Lia: Welcome to the Sparky Life Podcast. I'm your host, Lia Lamela, and here we create the spark in our lives. Join me on this electrical journey where I highlight skilled trade tales and construction career opportunities with those I've met along the way. Thank you for joining. For Trade Tales continued, today, on The Sparky Life, I am honored to introduce two secret superheroes, Emily Grace and Val Gacek. Yes, that's right. I've got a two-for for you. Now, before you write off Dirty Jobs, it's important to sit down and talk to the people doing the work. Hearing the phrase “turd herding” is anything but glamorous. Emily and Val, team “WOW,” Women of Wastewater, don't hide anything in today's discussion. This job is not for the faint of heart. That being said, you never know what might be a good fit until you take the time to explore. I am amazed by the stories and secrets shared. Emily and Val divulge finding unexpected treasure. I'm not kidding. Like diamonds, bling bling. Hear how they protect the community and environment and much more. Welcome with me, Val and Emily, women who are living it up in the most unexpected career path.
Val and Emily: There we go. Hi. Yay.
Lia: Hi. Squish closer. Must see all beautiful faces. Yes. Okay, great.
Emily: So, I'm Emily. This is Valerie. Valerie, this is Lia.
Val: Nice to meet you.
Lia: Nice to meet you. Valerie. She spoke pretty highly of you, so, you know, I'm excited to have you here.
Val: Thank you. Good.
Lia:I was talking to Emily about wastewater and all that good stuff, and she basically blew my mind because I know nothing about it. I didn't even know that it was a skilled trade, and I didn't know that there were many paths in order to go down that road. First off, let's start with what is wastewater industry look like? What would you call somebody who specializes in that and how did you guys get involved in it?
Emily: Okay. Well, I would say that a wastewater treatment plant operator, they're just kind of known as an operator and they get that job just kind of by knowing someone or by seeing a job opening and applying. And they really normally get hired because they have some sort of mechanical skills or lab experience. In my case.
Val: Emily majored in environmental sciences. She did geology especially, and her uncle was working at one, at a wastewater plant and he said, Hey, I know someone who could come in here and help out. So that's how she ended up getting into it. I myself was working in local concrete company and was like, I can't stand this. I need something that's more physical. So I just opened the paper where, you know, back in the day, that's when
Lia: Back when we had paper, right?
Val: Yeah, like, wow, that's unheard of now. But I opened the paper and saw wastewater trainee and it was like, I don't even know what that is, but sure, I'm going to apply for it. And yeah, that was a really interesting interview altogether. And then decided, Yeah, I'm going to go with this.
Lia: Awesome. That's really brave. That's really brave because I speak to a lot of people all over the place from tons of different backgrounds and to just decide I'm going to change careers, I'm just going to give this a go, that is unique. Val, what's inside of you that makes you fearless when it comes to career change like that?
Val: You know, I can't really say that was fearlessness. I think it was just more along the lines of I hate where I'm at. I need something new.
Lia: Desperation.
Val: Yeah. Yeah, pretty much.
Lia: I can relate.
Val: Yeah. So but but did not I really did not intend to continue on for as long as I have, but I'm glad that I did because I did not really consider it when I first started. One of those things where I didn't think, Hey, this is a career, I thought this was just a job. But as time went on and I went on with different places, realized, Yeah, this is a career and you can advance and you can do things with it.
Lia: That's so cool. I'm checking out your way awesome Wonder Woman tattoo right there. I know all the listeners can't see the amazing tattoo, but I can. Feel special. It's all right. Maybe this will end up on YouTube, so then everybody will get to see it. But that's awesome.
Val: That'd be cool.
Lia: Yeah. So what does a wastewater operations technician do?
Emily: Well, basically mean you start the day off by, I call it you get a picture of your plant. And so you need to know the depth of your settling tanks, the concentration of your aeration basins. You have to know the nutrient concentrations of your wastewater so that you can figure out whether you need to increase your air feed or your chemical feed. A treatment plant is like a living and breathing machine, and so when you get to work, you have to make sure all of your pumps are running smoothly..
