I have an excellent quality tradesman, hard working, on time, on budget, quality work. I called him today to see if he could come next week to do a weeks work, I am desperate to get done. He can’t do anything for a month. Never mind, all the best people are always busy I thought. So I said sorry mate, I am going to hunt around for someone else if I can as I need this done asap. He reminded me that if I did want to use him in a month I better get back to him as he gets book up fast. Well noted I said.

So I called his mate, who he often works with. He said, as it happens I am free next week. Happy days all round. I call back the first guy a courtesy, and say, don’t worry about me in a month, great news for me your pal is free next week.

20Mins later guy 2 calls me, guy 1 has chewed him out for nicking his work and forbid him from doing it, as guy 1 expects to be doing it in a month. So guy 2 has retracted his offer, saying oh don’t worry guy 1 will do it in a month.

Before I tell you how I resolved/reacted to this little sitcom, I would be interested to hear what you all think.

Guy 3?

Do you think its a bit arrogant? To think he can delay my job just so he can keep the work?

Go and talk to Ian in the caf?

Que???

Time for tradesman no 3

The courtesy call was nice , but I would of just told him I had it covered, and not told him I was getting his mate in to do the work….

other than that , take the advice above and find guy 3

I hope you made him mix his own properly

Welcome to the real world.

Go and see Phil over at the Arches, he’ll sowt you awwt.

Well yeah, guy 3 starts next week, he is also excellent and happily had just been blown out of another job due to logistics. Unfortunately guy 1 has been notified that he is off the list permanently.  Shame really as he was top of the list before and we tend to reward the ones we want to keep.

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The courtesy call was nice , but I would of just told him I had it covered, and not told him I was getting his mate in to do the work….

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We have a pool of 60odd trades, groundsworkers, brickies, plumbers, sparks, chippies, hvac etc, they all know each other and work together all the time. He would know pretty fast who was doing my jobs. Also, normal people would not be miffed by this, so I didn’t think to engage diplomacy. We allocate work on availability and our rating, so he should be used to not getting every job offered to him, as this type of scheduling conflict is normal, even if  he was aware of his good standing as a supplier.

TBH I don’t manage the trades directly very often, its not really my job, but sometimes I have to help/support the PMs vacations etc. I have discovered from the PM on another project that the PM on this project has been letting this guy dictate timelines to him like this for a few years now. Which explains some previous delays. I am going to do some digging but I feel an ear bending shall be delivered when the PM  comes back from his holiday on monday. Not everyone has my level of assertiveness..

Everybody has their preferred subbies. Maybe he’s worth waiting for, maybe he’s dishing out backhanders, maybe you and you’re legendary assertiveness have interfeered and you won’t get the same quality of finish as previously. It’s a very fine line at the moment between quality/quantity/availability.

I have no objection to his lack of availability, he would have stayed top of the list. It’s the thinking that if he eliminated the competition we would delay the job for a month for him when there are 10 other tradesman of his type on the list, all approved, all working for us regularly.

Assertiveness is just about not letting people step on you, whats your problem with that exactly?

He’s probably quite happy to be off that list, as you seem like hard work to be honest. Meh.

Weird that he tried to stop his mate from doing the job so he could keep the job, that I approve and run all the payments for, making sure the contractors never wait more than 2 working days to get paid. Must be because I am such hard work, he must have done it deliberately so I would bin him, that’s it.  I have high demands, that’s why I make sure people get their rewards, to keep them onside.If a supplier thinks I am hard work, then I am happy they are gone.

What is it about this place that encourages people to just freely insult others? nobeerinthefridge and wrightyson, you guys must let me have your details and let me know next time you guys are working in west sussex, I’ll be sure to keep you off the list too.

Point proven, my work here is done. 🙂

I do hope so.

Go and see Mark in the market, he’ll sort you with some fruit n veg. 👍

we tend to reward the ones we want to keep.

What an arrogant statement, he is not a dog.

To be honest I’m with Nobeerinthefridge, you sound like one of ‘those’ clients….. You’d be off my ‘list’ of clients, if I had one.

It seems like you think you are doing him a favour when it is in fact he who is providing you a service, using the skills he has acquired over decades, to complete a job you need doing, to a high standard.

A little respect for others would go a long way.

You got a card you want to send in Stompy?

I run sites too. Quite big ones actually. Solo come to think of it.

