Susan Frew, Co-Owner and President at Sunshine Plumbing Heating Air, and Ellen Rohr, President of Zoom Drain Franchise, join ChedHER to discuss what career options are available for women in the trades industry, the perks of this type of work, and how it offers a positive work-life balance.

chedHER

Paving The Way for Women in The Trades

so joining us now to discuss empowering more women in the trades industry. Susan Frew co owner and president at sunshine plumbing heating and air and Ellen roar President of zoom drain franchise, Great to have both of you here with me Susan I want to start with you elaborate a little bit of what kind of career options there are in this industry. Well there are a lot of different career options and what I found through my research is young women don't even know that there's opportunities to be a plumber to be an H V A C to be a person who goes out and does estimates someone who's a project manager. The opportunities are endless and we're not seeing girls coming into the trades because it's not been an on option for them. It's not been explained even though there are how many women in our national forces in our firefighters police all of those jobs will be more physical and perhaps more dangerous than being a plumber. So true, so interesting to put it that way. And Ellen, let's talk about your story here. How did you get involved in the trades and really what decided to get you into it? How did you get interested in this? Well I met a guy named Hot rod so I married him and he was a plumber and so you know my dad wasn't handy, we called people growing up but it was through my husband that I got introduced to the trades and the things I love about him or the things I love about tradespeople, it's black and white, it works or it doesn't, they're outside all day working on cool things, solving problems. So I, you know I don't have the technical skills that are required. There's a lot of diversity in in the trades right now in some of the office positions and some of the positions that Susan mentioned, I am so happy about this platform today because service technicians make a lot of money. These are autonomous, great jobs are essential, they're not dependent on seasonality necessarily or um the economy I do drain clean, we do drain cleaning and drain cleaning is gross. However women do a lot of gross things. Being a mom is gross, nurses deal with a lot of things that are um you know there there are women doing work that would so translate to a job in the trades. So it is too soon. I would love to encourage people to check us out. Absolutely, you're so right, these are essential, everybody has a drain, everybody needs help with that. Susan, let's talk about the challenges maybe you have faced in the trades industry as a woman. How did you sort of overcome a lot of those challenges? You know, I just really focused on educating myself and I feel that the trades people will respect and admire you for learning their trade, understanding it, respecting it, knowing how important it is to the world, right? If we didn't have plumbing or if we didn't have HD A C you know how would we function? I mean just think about the drive into work each day, looking around at all the buildings and structures and everything else. If there were no tradespeople none of that would be able to exist. So it is so essential. Right. So true. Susan. I want to stay with you here for a second. What are the biggest perks to working in the trades that a lot of people might overlook here? Okay well one the money which is very very good. But I think the most powerful thing is is that when you leave your work at five o'clock or whenever your day is over you're done and you do not need to go home and be studying your computer, checking emails. You can go on vacation without anyone bugging you. It's brilliant. I I only wish that I was an actual technician myself for those very reasons. Ellen, let's talk about the work life balance in this. How does it compare to other industries that you've seen? Well it is it's such a cool it is cool business to be in um you know we were talking about like uh the work life balance if you wanted to check it out. The reason I got excited about the trades is I started to ride along I get shotgun in the truck with the service text and that's how I and ask questions. You know what do we do that works? What do we do that doesn't, but that's how I learned about what the life of a technician is. Like there's a lot of autonomy, you're out in the truck, you can make decisions about your day and to Susan's point it doesn't come home with you but if you wanted to explore the trades, most companies companies like mine will give you the chance to ride along with the service tech to check it out. What does it really involved? How do we keep you safe and protected? Where the cool tools, what does the truck look like? And that can be really helpful as you decide if a job in the trades is right for you keep in mind service technicians are going to be on call. So the bigger your company gets the more systems they have in place, the less call will be onerous as far as your life goes. But again like someone in the health care or the services like you know fireman is also going to be used to some long days. Absolutely and Susan, what advice do you have for women maybe who are interested in the career in the trades industry, you know, I think what Ellen just said is really powerful, I call it ride in the side and the plumbing heating cooling contractors launched that initiative a few years back, find a plumbing and heating company that might be in your community or if you're a young person coming up maybe it's someone your parents know and see if you could go and shadow a plumber an H. V. A. C. Technician or an electrician for the day and see what it's all about first hand. And I think that they'll find that it's a lot more interesting a lot of interaction with customers. If you're on the residential side some folks prefer the commercial side. They're not as extroverted and they would just work you know with a crew. Their day would end at three o'clock usually and that would be the end of it. So that's another opportunity. There's different segments for trades people out there. I love so much what you both are doing and thank you so much for disrupting this industry. Susan Fruit co owner and president at sunshine plumbing heating and Air and Alan roar, president of Zoom during franchise. Thank you both