Lia: With wastewater, are you cleaning the water or are you disposing of it? Is it coming in dirty? Is it coming in like hot? What are we working with?
Val: So you flush the toilet. Where does it go? You don't know. You don't care because you got rid of whatever you just did. Okay. Same thing with taking a shower. You know, washing your clothes, doing your dishes, whatever. Everything goes down the drain. You don't give it a second thought. So, majority of the time it'll go to a local pump station that looks like a really boring, tiny building that you don't know. And it's like wallpaper to you. You pass by it all the time. That pump station will pump all of this water from your entire community to a wastewater treatment plant. And from there we process it in different ways by adding chemicals, using different, different processes altogether because there's different types of plants. And then you, you're testing it in different areas of the plant, you're treating it in different areas of the plant, and then you're making sure it's clean enough to go back into the environment. And it's not going back into the environment for you to drink. There's a huge difference in drinking water versus wastewater.
Lia: Wow. Now I know why you have the Wonder Woman tattoo. Basically, it's a secret Batcave and no one knows it exists. And you guys are the superheroes that are making sure shit goes down.
Emily: Yes. We're the behind the scenes turd herders.
Lia: Yeah! I love that so much. Okay, so you're making sure that it goes back into the environment in a safe way so it's not going to affect our environment in a negative way.
Val: Correct.
Lia: Okay. When you walk in the morning, as Emily stated, you kind of assess your living, breathing bat cave.
Val: Yeah, we could say it's a bat cave.
Lia: Don't try to trick me, okay? I know you guys are secret superheroes. Don't mess with me. I caught the Wonder Woman thing. I'm onto you now. I'm on to you. Okay, so we're assessing the situation. Then what's next? Walk me through. Pretend I'm with you. I want to see it. I want to do it. What am I doing?
Emily: Well, you normally spend the morning running tests, and so you, you collect your samples and you run your tests and you see how many solids you have. And then from that, you do some math to figure out how many pounds of solids you have and then how many, because you already know how much your bat cave needs to perform ideally. And so we do what's called a waste. The excess solids that we have, we send out of the plant and that gets processed either in-house or by a third party. And that normally gets turned into like a fertilizer for non-human consumption, or it gets turned into like heating pellets.
Lia: That's cool.
Emily: Or something like that. So that's what happens to the solids. But the other water that's cleaner we treat with chemicals. And so you have to know the nitrogen levels, the phosphorus levels, so that you can add certain chemicals to it so that it removes it because everything is bacteria that changes the chemicals into gases. You have to know the concentration of the chemicals in order to change the chemical dosage so that when it goes out into the environment, you don't have algae blooms, for example, because if you have too much nitrogen, then algae will grow and then die and then deplete the body of water, of oxygen, and then you'll have dead zones.
Lia: Now a dead zone means that no living thing can live in that water. Is that correct? And then it's not drinkable as well.
Emily: The fish can't grow there, so fishermen can't work there. Then you can get that flesh eating bacteria. I forget what that's called.
Lia: Holy cannoli. Yeah, that's the supervillain right there. Flesh eating bacteria from this. No, thank you.
Val: Yeah. If you're not treating it right.
Emily: Yeah. So that's why our permits are so strict. Any state that you work for gives you a permit limit that you have to meet. And so that's why it's so important that you test every day so that you know your concentration so you can dose correctly to meet your permit or else you get fined. And then of course, you ruin the environment. Nobody wants that.
Lia: So you guys are passionate about the environment, aren't you? I know Emily is. I know from speaking.
Val: Oh my god, yes, It's obnoxious sometimes. Are you going to compost that? No.
Lia: I appreciate it, Emily. I appreciate it. From the ocean side of things. So way back in another life, when I was commercial fishing and had a real rig bait tackle commercial fishing biz, I was very passionate and I still am about the water and keeping the ocean clean. So I'm with you. I'm with you.
