Martin Nguyen said his back injuries had taken their toll on his business, as well as his family life. ·Source: Supplied
An Aussie tradie is warning other workers not to “tough it out” after his back injuries cost his business hundreds of thousands of dollars and left him bedridden for weeks. Tradies have admitted to ignoring pain while on the job, putting their long-term health at risk.
Martin Nguyen has worked as a builder for more than a decade and owns his own company, Kubra Building Services. The 28-year-old told Yahoo Finance he had recently experienced two injuries while doing his job, which he said could have easily been avoided.
“It was something that I’ve done 500 times before. One was just lifting up a bit of steel and turning in a lift that we were doing and straight away I knew there was a massive problem,” he said.
“The second time I went to move the excavator and slid the excavator bucket backwards to make some room. That time, I literally had to get carried into the car and straight to the doctors.
“They both could have been avoided but unfortunately they both led each time to three weeks in bed without moving and another five weeks of rehab.”
The dad-of-three said his injuries, which included bulging discs and pinched nerves, were a result of the constant physical nature of his job and could have been prevented through proper warming up and going to the physio for regular checkups.
The 28-year-old said he wished he looked after his body properly earlier. ·Source: Instagram
He said his back injuries had a “massive snowball effect” on his Victorian building business, with productivity dropping and his own self-doubt creeping in as client deadlines had to be pushed back while he was out of action.
“Productivity and work getting done would at least have dropped by 30 per cent on-site. Financially, I hate to put a dollar figure on it but cash flow wise you could see it being a few hundred thousand dollars realistically,” he said.
“It’s up to me to make sure that the work’s coming in. So if I’m in bed for three weeks and I’m not quoting the next job, we run into a little bit of a lull where when I’m back at work, maybe we’ve finished some stuff but I haven’t got the next job started or haven’t organised the next trade.”
Nguyen said his business employed five full-time carpenters and managed other trades. He shared the business' wage bill alone was $10,000 a week and it needed to bring in another $40,000 a week “just to cover overheads and keep the business afloat”.
Along with the financial aspect, Nguyen said the injuries took a toll on his family life.
“I’ve got three kids under three. You get home and can’t lift up your kids because your back is sore,” he said.
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Tradies working through pain
A staggering 39 per cent of Millennial tradies are ignoring pain while on the job, a new study by the Australian Physiotherapy Association found.
Overall, it found more than 9 and 10 tradies had experienced pain, injury or niggle in the past year. These injuries either happened on the job or were worsened by work in more than 90 per cent of cases.
Separate research from Aussie tradie marketplace, hipages, found tradies were losing an average of 11.2 days of work annually due to injuries, potentially costing them up to $4,114 a year in lost income.
Nguyen estimated his back injuries cost his business "a few hundred thousand dollars". ·Source: Supplied/Instagram
hipages chief revenue officer Robert Tolliday said there was a “tough it out” culture with tradies that meant many continued to soldier on despite niggling pain or injuries.
“There also is a financial question and our research found that a lot of tradies basically can’t afford to take the time off - 28 per cent of tradies in our research reported they wanted to rest but couldn’t do so because of financial pressures,” Tolliday told Yahoo Finance.
“There are other bits to it as well. They are time-poor, they are under pressure, they’ve got jobs to complete. For smaller trades businesses, there’s a bit of not wanting to let down their customers and it’s their reputation if they have to take time off and slow down.”
Nguyen admitted he put off treatment and continued to "push through" because of project deadlines.
It comes as the industry faces a huge shortage of workers, with new forecasts revealing the country was moving further away from achieving the government's target of 1.2 million new homes.
Master Builders Australia has projected a shortfall of more than 166,000 homes over the next five years.
Tradies told ‘it’s never too early’ to take care of yourself
Since experiencing his injuries, Nguyen has sat down with his physio and hipages to create a 10-minute routine. He said the idea “clicked” for him after seeing a Formula One race where crews were warming up as a team.
“We get all the boys involved and it’s something that we do a lot of mornings as a group. We are constantly staying on top of it and warming up as a team before the day,” he said.
“As funny and untradie-like as it sounds, what the risk to the business and our own health is, it is so worth it to take that time as a team and make sure we are doing the right thing.”
Nguygen said his company was now “a lot more selective” on the jobs they take on and timeframes, plus he was doing more administrative work since his injuries.
He wants other tradies to know “it’s never too early” to start looking after your body and doing simple things like pilates and stretching.
“Don’t wait for something to happen and then be in preventative mode because it can really cost a lot both physically and mentally,” he said. “It’s never too early. I wish I did for sure and hopefully I could have avoided it.”