Only yesterday we were having the “crack” whilst talking to our suspended ceiling contractor (owner of the company) and one of his subbies, to quote ” dont worry Steve’s (me) not like other site managers, and as you’ve probably noticed he runs his sites very differently to some of the ones we work on, you know, like the kier ones etc”  that difference is I get them to work as a team, I manage people to their abilities and yes encourage them not “assert” on them. I’ve worked in and done most jobs on site, bar plastering coz I **** hate it, so know who’s struggling and who’s whining.

One other thing that happened yesterday was a young joiner messed up three doors he was hanging, rather than “assert” on him i gave advice, told him not to worry as everyone makes mistakes etc. His company will pick up the cost and o said to the contracts manager send him back with someone who’s good and let him shadow him for a bit.

Trust me carry on as you are and you’ll lose folk willing to work for you as there’s a glut of work out there at the moment, and guess what,I’ll be ok as I start my new 170000sq ft shed in the summer 😉

What is it about this place that encourages people to just freely insult others?

No one has insulted you, only expressed a different opinion, that’s all. I’m not a tradesman either, but appreciate how difficult it is to make a consistent living out of it.

Chill.

That pitch won’t work on me wrightyson, I’ve already told you, you’re off the list mate.

I’m looking forward to the follow up thread where tradesman 3 has knocked into next doors house to use the waste pipe. or some other calamity.

😉

If guy 2 works with guy 1 then approaching him without mentioning it to guy 1 was always going to cause problems. This is the construction industry where it can be tough. Contacts and customers are important and if it feels like someone is trying to steal yours then things can get quite heated.

Maybe if you asked guy 1 if he knew if guy 2 was available and could he sub him out to you then everyone would have been happy.

You get the work done to the standard you want and guy 2 has work, guy 1 earns a bit out of it and feels like he’s valued by your company. Treating them like commodities will not end well.

The thing I get from this thread is that Wrightyson has only had 3.5hrs sleep.

He’s found a nice spot behind the Cellotex..

Why all the Eastender’s references?

TBH I’d get rid of guy 1 as well. Bang out of order stopping the other bloke from doing the job. The OP told him he was looking for someone else so he should never have assumed he’d already got the job. If he can’t do it he should be happy his mate has got some work seeing as he’d had another job fall through. Now he’s just screwed his mate over who hasn’t got any work for that week. ****!

Wrighty was in bed for 9.30 so had plenty of sleep. Apart from this shitty sore throat and bad ear waking me up. Little stealth nap in the office at lunch mebee?

Stay away from that Ange in the pub, she’s trouble! 👍

I manage people to their abilities and yes encourage them not “assert” on them. I’ve worked in and done most jobs on site…

A manager / leader who has actually done what they are asking you to do – very refreshing!

I have a feeling that some of the OP’s tradesmen don’t have the same opinion of the OP’s organisation & staff as the OP’s desires!

Maybe the ungrateful tradesman #1 has previous commitments that he & his “mate” had committed to undertake elsewhere. I work with many main contractors and architects throughout London and the southeast and the ones that get the most out of their “tradesmen” are the ones that work as a team.

If you’re really stuck I’m sure Dot can squeeze in a service wash at short notice……

. If he can’t do it he should be happy his mate has got some work seeing as he’d had another job fall through. Now he’s just screwed his mate over who hasn’t got any work for that week. ****!

This is my take on it. I know loads of tradesmen, and knowing the job was urgent most would have just recommended no.2 of their own bat.

He’s probably quite happy to be off that list, as you seem like hard work to be honest. Meh.

Made me laugh ! Op seems pretty reasonable, just wants to get someone on the job. You know buisness.

I would be interested to find out the other side of this story and whether the OP has included all the facts.

It is also very interesting that the OP has a “list” of suppliers he won’t use and has included his “excellent quality tradesman” on said “list” because this “excellent quality tradesman” was unable to facilitate the OP’s demands in this instance.

was unable to facilitate the OP’s demands in this instance

I read it as the Op was cool that no.1 couldn’t do the job. But got upset that no.1 warned no.2 of the job. Did we read the same thing ?

My guess…..

No2 was already booked in to be working with No1 next week when this job needs doing

He took the opportunity for more money and decided to let No1 down and take on the short notice job for the OP

No1 told him that he knew why and  he won’t use him again because he decided to let him down at short notice, no2 thought better of it and rang the OP but missed a few bits of the story out.

OP believed No2 and now won’t use No1 despite him not doing anything wrong.

I read it as the Op was cool that no.1 couldn’t do the job. But got upset that no.1 warned no.2 of the job. Did we read the same thing ?

Taxi, there is definitely a reading issue on this thread.

There’s definately a lot of No2 on this thread.