Emily: Oh. Oh, thank you.
Lia: Val’s not on the same, hardcore…
Val: Don’t get me wrong, I'm all about the recycling and all that stuff. I'm just not. I'm just not a just not that passionate. I bring her my compost.
Lia: She does. There you go. There you go. That's a win.
Emily: So you meet a lot of interesting people in wastewater because not everyone can handle being covered in poop.
Lia: So you are basically covered in poop. Are we wearing suits here? Are we going swimming? What's happening.
Emily: There is PPE that you wear every day. Obviously we wear gloves.
Lia: I'm thinking full suit. No. Full suit.
Val: No, no, no, no. Okay, okay. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Lia: I'm like, we're astronauts. We're going into this like.
Val: No, no, no. There are certain projects to where you are going to be exposed. You might get sprayed or something with the rich chocolate Ovaltine. And you, you might want to wear a suit, a Tyvek suit, which is a, it even has a little hood on it. You look like a Loompa.
Lia: Okay. All right. I'm with you.
Val: And yeah, actually have a picture of me in one with, like, the big bug Glasses look like a giant flying squirrel. It was awesome, years ago, but. But those are projects. Yes. That you do want to wear covered head to toe in your PPE. But there are other things, such as the laboratory where you're wearing, you know, your nitrile gloves and you're wearing your safety glasses and if you're just walking around the plant, you know, and checking on this and checking on that, there's no there's no need for the extra gear. You actually only asked you what projects.
Lia: Okay, I'm with you. All right.
Val: Yeah. That's when you want to turn into the spaceman. Yeah.
Lia: Definitely. From what you described, for sure. So we are environmental Avengers, and you guys are pretty badass because, like you said, not most will be willing to venture into the turd herd, so to speak.
Emily: Well, yeah.
Lia: And what you do affects all of us. We all live here on this beautiful planet, and if you weren't doing what you were doing, things would not be good. I'm anticipating very bad things would happen.
Val: Oh, yeah? Well, you certainly don't want to be drinking your own funk.
Lia: Yeah, no, that doesn't sound appealing.
Emily: No, you don't want it going into the ground.
Lia: No, no, no, no. That all sounds like bad news. You talked a little bit about how you got into this and you talked about how originally I don't know if this was the same for you, Emily, that you thought it was going to be a job and it ended up being a passionate career.
Emily: Yeah. So mean. Didn't know what to expect, really. I just knew that it got talked into starting this position because once you pass your license exam, you can take that anywhere. So if you work for a small, small municipality, you're not going to make very much money. But if you go to like a big like, for water or or a larger city, you're going to make more money. In general, you can advance your career by getting certificates.
Lia: Okay. All right. Wait, first of all, cha-ching. We're talking about money. I'm very interested. What's your baseline? There is a wide range of income. Give me an estimation range of where you could start, where you could end up. What are the possibilities?
Val: Well, man, that is one heck of a range because it all depends on what stage you're in and so on. Starting off with a private contractor 16 years ago, I started off at like 13 an hour.
Lia: Okay. Okay.
Val: Yeah. So that's your low range and that's, that's, that's for people who don't know what else is out there and people who are just starting out.
Lia: Okay. Okay. That's good.
Val: I would have to say. Now. Now, are we just. If you want to go from that area, that's, that's pretty much your baseline. Like that's how low it's going to be just starting. Now if you were to advance in your career and so on, like up to superintendent or something along those lines, you're talking triple digits.
Lia: Okay. And we're talking six figures. Nice.
Val: Yeah. Yeah.
Lia: What would it take to get into a position like that? Is it training, certs, years, all that?
Val: All of it. Okay, now. One of the things that a lot of people always don't think about when they're starting out is that no plant is the same. You can design a wastewater treatment plant and put it in this city and put the exact same layout in the city next door and they're not going to run the same.
