them play basketball or baseball or some kind of sport. They're expecting you, but you don't show up. You know how disappointing that is? How much it crushes their soul. And I know you probably couldn't get out of it, but it crushes them. You gotta think about that. Their lives are tough. Now let's talk about another subject. We talked about the family. Let's talk about you. Just think about the traits. How many of you kneel on the cement for long periods of times? Right here. Who here just stands on the top of the ladder here? Now, who here picks more than they should pick up? Right here. And who here works like a bull in the china shop when they're younger? Right here. Who here had stupid accidents? Right here. Think about it. United States Army. I'm supposed to be healthy, supposed to be in shape. I find working in trades harder sometimes than working for the military. You gotta think about doing receptacles and switches. You're on your knees doing outlets and switches. You are just running around on concrete, maybe carpet, hopefully you're lucky. Going around, feeling you're super, but after that long day, your knees are shot. You are sore. You're looking at that leave, like you're in love, just to get out of that pain. Yeah. Tough man. Let me see, make sure I got volume. You know all the meals you've had with your food truck. The food trucks are nasty, no offense. Think about the lunch that you bring, or you didn't bring, you know, eat horrible food and wonder why you're gaining 50 million pounds or you're always broke. Like, why I'm always broke? Well, you're spending on lunch and you decide to give uh your money. You have to give them some money. Oh, it is working. All right. Okay. That's what I'm about to see. You got to think about the times you're eating food out in the road for gas station food. Not the most healthy. McDonald's, Burger King. You're out there eating that because you're working late, you forgot your lunch, you're not healthy, you're not working out. You are technically an industrial athlete. You should be doing some slight stretching, something before you start your day, but you're not. You're beating yourself up. You are wearing yourself out. Being an older gentleman who's now that way, my knees are shot. I have these three amazing moves that I can't do anymore because my knees are shot. Simply shot from the construction world. From concrete and knees, lifting up too much equipment, doing something stupid. Or you got the food, right? But don't forget about the drinks. Or you go out to drinking with your buddies afterwards. Your wife or or your husband's at home waiting for you. You decide to get a couple beers, you get the call. Uh, where are you at? Oh, I just decided to go out and get some beers. You're supposed to be home. We got this going on. Oh, shoot. So you say, Hey, see you guys, and head out. I've done that a few times. Insensitive, Sean. I I did that too. Or your service guys out there. How many have been in a family event? You're having a great time, and next thing you brings, and you're like, should I pick that up? It's they're called for service. Now you gotta look at the wife and go, and the kids go, uh, I gotta go. Who here has done that? I've never done that. I haven't done service like that. I'm sure you have. So I would love to hear about that, man. So I've had in my life three or four people get seriously hurt real bad. A few almost died, some got burned pretty darn bad. Your spouse, your loved ones, your kids, they might worry about you going to work. They might the full day thinking, hoping you survive because something happens to someone in in work. That is something that's in their brain that they're worrying about your safety. So when you go to work and you make that shortcut, don't stop that. You're gonna make your kids worry. They might not know right away, but once that one person gets hurt at work, they're it's gonna bring in their brain, they're gonna worry all the time because of that. Now, other things we gotta worry about,

changing scheduled, stressed relationship

SPEAKER_00 27:19

right? We got irregular schedules all over the place. Like when I worked in the last workplace, even though it was three after I worked thirds, I went to back to first. I'll be forced. Hey, you gotta stay, so I gotta work till 5 p.m. Hey, you gotta come in early. So I had to go to 5 a.m. Wasn't 100% consistent. Change the schedule doesn't always help out. My wife likes me to wake up with her, hang out, go to work. Sometimes it doesn't because I drive her crazy. You know, does that you got other things to worry about? Being a tradesperson, sometimes you do need that overtime. You have money issues, now you become addicted to overtime, as we call overtime whores, and it starts wearing on your mood because now your family wants you there, but they still want you to make more money. I've seen that happen to me, and that is leading to stress to you and your relationships. Now, one little problem makes you flip the hell out, makes you not calm. You're getting angry at your family, your mood swings are all over the place because you feel you need to make that over time, and they want you to, but they give you guilt trip too. Who here has that? I do. Not anymore, but they give you guilt trip. They want you to make the money, but they give you a guilt trip. Oh, you you gotta work? Yeah, yeah. I gotta make the money. Oh, okay. Yeah, that that's that's uh definitely when you get addicted to overtime. I got addicted for when I first worked at my work workplace, I got addicted for like four years. I would work stupid 18 hours, 16 hours, 80 hours a week, killing myself because I got addicted to it. I would nonstop hours because it was a competition too, and then finally getting beat up and just tired and missing too many birthdays. I'm like, I tell my wife, we gotta figure out and make our bills smaller, do something. We lowered our bills, we're still hurting a little bit in certain things, but we're better. I can work off a 40-hour work week, uh, but it caused stress between the family to the point where my nickname became insensitive Sean or Insensitive Jack, but that was my nickname for the longest time because of the temper, because of overtime addiction, it it became a thing, and then my kids start missing me. It just was tough for the whole family, you know, aren't the only ones sacrificing? Just remember this. Your families are they don't get paid, they get paid in this mental anguish. Think about next time when you start getting addicted to overtime, and think about you, right? Being a tradesperson, your body's breaking down. You're doing jobs that most people would find painful to do in the beginning. Your body's breaking down. You want to be able to retire, have some fun with the family, do some fun things, be able to walk. So, as a tradesperson, you gotta think about that. You know, you want to take that shortcut. Do you want to work on your knees all day? Not me anymore. I bring a foam pad or I bring a bucket with me. I know, too slow bucket. Well, I'm older. I'm okay. So I'll do a bucket, do outlets and switches with that, or I get my knee pad and do outlets and switches that way, but I do not kill my knees anymore. If you're young, I would recommend getting knee pads. Make sure you're safe and comfortable. So, what's the hardest part your family deals with? Think about it. What is the hardest part that your family deals with? You being again, I just retired two years from the army. Had never in the summer. It's the first time I had a real summer last couple years. It's amazing. Because either that army or I'm working hours during the summer. Does your family understand your trade life? Do they understand what you're going through? Have you really talked to them about that? Have you had the conversation? Let them know your world. Have you ever brought stress home? Like you brought her home and just start flipping out and and your kids and you're like afterwards, regret it. Try not to bring it home. Works work home. Try to separate that. All right, try to do that. It's tough, but you can. So, just to let you know, trades and families is tough, but it can be done. You just gotta be open and honest with your family. Try to be there for them, or at least, if you can't, do something with them before the event. That way they feel that you're part of their life. So, with that, I would give it a shout-out to all the electricians, carpenters, HVAC technicians, linemans, mechanics, apprentices, and the spouses and families here at Tech Trade Solutions. Being every good tradesperson is usually someone sacrificing for you. So, this is Tech Train Solutions, industrial electrical troubleshooting and PLC controls, and residential commercial industrial contracting. So, next episode where we'll talk about crazy customers, job site disasters, apprenticeships mistakes, and things customers should never say or do. So stay safe out there and don't forget while you started working in trades, and don't forget your family.