# Hazing the New Apprentices, back in the Good Old Days? Huh?



## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

Seeing the recent couple of threads which mentioned unions, or any company that has new hires or so called apprentices, what forms of initiating took place to the rookies or what hazing rituals occured?

When I first started out, I was on a 20 man crew doing new construction hot tar built up composition roofing. If you were the first man late, and wanted the foreman to put your time card in as showing up on time, you were sent out to purchase the morning coffee break for the entire crew out of your own pocket, which also included a stop off at the liquor store for many of the guys 6-packs.

If you were the 2nd man showing up late, then you had to go out and buy the entire crews lunch order from Mickey D's or a similar place plus, once again a trip to the liquor store. It taught you real quick to be on time, no matter how late you were out at the gin mill the night (morning) before.

There was another guy on a real freakish crew, where they pantsed him and tied him up to the swing beam and left him tied up there for the entire lunch time.

I'm not sure how this would go over nowadays with any of the females in construction.

Anonymous


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## dirt diggler (May 14, 2006)

i guess i wouldn't make it too long at a place like that


just dumb sheep ...







(i will say - that is hilarious they pantsed some guy and tied him to a swing beam)


I don't even know what "pantsed" means

and I don't even know what a swing beam is



but it is crackin me up hahahahha


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## Mud Master (Feb 26, 2007)

When I got started I worked for my father, who at the time was big into government work and had a contract with Burger King Corp. to do all thier remodeling and new construction. Of course on government sites they couldn't do anything to me, so I was nothing more than a grunt. But I remember the first time my father put me on a burger king repair job, we were retiling the kitchen at night. There was sooo much grease from the broilers that by break time I was covered in it. One of my dads mechanics at that time said to come in the back because they had a grease remover that worked great. when I got back there they drenched me with a bucket of freezing cold water and locked me in the freezer for the duration!! I thought when my father arrived a little later that justice would be served...I WAS WRONG!..he opened the freezer, yelled at me for not working..threw ANOTHER bucket of water on me and LOCKED ME BACK IN!!:furious:  At least I got paid for that night. 


Than one time while working with a drywall company I was always the one to grab my bucket of tools @ 3 and go. I was in my mid 20's, I had friends and other things I wanted to do besides be at work(like we all did at that age). So one of the older mechanics thought it would be funny to screw my bucket to the floor. Damn near ripped my arm socket out come quitting time!!

I have many others lol. but thats my experiences.


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## Guest (Mar 2, 2007)

I got a ton of them from sending the newbies out to the van for a box of toenails:whistling :laughing: or a can of air . The funniest was wrapping the newbie in TYVEK tape we bumrushed him at the end of the day he couldnt move an inch and while we were having a couple of beers we would set our next beer just in front of his face .we let him go after about a 1/2 hr. needless to say he was quite angry and yes he still works for me today hes a good kid and good sport we told him everyone has to go threw it part of the job:clap:


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## Scott Young (Dec 23, 2005)

we had nail bags of newbies nailed to highest point in the structure. some would urinate on nail bags that were left laying around. it taught you real quick to keep your nail bag on. i became the first thing you put on and the last thing you took off. 

newbies are sent for toenails, skyhooks, board stretcher, dog foot (not to be confused with a cat's paw)

back when wood handles ruled, many men endedup with shortened handles. saw blades turned backwards.

there are others, but i can't remember them at them moment


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

I forgot about sending the rookie down to get the "felt strecher" when it looked like we were running low on tarpaper.

Also, pranks played on other tradesmen.

How would you have like to have been the guy that ticked off our crane operator. He went to the port-a-pot and the crane guy had the 2 ground guys strap it shut and lifted it up in the air for the entire lunch hour. At least he didn't tip it over on him.

I got even with someone who was screwing with me, by backing up my truck to the outhouse door when he went in their and just let the guy enjoy a nice sumer day with the nice job site john odors.

pantsed = removing the guys clothing

swing beam = the metal beam on the roof used for hoisting materials up and down from the ground with the added feature of the front overhang portion of the beam swiveling to a forward position past the wall and also to a rearward position to bring the materials directly over the roof. Or in some cases, the apprentice, I guess.