Lia: Interesting. Why is that?
Val: Because they're not going to receive the same type of flow, the same type of bacteria, equipment is going to be the differ a little bit here or there, and then especially your operations, the people that are employed there are going to do things differently. If you're someone who starts out at will say, for Emily, she started out at this small municipality and she started out at the baseline. She could have taken her time and spent years learning and gaining the knowledge of knowing that plant. And then in the end, she could end up being the superintendent. But that's about as far as she could go, being superintendent there with whatever they're willing to pay. If she were to take her knowledge of that plant and go somewhere else, she wouldn't be able to really apply that knowledge to that plant and therefore be a little more difficult to achieve that status at a different location, if that makes sense by making sense here.
Emily: Yeah, it's like, you know, you have to pass the license exam. You have to have three years worth of hours in order to become licensed. And you have to have what, 30 class credits or something like that. When I started at this small municipality, I started at $19 an hour. Then three years later, when I passed my license exam, I got $24 an hour. And if I were to stay for another ten, 12, 15 years, I could have made $80,000 a year being an assistant superintendent. And then like once my boss would have retired, then I would have made the six figures or what have you. But in a small city, small municipality like that, you really do have to wait for someone to die or get fired or move or something in order to move up. It's just you, we only worked with six people.
Lia: Wow. wow
Emily: And three of them were above you. You know, we were lucky enough to meet the right people, and we got into a consulting firm. And so we're using our degrees to help and engineering firm who helps cities. We are in a unique position because they had a need for us and we were in the right place, right time.
Lia: Yes. Yes. Networking.
Emily: You know, So, yeah, networking.
Val: Exactly. Well, if it weren't for her, I wouldn't be at this company. Yes, I will give all the kudos in the world to this chick right here.
Emily: And just, like that, I met you on a Facebook group. I've got this job on a Facebook group because there is a wastewater operators. Yeah, there's a wastewater operators of the world Facebook group. And somebody was complaining about this particular plant and someone who worked for that person was like, Hey, if you want to help, send me a resume. And so I did. And they were like, Please help us. I was like, okay. And then was like, Valerie, please help me.
Val: Yeah. But I had moved away.
Emily: She moved.
Val: Yeah. I just moved to Colorado and she calls me up. And remember, as I was at I was at Rocky Mountain National Park and I'm in the gift shop. She's like, Oh my God, you're not gonna believe what they did, what they offered me. And she's just, she's just so excited. And then she told me to come back. Later, I was like, This plant is so messed up. Don't know what to do. There's so much work. Like, don't. Oh, my God. So I ended up moving back.
Emily:I got her the job.
Val: She got me the job.
Lia: That's awesome.
Emily: So if you're like. If you really like networking, there's a lot of wastewater conferences that you can go and you can get all this free swag from all these different booth vendors. You can take classes.
Lia: That's nice. That’s nice.
Val: So there are perks to being covered and shit.
Lia: Clearly, I'm sure that you have had experiences that were unique in the industry that you're in. What are some things that you saw or observed or experienced that most don't know about?
Val: Well, there's some really interesting things you can find in the poo.
Lia: Interesting
Emily: I found a dead puppy fetus one time.
Lia: What?
Emily: Yeah.
Lia: Did you just say. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Yeah. A dead puppy fetus.
Emily: Yes. I found that in the, in the screenings. In the, in the solids removal.
Lia: That is horrible. And makes me feel so sad.
Emily: There was a local breeder and there was a stillborn puppy and she flushed it down the toilet and found it.
Lia: Oh, she's a dingaling, first of all. Why? No. Oh.
Emily: Well, it was such a small town that, like, I told the story and someone knew the lady who did that.
Lia: Ha, ha. You blew her up! Good. Good. Her spot needs to be blown up. What dingaling does that? That's nonsense. What do you want? Like, Hello? Dig a little hole. Put a little like, rest in peace. Why wouldn't you do that? It's a living thing. Come on, man. I don't know. I've got a soft spot for animals.
