While many businesses around Baton Rouge are closing their doors for the Fourth of July holiday, those in the air conditioning repair business are gearing up from just another summer day in south Louisiana.
“People’s ACs don’t cater to a national holiday. They still break,” says Shane Richard, call center manager for River City’s One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating.
Given the often oppressive heat and 90-plus percent humidity, it seems hardly a surprise that summer is a hectic time for those in the business of bringing on the fritz air conditioning systems back to life.
Of River City’s 90 employees, roughly half of the staff are technicians who sometimes work 15-18 hour days for weeks on end to keep up with summer demand.
While no Baton Rouge summer day is a good one to be without AC, homeowner frustrations soar as high as the temperature outside when cooling units go out on a holiday—especially when friends or family are on the way for a barbecue.
And true, a holiday repair call comes with an added cost, but such is the case when asking repair workers to make house calls while the rest of us are celebrating America’s birthday.
“We’ve been slammed. We’ve really been slammed,” says Kim Godso, who owns and operates Eagle Refrigeration and Mechanical with her husband, Tim.
To battle the higher volume of calls during the heat of summer, their staff of 18 technicians work extra hours, typically a 58-to-60-hour work week.
“One guy hit 23 hours (of overtime) last week,” Godso says.
