Everyone know who Dori is?
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/0d/d6/ae/0dd6ae53babc218a74e2e0cd0a5b5b1d--dory-from-finding-nemo-disney-challenge.jpg)
If not find out then come back. Google Dori.
I quietly suffer day to day dealing with two Dori's. One is my receptionist, the other is my field helper. Nepotism in the workplace is a two edged sword. On one side, you can sometimes feel like the person you hired will be better because they are family, in this case both are not blood to me but to my wife. On the other side of the sword, they can think that because of the comfortableness of being family, they can "get away" with more.
In this case though it is not about entitlement it is about, hmmm how to put this politely. I know!! A picture!!
(http://farm1.staticflickr.com/7/6199519_a2896106b4.jpg)
This is an accurate depiction of my life dealing with these two.
Why this thread, I need to vent and Dan thinks it will entertain him. I am pretty sure Dan enjoys it when I suffer.
Why do I keep them?
In 2008 when the market crashed I took a huge financial hit over the next 2 years trying to hang on to key employees that I did not want to lose.
There is another crash coming, I think it is going to make 2008 look like a joke.
So why do I keep them? Because they barely do the job I pay them to do, they are not expensive, and I will not feel bad nor will I hesitate a second to cut them loose.
So as I reach my boiling point, I will share. I may share past stories too.
Hold on to your seats, your glass, whatever, the stupid is strong with these two.
Quote from: Jims5543 on August 07, 2017, 02:58:36 PM
... the stupid is strong with these two.
That line made me chuckle - probably the best description.
At least they are your employees. I deal with people that operate on a special kind of stupid level daily. And unfortunately I can't do anything about it. 50.gif
Quote from: MPlayle on August 07, 2017, 04:26:20 PM
Quote from: Jims5543 on August 07, 2017, 02:58:36 PM
... the stupid is strong with these two.
That line made me chuckle - probably the best description.
Oh yes, I get that too so I have it flying at me from every direction, like dicks to a hooker.
I have one of those although not family. Lately, he can't even make enough to cover his own wages it's coming to a head soon. Come in 15 late take another 15 to get ready to work yet put down 8.25 hours on the time card because you worked until 5:15 and stood around half the day. I have been adjusting time cards to reflect actual time present we'll see what happens considering a switch to a flat rate.
Old story time.
While I was on Vacation I had John, who used to work for me, fill in two days.
I left Tues night and returned back to the office the following Wednesday.
John worked Thursday, and Saturday for me.
I had not spoken with John since about 2 weeks after I returned. He called and asked if I was mad, I told him no, just busy as hell. He said he felt bad, he wished he could have done more work. The first day he reported in there was only one job laid out for him to do, he knew this had to be wrong, and spoke to the receptionist. He quickly realized she was stupid, his words, and called Scott, my BIL, who helps with drafting and used to work here too, Scott told him he has not worked in the office in years so he has no idea how things get done there, but there should be a basket with Jobs in it.
I want to point out, there are two fucking employees there, one has been there 4 years the other over 2. Neither have a fucking clue what to do or how to stage some jobs. Even though both have been shown multiple times. The receptionist takes in the order, she should know best what is what.
John, figures it out takes more work than 1 job and heads out.
Saturday he comes in, same deal, 2 jobs, so he digs through and gets more to do. if he had not, I would have had a stack of work to do that would have been overwhelming when I returned, as it was there was a lot.
He tells me straight up, there is something wrong with her, she is not all there.
I hang up with John and remember Scott wanted me to call him, I call, he was telling me about his 3 y/o home AC taking a dump. We talked that then I asked WTF was going on when I was gone.
He came clean, said Office Dori would call him multiple times a day every day asking one question after the other.
He was baffled by some of the questions, as they were simple and she should know that after 4 years.
Mrs5543 walks up on me in the middle of this conversation and hears my half. This is her older sisters 32 y/o daughter we are talking about.
The icing on the cake was Friday, the day before John was going to show up again and it was imperative he has what he needs.
She left early to take he daughter to the doctors, never told a single person, called Scott again and asked if he can keep an eye on the email, Scott told he flat out, he does not work here, he is just a subcontracted drafter and he does not want access to our email.
He then suggests she go to docs then swing back by to check on email before heading home.
That would be an inconvenience to her, so she never did it. An order had come in on Friday afternoon at 4:50 that was needed by Wednesday the week after, the day I return. So I would have to do the field work and get it drawn up and checked by days end.
