Sometimes it can be tough being an apprentice in a trade. A few fellow apprentices I know have wound up on numerous occasions working for really rude and arrogant trainers who are more interested in bossing someone around than training them. I had a nightmare trainer once too. He spoke to me like I was nothing but a bit of worthless dirt. He’d constantly put me down and boss me around. I remember once he told me to go to the hardware store. Bentleigh has a few hardware store locations but my trainer refused to tell me which location he wanted me to go to. Apparently, if I was smart I would ‘figure it out’. Usually, I’d give someone a piece of my mind, but I chose to take the high road and go to each store searching for this one item that he wanted me to buy. No doubt he’d take issue with whatever I brought back for him, so I knew to get the process over and done with fast.
After spending twenty minutes in the shop, I found the item he wanted me to purchase and went back to the site. Turns out I had bought the right item but from the wrong shop. He told him that he didn’t specify what shop he’d like me to purchase the tools from. He was adamant that he told me to buy electrical supplies in the Cheltenham area. The whole scenario was absolutely ludicrous as he didn’t say a word about Cheltenham. He only mentioned Bentleigh, and that’s where I went. It was after that day that I knew I had to quit and find another trainer. I was unemployed for about two months. I remember my TAFE being super mad at me and garnishing me as a dropout. Obviously, my teachers were given incorrect information by my boss. The upside of this incident was that I wound up finding someone who appreciated me and my work.