Last week while I was working at the office the air conditioner randomly malfunctioned. Thankfully, the temperature outside wasn’t too hot. In fact, the temperature was in the mid-80s, so it was quite pleasant, which means that when the A/C broke, the building didn’t become too uncomfortable. Well, we called the maintenance manager so that he could schedule an appointment with our HVAC provider. Unfortunately, our HVAC provider had a backlog of service calls and did not have any HVAC technicians available for that day. I had read somewhere that there is a shortage of HVAC technicians, and the industry is consistently growing but they can’t find enough talent to fill the new positions. There are a lot of older HVAC technicians who are retiring, and that wave has caused the shortage in the industry. Unfortunately, the younger generation are becoming less and less interested in taking on skilled blue-collared jobs. They are more interested in the new tech jobs that are currently on the rise. As a result, the HVAC industry is seeing the impact of that. The good news is, in the same article, I read that more women are becoming HVAC technicians. In fact, the industry has placed incentive programs in place, like scholarships that would appeal to young women interested in becoming technicians. I believe having representation is great, and if the industry is having a hard time finding talent, it is a smart move to broaden the pool. Perhaps one day soon, the HVAC provider for my company would have some women technicians as part of their team.