Is it normal for service plumbers to work 12 hour days?
Service companies routinely overbook technicians with difficult, geographically scattered jobs without providing backup help. Dispatchers send workers on extreme commutes—like driving three and a half hours just to pull a single toilet—and expect them to stay into the next day if a commercial job goes bad. This relentless treadmill of tasks and complaints leaves tradespeople deeply exhausted, making many decide the paycheck is no longer worth the toll.
Core Friction Pattern
Analysis of 5 peer accounts across online developer and community forums reveals that “Is it normal for service plumbers to work 12 hour days?” repeatedly surfaces due to edge-case mismatches between standard defaults and real-world environments. Standard troubleshooting frequently falls short, compelling practitioners to develop custom workarounds.
+3 alternative community-tested workarounds cataloged below.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Is it normal for service plumbers to work 12 hour days?
- 1Switching to an in-house maintenance role at a hospital or real estate company for set hoursDid this help you?
- 2Leaving large corporate or private equity companies for smaller, family-owned shopsDid this help you?
- 3Working for companies that enforce strict 40-60 mile service radius limitsDid this help you?
- 4Just keep pushing through the exhaustion and accept it as the reality of starting a business.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I don't have too much to say besides I'm tired. There's always a list of stuff. Next steps. Complaints.”source ↗
“I'm 4mo in myself and equally tired, now feeling that each day I wake up and work and generate some money it's just to see it leave to something else, each task also generates a new one”source ↗
“Im in that 12+ hour day boat. In a sorta unique situation I dont wanna get too in detail about for fear of doxxing myself but wanted to throw this question out there because I have a suspicion that normal service plumbers dont do what I do and I dont think my boss understands that.”source ↗
“The hybrid swap on the 4th floor was 1 of my 5 afternoon jobs scheduled and i did not have help. After 4 morning jobs and these were not all quick and easy and not close together”source ↗
“I'm commercial, and the shop doesn't give a shit about us. I could be in at seven, and not get home til the next day if a job goes south. We stop getting calls at five. We get paid well. 36 percent, in still. Sometimes money isn't worth it.”source ↗
“I worked for a private equity national company that would send you 3-1/2 hours away to pull a toilet so flooring contractors could replace the floors in the bathroom. The next day I’d have to go back to reset the toilet.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 18Taking intermediate accounting, tax, and cost accounting all at once
- 5How to delegate repetitive tasks without giving too much system access