Emily: On a, on a lighter note, what did you find at that one school?
Val: Oh, at the school. Oh, okay. Yeah, we'll go with that. That's, that's much better than the other thing. The cool thing that I found, and this is the weird part, it was at a middle school was a diamond tennis bracelet.
Lia: Wow.
Val: I still have it.
Lia: Oh. Good for you. Talk about finding treasure.
Val: Well, yeah. And it was, I tell you, because this was, again, my first job when I first started this. And I had to make screens to catch any debris. We call them rags, which is like all the toilet paper and other things that, that aren't organic.
Lia: Tampons.Right. I'm sure you get a lot of those.
Val: We call them deer mice.
Lia: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I like it. I like it.
Val: And I had to make screens out of chicken wire. And every so often I'd have to pick it up. So put gloves on and just pull some of it out just to clean it. So I wouldn't have to make another one, you know, and put all the rags in a bucket. Well, one day I pulled out this tennis bracelet and was like, You got to be shitting me, I set it to the side and, you know, finish doing everything I needed to do. And it's funny because I had a, had a small jar of sodium hypochlorite, which is like hella strong bleach.
Lia: Okay, okay.
Val: It's like 12%, whereas your household bleach is like 5%. So yeah, very corrosive. And so I was like, Yeah, let's see how real this thing is. And I dropped it in there and nothing happened.
Lia: Oh, no shit.
Val: Nothing happened. Yeah. So I cleaned it up, washed it off all that stuff and was just like, Oh my God, you got to be kidding me. And so I took it to two different jewelers. They gave me a quick estimation of between 3600 and 8000.
Lia: Oh.
Val: Yeah, yeah. And so me being the person that I am, I called the school and I said, Is anybody missing a piece of jewelry? Did anybody report?
Lia: No, you didn’t. Val.
Val: Yes. And everybody said no, no, we haven't gotten any reports of that. And I left my phone number just in case. And I still felt awful about it. So my dumb ass took it to the police station and turned it in as a lost and found. And I was told that after six months that I could get it back if nobody claimed it. Six months comes along. Oh, man, it was a fight. That's why I still hold on to it.
Lia: Oh, yeah.
Val: I had to. I called and they were like, No, we're gonna auction it off or no, whatever. And I was like, No, no, no, no, wait a second. SoI had to actually go to the county commissioner and complain. And he they got the county lawyer to look at the little law that they had in there and they found a loophole for me so I could take it back because there's no there's no definition of what a lawful claimant is on an idle wow.
Lia: First of all. Okay, Val, you're an incredible human being. Wow. Emily, you weren't kidding. Like everything Emily said about you, I'm like, okay, she's serious like this, like, it's legit. Like, that is, you’re a better woman than me, Val. Like, if I picked that out of shit, okay? I mean, I was with you with the school, contacting the school. I was with you there. But then you go above and beyond to the police station and handed in, and then they try to keep it from you.
Val: Yeah. I had to fight to get it back. What kind of shit is that?
Lia: No, you've earned it. You earned it at that point. Are you kidding me?
Val: That’s what I'm saying.
Lia: Yeah. No auction off my asshole. No. That is an awesome, awesome story. Wow. Thank you. I knew it. Superheroes. Um hum. Um hum.
Val: Yeah. That’s how we do.
Lia: I need a theme song for you guys.
Emily: Hm.
Lia: You know those old school like Batman and Robin, da na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. And then. And then a Batman. Yeah, I see it. I see it right now. Oh, it's going to be like something with Wonder Woman, but a female spin. We got to.
Val: No, no, no. We're. We're “WOW: Women of wastewater.”
Lia: I love it. I am on board with this.
Val: Yes. Thank you. Thank you.
Emily: Like, this is a fascinating career choice, you know, and we want people to learn about it.