Ed


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## Scott Young (Dec 23, 2005)

when i was roofing we had several new guys not pay attention to where they sat and ended up sitting on a shingle load of tar (wet-n-dry)


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## POOLMANinCT (Oct 7, 2006)

this may fall into the realm of payback...

i was working at an outfit during college. i was at the point where i was close to getting my own crew to take out.

it was a big outfit. the chief of operations was a skatter brained goof off.. his first season at the outfit & he was on thin ice w/ the boss and the old timer tradesman.

one day put some heat on me for an error, he had made months ago. so i was stuck on job well past allotted time. about a day X 3 guys. 

when i got back to the yard the boss wanted to give me a loud talking to.. so i took .... talked back and ended up getting docked 6 hrs...everybody was furious...

so a box of chief of operations cards fell into my hands... i would take them out w/ me on $1 beer & college nights... threw my rap at any chick who would listen & gave them *my card*.:whistling .. it took about a week for the calls to start pouring into to his office & cell... needless to say it made a few waves for him..


childish in retrospect, but i was a kid anyway...


but generally i do not like breaking a new guys chops, they are there to learn and produce... why distract them or make them dread coming in everyday.. give a guy some respect he'll deliver for you


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

Some things went way past the point of really being a joke in good fun.

But, one thing that does occur, is that the ones with the thinnest skin or who didn't flow with the program, didn't last very long. 

Is that wrong? Maybe, but the old timers who really were raised during harder times and remember doing things the old fashioned way, probably went through as much if not more challenges just from the working conditions they had to endure, regardless of any of the hazings that became accepted practice, all in the name of fun and good times.

Ed


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## POOLMANinCT (Oct 7, 2006)

ed go get a bucket of steam, its next to the pipe stretcher


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

Filling the inside of someones work glove with roof cement.

Ed


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## bcf (Mar 20, 2006)

At the fence company I used to work at, the new guy would be sent to the truck to find the board stretcher, blasting putty, pipe stretcher, and anything else the foreman could think of. The yard guys got to go into the bosses office with a bent nail and ask for more toenails. You could hear him yelling over the air compressor.


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

When letting somebody go, instead of just plain out firing them, give them the address of the next job, which happens to be the address of the unemployment office.

Ed


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## dougchips (Apr 23, 2006)

Ed the Roofer said:


> When letting somebody go, instead of just plain out firing them, give them the address of the next job, which happens to be the address of the unemployment office.
> 
> Ed


:thumbsup: I like that one.


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

Be prepared for retaliation. Experience speaking.

Ed


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## wackman (Nov 14, 2005)

I got a guy pretty good once who had been giving me a hard time. We were both apprentices but he had been there a little longer and thought he could boss me around.

He had on a harness and tied off to go out a window to walk down a fairly steep roof right near the edge to do some flashing. Well after he went out the window I grabbed about 6 feet of slack rope and held it firm. When he got down near the edge of the roof the rope was taunt and he used it to hold his weight. 

I let him get working and then, _I let go._ 

He about $hit himself when all of a sudden his rope gave and he thought he was going off the roof. He came back in clearly shaken and couldn't figure out what happened. He wouldn't go back out. I never told him cause it really was too mean and I didn't want to get in trouble, but I chuckle everytime I think about it.


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## ch0mpie (Nov 30, 2005)

Mud Master said:


> Than one time while working with a drywall company I was always the one to grab my bucket of tools @ 3 and go. I was in my mid 20's, I had friends and other things I wanted to do besides be at work(like we all did at that age). So one of the older mechanics thought it would be funny to screw my bucket to the floor. Damn near ripped my arm socket out come quitting time!!


Careful with this one. A buddy of mine was working on a framing crew and someone nailed the boss/owners toolbox to the floor. Then yelled "quick get over here and bring your tools". The guy dislocated his arm and discs in his back, was in the hospital for a month, and everybody got laid off. Might have went out perminately but I don't remember.

When I was working doing drywall, the older guys used to chit in an empty spackel bucket then send the new helper to open it.


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## osborn (Dec 6, 2006)

This is a prank not hazing, but I like to take a guys pencil and smack it with my hammer up and down. Then every time he goes to whittle it the lead comes out.


