What do you enjoy most about your journeyman plumber career?

What do you enjoy most about being a journeyman plumber? What do you dislike the most? Is it challenging? Are there many opportunities to learn and advance?

What keeps you at your job?

I enjoy putting in work that looks good from then on, or at least til someone cuts a hanger down for conduit or something. I dislike 85% of the alcoholic, drug dependent people I have to work around in the construction field. Its definately challenging and I learn something everyday. Thats what keeps me there.

Being a LICENCED service plumber of 11 years, i enjoy the freedom of offices, boss's etc. My location changes daily and sometimes hourly so its always changing.

What i hate... underpaid, no respect, bad plumbers making good plumbers look like thieves,home owners , lawyers, doctors, non-americans, architects, people whom have 3+ bathrooms that call you at 3 a.m. to auger their 1 toilet that doesnt work, crappy co-workers that call in all the time doubling your workload, and the fact that after 3 year in attemp to leave the field always hearing the same thing from potential employers " I couldnt pay you enough to match what you make as a plumber, cus those guys make GREAT money!". And last but not least cashiers at 7-11(and most) convience stores because they dont care if the soda fountain is broke, are rude, slow, want to talk to a potential girl/boyfriend when your in a hurry, and make more money than me on the hourly/benefit breakdown.

I don't know if it is different in the U.S., but here we ARE paid well. we are still at the top of the pay scale in trades(journeyman can make 55-150K a year). I have worked in all types of plumbing for over 20 years and each type has its good points and bad. Service work is good for variety and constant change but can be very irritating due to dealing with customers(can also be satisfying). Also the hours are almost always bad either you are working too much or not enough.
With housing you don't have to work with customers(+) but it can get very repetative. It does have more consistant hours, you don't have to work weekends, has about the same pay(25-37$/hr) and is very dirty.
Commercial construction is arguably the best pay, you definately do the least amount of work but it can get extremely boring, everything is layed out on plans and there isn't much thinking involved, read blueprints and do.
All of them have drug/alcohol problems, but from what I have seen most trades almost run on it.
There is constant learning as new technologies come out but once you have been in it for a while the only challenge is to stay focused on a task that you have done a thousand times before.
If you become a journeyman it becomes what you are, it stops being a job and becomes what you do. you can take it for what it's worth...

Though my observation on plumbing im my area here in Oklahoma city, Oklahoma on pay/incentives is that there is too little of it. Most companies don't even have any sort of retirement program,vision or dental insurance is a myth, and if your lucky to have health insurance it will not be very good.Owners cosistantly choose to ride the empoyees about performance and sales just before they go out of town for the weekend with their family on the company boat. Customers want to complain about rates that are not set by technitians enevitably lowering how much they get paid so that a customer can get their "VALUE" at your exspence reguardless on how professional or exsperianced you are. journeyman plumbers with good sales make about $52k or less and thats on a 60-70 hr work week. Short of being in a union job, wich are limited,you can exspect to make around $41k with the same hours worked.
Today I started to set up my own company, I dont plan on having any employees and yet i should make 2-2.5 times what i currently make and work less hours.I'm personally tired of trying to teach people that dont want to learn the trade and only do it for a paycheck, for owners that could care less as long as they get their check at the end of each week.
there has to be something seriously wrong when McDonalds managers and Convienent store personel make more than most of us. Do the math! 40 x $15per hour= $600 $22.5per hr(1.5 on 15)OT x 20 hours = $450 wich leave your 60hour weekly total at $1050.$1050 is high end for our area. 60 hours a week is an average, some weeks like when on weekend calls can exceed 80 hours! and I have seen alot of people have a tuff time breaking $1k per week. SERVICE WORK should be more lucretive then that.