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I work in construction, mostly residential, and today was at a new house in the process of being built. Most of our customers are contractors, who get it, I get them, even the ones I really don't like, it's a good system.
A minority of our customers are homeowners, and they are either the best or the worst customers to work for, depending on their attitudes.
Guess which catagory todays gem of a man fit into.
As further background, I should expain that just like every job, construction sites have a certain ethos, rituals that are adhered to, and procedures that everyone understands, and no one ever mentions or explains. It is understood by everyone. Period.
Just like at certain workplaces it is completly tabboo to touch another persons desk, at another rifling through a desk to look for a pen, or post its or whatever is acceptable. At some if a box of cookies is sitting out it means help yourself, at another it would be unnacceptable to even move them over. You get used to the rules pretty quick, even though often no one speaks of them.
One of the rules on a job site is, if something is in your way, you move it. If you move someones tools, you keep the parts together, and put them somewhere they won't fall and get damaged. If you move someones material, you do it in such a way it won't get wrecked, you try to keep like items together, but you don't have to put other peoples items in the order they would need them, or leave them accessible. If other people are moving your things when you are there, you help them, or offer to do it yourself, and come up with a mutually good place to put them. But if stuff is in your way, you move it. Everyone knows it, everyone does it, that's what happens. If you don't want something touched, or if it is a certain way on purpose - YOU PUT A SIGN ON IT! Don't burn. Don't touch. Don't plug in. Whatever.
As an added bonus, we have a note on our contract about the house being clean, free to work in, and charges being applied for us having to move things out of our way. We rarely charge it, it mostly only applies to houses we can't walk in because of the mess, but it is on the quote people agree to when they call us out.
So today we come into the house, no one is there, but we have our information, and we start to work. The place we are starting we have to set up scaffolding, and the room we need it in is full of wood. Piles and piles of it. About 400 2"x6"x12' pieces. Impossible to move scaffold around in, so...we move it. We could have been dicks about it, we could have called the office and said we couldn't work in that room until it was moved, we could have demanded our clean-up charge be added to the bill, we could have thrown it right out the patio door onto the back yard, but it was early, we were in a good mood, the job looked nice enough and we are generally nice people over all, so we move it, into one large pile in the garage. It took the 4 of us about 45 minutes too.
About 11am the homeowner walks in. And loses his mind.
"What did you do with my wood!? Why did you touch it?! Why would you touch something that isn't yours?! What is wrong with you people?! I had this all sorted! Why did you mix it up?! I can't believe you touched my wood?!" On and on and on and on.
My guys are pissed, and we are not talking about meek guys here. One of them starts yelling back "All your fucking wood was in our way, your lucky we are staying here to work today, we should have walked when we saw that shit" etc etc.
Oy Vey.
So I got my guys outside, convinced them it was a perfect time for lunch, gave them some cash and sent them on a coffee run. And went back in to talk to the homeowner. To try to calm him down. It didn't go well.
His point was that we were complely in the wrong to touch his things, that we were totally rude to him, that we didn't show him or his things proper respect and that we were completly out of line. He wanted us to move all his wood back (into our way) and sorted again (by most/least knotty and most/least bowed
) And his favourite fall back, this was HIS house.
I explained to him, as nicely as I could (I was steaming a bit at this point too) that with all due respect, this was NOT his house, that until the completion certificate was signed it would not be his house, and at the moment this was our jobsite. I tried to explain to him that our guys, when moving his wood, were doing him a favour, and why, and why it upset them so much when he went off on them. I tried to explain to him why this was acceptable within the concept of a jobsite. I very firmly explained to him that we would NOT be moving and re sorting his wood. He would have none of it.
He called my boss, told him about the wood pile, that he wanted us out of there, we were rude and unaccommadating, and he wanted another crew sent. My boss told him sure, he would get charged for the clean-up, charged for an extra trip, and BTW, if he thought I was rude and un accommadating, he would not like the other crews that he could get. Homeowner decided we could stay, and carry on. End of story right? Oh so wrong.
My guys return, I calm them down, and we go back to work. And get to listen to the homeowner for the whole rest of the day, muttering under his breath, just loud enough to be heard, about rude disrespectfull people, people who don't know enough not to touch others things, people who aren't smart enough to learn these lessons in kindergarten (but otherwise they could get good jobs), etc. etc. This is not the way to get the best work out of me and my crew.
Long story short; I had a piss-poor day. But at least I get to go back tomorrow.