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## Mud Master (Feb 26, 2007)

Yea I've seen the chit in a bucket more times than I can remember. I remember one feud between a finisher and a plumber. The plumber put screws in the finishers spackle, than the plumber took a chit in the finishers spackle. Than the finisher had enough and put the plumbers tools IN the sh*tter. Last thing I saw was the plumber chasing the finisher with a pipe wrench..never did find out how bad Mr. Spackle got hurt...one can only imagine


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## boman47k (Oct 13, 2006)

In one of the Walking Tall movies, there was a reference to a some boys in Alabama that could take care of the problem for the bad guys. The leader of the guys commonly accepted as the ones around here that was referred to had a son and wife that worked at a textile plant I was emplowed at at the time. His son got a little hazing once on the nightshift. He makes two phone calls. He called the owner of the company and told him to either take care of the problem or he would. And he called his parole officer and told him he was going back to prison. Heheh, someone was watching every set of headlights that came on the property at night. The result was a crackdown on horseplay, and I think this is about the time we got security cameras everywhere in the plant and an electric gate to enter the property at night. Maybe he called the po first then the owner was contacted. Either way, changes were made. Now this was just an ol' Alabama boy that was what he was. A book or two was writtne about him and a big write up about him giving a very expensive saddle to an important and powerful senator, etc.. He was questioned about ...the unfortunate dragic car accident that resulted in the death. of a famous former McNary Co. sheriff according to the book Walking Tall. Sorry about the long post but this made me think of it. I never did cared much for a lot of horseplay, and you best be d****d sure you know who you are messing with.

P.S. There also allegation of contractors coming to his place to be paid only to be robbed on on their way home or when they left .


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## theworx (Dec 20, 2005)

Wow, some of these hazings from the past have gone a little too far. But enjoy hearing about them none the less!!!

When I get a new young guy on my jobsite (usually a new apprentice of one of our subs), I give him a welcome to working with me... Nothing crazy, just some fun... The thermos trick: Before coffee time, take his thermos and open it and fill the cup 1/2 full of coffee. Then put the lid on the thermos and turn it upside down and screw the cup back on... Big surprise come coffee time (lap full of coffee)... Nailed the same guy for about 2 weeks (he figured the lid on his thermos was broken until I let him in on the joke)...

We usually sit on 5 gallon buckets (turned upside down) for our breaks... They usually have a small circle in the middle of the bottom... Fill the little circle with water (you can't see it). Come break time they sit down and get a wet ass they have to work with for the next few hours...

When they still used twist ties on the bags in boxes of mud, used to strip the plastic off them (left with very fine wire)... Then repeatedly unplug the rookies' drywall gun (making him think that was the prank)... He will be annoyed after 2 or 3 times having to plug it in again... The last time wrap the fine wire around both prongs on his cord... He'll be so annoyed at having to plug in again that he won't notice the fine wire... Next thing you know zap!!! Don't worry, the fine wire is gone instantly and won't even blow the breaker (or damage his cord)... Just a little spark, but it does make them jump!!!

Other fun stuff: label makers (thanx electricians), hot glue guns (love seeing a guy try to grab just one tool from his pouch after break time), and of course drywall mud (never put a tool down if I'm taping, you'll pick it up and have mud all over your hands)... Please note, I would never pull a prank that entailed ruining a tool and try to read the guys to make sure they wouldn't need professional help after working with me for a few days!!! I'd hate to see them at my Thursday afternoon group session :laughing: ...


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## POOLMANinCT (Oct 7, 2006)

has it occured to anybody, if you bust balls you can get screwed over... hollow spot left in concrete, half assed work etc, detected problems going unreported...


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## dougchips (Apr 23, 2006)

theworx said:


> Wow, some of these hazings from the past have gone a little too far. But enjoy hearing about them none the less!!!
> 
> When I get a new young guy on my jobsite (usually a new apprentice of one of our subs), I give him a welcome to working with me... Nothing crazy, just some fun... The thermos trick: Before coffee time, take his thermos and open it and fill the cup 1/2 full of coffee. Then put the lid on the thermos and turn it upside down and screw the cup back on... Big surprise come coffee time (lap full of coffee)... Nailed the same guy for about 2 weeks (he figured the lid on his thermos was broken until I let him in on the joke)...
> 
> ...


The follow up to the coffee trick is to take the cap off, screw the cup on and when they open it upside down (after learning the 1st leason) the coffee will spill all over the place. After this they will never know which way to open the thermos.


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## wackman (Nov 14, 2005)

Some good ones I've either commited or been party too are..

*Giving someone smurf ass*: while they're sitting on the porta-john drop a nice sized rock down the vent tube, it splashes the blue stuff up all over their backside.

*Piss on shoes*: drill a small hole right under the urinal in a porta-john and leave a sports bottle of water sitting outside next to the john. As soon as someone starts pissin squirt some water through the hole on his shoes, he'll think the urinals leaking his urine all over himself. Always good for a laugh!

