Gasfitters
Install, maintain and repair gas mains, piping systems downstream of the billing meter, and appliances and ancillary equipment associated with the use of fuel gases, including liquefied petroleum gas, hydrogen and biogas systems.
A smell in the kitchen
You are a licensed gasfitter carrying out a scheduled service at a small restaurant, when the chef rushes out to find you. It is 3:30pm on a Wednesday, before dinner service. The restaurant has forty bookings tonight. The chef says there is a faint smell near the back stove, and the owner is already hovering.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
There is a smell by the back stove, I am sure of it. But we have forty bookings tonight and the owner will go mad if I close the kitchen. Can you just check it quickly and tell me we are fine?
Stop service, make the area safe and check it properly
You find a small leak at a fitting behind the stove. It would have been a worry all night. Kwabena is relieved, even though the news is not what he hoped for.
Look around quickly and tell him it is probably nothing so service can go ahead
Telling him it was probably nothing meant you had not checked properly. The smell returns during service, forty guests are sent home, and everyone asks what the gasfitter said.
Tell him to close the kitchen for the night without looking further
It is safe, but you did not find the cause and the restaurant loses a whole night it may not have needed to lose. Being cautious is good, though finding the answer is the job.
Kwabena says you want to shut the kitchen. Forty bookings, a food critic coming, and my staff already in. Surely you can sign this off as safe and come back tomorrow to fix it properly?
Sign it off with a note to return tomorrow, so the owner is less stressed
You put your name to a job you know is not finished. If anything happened tonight, that signature would be the first thing anyone asked about, and you would have no good answer.
Tell her it is not up for negotiation, then walk out to your van
You are right and she knows it, but she feels bullied and has no plan. A clear no with some options would have given her something to work with.
Explain what the fix needs, give her a real finish time, and suggest options for tonight
The fix will take an hour. Ginevra reorganises the menu to use the electric equipment and opens late. She is grateful to be given choices, not just a closed door.
I have finished the repair, and the pressure test passed. We are an hour behind. Do we really need to do the full test paperwork now? I can fill it in tomorrow morning from memory.
Fill in the paperwork tomorrow from memory, so you can both get away on time
Memory gets details wrong. The record is unreliable, and an unreliable record on a gas job is a problem for whoever relies on it next, including you.
Complete the paperwork now while it is fresh, and have Dao read it back to you
You are accurate and it is done. But you have been doing both the work and the checking yourself, and Dao is a little deflated by being read to like a child.
Complete it together now, with Dao writing and you checking each line
It takes twenty minutes. Dao learns how to record the work, and the record is right. A job is not finished until the paperwork says what you actually did.
How it went
The kitchen opens an hour late, the food critic is none the wiser, and the record is complete. Gasfitting is about being the person who is careful when everyone else is in a hurry. Could you make an unpopular call and still help people find a way forward?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The heater that was almost fine
A fictional case set in a gas fitting business servicing homes, restaurants and small factories that run on natural gas and bottled gas.
The situation
Matilda, a gasfitter, went to an older couple's house to service their heater before winter. They had used it for twenty years. Mr and Mrs Chen offered tea and told her it had always worked fine. Matilda noticed the flame colour was slightly off and found a faint sooty mark on the wall above it. The couple were on a tight budget and were hoping for a quick service and a clean bill of health.
What they did
Matilda did not want to guess. She tested the heater and found that the flue was partly blocked and that the appliance was not burning cleanly. She turned it off and told Mr and Mrs Chen kindly and plainly that it was not safe to use until it was fixed, and why. She showed them the marks and offered two options with clear prices. She left an electric heater from the van for the night and came back the next morning.
How it turned out
The flue was cleared and the heater repaired, and she wrote up what she had found. The couple were nervous about the cost, but they were glad nobody had left them with a heater that looked fine and was not.
What would you do?
- Why do you think Matilda turned the heater off even though it still worked?
- How would you talk to people who are worried about money and also about safety?
- What would make you want a job where you are sometimes the one who has to say no?