A TikTok video posted by an electrician who goes by the name Hendy The Sparky, with the handle @hendythesparky, shows an electrician leaving a job site after a homeowner asked the crew to wear masks inside the house. The video, which was framed as a “POV: Going on an Electrical Estimate,” appeared to show the electrician arriving at a home with a cluttered exterior and being greeted by a homeowner identified in the clip as Chris.
In the video, Chris introduced his son, Gary, and explained that the family had called the power company after experiencing power fluctuations earlier in the week. Chris said the power company worker checked the meter and the box outside and reported that the power looked good, then suggested they speak to an electrician about the line coming into the house or the panel inside. The electrician in the video suggested looking at the panel inside first.
Chris then asked the electrician, “Is there any way I can impose on you guys to like do a mask or anything like that?” The electrician responded, “Uh, no, I’ll stay out,” and then turned to his son, saying, “You know what, Chris, come on, I don’t think this is for us. Let’s go.” Chris appeared surprised and said, “Oh, okay. I’m sorry, that’s the boss.”
The electrician said the homeowner was not at fault for the mask request
The electrician clarified in the video that he was not blaming the homeowner for the mask request, saying, “No, no, it’s, it’s his thing. I get it. That’s the boss.” He then apologized to Chris, saying, “Sorry, man. According to the video’s creator, i’m sorry.” Chris replied that he had not intended to force the issue, saying, “Yeah, I wasn’t gonna insist upon it if you guys are good. I mean, something we do, but it wasn’t like, okay, do it or don’t come in.”
The electrician repeated his response, saying, “Yeah, no, no, it’s the boss. No, that’s fine. Sorry.” As the electricians walked away from the property, the electrician made a comment about the house to his son, saying, “You see that house? No, I didn’t look inside, dude. It’s a whorehouse. Really? Yeah. And then wants me to put a mask and s–t on? No, let’s go. Sorry, pal. Okay, we’re not— you don’t want a customer like this. All right, trust me.” The video shows the electricians leaving the property without collecting any payment.
The video’s on-screen text described the situation as an “Electrician Walks Away From a Job after A Customer insisted to wear a Mask inside his Hoarder House.” The video’s caption read: “POV: Electrician Going on an Electrical Estimate, Customer who has A Hoarder House says he had Some Power Issues, and after insisting to wear a mask, Electricians Walk off, was this Right or Wrong? Thoughts?” The clip ended with on-screen text asking, “Was this Right Or Wrong from Electrician? To leave A Job after these circumstances?”
Commenters weighed in on the electrician’s decision
The video drew a range of responses in the comments section. One commenter wrote, “When the boss say let’sgo just go don’t talk,” offering advice on how to handle a situation like the one shown in the clip. Another commenter wrote, “that was spoken with 10000% experience, you DONT want a customer like that lol,” suggesting the electrician had likely dealt with similar situations before.
Other commenters focused on the challenges of working in cluttered or hoarded homes. One person wrote, “I will not work in hoarder house again ever.” Another commenter, who identified themselves as an HVAC technician, wrote, “As an hvac tech hoarder houses make the job so much harder and sometimes basically unfixable.” A different commenter simply wrote, “Health over wealth,” while another noted, “The beauty of being self employed.”