Val: Yeah, that's one of the hard things is that there's nobody who wants to be a part of it anymore. So it's hard to find people to, to actually take on a job.
Lia: And why do you think that is? You really, do you really think it has to do with the turd hurting or is it? I didn't know this existed.
Val: Right. Nobody knows it. But that's one thing. Nobody knows this exists. And yeah, another thing is that like, you know, it's, Hey, do you want to work with poo? I mean, look, I'll tell you, I tell people all the time, hey, they're like, what do you do for a living? Oh, I play with poo. So the look that they give me is the funniest look. And then I'm like, No, I'm a wastewater operator. And I explain it and they're like, Oh, okay, gotcha. I talk about it all the time, like in front of my kids and such. And my youngest son, he had a, he had a career day coming up. And so I asked him, I said, okay, do you want your dad to do your career day or would you like me to come? And he's like, Yeah, think I'll take my dad. And I'm like, Man I was like, What is with you boys? Like? They have absolutely no interest in what I do. And he said, he said, Well, Mom, it's just, it's kind of embarrassing. You play with poop all the time. And I'm like, Dude, that's not really what I do. And so I started explaining to him what I'm actually doing is like, Oh, okay, yeah, I'd rather have you come. I'm like, Thank you.
Lia: You're saving the world. Okay.
Val: But yeah, that's one of the things people think. They're like, Ew, you hear sewage. Like you hear sewage and you're like.
Lia: Call me weird, but the sewage thing wouldn't turn me off. I mean, I can see how in general, that wouldn't be appealing. I think it's more of what you said that people don't understand what it is you're actually doing. Don't know that it exists. And when you have to come in on the low end, it's hard for people to see the end goal in the long term.
Emily: Right? Like we have things to strive for. Yeah, you start off the low guy on the totem pole, but like the first year, all you're doing is learning. No one expects anything out of you.
Val: Learn something new every day. 16 years, I'm still learning.
Lia: Wow, that's great. That's great. What would you say is the best thing about what you do? Like, what are you most proud of?
Emily: For me, it's the bragging rights. Nobody, nobody knows anything about it. Like I'm a wastewater treatment plant operator. You've never met one before.
Lia: That's damn skippy.
Emily: You know? And like, I'm not only like a scientist, I'm a mechanic. Sometimes I'm an electrician. You know what I mean? It's like you have to be a jack of all trades. There's a lot to it.
Lia: That's wonderful. That sounds very empowering.
Emily: Yes, it is.
Val: For me, my favorite part is the fact that I'm actually helping the environment or doing my part, I guess.
Emily: Because that's all she does.
Val: It's nice to, this is going to sound a little strange, but it's nice to have such a position or such a career as a, as a, as a woman in a man's field, because this was originally a man's field.
Lia: Okay. This is a male dominated field to date. Would you say that more men do this than, than women?
Val: Yes. Absolutely.
Lia: Okay. So like most skilled trades, it tends to be more men than women. All right. So then what were some of the challenges and struggles that you had to overcome?
Val: Well, I'll start off with I was working for one of our southern counties, and when I started, everyone's like, oh, look at this chick, okay? And great, because I was actually five months pregnant when I started, so that was fun. Um, and couldn't, right. And couldn't really do too much, but still did what I could. And then when I came back after having my son, oh, I came back full force as myself. And they were just like, Oh shit. Because they were amazed that, yeah, I would put on a Tyvek suit and I'll go down in that tank and I'll pull rags out of the ports and I'll do this and I'll do that and I'll scrape this and I'll scrape that, you know. And then I think my favorite part was one of my supervisors was so impressed with the strength behind me during the wintertime because I was de-icing something and literally just yanked like this gigantic chunk of ice off of this chute that nobody else could get for some reason. And he was just like, God damn. Yeah. It was fun. So I earned that respect there, with, with my time there because I was there for five years. I was fully vested. My husband at the time, he and I were a great team working together. And when we got together after four years of working together, he decided he was going to go to a different department. And our superintendent was very displeased because that was years of an employee that just left and he thought that he knew everything, after about six months of him just kind of like, shunning me, he started saying something about I don't even remember what it was, but was like, Oh, yeah, because this, this, this and this it. He's just like, Yeah, that's right. So he suddenly realized that I knew what I was talking about, cuz everybody thought that I was riding on my husband's tails.
