Road builder Yannick Müller finds team spirit and prospects cool

Yannick is interviewed for “Schweizer Familie”. The journalist wants to know how it feels to stand in the baking sun, being thoroughly shaken up by a jackhammer, while suit-clad men in expensive cars beep aggressively. “That doesn’t happen all that often,” Yannick stresses. “Most of it is positive. For example, a mother with two young children baked a chocolate cake and delivered it to our little team, and local residents often thank us for the great work we’ve done.”

It takes a lot to rile Yannick, although he does not enjoy cold, rainy days much. “Still, I’m not on my own, after all. There are five of us,” he explains. That is a great help when the work is not so much fun, for example in extremely hot weather. “When it’s hot, you just have to keep drinking. The foremen always check that we don’t forget, and at three o’clock one of us gets ice cream for our break. When you really can’t go on, you just take a quick break. But as a team, the work is not hard: the others aren’t exactly reclining in a deck chair either.”

In the first year of his apprenticeship, he was absolutely exhausted at the end of the day. Now, he comes home, takes a shower, and then heads out to the gym or to play football with colleagues. Most of his friends are at university; one works in an office. Not an option for Yannick: “I’d much rather work on a construction site and am always talking about my work. When my colleagues hear how complicated all the calculations are, it helps to disprove the ‘stupid builder’ cliché.”

Yannick sees every day how much expertise goes into successful construction. “Experience is key on a construction site. Older colleagues know so much.” Foremen, overseers, master workmen: Yannick respects their experience and performance – and wants to develop further on the construction site himself, too. He has a tip for young people looking for a profession: “If you like being outdoors, like working in a team, like to have prospects: a road builder apprenticeship is ideal.”

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