Gloria Haigh has been in the skilled trades for more than 40 years. Over that time, she has served as a navy electrician, a welder, a solar installer, a plumber, a gas technician, and a refrigeration mechanic. She has even run her own company.
One of her former employers called her “nothing short of a superstar.”
That’s why we’re so thrilled to have her as an instructor in Herzing’s combined HVAC and gas program.
We recently sat down with Gloria to talk about her career and what new technicians really need to know. Read on for the highlights.
Q. Could you summarize your training and career and how you got to this point?
Gloria: My dad was in the trades and it sounded like he had an exciting career. He’s a welder and he told me he helped build the CN Tower and things like that. He taught me welding, which I was good at, but I didn’t like it. I wanted to get into something like electrical.
I joined the navy as an electrician—they hired me with no experience. They trained me and I spent three years with them. Then I was offered an apprenticeship with the IBEW in the shipyards in Victoria, so I was there for a while. But the economy took a flip-flop and I was laid off.
I came back to Ontario and worked with my dad. He did pipe welding, but he also did fabrication, so I did fabrication. I built racks for solar collectors for a place in London. And they said, since you can weld and you have an electrical background, could you install solar systems? So I became a solar installer.
Then that dried up, and the boss I was working for at the solar industry asked if I wanted to do an apprenticeship in plumbing. I said sure. I did my apprenticeship and got my gas ticket.
I was recruited by Union Gas, a major distributor of natural gas. I learned the trade really well there. They even built a house to blow up so technicians could learn. While I was there, they asked if I wanted to apprentice for refrigeration and air conditioning mechanic, so I did that too. I got all my gas licences up to G1, the highest level that exists.
From there, I went on to own and operate a company of my own with my sons.
Later, a headhunter contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in an opportunity in Thunder Bay. This was with Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions (BGIS), a facility management company for commercial buildings. I was hired as an HVAC roving technician, but I did everything, including plumbing. I also did all the recruiting and supervising. I got a lot of accolades for that.
Q. What licences or certifications do you hold?
Gloria: I have my G1 gas licence, plumbing licence, and refrigeration licence.
I served an apprenticeship in electrical but didn’t get my final journeyman papers because I got laid off. I did all of the prep and I had the hours, but I didn’t have a company at the time.
Q. What convinced you to move into teaching?
Gloria: I’m very passionate about passing on what I know. And since my experience spans over 47 years and 80,000 service calls, I have a lot to share. I’ve been in the truck for a long time. I’ve been a senior technician for 25 years. There’s nobody I go to for help. I’m it.
Over the years, I’ve been brought into universities and colleges to talk about women in the trades. I would also get recruited to come into a college and put on the gas course.
I’ve been teaching full time with Herzing since June.
Q. Can you share an example of a memorable service call?
Gloria: In 1998, one of the last days that I was with Union Gas, I arrived and there was a critical situation where a series of homes were going to blow up and I was the only one on call.
I got called out for an odour of gas in somebody’s house. This was at 11 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, the worst time to have stuff happen. I went out and found huge amounts of gas in this house. So I evacuated the house, opened all the doors and windows—it was -25°C—and turned the gas meter off. Then I went to a coffee shop for an hour to let everything air out.
When I came back, the house had an even higher concentration of gas. At that point, I had to make a call. I always tell my students, you’re it in natural gas. There’s no inspector coming behind you. There’s no boss who’s going to check your work. You are 100 per cent in total control of keeping customers safe.
It turned out that they had cleaned the sewer the day before. In the sewer, they ran a plastic gas line through. There’s 40 pounds of pressure in gas piping. When they sheared it off with this big auger, they pressurized the sewer system. So all of the gas was coming into the homes through the drains and everything.
It was a good thing that I got things going very quickly! Thankfully, there was no major incident other than waking 2,000 people up at 2 a.m. to tell them we had to check their house. But that gives you an idea of the importance of conscientiousness.
Q. What personal qualities make someone a good fit for the HVAC trade?
Gloria: Some people just have a really strong interest in mechanics. But let’s talk about the women with no trades background at all.
What makes them good is they’re conscientious. They care. If I walk into your house and you’re cold, there’s a good chance when I leave, your house is going to be warm. That feeling is gratifying, to know that every single day, you’re going to be changing someone’s comfort level. You’ve got to care.
You’ve also got to have a strong backbone, or at least I did. It won’t always be easy. A lot of customers ask if I’m the cleaning lady. I just say, “Could be. Have you got something dirty for me to clean? No, I’m here for the furnace.” You’ve got to have a light temperament to accept people just how they are.
Q. What do you emphasize with your students?
Gloria: Customer service is so important. Enunciate when you talk to the customer. Look at them. Smile! It really goes a long way.
I’ve trained a lot of people. I’ll ride along and say, “You didn’t even look at the customer’s eyes the whole time. You looked at your shoelaces. What would that tell the customer?”
Only five per cent of the job is fixing stuff. The rest is about interacting with the customer.
Q. What advice would you give someone considering this trade?
Gloria: Don’t go in with the idea that you need to know everything, because you never know everything. I’ve had a couple customers who said, "What are you looking in the manual for?" Well, there are 25,000 different models of furnaces out there. It’s impossible for someone to know every single one.
Look at it as an adventure, not a job. It can be whatever you want it to be. Get into sales, get into management, sidestep into water softening systems. If you’re tired of commercial, go to residential. You can go to a hospital, or a school system, or a prison. There are all kinds of things you can do.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HVAC TRAINING FROM HERZING
In Herzing’s HVAC program, students learn the fundamentals of heating and cooling and get full preparation for their G2 gas technician licence. Graduates can go straight to work as a gas fitter or begin an apprenticeship to become a licensed HVAC technician.
Training takes one year and is available in both Toronto and Cambridge.
Click below to explore the program and connect with a friendly admissions advisor. We’re here to help!