Lia: Oh I'm following now.
Val: Yes.So they thought that, oh I'm just riding around with him and we're just hanging out together because we're friends. And then, you know, then now we're lovers or whatever. And then it's. No, actually, I was the brains and he was the brawn when it came to our team. I mean, we worked so well together. It was amazing. After getting together, it was like, Well, we can't work together and live together at the same time. So he chose to go elsewhere and everybody thought, Oh, great, now we're just stuck with this. And it's like, Huh, guess what? I'm the one who knows it all.
Lia: Yeah, I'm the one you want. Hello? That's amazing. That's really wonderful. They were pleasantly surprised in the end.
Val: Yes. Throughout all this time. And mean and even so on after, after the fact. Yeah. Having to prove that I know what I'm doing and I know how to do it is. It's difficult.
Lia: What about you, Emily? What kind of struggles did you come across?
Emily: Well, obviously, they think I'm weak or scared, you know, like I'm obviously the first one to pick up a shovel. Or, like, throw into my gloves. Like, I'll jump in the tank no matter what. Actually I found out that we're really useful because we have tiny little arms and hands and we can pick places that they can't.
Lia: Yes! Oh, my goodness. Me too. I have small hands like you guys, and it's actually a superpower very much needed in electrical, actually. So I feel you. I'm with you. And then they end up going, Oh, okay.
Emily: Because like, women are smart, but sometimes we don't flaunt it. Like, men have these egos where, like, they have to prove to each other that they know what they're talking about. Women are much more like, low key. I'm the type who, like I know that there are people who are smarter and better than me. So it's like I think that I'm not as good as I really am.
Lia: The stats are on that, that you are very intelligent. So people who are very intelligent are aware that there are many more things out there to learn, that you never stop learning, that there are people of different skills and they doubt their own abilities or do not recognize exactly how intelligent they are. And then the people that act like they know everything or are very confident in their intelligence, let's put it that way, typically don't even come close to the ones that are very aware that we continue to learn and grow.
Emily: Yeah, you put that very well, because that I keep going back to that in my mind, I could never put it in words like you did. But it's true. These, stupidity is confident, and intelligence is humble.
Lia: Well, it's funny. In one of my episodes, I speak to a gender bias specialist and she speaks in detail about this, how women communicate in the workplace versus men and how they communicate in the workplace. And she also talks about different types of leadership styles. I know exactly what you're talking about, and she goes into depth with all that. But I can relate because as I learned when I was on my team, I didn't peacock, I would be the first one to give credit to the team as opposed to giving credit to myself. And I've learned I need to change my dialect. I need to change how I'm communicating and be willing to communicate on a level that they communicate on because they're not understanding the way that I'm presenting myself. So now I'll say things like, Yes, I did a great job, Billy Bob over here, he was a great hand. He was excellent at figuring out the conduit run, and then give credit that way. But first identifying that, yes, it was my skill set that I did achieve this and I get better feedback and put in positions that I'm seeking by understanding how they're interpreting what I'm saying.
Val: That, yeah, Do you see confetti? Because our minds are blown.
Lia: Oh yeah. I highly recommend you guys check out the episode.
Val: That was impressive. Okay. What's the name of that?
Lia: The episode is busting gender bias. It's with Brenda Tackaberry, and I also recommend you check out the book Captivate by Vanessa Van Edwards, skyrocketed my career.
Val: Okay.
Lia: I'm a big, big audible fan. And podcasts too. Little shameless plug. Okay. Would you want to see more women in this field?
