I'm doing the same thing. I'm currently learning the fine art of working with a few journeymen that are way too conceited, bossy, and assured of their own righteousness for their intelligence levels. I'm recently learning how difficult some people can be to work with in this industry.
It's an interesting balancing act between shouting "No, you're wrong, that's ******* stupid, shut the **** up. I'm not going to lose my job from following this order." and doing something the hard way and letting them experience for themselves how stupid/wrong their decision/demand was.
I've worked with people similar to this with no problem because they had none of the ego. When faced with a challenge and I had an idea he would actually listen to it and think about it and use the idea if it were better. We worked great together. Great spirits and got a lot of great work done quickly. Pretentious coworkers who aren't the hot **** that they act like they are can be very toxic.
and FWIW, just about every journeyman I've come across has had at least one pair of knipex cobra or alligator pliers.
I work with the same conceited bossy ignorant types of people as well.
One of them talks down about how my box is mainly SO, US Mac, Proto, Williams, etc. How I shouldn't spend so much on tools because they're no better then mastercraft or craftsman etc.
One of them is a complete pathological liar going through a divorce who has health problems and is very volatile, I pity him when I'm not enraged by him.
I work in a pretty big shop, and I only agree to work with them occasionally, and often if my lead hand asks me to I'll just say 'I'll do it by myself and worst case if I need there help they're there.' Most of the time the job doesn't go much faster with two people on it anyway, unless you don't know what you're doing that is..
It sounds like you know how to deal with those people better than I do, because if people like that disrespect me or tell me the wrong way to do something, I just say **** off and don't pay them much mind.
The shop I work at now is the only shop I've worked at in ten years that I've had problems with people like that. I'm not a journeyman (3rd yr Automotive before I switched to Heavy Equipment in which I'm 2nd yr), but we have a lot of newer apprentices and if I see someone struggling I'll run through everything that has to be done, how something works, a better tool to use, better way to operate a machine, better way to rig something up for a crane, etc. I try to go about it in the most helpful way, and only open my mouth if I think they will value what I tell them, or it's a genuine safety hazard. The Journeymen (who are in my eyes, not only there to work, but also to instruct new apprentices), just say to look it up on the computer.
Yeah, but dealing with those types of people 5 days a week is pretty stressful sometimes... I often consider moving back to the mountains where people are a lot happier and have a lot less to prove.