Meanwhile in Ireland, it is 22:00 at night we had just finished dinner, where I was pounding down Guinness and I had retired to the hotel bar where I had moved on to some Quiet Man 8 y/o whiskey. I was relaxed and had no clue any of this was going on.
I wake up around 0800 we were in a hurry to get out to breakfast and back into Derry to walk around before leaving for Dublin.
I never looked at the email and was more relaxed knowing it was the weekend.
If I had looked I would have known there was a job John could be doing Saturday that my asshole receptionist never bothered to get ready for him. If she had just given me the heads up I would have looked.
If she would have gone out of her fucking way and gone the extra mile I would have been blown away. But no, god forbid anything ever inconvenience her.
Scott also said, for someone that has been there four years she sure is fucking stupid and has no clue.
So now Mrs5543 knows 2 other people have said the same thing.
So what is the fucking solution? Lets have another talk!!! I said to her, you cannot fix stupid. I read it somewhere online so it has to be true.
She feels it would be wrong to just up and fire her after four years, I basically said it is wrong she has worked here four years does not give a fuck about her job and does not know a fucking thing about the company.
Holy fuck!! I wish I had bosses like Mrs5543 I could have not worked my entire career.
She is terrified of the backlash if we let her go, I do not care. No one seems concerned that this persons lack of ability impacts me.
Jeff, I used to have a time clock when I had 25 employees because I had too many doing what your guy is doing. Lying on their time sheets. Then I had one guy that was coming in at 5:30, clocking in, and sitting in the office for 1.5 hours until his party chief showed up, then would meander around the office and outside the building for another hour at the end of every day before clocking back out. 12.5 hours of overtime a week doing nothing but playing time clock games. Took me about a month to notice (it was insanely busy back then) that he was cranking OT when his team mate was not.
His death knell came when we had a big job to do We surveyed an entire Golf Course in 3 days) I was on his crew and kept throwing tasks at him, simple tasks a guy that had been here for 5 years should know and he could not perform them.
One last thought, my receptionist is a very pretty and polite girl. The politeness is what saves her, my clients LOVE her and I get tons of compliments about how sweet she is. THAT is her only saving grace.
I pay her flat out 40 hours a week, she works from 9-5 with an hour paid lunch, which she will take every minute of no matter how far behind she is up front, that irritates me because it shows a utter lack of work ethic, just like leaving early and not caring about checking in one last time when I am not in town.
This mentality blows my mind, I did not go from apprentice drafter to VP of a company in 8 years behaving like that. The words, that is not my job, never left my mouth. I tried to learn and do everything I could. I was an office worker, I went out of my way to understand the field equipment and how to operate it, I learned how the girls up front took in orders, researched them, put them in the tracking system. I tried to learn every aspect of the company and how to do everyones job there.
That would be so rewarding to me when the company was downsized and I was one of a handful of employees left. One trick ponies that has been there twice as long as me were let go, and they protested loudly.
I cannot wrap my head around this kind of lazy mentality. I never will.
Unfortunately it is a rampart part of our society. As long as people support and coddle people they will continue to need to be supported and coddled. I could put up a long list of these types, several of them family. It's sad actually, people afraid to let people fail.
I thank my stars everyday for the lessons my step dad forced me to learn. Value of an earned dollar being the biggest one.
It's interesting you brought up her "saving grace" and that is her crutch to lean on forever. I'm pretty and sweet, so I can be incompetent and ignorant cause everyone wants a pretty sweet girl around.
Business and Family.... Oil and Water Good luck, I'll enjoy the stories.
The girl I had before her was brilliant. She was a 4.0 GPA High School student, and I always wondered why she did not go to college.
She implemented systems here that are still being used and she was 19 years old when I hired her. She worked for me for 5 years from 2000-2005.
Her problem? She could go from 0 to bitch in 0.2 seconds. I had 2 clients stop using my company because she was a bitch to them.
Of course, I come to find out an employee from that company was unprofessional and being an asshole to her and she gave it right back. Not cool eat shit, take their shit and curse them out when you get off the phone.
Office Dori has cost me no clients to date, just my mental health.
My job tends to be easy going with the exception of gate agents. I have too many stories where I wanted to throat punch them. I've tongue lashed more than I like to admit.
Yesterday commuting home was no different. Start in Philly to end up in Tulsa, connecting through Dfw. I list myself ahead of time for flights then go to the gate to check in. Usually goes something like this, as happened yesterday:
Me: Hi I'm listed and would like to check in.
Gate agent: Let me get your badge....clicks keyboard...well you're not checked in yet, I don't see you.
Me: Yes I know, I'm checking in now. I need to be put down as a d6 priority.
