Problem: New boss is extremely overbearing..

[Ohsee]

Over the last year and a half I've been applying to apprenticeships for trades in HVAC and electrical, well I finally got what I wanted, an electrical apprenticeship. I was excited after my initial interview, I interviewed with this small business owner for an hour and we talked and connected and by the end of it, I had an electrical apprenticeship, with zero experience in the trade or anything near new construction and trade work. 

I've been here one week, and I can see that my boss and I might be bumping heads a lot moving forward. He is the type of guy who times your break to the exact second, and if you miss your break by 5 minutes-- you don't get a break. If he sees you standing with nothing in your hands to work on he will berate you and lecture you on work ethic. He will tell you to slow down and focus on doing things right so as to not mess up and the the next moment tell you how you're not moving fast enough and money is just flying out of his hands. For the first day or two I thought maybe he was just having a bad day, but his other employees tell me this is how it is. I made it clear to him the I was completely new to the work and everything in it, so mistakes would be un avoidable, but my boss just can't handle any type of mistake and goes off. 

My conflict is, I want to work in this trade but I just can't put up with the disrespect and just plain ol' meanness of the guy. I've worked rough jobs with rough dudes before but this is the kind of thing that gives you a back ache just thinking about showing up to work in the morning. This sounds like a lot of complaining and its strange for me to be reaching out like this but I am. 

I'm also under contract for my first home, and I don't want to feel stuck in the job to the point where I feel like I can't quit and find new employment. What I plan to do is learn as much as possible from the trade and take my experience to another company, where I'd feel comfortable to stay longer until I can do service calls on my own and just keep my self back from clashing with him while i'm there.

An interesting thing to note is that this personality type has continually shown up in my life, the personality that would be, the overly macho mans man with no depth. I grew up with it, my uncles, my dad at times, my older brother, kids at school, but it now shows up in my work life. I'm working to integrate this part of myself. Any advice is appreciated. Similar stories welcome too! Thanks. 

[Average Investor]

I have seen people have good luck kissing this kind of bosses ass. However, no one likes to be around that. Work on getting what you can from that location and do what you can to move on. 

I had a similar boss one time and it did not last long for me. The guy was pretty crazy though mixed with the style you were talking about. He basically hated all of the men and went off on crazy things. He would harass any women there and eventually the company got sued for him sexually harassing them. The guy who owned it would drive that guy around like it was his evil henchmen to all of his franchise he ran of the same company.

4 hours ago, Ohsee said:

An interesting thing to note is that this personality type has continually shown up in my life, the personality that would be, the overly macho mans man with no depth. I grew up with it, my uncles, my dad at times, my older brother, kids at school, but it now shows up in my work life. I'm working to integrate this part of myself. Any advice is appreciated

Most older men I have encountered are like this. I can imagine they are just passing it down from other generations of beating their children, drinking a lot, and doing the same mundane job for 40 years. 

[Yarco]

5 hours ago, Ohsee said:

What I plan to do is learn as much as possible from the trade and take my experience to another company, where I'd feel comfortable to stay longer until I can do service calls on my own and just keep my self back from clashing with him while i'm there.

That's exactly the right path to take I think. Just put your head down, do the work, and take the abuse for now knowing that things will start to get better. If you can get at least 6 months or a year of experience for your resume, it should make it easier to move sideways to a similar position in another company. Unless your boss is infamous within the local industry for being an incompetent moron and it will reflect poorly on you, then maybe worth considering getting out now and starting over.

5 hours ago, Ohsee said:

He is the type of guy who times your break to the exact second, and if you miss your break by 5 minutes-- you don't get a break. If he sees you standing with nothing in your hands to work on he will berate you and lecture you on work ethic. He will tell you to slow down and focus on doing things right so as to not mess up and the the next moment tell you how you're not moving fast enough and money is just flying out of his hands.

All of this is almost like a rite of passage at most first jobs I think. Definitely if you ever work retail this is a very common attitude. The less skilled a job is, the more likely you're working with high school dropouts, the less room for leniency there is. Those sorts of people need to be told exactly what to do and when/how to do it or the workplace will quickly devolve into chaos. Kind of a vicious cycle though... you don't give people responsibility and the ability to screw up, they'll always need hand-holding.

[Nahm]

@Ohsee

If I hired an electrician who told me mistakes are unavoidable, honestly I’d immediately fire him.  If he interpreted this as personal that’d really be his problem to work out. Not about to have a house burn down over respect / disrespect / ego. 

[Lyubov]

One thing that can make this sort of situation slightly more tolerable is just hunkering down and focusing on it being an exercise of discipline. You can learn to sit better with uncomfortable emotions. No need to look for conflict in this situation. Be mindful of your body, keep your chest out and keep breathing deep. Focus on your work and doing it to perfection with no mistakes, like you are a master craftsmen. This deliberate exercise will aid you in the future. Make sure to get plenty of rest and not bite off too much outside work. Also remember it will change, do your best at this job and get a good reference and move companies when the opportunity arises.