Apprentice Tradie is brutally fooled by older colleagues during the initiation ritual as they make him take a ‘flexibility test’
- Student nailed to the floor in workplace joke
- Received online praise for laughing it off
An apprentice carpenter is praised for laughing at an initiation joke by older colleagues under the guise of a ‘flexibility test’.
The apprentice, Dan, worked alongside older craftsmen on a construction site in Queensland during the construction of a house frame.
The joke involved sticking a long piece of wood through the back of the apprentice’s shirt to see if he could get back on his feet after being laid on the floor, keeping the length of the wood inside his shirt .
However, once Dan lays down on his back, two elderly craftsmen use nail guns to fix the piece of wood to the floor, keeping him in place.
Instead of protesting, the student laughs at the harmless joke, earning himself credit.
In a video posted to TikTok, several of the older workplace crafts can be seen convincing Dan that the prank was just a test of his “flexibility.”
“Oh what the f***,” Dan says with a laugh, once the nail guns pin him to the plywood floor.
“It’s a test,” an older tradie replies, as his colleagues laugh.
About a million views on TikTokmany commentators applaud the apprentice for performing the stunt in the right spirit.
“Good on the boy for not taking it the wrong way and having a good laugh about his situation himself,” one user wrote.
“Joking about it, this dude can just lay on the floor for the rest of the day,” wrote a second.
“Take a day off, enjoy lying down and getting paid for it,” a third wrote.
“If there is a ‘test’ on a job site that isn’t a drug or alcohol test, DON’T DO IT,” wrote another.
An apprentice carpenter, Dan, has been fooled by his older colleagues after he was convinced to take a ‘flexibility test’ to see if he could stand with wood in his shirt (pictured)
Apprentice Dan (pictured) was then stuck to his shirt after older cronies nailed the wood to the floor, but received online praise for laughing at the joke and not causing a fuss
Studying to become a carpenter is part of the federal government’s plan to attract a skilled workforce across the country and address a dire skills shortage in occupations.
The government announced that a total of 111 jobs will be part of Australia’s priority apprenticeship list, allowing a payment of up to $5,000 for those who study to get prioritized jobs.
The government announced on January 25 that 39 new jobs would fall under the new cash boost.
The new professions include dental technicians, tour guides, travel consultants, beauticians, vet nurses and blacksmiths.
“It’s a way of identifying the priority areas so that when we invest in education and training, we invest in areas that will contribute to the supply that is in demand,” Mr O’Connor told the ABC.
“We have skills shortages across the economy, in the labor market… and so the task of responding to that is significant.”
Workplaces that take on an apprentice following one of these courses also receive a subsidy of 10 percent of the apprentice’s wages for the first two years, dropping to 5 percent in the third year.