(Sorry to be such a downer, I promise to tell you a funny story from a few years ago next, I just really had a crap day)
A minority of our customers are homeowners, and they are either the best or the worst customers to work for, depending on their attitudes.
Guess which catagory todays gem of a man fit into.
As further background, I should expain that just like every job, construction sites have a certain ethos, rituals that are adhered to, and procedures that everyone understands, and no one ever mentions or explains. It is understood by everyone. Period.
Just like at certain workplaces it is completly tabboo to touch another persons desk, at another rifling through a desk to look for a pen, or post its or whatever is acceptable. At some if a box of cookies is sitting out it means help yourself, at another it would be unnacceptable to even move them over. You get used to the rules pretty quick, even though often no one speaks of them.
One of the rules on a job site is, if something is in your way, you move it. If you move someones tools, you keep the parts together, and put them somewhere they won't fall and get damaged. If you move someones material, you do it in such a way it won't get wrecked, you try to keep like items together, but you don't have to put other peoples items in the order they would need them, or leave them accessible. If other people are moving your things when you are there, you help them, or offer to do it yourself, and come up with a mutually good place to put them. But if stuff is in your way, you move it. Everyone knows it, everyone does it, that's what happens. If you don't want something touched, or if it is a certain way on purpose - YOU PUT A SIGN ON IT! Don't burn. Don't touch. Don't plug in. Whatever.
As an added bonus, we have a note on our contract about the house being clean, free to work in, and charges being applied for us having to move things out of our way. We rarely charge it, it mostly only applies to houses we can't walk in because of the mess, but it is on the quote people agree to when they call us out.
So today we come into the house, no one is there, but we have our information, and we start to work. The place we are starting we have to set up scaffolding, and the room we need it in is full of wood. Piles and piles of it. About 400 2"x6"x12' pieces. Impossible to move scaffold around in, so...we move it. We could have been dicks about it, we could have called the office and said we couldn't work in that room until it was moved, we could have demanded our clean-up charge be added to the bill, we could have thrown it right out the patio door onto the back yard, but it was early, we were in a good mood, the job looked nice enough and we are generally nice people over all, so we move it, into one large pile in the garage. It took the 4 of us about 45 minutes too.
About 11am the homeowner walks in. And loses his mind.
"What did you do with my wood!? Why did you touch it?! Why would you touch something that isn't yours?! What is wrong with you people?! I had this all sorted! Why did you mix it up?! I can't believe you touched my wood?!" On and on and on and on.
My guys are pissed, and we are not talking about meek guys here. One of them starts yelling back "All your fucking wood was in our way, your lucky we are staying here to work today, we should have walked when we saw that shit" etc etc.
Oy Vey.
So I got my guys outside, convinced them it was a perfect time for lunch, gave them some cash and sent them on a coffee run. And went back in to talk to the homeowner. To try to calm him down. It didn't go well.
His point was that we were complely in the wrong to touch his things, that we were totally rude to him, that we didn't show him or his things proper respect and that we were completly out of line. He wanted us to move all his wood back (into our way) and sorted again (by most/least knotty and most/least bowed
) And his favourite fall back, this was HIS house.I explained to him, as nicely as I could (I was steaming a bit at this point too) that with all due respect, this was NOT his house, that until the completion certificate was signed it would not be his house, and at the moment this was our jobsite. I tried to explain to him that our guys, when moving his wood, were doing him a favour, and why, and why it upset them so much when he went off on them. I tried to explain to him why this was acceptable within the concept of a jobsite. I very firmly explained to him that we would NOT be moving and re sorting his wood. He would have none of it.
He called my boss, told him about the wood pile, that he wanted us out of there, we were rude and unaccommadating, and he wanted another crew sent. My boss told him sure, he would get charged for the clean-up, charged for an extra trip, and BTW, if he thought I was rude and un accommadating, he would not like the other crews that he could get. Homeowner decided we could stay, and carry on. End of story right? Oh so wrong.
My guys return, I calm them down, and we go back to work. And get to listen to the homeowner for the whole rest of the day, muttering under his breath, just loud enough to be heard, about rude disrespectfull people, people who don't know enough not to touch others things, people who aren't smart enough to learn these lessons in kindergarten (but otherwise they could get good jobs), etc. etc. This is not the way to get the best work out of me and my crew.
Long story short; I had a piss-poor day. But at least I get to go back tomorrow.
(Sorry to be such a downer, I promise to tell you a funny story from a few years ago next, I just really had a crap day)
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