🚨 Heat Can Kill: The Safety Rules Every Tradesperson Needs

One of the things I want to talk to everybody about today is heat, heat, injury, illness, and prevention. Now, before you roll your eyes, hang tight. It's going to be a good episode, some good insights, and I'm going to share with you, even if you're in the industry, not in the industry, some of the tricks of the trade that are out there. Welcome back to another episode of The Tradepreneur Show. Listen, many of you may know me as Patrick Somers, the host of The Tradepreneur Show.

What you may not know is I'm also CEO of General Air Conditioning, Plumbing, and Electrical here in the Coachella Valley. And today's episode, I really want to touch on something that is important to me. And it's kind of a message I want to be able to communicate to all of those in the trades, whether you're a technician or business owner. And truthfully, in anything, career, anything you do. And it's about creating a culture of safety.

And summer may be winding down, but in the desert and in certain climates across this country, it doesn't fully wind down. I mean, imagine it's 120 degrees outside and you're standing on a roof that feels even hotter, or you're in the attic. Imagine that, being in the attic when the outdoor temperature is 120 degrees. And yes, in the desert, that is a true thing. In those conditions, your phone rings and there's a family without AC.

In the Coachella Valley, this can be not only a busy time of year, but a time where you have to have a heightened level of safety. Now, you always have to be safety, right? Safety is first and foremost in anything and everything we do. But there are certain times of the year where you have to kick it up a notch. And for us in the desert, it's the summertime, but it's also fall. especially with extended temperatures we're looking at having this year.

You know, other parts of the country are going to get into really cold temperatures, and they carry some of the same safety issues and the precautions that have to be done and taken to make sure you and your team stay safe. How do technicians, how do tradespeople work in extreme heat? Well, you have to follow. Some very basic precautions, right? First and foremost, I don't care if you're in South Dakota, if you're in Palm Springs, California, or pick any other location.

When it's summertime, you need a heat injury and illness prevention plan. Not only is it required by OSHA, it's something you should do just to make sure your team's taken care of. The reality is you have team members out there. working in this extreme heat and even mild heat. I say extreme heat because we get extreme heat, but it doesn't have to get too hot to create dangerous conditions, especially when you're on a rooftop in the direct sunlight or you're in an attic space where it's just like an oven. So first and foremost, heat injury illness prevention plan.

Make sure you have one. Make sure you follow it. Some of the things we do at The General, we make sure that all managers carry water with them. We make sure that there's ice available. We have an ice machine and believe it or not, check this out, sometimes in the summertime, that ice machine will not keep up. And then we have to bring in ice. We buy ice from an ice company and to keep the demand, to meet the demand for the ice because we go through it so much.

We'll buy pallets of water and we bring pallets of water in so the guys, when they're getting their parts and everything in the morning, have access to cases of water. But our managers will also bring out ice if need be. All jobs have to have, especially a job you're on for a while, a cooling space, right? You set up the tent. You have some designated area where workers can cool off. We have, you know, a lot of our techs.

We'll tell them to go in the truck. As much as I hate to see a truck idle, you know, service guys, it's not as critical because they're going to be on a call and then they're in their truck, air conditioned, driving to the next call. But you've got an install crew that's on a job all day long. And a lot of that is in the sun or in the attic. That is where it gets really challenging. So one of the tricks of the trade, believe it or not.

Now, this doesn't work in every instance because the air conditioner may not be working, right? If we're going there and it's a system that's not operating properly, there's not much you can do unless the house has more than one system, which many houses in our area do. Now, if the system's operating, what you'll do is you'll let the system run. You'll cut the duct work loose in the attic. and you'll let it shoot into the attic to start to cool that temperature down a little bit. Now, obviously, that only lasts so long that you have to shove the system off to dismantle it and replace it.

If you've got two systems, then they can take one run of ductwork off the other system and let that blow cool air into the attic the entire time. So those are just some little cheats that help cool that area down. It's still hot. It's still uncomfortable, but it makes it a little bit more bearable. And more than anything, the biggest thing I preach, and I hope everybody's preaching this, take breaks.

You know, I don't care what the law says as far as your lunch and your breaks. Yes, that's the minimum. But when you're out there working in the heat, you break as often as you need to to stay safe, to hydrate, and to cool down. And that, to me, is a non -negotiable. If a guy needs to get out of the attic, needs to get out of the sun, then you do it as much as you need to, right? I mean, that's just how it has to go.

