Is it jinxing yourself to wear the funny electrician shirts on the job?

I’ve always been on the side of keeping it proffesional on the job. The idea that a gag shirt somehow changes the outcome of a circuit is just wishful thinking, and frankly, it’s dangerous to let superstition influence how you handle live wires. I remember working on a complicated service panel upgrade for a house out in Scottsdale last year. We were pulling runs for a new kitchen and the job was getting tense because the framing was uneven. One of the younger guys on the crew was wearing this huge shirt with a picture of a power tool doing gymnastics. We were running 12 gauge romex through those tight pockets.

My foreman, Mark, doesn't have time for jokes when we are pulling tight and you need clear hands for terminating lugs properly. He told the guy, 'Keep the humor outside the work boots, buddy.' He's seen enough bad installs from relying on any kind of arbitrary 'good luck' and knows the risk is always there. Good habits and sharp focus are what keep a job from blowing up.

I don't mean you shouldn't have fun, but when you are tightening those phase connections, you need to be in the zone. If the humor is distracting you or making you complacent, it's a liability. Focus on the torque wrench settings and the wire gauge, not what you’re wearing.

I come down on the humor side, but not because I think a shirt does anything magical. I've got one with a cartoon lineman lit up like a christmas bulb and I wear it to the supply house all the time. The reason I like it is what it does to conversations. Every time I've worn it, some guy at the counter starts telling a real story. Last winter a fella told me about his cousin who took 277 off a lighting ballast and lost feeling in two fingers for good. He wouldn't have mentioned it wearing a plain polo. Those stories travel, and hearing them sticks with me way longer than any safety meeting ever did. Where I split with the younger guy in your story is the timing. Off the clock, at the counter, in the parking lot, joke away. Once I'm on a job I go quiet about it. Not out of superstition, more like how some pitchers won't talk during a no-hitter. It's a focus thing, not a luck thing. My old foreman never said a word all day until the last screw was in, then he was the funniest guy alive.

So I'd tell the old-timer his shirts aren't cursed, but I understand where the feeling comes from. Your uncle and his gag mug sound like my kind of crew.

I'm with the guy wearing the lineman shirt. Mine's an ancient tee with a cartoon sparky riding a lightning bolt, and I swear half the stories I know came from wearing it. An old-timer at a job we shared told me about his first apprentice mistake becasue my shirt got him talking, and I've remembered that story for twenty years now. The superstition thing I sort of get though. My uncle would never say the words 'all done' on a job, he'd just knock twice on the doorframe and leave. Never explained it, never questioned it either. Some habits you just inherit.

I'm somewhere in the middle, honestly. Shirts don't bother me either way, but I do have one superstition I can't shake, and it's words, not clothes. I never say 'it's dead' out loud on a job. Ever. Even after 18 years of commercial work I'll just say 'check it' and point at the panel. Started after a guy on a tenant finish said it dead, it wasn't, and he got knocked on his butt off a 277 lighting circuit. He was fine but the whole crew got quiet and it stuck with me.

So I get the old-timer's feeling even if I can't explain it. Some habits are just your brain reminding you to respect the work, gag shirt or not.

Funny how the superstition always lives in the small stuff, not the shirts. My ritual is patting my pocket three times before I leave the truck, checking my tester's in there. Don't even remember when I started doing it, but if I skip it I feel off all morning. My wife thinks I'm joking. I'm not. Also curious wether the old-timer in your story ever had an actual incident that pushed him that way, or if it just crept in over the years like mine did.

Update: went to the counter Friday and caught myself about to say 'it's dead' right before checking a disconnect, and I just pointed and said 'check it' instead. Didn't even think about it untill later. Also grabbed a shirt with a cartoon sparky on it, figured the conversation-starter thing is worth testing. Curious if that guy who never says it out loud has caught the crew picking up the habit from him.