Val: You can't be dainty in this field. It's not glorifying. It's not glorifying work. And so it's one of those things where, you know, I've seen people are like, do you think I could do that job? But I'm like, No, no, no. Knowing, you know, you definitely couldn't.
Lia: You have to be willing to not focus…
Val: Yeah, good. Good, dirty, shitty job. But somebody's got to do it. And you got to think that you got to think that way.
Lia: Right? Focus on the wonderful thing that you're bringing to the environment that you're bringing to the earth, that you're bringing to the people who live here, which is amazing and don't focus on the task of turd herding, which I'm going to say now forever because it's amazing.
Emily: Yeah, just think about the community, like, we're helping the community. We're helping the environment. Like it's like a puzzle. You know, it's like we have to do all these things to meet the permit. And if we do that, then we're helping our community and we're helping the environment. Just because I have to go downstairs and grab this sample and carry it around the plant and run the tests on it, and that's not a big deal because at the end of the day, I'm done, get over, and go home. And that's what I like about this job too, is like, do your time and you have to worry about it.
Lia: You don't take your work home with you right now.
Val: You'll think about it. Yeah. It’s fascinating. If you're into it, you'll think about it and you'd be like, Wait a minute. You know, it's kind of like how they say, like, you know, don't know if you ever saw the meme where it's like, you know, a server's running around and somebody asked for honey mustard. And so they're running around and they're grabbing this, and then they remember, Oh, honey mustard. And then they keep going and they keep going. And then the end of the shift is done. They're sitting at home. They're like, Oh, I forgot that person's honey mustard. You know, that kind of thing. It's yeah, it's like that. You're sitting here, you know, you're running around all day doing whatever you're doing, and then you're sitting at home and you're like, Oh my gosh, did I, Oh, forgot to open that valve or something along those lines. Yeah.
Emily: Like I'll be explaining something to my friends and I'll be like, Those baffles need to be deeper. You know, so just, just realized the design is wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a really weird example. But, you know, improvements can be made in this way. Yes.
Lia: That's awesome. That's awesome. Okay, Now, because Sparky Life is all about skilled trades and construction careers, I love to ask, so I'm going to ask Emily and then Val, what tool is in your tool belt? What's something that you carry with you every day that helps you accomplish your goals.
Emily: For me people skills? Probably tact because it's so for me, it's like my people skills, my networking.
Lia: Love it.
Emily: My bubbly personality keeps everyone else in a good mood.
Lia: Yes. Yes.
Val: She was like, Yeah, I'm in. Like flint. That's my tool belt. Mine is my resting bitch face.
Lia: Well, that's a unique one.
Val: You do have to have people skills. You do have to have that customer service orientation to where you can build a relationship with your client, with your people. And that way, you know, they trust you in helping them and making decisions and they can come to you with problems and so on. And so that's, that is definitely a, definitely a skill that you, you need to possess for this position.
Emily: It's about planning and brainstorming and bouncing ideas off of each other. So the majority of wastewater is working with your coworkers to figure out what the problem is and then figure out how to solve the problem.
Lia: I love that. That sounds like collaboration and wonderful things. Awesome.
Emily: So I'd say 20% of it is actually the work mean other than your daily sample and sampling math shit like, you know, that's that stuff you got to do. But like in terms of like when something comes up, when there's a problem, 80% of it is working with your people. 20% of it is wrench in hand, you know?
Lia: So very cool. Very cool. Oh, as usual, I've had too much fun. Surprise, surprise. You ladies of the best, I thank you. Thank you so much for being a part of the Sparky Life podcast. It was a pleasure having you, Val and Emily, if you'd like to contact Emily or Val to ask more questions about their career, let me know and I will connect you. Thank you for joining us. If you felt a spark in today's episode, I invite you to write a review. I'd love to hear what lit you up. Take what resonates with you, and if you'd like to hear more of the Sparky Life, please subscribe, like, follow and share. Until next time, create the sparks in your life.