You technicians out there, and I say you technicians out there because we've got quite a few of them, and there's one thing that I see that's in common with many technicians, and that is, especially the younger guys, the energy drinks. They drink these energy drinks like they're water, and they're not water, and they're not really good for you. If you're hydrating with energy drinks, behind the eight ball as they say right out of the gate you are you're putting yourself in a bad situation you're already waking up dehydrated and then you start drinking energy drinks the best thing you can do is hydrate drink 32 ounces of water before you before you even get to the office. Get yourself started correctly. Don't drink the night before.

Don't stay up late. Hydrate in the morning. That is one of the most critical things you can do, and then hydrate throughout the day. That's something we really, really press, and people have to be aware of. You have to stay cool because, man, heat exhaustion will come on quickly. Heat stroke will come on from that point if you do not do the right things. I will tell you, one summer, we had a really busy day.

I mean, almost every day is busy in the summer. One summer, we had sold so much work that needed to get done and installed because people were without air conditioning. And so I said to my partner, Francisco, I said, man, we're coming in tomorrow because it was a Saturday, and we're working. We're installing. These guys are going to need help. So we went on separate jobs. I went on it. And now keep in mind, I have not been. in the field doing installs or service in quite some time.

I always try and pick the hardest job. I think that's really important in leadership. And I picked a duct replacement, duct install. And man, I got in that attic. I was in that attic all day long doing a duct change out. And it was a good reminder for me to remember how hot it can get in those attics. Part of the thing too, is if you're not acclimated, These guys, as they go through the season, they start to get acclimated.

When I was on the fire department, they used to send out safety memos, and one of the things was before the season, it spoke to acclimation, getting yourself acclimated, going out, walking in the heat, and just being exposed to it. And you actually, as you become more acclimated to it, you're better able to tolerate it. So here's this mildly overweight guy. You might be looking at me and disagree that it's mildly overweight. But anyways, here I am in the attic without the acclimation period working with these guys to install this duct work.

And it was hot. And we took breaks quite a bit. We'd come out of the attic. We'd get in the garage, get out of the sun. We'd let the truck run, cool down a little bit, and we'd get in the truck. And then we'd go back at it. But, man, it was so hot. And I will tell you, the good thing was the feedback I got. from the techs, my fellow teammates, that I actually went and did that job and got in the attic and did the work that needed to be done.

But that's kind of how I was raised. That's what I believe. So, man, that was a hot day. And I'm fortunate that we have had no injuries or anything like that from the heat. I believe that that is because we are very intentional about ensuring the safety of our team and we do the right things. But even with doing the right things, each individual, if you're a technician out there, you have a responsibility to do the right thing.

I will tell you, we have a mantra here. And if you're here any period of time, you don't have to be here long before you're going to hear me say a couple things to the team. It's almost on a daily basis. One, I say first and foremost, be safe. Go home to your families, right? And of course, I tell them, number two, always do what's right for the customer. And number three. Have fun because we're here all day long with each other.

We spend more waking time with people we work with than we sometimes do with our own families during the week. So those are the three mantras. But then it's always make the call. We have a saying here to each and every single team member. I don't care if you're answering the phones, if you're a service technician in HVAC, plumbing. I don't care if you're in the accounting department. Make the call.

If there is something that you feel is unsafe, you've got to make the call not to do it. Technicians, I tell them if you're on a job and there is an unsafe scenario, do not proceed until the scenario is safe. If we go out to a condo and it's an incredibly high roof access and there's not a safe way to get on that roof, do not attempt to get on that roof. Make the call. Same thing with the heat, right?

The other thing that's really, really important is in making the call, you do not have to be the most senior person to make the call. Our team knows that if you could be day one on the job, you could be the greenest of the green. And if there is something that you feel is unsafe, stop it. and say something. Do not proceed with anything that's unsafe. And that's our mantra, and that's what we believe.

And then I let everybody know, if you are ever in a situation where someone's trying to get you to do something unsafe, you call me directly. You reach out to me directly because I will not compromise the team's safety for any reason at all. Doesn't mean that there's not risks involved in what we do, right? If you're in the trades, especially the trades we're in, the mechanical trades, You've got the heat to contend with, yes. You've also got heights you're dealing with.

You're dealing with high -voltage electricity. You're dealing with refrigerants. Yeah, if you've been in the trades any length of time, you know that refrigerant burns are real. And if you're not careful in what you're doing, you will get a refrigerant burn. So there's a lot of things that we have to be careful about and with, and you've got to make the call. Nobody needs to be unsafe. And if you work for a company that doesn't preach that, it might be time to find another company.