Gate agent: clicking away...ok so I'll use AAC priority...
Me: Remember a second ago when I said D6 priority, you have to use that or it screws them up in Dfw when I get down there and need to get on the jumpseat.
Gate agent: blank stare and back to clicking. Here's your ticket and let's put a valet tag on your bag.
Me: thanks for the help.
Fast forward to Dfw.
Gate agent #1: looks like you're on the jump seat, here's your ticket.
Me: thanks. Make my way down the jet bridge with my bag, go to the door to hand my bag to a ramper to toss the bag in the belly. Put my handle down, velcro it, and wait by the door.
Gate agent #2: comes walking up...umm can that bag go under here? We might need to check it.
Me: here's my valet tag...points at tag.
Gate agent #2: ok yeah, here give me the bag. Immediately pulls the handle all the way up into locked position. (Here's the problem with this. It's a $300 pilot bag and most half wits can't put the handle back down. Handles can break if left out when being loaded into planes)
Me: oh no the handle needs to stay down. Puts handle back down and reattach velcro strap. Yeah grab it by this...points to strap meant for handling the bag.
Gate agent #2: immediately pulls the handle I just put down and velcro'd, all the way out and into locked position.
Me: MA'AM!! That stays down! Puts it back down again.
Her: WELL IT'S TOO HEAVY
Me: You'll break my handle throwing it down the slide. You're telling me my 25 pound bag is too heavy for you to carry from here to 5 feet outside this door and lift it onto the slide...you know what nevermind I'll do it myself. Handle back down, velcro, launch bag down the slide. She goes to piss and moan but I walk past and head to the cockpit and settle in.
That's when you KNOW airlines are messed up. Pissing on their own pilots. 11.gif
No that's what happens when you hire on price rather than experience, maturity, skillz and knowledge.
During flight college I worked the ramp, ticket counter, and gate for a few years. I tell all my first officers when I'm yelling at various people I don't hesitate or feel bad for throwing my weight around because I've done all their jobs and know how badly they suck at it. Airlines have outsourced so much that the quality of the product just isn't there. I also refuse airplanes that aren't to my liking. Usually has more to do with passenger comfort, like when our AC is less than stellar on a summer day due to broken systems that need fixed.
And to your left folks you'll see why texting while driving a baggage cart is not advisable. Note it flipped the truck over.
Field Dori gave his 2 weeks today, he got a job working for the county utility company reading water meters.
Great celebrations are commencing.
(https://photos.smugmug.com/General-Pics/n-PspN3q/i-9mDvLVF/0/cf866d7e/X3/i-9mDvLVF-X3.jpg)
More later up to my eyeballs in paperwork here.
sorry for the fly by, I am slow yet somehow super busy at the same time. A lot of problematic jobs all in a row.
Field Dori comes into work yesterday acting all weird, like wired. He is pacing around while we are getting ready to leave for the field. Finally, I look over at him and ask WTF is wrong with him.
He tells me he took an energy/fat burning pill and he is tripping out from it.
I said you have nervous energy. Once you start moving around you will be fine.
We get a couple of jobs done, we are driving along and he says, man, I am not feeling good at all, I feel nauseous. I pull over to the side of the road by a vacant lot and this cat starts projectile vomiting for what seemed like 5 minutes.
He composes himself and gets back in the truck, I asked what he had to eat this morning. Nothing, the bottle had instructions to take on an empty stomach so he followed the directions and had not eaten anything so his stomach would stay empty.
You cannot make this stuff up.
I took him to a convenience store after that to get some food in his stomach.
As of 12 noon today Field Dori is no longer employed here.
A weekend of drunken celebrations are planned.
How hard will it be to hire his replacement?
Not replacing. Have been seeing a Real Estate slump for two months now.
OK, I thought it sounded like you're really slammed with work.....
Quote from: MiniDave on September 20, 2017, 12:29:35 PM
OK, I thought it sounded like you're really slammed with work.....
Quote from: Jims5543 on August 29, 2017, 03:32:56 PM
sorry for the fly by, I am slow yet somehow super busy at the same time. A lot of problematic jobs all in a row.
If I am not on here, that means I am out living life.
I was busy prior to the hurricane mostly due to many problematic jobs that needed to be nursed through the office.
Last week I may have worked 30 hours.
This week I have been leaving the office every day around 2PM.
Tues and Wed I picked my younger son up from school.
On Tues. we went to have a late lunch together.
On Wed. we met my older son at the shooting range and the 3 of use spent an hour target shooting.
