Here's an elevator myth -- when an elevator is caught between floors, it
could plummet to the ground. The passengers should get out at all costs!
This is one of the most common myths about elevators, according to the
Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation (EESF). Ronnie Race says it's time to
put this myth to rest. "We've had a couple of what you'd call entrapments,
where people are stuck and you have to get them out. It's not dangerous for
me, and it's not dangerous for the people who are stuck because they're just
in a box. They're not going anywhere." The EESF says that an elevator is designed
as a "safe room."
Race is an elevator technician. For him, elevators just made sense. "I've
always been interested in electronics and electrical engineering and mechanical
objects. Elevators just intrigued me," he says.
According to Race, a love of electronics is essential for this kind of
work. After completing his formal education in electrical engineering, Race
went straight into elevator repair.
Elevator repair technicians must harbor a little knowledge about all of
the trades. "We have a saying in our business," says Race, "that you have
to be just about every trade with the exception of air conditioning."
Ideally, an elevator repair technician is innovative, crafty and capable
of working with multiple tools. "You have to be a plumber. You have to be
a carpenter. You have to be an electrician," explains Race.
"Elevators incorporate a little bit of all the trades. We have to run pipe,
like a plumber. We have to build frames out of wood. When we're installing
the elevators, it's electrical."
Charlie Murray is a member of the International Union of Elevator Constructors.
He says elevator repair is incredibly tough physical work. Frankly, he says,
grim working conditions will turn people off of this job.
"And that goes the same for both genders," he points out. He says that
a significant percentage of optimistic women and men enter this field and
discover quite quickly that it's not what they want.
"It's very, very, very heavy work," says Murray.
"If you're unloading an elevator off the truck, the guide rails weigh over
200 pounds. It's very cold. We've had numerous apprentices start here, but
before they served their time to join the union, they decided it wasn't the
career they were looking for."
Race agrees that the biggest disadvantage in this line of work is the grueling
physical labor. "Heavy lifting, the weights," he says. "A lot of stuff weighs
a lot. You have to exert yourself to move it around."
Murray offers a mild warning for would-be elevator repair technicians who've
never lifted a finger. "We've had a lot of young men in the last 12 years
that come out of high school....They get into December when it's minus 25,
with a wind chill of perhaps minus 40. And they're working on
a building with no window, no heat, nothing. They say, 'Listen Dad, get me
outta here, I'm going back to university!'"
Murray adds that this type of scenario is common for both men and women
who enter the field.
Patty Ryan is an elevator inspector. She acknowledges that the business
of actually repairing elevators is new for women. "It's always been a male-dominated
industry," she explains. Ryan suggests that women need to think of elevator
repair as a realistic career option; there is no reason why they shouldn't
make up a higher percentage of the technicians.
Ryan explains that many people are simply unaware of the opportunities
in elevator repair because so little attention is given to the field. "We're
a small-niche market in comparison with computers or any other field. Usually,
people get into this trade by word of mouth. I think people, male and female,
are not aware of the opportunities available in this trade."