Or if you do have a company and you're not being that focused on safety, it's probably time to start being focused on safety. There's obvious business reasons to be focused on safety. Lower work comp, lower insurance costs all around. But the number one reason. to be focused on safety and be a company that puts safety first is there's human beings that you're dealing with. There's lives you're dealing with.

And if you want to run a successful business, it's not just about the top line and the bottom line. It's about the health and well -being of your team. So just keep that in mind. Now, the safety aspect, too, let me be clear. This carries over to our customers as well. When people call us, and they don't have AC, or it's wintertime and they don't have heat. I tell the team, we're like a fire department, right?

We get these calls. We do the routine maintenance stuff and the simple stuff and the boring stuff, but then we get these calls. And when it's 120 degrees in the desert and you get a call and there's an elderly person or somebody with young children, truthfully, they could be any age, but we prioritize, obviously. When you've got more calls than you do technicians coming in. then you prioritize. If there's only one AC in the house, right, if there's elderly people in the home or children in the home, you prioritize it.

And I will tell you, I don't want to get started on home warranties, but I'm not a fan of them. To me, it's a scam. But I digress. Here is what happened that we got involved in. There was an elderly individual, and he had a caretaker, caregiver. And they called the home warranty company in the summer because the AC wasn't working. Well, by the time the home warranty company got there, the caretaker had died and the homeowner was hospitalized.

Now, how do we get involved? Because Adult Protective Services sourced us to take care of the AC. And we had to put a new AC in. And we had to provide this proof that it was in and operating before they would release the homeowner from the hospital. So it happens. It happens. So what you do as a technician, what you do in the trades really truly matters. And we have this great opportunity to provide and take care of the community, the homeowners.

And yeah, you get to make some money doing it. Of course, that's a plus, right? Don't. for a minute think that what you do doesn't make a difference in somebody's life and ensuring their comfort and their safety because the heat will kill you. Something we did just recently, like literally in the last three weeks, there was a family in town and they live in this house and they do not have any air conditioning. All they have is a... swamp cooler.

And they can work really well many times throughout the year. But when you get the humidity too high or the temperature too high, they're not going to do what they need to do. And this mother with some young children, we had come in contact with her and found out about her situation. And the house was very unique in the sense that there was never AC there. There's no duct work there. So how are you going to help them out?

They didn't have the funds or the resources to do this themselves. And so this could be quite costly. It's what, you know, as you know, in the trades, it's called a cut in. And it's not just the AC, it's the duct work and everything that goes with it. Well, we did end up putting in ductless mini splits and we were able to cool the house. And I will tell you, it was so heartwarming to hear how grateful she was. that we were able to help her out.

And I think that it's something that if you are a business owner is really important. If you're blessed enough to have the level of success that you deserve to have, that you can give back to the community. And that's just one of the ways we do it. And I don't usually advertise it a whole lot. I don't like to make those into marketing moments, although it can be just because. We really do it because it's the right thing to do when we're able to do it.

And I know the team understands that our philosophy here is to give back and to help out. And so that's one of the things we recently did. And in this heat, man, it makes all the difference in the world. And so I'm grateful to be able to do that. I hope if you are a technician, if you are an inspiring business owner or you're a business owner. And I don't care what business you're in. You can impact your community and those that need assistance in the littlest way to something major.

Because I believe that we have a responsibility. You know, they say pressure is privilege. And there's a lot of pressures in being a business owner and having a business. And there's a lot of privileges in it as well. And when you can give back to the community, that's fantastic. So I hope some of this resonated with all of you out there. You know, we're coming out of the heat. And in the desert, we're going to be hot for quite a while, although it still starts to taper off a little bit.

Other parts of the country are going to start cooling down, getting into winters. And those wintertime, the cold presents its own challenges. Not only do you have health concerns that can come from cold weather, you now are dealing with slippery ice and things like that. So I don't care where you are in the country or what you're doing. I hope this episode allowed you to think and can help you moving forward be intentional about a culture of safety in your organization.

And not just you as the leadership, but you as the individual technician, you have a responsibility to have your own culture of safety. So until next time, win the day and be great. The Tradepreneur Show is brought to you by Patrick Somers. Executive production by David Field Producer. Producing and editing by David Field and Kristen George. Original theme song, Blue Collar Working Man, written by Patrick Somers, created using Suno AI.

To be a guest on The Tradepreneur Show or for sponsorship and partnership opportunities, contact Patrick Somers. Patrick at thetradepreneurshow .com.