Today I left the office at 2:30 and took my younger son back to the range for a shooting lesson that did not happen.
Short version, he had a shell go down the back of his shirt while trying my older sons 9MM. Which I was proud of him, since all he has used up to that point was .22's, my Walther and a range rental Luger Mark 3. He freaked out, BUT he kept his finger off the trigger and kept the pistol pointed down range while the shell burned down his back. His ONLY mistake was not putting the gun down on the table in front of him while he dealt with the shell.
The range safety officer jumped in and got him to put the gun down, even though my older son and I were dealing with him. It is the officers job to make sure we are safe and there was not an ounce of resentment from any of us.
I told my younger son what he did wrong, he was gutted. Today he was still not over it, even though my older son and I told him, there were many times when we were spoken to at the range. Stupid things like loading a mag away from the bench, or carrying a weapon to the bench not in a case. Different ranges have different rules, in this one every weapon has to be encased until placed on the firing line and no loading mags unless you are on the firing line. Other ranges allow you to load mags back away from the line, this one does not.
There was an incident in Sarasota Florida where a father killed his own son.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/accidents/father-accidentally-kills-son-at-sarasota-gun-range/2284099
I will never be mad at a range officer who is only doing one thing, making sure we are all safe, the stricter the range, IMHO, the safer it is for everyone.
There are ranges around that are known for being free for all's where rules are not really enforced, I will not go to them.
My younger son never got over having the range officer step in, we had a long talk this evening and he now understands he does not have to be embarrassed, it is just important he learns from his mistakes. The range officer said every single day someone gets a shell down their shirt and freak and he lost count how many wave the gun, he gave my son a compliment for keeping his pointing down range and having his finger off the trigger. I really drill into both of them to keep it off only to shoot and it should be reflex that your finger is pointing straight.
It was upsetting for me to see him so defeated over a mistake, but I think he is over it now. He has learned and that is the key thing here.
So back to work, the plan, one field Dori was gone was to take my older son and put him back in the field with me and lean on my BIL who used to me my #2 during the housing boom, for drafting. He is so good at drafting I barely have to check his work, I go over it, make a couple of minor changes, mostly personal preference / presentation type of stuff and send it out.
My older son, he and I think alike we are in tune with one another.
I took on field Dori's job, which in all honestly, sets the pace for the day. Needless to say the pace is now 2x to 3x faster now. Tasks that heavily depended on field Dori, like laying out a house used to take 30 minutes or more. Now they take 10-15 minutes.
When staking a house corner, where we place a hub in the ground with a tack in it, showing the exact location of the house corner for the formboard crew to place their board, I would typically have to shoot (measure with field instrument) at Dori 7-10 times in order to get the hub in place and reasonably accurate. I say reasonably accurate because if I could get the hub withing 0.02 feet (1/4 inch) I would be happy. I was not really happy because I prefer perfect, I could not obtain perfect with him.
Now we are setting hubs to 0.001 feet (1/64 inch)in 2-3 shots. I run the prism pole now and set the hubs. My older son runs the instrument and he is really good at it. Dori sucked at it and was careless.
In the last 2 days We staked 10 houses in addition to numerous mortgage surveys.... in other words what typically took me 6-7 hours in the field is not taking me 5 hours or less.
I have a life again.
I'd go crazy with new rod men that took half a dozen times or more to set a point dead on. Brings back memories.
Tell your son don't feel too bad, he didn't blast a 20 gauge through his own shop wall accidentally. I understand how sickening it feels.
We now have house stakes down to 10 minutes flat, and being like minded, we are already throwing ideas around as to how to get it under 10 minutes. As task I used to resent is now a new challenge and I want more orders so we can figure it out.
We left the office lat this morning (Monday!!) and still got back in after 5 hours.
We are chewing bubble gum and kicking ass, and we are all out of gum. (Bonus points to anyone who knows where that line is from... hint, you had to be a gamer in the 90's)
My mood? 180° from a month ago, it is so much nicer having a conversation with a normal person again.
All those house layouts resulted in a lot of form board surveys, those are the boards in the ground for the foundation to be poured in. We rocked out 6 of them today, average time was about 7 minutes each, averaging 30 shots per.
I put in a long day today, 7:30 (far cry from my 6 am start times) until 5:30, and now I am checking a few jobs so I have a head start tomorrow.
The goal now is to take off at 1:00 every Friday. So we bust ass Monday through Thursday.
I have a couple of larger jobs coming up, I priced them so they would go away and I will be damned if they took my quotes!!
