"A fireplace waiting to happen"

Nothing over your way mate...

I beg to differ a technician is a designation given to a non profesional job holder eg i am a geotechnician as an assistant to geologists - My best title was geological support officer which ment i drove the 4by for the geo

Have to agree with djcache but the world has changed. Now everyone is a tech or engineer. Even my garbage is taken out by a garbage engineer.
My breakfast at Maccas was probably prepared by McTech.
These days it appears that anyone can call themselves whatever they want. The designation doesn't appear to imply a level of traning and learned skills, it just means that the job title sounds great.
In the old days this was classic managerial behaviour, give the bloke a title instead of a raise.
(I'm cleaning out the garage this weekend, as soon as the engineering support crew get here :)

In saying that... I have to give a huge rap to TJM in Rockhampton. Went in with some solar probs, and their guy knew everything about it. Even Lots of sparkies don't know that much about solar...

In fact, I have to say that TJM has provided me with nothing but superb service. Whil ARB and OL have left a lot to be desired...

Oxford Dictionary definition:
technician

• noun 1 a person employed to look after technical equipment or do practical work in a laboratory. 2 an expert in the practical application of a science. 3 a person skilled in the technique of an art or craft.

Can't see how that applies to a tyre fitter or windscreen fitter. You can't describe either as a science.

science

• noun 1 the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. 2 a systematically organized body of knowledge on any subject.

Nor do they work in a laboratory.
laboratory

• noun (pl. laboratories) a room or building for scientific experiments, research, or teaching, or for the manufacture of drugs or chemicals.

Davoe's job descriptions are actually probably reasonable assuming that he was looking after the geologists technical equipment when assisting the geologists and not when driving the fourbie. The title when driving the fourbie is a hardly an officer, though Davoe is probably an authority on fourbies :o)))

officer

• noun 1 a person holding a position of authority, especially a member of the armed forces who holds a commission or a member of the police force. 2 a holder of a public, civil, or ecclesiastical office.

I beg to differ with Jim. They change the job title for exactly the reason that it implies a greater body of knowledge than the fitter or other worker actually has. It is supposed to impress the customers. It all started in the late 80's or early 90's and I can't see it going back now. I think even some chiropractors consider themselves Doctors these days. That title will still open doors and there are a few alternative therapies that would love to poach it.

It still sucks that in some states you can hang up a shingle and call yourself a mechanic with no formal training at all. I beleive it was the case in Vic a while ago and I'm not aware that anything has changed.

However I think you would find that if the employee sought the pay scale that the title represents the employer would laugh at them. A technician when I trained had a trade certificate or an Ass. Dip in Electronic Eng or both. The rot was creeping in as I was considering career changes.

Dave

well youve gone and got all tecknical us!! you would seem to be right. I however get strange looks when asked what i do and give the correct work title of geos sh!!te kicker. Certainly it seems nowadays technician is used for non profesional jobs in mining at least. I even heard an ore spotter being described as an Ore Control Technician. In the Govern ment alot of jobs have the designation Officer but no one evr called me SIR YES SIR. It seems its not politically correct these days to give people ther true job designation - Dole Bludging technician??

Job positions are named for many reasons. They can be named by the employer or employee. If self employed they call themselves whatever the market will accept. The job title rarely reflects the duties according to the ads I've just checked.
And the job title appears to get fancier depending upon the state of the labour market...go figure.
Can't get a labourer ? Give the job a different title. My son is a metal fabrication engineer...they used to be called boilermakers.
A secretary becomes a personal assistant. And a salesman can become a sales director, all at the stroke of a pen.
I was a "chief engineer" at 19, according to the authorities. How ? Well they needed one and I was the only tech within 1000km. Great title, lousy pay.
I'd better get off this thing before I become a "computer engineer" , or officer in charge of whinging :))

And in the old days there were pensioners (visions of eating dog food) and retirees(visions of "Tahiti, James").
These days we have poor pensioners and self funded fools.

Self funded fools?? I am self funded simply because I paid for my own retirement and now cannot get a pension or lurk of any kind. If thats being a fool then I guess I am.

I should have spent the bloody lot and let the gument look after me.

Yep, self funded fools = people who work their rears off to scrimp and save for retirement. They are rewarded by
no rebates or discounts or vouchers or whatevers on
rates
phone
travel
chemist
doctors
etc etc etc

And are generally seen as being wealthy by the rest of society, whether they are or not.

And the way Private Health is going they'll end up in a public hospital because they can't afford to pay the "gap" ("sap") when they have their heart attack, no matter how long they've paid for private health.

However the time is quickly approaching when everyone will have to fund their retirement and will have just as many lurks and perks i.e. none at all...unless you're a pollie of course.

And now for a fairy story. Once upon a time, a long time ago, part of the taxes that people paid was earmarked for their pension!

Great post and thread, rings very true and to those that know what the go is they'll so OK. A tech in the old sense (5 or so years ago) meant a trade plus a tertiary qualification in the relevant area ie mechanical, electrical, civil engineering. Reality is that in the major areas it still rings true. However in everyday living a tech or engineer can mean anything, BUYER BEWARE.

As for self funded pensioner's. I hope to be one but as my finanical advisor said, either be very, very rich or be broke as in between you will be shaf$ed. I guess I'll be the middle one but with old fashioned values will feel much better about myself. Still offically 20m years until retirement but will do it much, much sooner.

So thought for the day is don't take any notice of titles these days, (ask for proof) and if your younger than 30 save as much as you can because you can forget about being looked after by the pension etc.