Hutt Gas and Plumbing Ltd – and Shelley

Hutt Gas specialises mainly in commercial gas fitting and plumbing work.  Hutt Gas has been operating in the Wellington region for 15 years and employs 26 staff.  

Aside from the three owners and two women in the office, all other employees are plumbers and gasfitters (including eight apprentices).  

We interviewed Colleen Upton (part owner) and Shelley (plumber and gasfitter). Shelley started as an apprentice five years ago and

completed her apprenticeship within three years.  She is the only female plumber at Hutt Gas.

Shelley featured on Campbell Live about two years ago in a feature about her being a plumber by day and a ballroom dancer by night.

What are the benefits of having a female plumber in the company?

Colleen highlighted numerous benefits of having Shelley working for the company – most centre on customer service and this has many business benefits.  Colleen said:

“We market that we have a woman. Shelley is sympathetic to customers. When she’s in someone’s home, Shelley takes extra care – for example, a customer rang up and said she’s found Shelley sitting at her dining table...Shelley was checking to see that the placement of the heater ensured you couldn’t see the cords etc while sitting down for dinner – the boys would never think of that.”

“If Shelley is working on a hot water tank she always puts the towels back, whereas the boys leave them to the side. Sometimes we hear funny stories from customers who’ve had calls from concerned neighbours saying ‘you’ve got a girl playing with your Toby’.”

 Colleen says the best things about having a female plumber are:

• feedback from customers that they have had better service than expected
• attention to detail (especially in domestic work)
• female customers feel safer
• Shelley goes the extra mile to make sure the customers are happy
• the boys probably behave a bit better.

Colleen commented that employers can’t use the excuse of women not being able to cope with the physical demands of the job, because “no one’s supposed to be lifting more than 20 kg anyway”.

The benefits of being a tradeswoman

Shelley values the fact she is treated like any other plumber on the team: “I don’t want to get any special treatment”.

Shelley doesn’t mind working in a male-dominated occupation, she thinks that basically men and women are not that different – “men gossip just as much, if not more”. She says that while there can be awkward moments when she starts a new job “once they warm to you it can be really fun”.

In her time at Hutt Gas, Shelley has launched ahead in her career – which started with a keen commitment to getting her apprenticeship paper work completed early:

“I’ve been here 5 years, have my own van, and train apprentices. I am more motivated than some of the others so I get ahead”.

There are also some less serious and more light-hearted aspects of the job that Shelley enjoys:

“There are a lot of terms in the trade with inappropriate connotations e.g. ball cocks. So sometimes we have a lot of laughs when I have to ask the guys things like ‘can I grab your nuts?’, or, ‘I’m looking for a penetration’.”

It took a lot of perseverance from Shelley to get an apprenticeship:

“There was a lot in the media about plumbing shortages so I said to Dad ‘I might be a plumber’. Dad set me up with some work experience. I approached most of the employers in the Wellington region – around 30 – I only heard from one who said they had no vacancies. So I went to Weltec to do the pre-trades plumbing course and Weltec spoke to Colleen about me and she agreed to take me on.”

“Mum said I ‘was born to be a plumber’ because I was born with a ventouse – which is just like a plunger.”

Shelley’s top three benefits of being a tradeswomen are:

• lots of career prospects, for example moving into management
• earning straight away – no student loan
• as a woman ‘you do get pretty famous’ – people remember you so that’s good for business.

What works to attract and retain women in trades?

Shelley’s advice to other women considering a trade is:

“If girls are looking to do a trade you have to fit in to the culture – it’s been around for a long time and you can’t expect to change it e.g. rude pictures. Sometimes you might get a crude comment but you just ignore it and it goes away.”

Shelley also reflects on her positive financial position, which may help others to consider trades as a career:

“Girls still think of it as a job that girls don’t do but I’m in a good position – with a house already and no student loan – also getting paid more than my friends who went to university.”

Colleen says flexibility is the key to ensuring valued tradeswomen stay on board. Shelley’s five-year commitment to Hutt Gas is testament to that.

“Shelley talks about having kids one day. Some work e.g. climbing ladders won’t suit her during pregnancy. Shelley excels in domestic work. We’ve started training her in specialist appliance servicing because she could carry this on during pregnancy. We can tailor trades work to suit her availability after returns to work.”

Colleen felt that schools were not doing enough to encourage any students into a trade, let alone girls.  She says “we do careers evenings at high schools but there is a lack of interest from college students.  These days everyone wants to be a lawyer or a doctor”.

The work environment has to be suitable – and this benefits everybody. Hutt Gas has clear policies on harassment and guidelines on health and safety:

Message to employers who might consider taking on tradeswomen

‘It’s a great marketing tool for your company’. ‘They can do the job’.

For more information visit www.huttgas.co.nz