One is 2.5 acres in farmland the other is in town here and is an acre and heavily developed. I saw something cool when I was doing recon on the property, when I get out there I will snap some pics. Air cooled VW related.
Duke Nukem
Quote from: 94touring on September 26, 2017, 05:13:44 AM
Duke Nukem
Give the man a prize.
From September 2017 to now things have ramped up so much I had to hire a field helper again. While we were keeping up, we were working really long days.
After collecting resumes for a week I narrowed down my selection to 3 people. 2 were Marine vets and one was a kid maybe 20.
I invited the 20 year old to interview, set an appointment and he stood me up. Fail!
Interview #2 was interesting, he was 58 years old, a Marine vet and only held 3 jobs in his life. My only problem is, he was trying for a entry level job with low pay. I asked him on the phone if he was aware of that and he said yes, he was fine. He was not. Fine, come in and interview.
Half way through the interview he expressed his dissatisfaction with the pay rate. I had the perfect solution for that issue, not hire him.
Interview #3 was also a Marine Vet and within the first 5 minutes I knew I found a guy that would work out.
He is on week #2 and is doing pretty good, he is eager to learn and hustles, good qualities. I should mention he is in his 40's as well.
Other rejections:
I put up a CL add for the position with clear instructions to email me a resume.
Instead I received emails that said:
"Hey man, I am interested in your job, hit me up.. 772-xxx-xxxx" - No resume.
As a matter of fact 80% did not send resumes just emails telling me they were interested and for me to call them.
New guys name in Dan and so far I am happy with his performance and ability to learn.
My largest client, a builder just hired on an entire office staff and opened an office back up in town, we are already seeing a LOT of activity from them, that is what pushed me to hire some help.
If this keeps up I may hire again this summer.
When I sat down to interview the first guy, it dawned on me, I had not interviewed anyone in 10 years. It was odd to actually be hiring again.
The stupid was strong with the first 2 you interviewed ! ;-)
I am not an employer, but senior tech and supervisor where I work (a hospital) and have to deal with several employees like your extended family. It's almost impossible to get rid of people where I work. You'd have to steal a car or murder someone basically.
It's extremely aggravating.
For a short while I worked at a light duty Generous Motors plant, everyone there was at least 20 years of seniority....One day a guy was unloading transmissions out of a rail car with a forktruck and dropped one off the dock, his punishment? A week off work with full pay!
Quote from: ve9aa on April 03, 2018, 01:43:35 PM
The stupid was strong with the first 2 you interviewed ! ;-)
I am not an employer, but senior tech and supervisor where I work (a hospital) and have to deal with several employees like your extended family. It's almost impossible to get rid of people where I work. You'd have to steal a car or murder someone basically.
It's extremely aggravating.
Preach it brother, if up to me Office Dori would have been long gone, I will get into that more some other time. After my Ireland debacle I decided to never take a week off again until she is gone. So if my wife wants a week away, she better let me clean the effing house.
My clients create another source of frustration.
I worked 18 straight hours, more or less Thursday. M-W I worked from 6 am to 7 pm
Today (Friday) I left the office at 3PM, after arriving at 6 am to go with my wife to fetch my son from school, and head to Burger FI for dinner.
On Fridays he is in Science Lab after school and gets out at 4:30 PM.
At 6:30 my phone starts blowing up with call after call after call 3x in all.
I recognize the number it is the ditz at a title company that calls me hyperventilating because she forgot to order something.
Ironically when I switched to Tmobile I changed my outgoing message to the standard one, "You have called (insert name here) voicemail please leave a message after the beep."
Insert name here = "Senior Pueblo" When I did it I was outside and it does not even sound like my voice.
No one leaves a message anymore thinking I changed my number. LMAO!!
So she was calling over and over and over... never leaving a message.
After 15 minutes she calls my wifes phone. WTF!! We were like how TF did she get my wifes number. Then I remembered she did a closing for us, she went and pulled the file and got my wifes cel phone number out of it. WTF!!!
She left a message on my wifes phone telling her that she needs to tell me to call as she has been trying to get in touch with me.
THEN the email comes in, she orders a survey after hours and need is it Monday.
WTF!! some more.
I waited until late this evening to reply then told her we would squeeze it in Monday.
All she needed to do was email the order, I have NEVER let her down, why she feels the need to harass me on a Friday night after I worked an 60 hour week is beyond me.
God forbid I have some down time.
Spastic fuckin idiots.
The senior Pablo thing should be noted you already remind me of Tuco from breaking bad. A little less violent luckily.
