The previous five years were spent working for my family’s HVAC business, which my father founded.
- He told me I was an expensive worker and that if I wanted to go to a heating and air conditioning school, he would pay for it out of his own pocket.
He was going to spend my college fund on me, and he was paying for my education. To me, this didn’t make much sense. I confronted him on the wisdom of spending my money on his heating and air conditioning education. He made it clear that weekend work was expected of me. He still needed me to do inventory, among other things. Although he wanted at least five hours from me every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, he didn’t think I should work on school nights. After receiving my first paycheck, I realized he was paying me for more than the ten hours I had worked. He was aware of my commuting costs to and from school, as well as my other out-of-pocket expenditures. He assured me that I need not fret over anything of the sort. This was his attempt to be helpful to me. Heating and air conditioning school took me a year to finish, and then there was the certification course and exam, which took another six weeks. My father made me sign a contract before I could take the certification exam. Since he paid for my HVAC equipment, I owed him a year of my services. I had the option of leaving for another Heating and Air Conditioning company at the end of the year, or staying with him.