*The Tool dump*: Nice, safe and annoying, just dump their bags or bucket out all over the floor, hey they probably needed to be cleaned out anyway!

*The slapper*: Take a long zip tie (maybe 16") and zip tie it to the drive line of your buddys truck, as it spins it will slap the underside of his truck driving him freakin nuts till he either gets home or pulls over. Often you look but don't see it, so it can go on for a while.

*Chalky mudd*: dig a hole in your buddys bucket of mud or spackle and squirt some chalk in there then cover it back up with clean mud.

*Foamy lunch*: empty a can of expanding foam in someones lunch box. Be sure to remove anything that can get damaged. One guy got it and he had his paycheck in there...not fun.

I gotta stop now cause I could go on for awhile.

Wack


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## boman47k (Oct 13, 2006)

Guess I would be one that some would not want anyway. I couldn't handle some of those pranks. Maybe I am a worrywart, but say the tiewire thing goes awry. only burns off toward the neutral, and enough left from the hot leg to stick above the plug body. The worker does remove it thinking it is all gone. Still might just be a quick zap, but...
whew! Heheh, is kind of funny though....for a slap stick comedy skit.


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## dirt diggler (May 14, 2006)

dougchips said:


> The follow up to the coffee trick is to take the cap off, screw the cup on and when they open it upside down (after learning the 1st leason) the coffee will spill all over the place. After this they will never know which way to open the thermos.


my follow up (as the "evidently-worthless" grunt) would be to throw the thermos at the guy who did that:laughing:



last kinda guy i want to be counting on is someone so weak to tolerate any kind of hazing


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## wackman (Nov 14, 2005)

dirt diggler said:


> my follow up (as the "evidently-worthless" grunt) would be to throw the thermos at the guy who did that:laughing:
> 
> 
> 
> last kinda guy i want to be counting on is someone so weak to tolerate any kind of hazing


As long as you can take it as well as give it then it's usually just a nice reprieve from the work day and everyone just has a good laugh. 

I try not to be too sensitive about that sort of thing.


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## TempestV (Feb 3, 2007)

ziptie everything in their bags- hammer, square, tape, ect. Either don't tie in their knife or leave enough slack for them to still be able to use it, but take the blades out. 

I heard about a job where a guy picked up another guys truck with the forklift and "parked" it on the other side of the jobsite

Kinda hazing- a friend of mine was saying that his first construction job was nailing off sheathing by hand before nailguns- one time he hit his hand with the hammer and the crew started laughing at him.


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## WNYcarpenter (Mar 2, 2007)

It's only good for one laugh, but asking the new guy to cut you a sheet of plywood at 96 1/2"

not hazing, but funny....my co-worker asked a rookie to get him some Ice and water and after 10 minutes sure enough there was a nice glass of ice water.

To this day I still get caught on this one....punch a small hole into someone's styrofoam coffee cup just below the lid. I drank an entire cup while the coffee dribbled down my chin. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I saw the guys rolling on the floor.

One last joke....again I'm always the sucker. We're always dropping things and misplacing tools, and incessantly searching for them. My co-worker likes to point and say..."there it's, Not"

Thanks for the thread, some funny stuff!!


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

On hot tar jobs, when a new guy shows up with new boot, not even broken in, the first thing a good mop man is going to do is make those boots water-proof. A little bit of a hot foot, but no harm.

If a guy showed up with torn up blue jeans to work with hat tar, the old guys would grab the tear and rip the jeans leg right off of the guy. You wear long pants and long sleeves when you work with hot stuff, not cool looking but dangerous clothing. (This, from the same guys who sent out for their first 6-pack with the morning coffee break order)

Ed


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## dirt diggler (May 14, 2006)

wackman said:


> As long as you can take it as well as give it then it's usually just a nice reprieve from the work day and everyone just has a good laugh.
> 
> I try not to be too sensitive about that sort of thing.


i agree ...

im still going to chuck a thermos at someone who pulls that stuff





btw, i think these hazing stories are hilarious though.



hell if I gotta work the rest of the day in wet pants without someone getting a bruise though


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## boman47k (Oct 13, 2006)

These pranks are funny as long as it is someone else, but I lean toward Dirt's way of thinking :thumbsup: .


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Get the shingle stretcher... "I left it in your wife's closet, I'll go back and get it."


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## wackman (Nov 14, 2005)

Grumpy said:


> Get the shingle stretcher... "I left it in your wife's closet, I'll go back and get it."


Good comeback.


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