"Spastic fuckin idiots." :D :D 4.gif 77.gif
Love it
Yes yes they are I get it all the time the more times they call in a row the longer I put them off even block the number sometimes for a few days.
I'll get in Monday at 7:00 phone is ringing when I walk in 10 calls starting at 5:30 am from the same number and 3 voicemails.
we open at 8:00 am leaving a message is fine but it's like they just sit there for hours calling and redialing so I'll block the number so I can use the phone to get some work done to check and return all the calls and messages that came in before them book those appointments and then call them back.
I give no priority to them at all I will make sure they work on our schedule even if the day they want is open I will tell them it is not but we have another opening they can take it or leave it I don't care I don't need assholes like that for customers anyway.
The best was a guy with a blocked number that called and left a message on Saturday saying "I guess since no one can answer the phone I'll take my business elsewhere" He soon found out we were the only warranty dealer in central Oregon and called back a day later wanting an appointment.
I said I thought you were taking your business elsewhere? I recognized his voice and it still came up as a private caller. He said what do you mean I said well someone calling from this number that sounds just like you left a message yesterday saying that would go elsewhere because we were closed when you called and apparently leaving a message for an appointment or calling back was too hard for you so I suggest you do go elsewhere.
He said that can't be my number is blocked I said yup it is I was just testing you and you confirmed what I suspected have a nice day.
Nothing and I mean nothing chaps my ass more than someone who calls my office multiple times thinking if they call over and over they will get an answer. It is fucking rude.
If I am in there before or after hours, it is for a reason, it means I am not answering the phone because I am trying to get things done.
This woman calling me like that pissed me off and while I would love to tell her to F off, I know better.
She wil get her Survey by Monday afternoon.. why? She alone is a 70K a year customer her and the girls in her office that use me make up almost 1/4 of of my yearly revenue.
I may not be on call 24/7 but I am not fool, I will take care of them. Competitors come in there weekly with cookies and bagels etc.. trying to lure them away from me. I know I can be replaced.
As I mentioned we changed to cheap ass Tmobile which it is a step below ATT, my plan all along has been to get a Verizon phone with a new # and leave my current phone will be on do not disturb on evenings and weekends. Only family and friends will get the new number.
I can understand that,
most of my customers are one person so if I lose one not a big deal I try not to but won't put up with too much shit.
If they replace me because I won't answer the phone on a Sunday so be it at least they can't talk bad about me at least not in a way anyone would care about.
We do all we can during business hours to earn and retain customers but not all are worth it.
I do have a dealer that's a bit of a pain but I do always get him in as he did close to 100k last year.
But you know had one of those before and he up and moved I was so worried about not getting his business nothing really changed numbers wise we picked up other stuff and had fewer headaches and rush jobs so in the end, I don't know if the big clients matter either.
By matter I mean stressing about or giving into for after-hours service weekends etc. Give them the same good service as everybody and if that's not enough tough shit.
I don't mind someone asking or telling me they're in a bind and need help I will always see what I can do but if you expect it because you think you're big shit forget about it.
Just don't put all the eggs in one basket I guess.
I've kind of learned just do a good job and the rest works itself out.
Exactly, there has to be a reasonable limit as to how much you are on call.
Weekends to me are sacred. I work 6-6 M-F then again many evenings trying to keep everyone happy.
When 6 PM rolls around on Friday, fuck you I am off for 2 days.
From 2002 - 2006 I had this company on cruise control, I was off running around enjoying life.
From 2008 to now, I stopping working to live and started living to work and I hate that. It is a bullshit life to live.
If I am not going to have a life from M-F, you better bet I am having one on the weekend at the very least.
All that said, back in December and January I worked on weekends to do a large job for a good client, the bonus was the money I made from that really helped me out a lot . Januaries tend to be very slow for me, I always try to take on larger jobs in January that I normally turn away.
Jeff, you know the drill, as a small business owner there is a delicate dance you have to make in order to keep your clients happy.
If I ever hit the lottery ( I would need to play to do that I do not play) I am re-naming my company FU Land Surveying. Need a survey fast? FU You want a discount? FU.
Please god let me win.
My Mini post reminded me of good news.
In 2023 we took a few days off and went to MOTD. My older son can run the place now and knows what to do, Office Dori was still useless but had a job. I was where I thought I would be in 2023, lots of time on my hands. My plan all along was to work my ass off bank a lot of money and when things finally slowed down, go out and enjoy life.
I took a few days off to attend MOTD, while I was away Office Dori seemed to think she was being ill treated by me.
Bottom line? she sucks at math and does not know how to budget. As we all know, by 2023 everything has pretty much doubled in price, I gave her a couple of raises then stopped that and told her I was going to give 2 bonuses a year to offset the crushing inflation because I cannot give raises and take them away. BUT I can give nice bonuses to offset that. She was receiving $12,000 in bonuses, $6K every 6 months or 1K a month or $6.25 an hour because I worked the raises to some in as 6K after taxes.
While we were on vacation (the first since Ireland a page back) she looked for, interviewed for and took another job. I was very happy about her leaving pissed about her spiteful timing but still happy she was leaving. My wife told her her timing sucked and it seemed to be spiteful she unloaded on my wife telling her we suck. Keep in mind she sucks and I let her keep a job despite wanting to fire her ass a long time ago. I figured out how to make this broken tool work best for me and was coping with her.
More in another post, she sucks at math, she took a job making $4 more than I was paying her before her bonuses, so she took a $2.25 an hour or $90 a week cut in pay thinking she is making more money.
I did notice, she eats out every damn meal, breakfast lunch and dinner, in this economy that is big money, I am the damn owner of the company and brown bag lunch and breakfast every day to save money. She buys out every meal. She cannot understand why she cannot make ends meet.
I should also add I let her come and go as she pleased, she could run out, get her daughter from school and take her daughter to the office to hang out. I even gave her daughter cash as a thank you every week for taking the garbage out on Fridays.
since leaving my company her family has to run around and pick up her daughter for her because she cannot leave her new job at will. Talk about not thinking this through... then again thinking was not Dori's strong point was it?
HA!Thats great As you know since this thread started I sold my business but I had a painter that worked for me do the same shit he was pissed off that he wasn't making any money he didn't seem to understand you have to work to get paid he told me I was effing him over and he had to take another job to make some money.
He would come in for 2-3 hours a couple of days of the week and get a job done that flagged 20 hours and get paid the 20 for the week since I paid my paint and body guys flat rate. Mind you there was endless work for him to do if he wanted it yet I ended up pissed off and painting a 5 color job on a coach by myself at 2:00 am more than once because he didn't show.
So Flakey takes a job paying $45 per hour straight time I paid $30 per hour flat rate so he thinks he's making $15 per hour more. A good guy can easily do a 20 hour job in 8-10 hours so you make 60 per hour and he did just that when he worked.
At the new job, he did the same shit came in a couple days a week for 2-3 hours a day completed a 20 hour job but got paid 6 hours at $45 vs 20 hours at $30 a $330 dollar loss over what he made working for me.
He came around and wanted his job back but I had replaced him with a great guy that was flagging 100+ hours per week this kid was grossing around 12k per month and loving it. So was I if he flagged 100 hours that means I was also paid 100 hours of time. I gave him some pretty bad ass bonuses on top of his pay. Needless to say he has done well and is netting over 100k a year now with the company that I sold too. Flakey is still bouncing around from one job to another running out of places that will hire him.
What's more is Flakey bitched about everything this masking tape sucks, why do you use the green masking paper instead of white, I don't like this prep chemical, you should buy this other overspray plastic sheet, on and on it never ended. So I said fuck it you're in charge of the paint department you tell Brian (our salesman from the paint supplier) what you want and I'll buy it. My supplies bill went way up and he just kept complaining about why he was having problems he was a painter his whole life and didn't know how to handle problems when they came up. The new guy starts and first day he ask why are you buying all this expensive tape and paper we don't need it it's a waste of money save it for the times we might need it and buy the normal stuff for everyday work I said the last guy didn't like the normal stuff he just rolled his eyes.
Your guy Jeff sounds like a percentage of pilots I fly with. Bitch and moan about everything. Act like we're working hard at this airline. Then they go get a normal airline job working 4x as much per week, less days off at a time, making about the same money. Several left and came back a year later.
Hopefully, the difference is they can at least do the job even when problems arise. This guy would walk out if things didn't work perfectly. Sadly I've seen cases of pilots that are the same way they're only alive because nothing has happened it seems that they forget to fly the damn plane and crash over a malfunctioning airspeed indicator or some dumb shit. I hope you'll tell me it's not that way but I fear it is.
Quote from: jeff10049 on August 28, 2024, 11:57:31 PMHA!Thats great As you know since this thread started I sold my business but I had a painter that worked for me do the same shit he was pissed off that he wasn't making any money he didn't seem to understand you have to work to get paid he told me I was effing him over and he had to take another job to make some money.
He would come in for 2-3 hours a couple of days of the week and get a job done that flagged 20 hours and get paid the 20 for the week since I paid my paint and body guys flat rate. Mind you there was endless work for him to do if he wanted it yet I ended up pissed off and painting a 5 color job on a coach by myself at 2:00 am more than once because he didn't show.
So Flakey takes a job paying $45 per hour straight time I paid $30 per hour flat rate so he thinks he's making $15 per hour more. A good guy can easily do a 20 hour job in 8-10 hours so you make 60 per hour and he did just that when he worked.
At the new job, he did the same shit came in a couple days a week for 2-3 hours a day completed a 20 hour job but got paid 6 hours at $45 vs 20 hours at $30 a $330 dollar loss over what he made working for me.
He came around and wanted his job back but I had replaced him with a great guy that was flagging 100+ hours per week this kid was grossing around 12k per month and loving it. So was I if he flagged 100 hours that means I was also paid 100 hours of time. I gave him some pretty bad ass bonuses on top of his pay. Needless to say he has done well and is netting over 100k a year now with the company that I sold too. Flakey is still bouncing around from one job to another running out of places that will hire him.
What's more is Flakey bitched about everything this masking tape sucks, why do you use the green masking paper instead of white, I don't like this prep chemical, you should buy this other overspray plastic sheet, on and on it never ended. So I said fuck it you're in charge of the paint department you tell Brian (our salesman from the paint supplier) what you want and I'll buy it. My supplies bill went way up and he just kept complaining about why he was having problems he was a painter his whole life and didn't know how to handle problems when they came up. The new guy starts and first day he ask why are you buying all this expensive tape and paper we don't need it it's a waste of money save it for the times we might need it and buy the normal stuff for everyday work I said the last guy didn't like the normal stuff he just rolled his eyes.
Sounds like you are similar to me, get the work done, bill your time and live your life. Your OG paint guy could be Dori's cousin.
Dori worked 35 hour weeks and got paid 40 hours, she got a 1 hour a day paid lunch which she took every second of every day. Even if she was behind in the office, she took her complete 1 hour lunch every single day. Despite letting her take off whenever she wanted to pick up he daughter. plus 12K in bonuses, plus never being penalized if she needed to run out and deal with he daughter, since she is technically a single mom, I always tried to make her life easier for her so she could be there for her daughter. My philosophy is family first.
After she quit, my wife said, let me do it, the kids are all grown. She worked for many months taking Dori's place and I can only say she made my life 100% easier at work. What suffered was our home, we were all working 50 hour weeks.
In Sept 2023 we went on a 1 week vacation, my SIL (my wife's sister) offered to fill in. We had her work a week prior to leaving, then she filled in while we were gone. She did a better job than Dori after 1 week of training. Plus my older son is really on top of things so he can help too.
After we returned she said she loved working there, and asked if we would consider using her. We decided it was a solid move, we have her working 2 days one week and 3 days the next. She is a contractor, I pay her via a 1099 since she is the owner of the drafting service (my BIL) we use.
My older son is what we call in the industry, a field to finish guy, he preps and does his field work, then comes in to the office and drafts up all his work. I do the same, all our overflow goes to a subcontractor drafter (BIL) who works for a few companies now. He is killing it. I am so happy I helped him start up that company. All my Surveyor friends us him now.
As time went by things became clearer. We have a niece, she is the daughter of my SIL (office help) and BIL (drafter husband) we call her our nerd niece. Her and her husband are total petrol heads. They are both gamers as well, my sons, her and her husband can be found on discord at night gaming together and chatting it up. Both her and her husband have Mini's she has a 4 door Cooper and he has a JCW. They just visited the Mini Factory yesterday in Oxford, UK. She works for a local telecommunication company in IT. She is always getting certified in more and more tech, the owner of the company loves her and has taken her under his wing. He enrolled her in some local leadership program when she is networking and learning how to be a industry leader. She is always taking more classes and getting certified in other areas. She is in her mid 20's and has a very bright future.
I tell you this because, Dori, who dropped out of HS, seems to think she should be on the same level as her cousin despite not wanting to learn anything or do anything more than her job, which she could barely do.
She mentioned something about that to my wife when quitting, that she was not making as much as her cousin who is 10 years younger than she is.
When my wife mentioned this to me, a lightbulb went off, Dori thought in her head she is worth much more than she really is.
In the end, I can say without a doubt, I am very happy she left, think she is insane for leaving, she had a job here (because family) as long as she wanted and it was laid back. The new arrangement I have now, with my SIL part time and my wife part time is working out perfect.
The SIL is always up for covering us if we want to go away, sadly we have not done that since Sept last year. Other than long weekends that is.