Dealing With Differences Of Opinion On Productivity.

rselectric1

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220...221...whatever it takes!

jhark123

Get in there and yell at them, young guys need direction. I know they are not your employees, but sometimes kids need a swift kick in the you know what.

It did me alot of good when I was 18. My first boss gave me the "you're not doing it right" look and then told me to go ape s**t on that wall instead of tapping it like a little girl.

strathd

I allways say "hit it with your purse".

PA woodbutcher

I hired a guy a couple of weeks ago to clean up shingles as I was tearing them off the roof. He had the old snail trail going on so I told him, pull up your frucking pants and move like you have something to do. He says don't get lippy with me....As long as I get to write the check to pay you I get to get lippy, You have the option to take your poop and get anytime you want. He stayed and moved quite a bit faster in the afternoon.

*He weighs in about 260 -275 and I weigh in @ 150.

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Cdat

Anyone slower then me is an idiot and anyone faster then me is insane.

NormW

If I hired a subcontractor by the hour, and wasn't able to watch him. Where ever I was, My guts would be churning, ears ringing, and looking worried.

Been there, done that, and it goes sour too many times.

I try to have Subs, bid their work. (If they can't form a bid, chances are, they are not qualified to do the work anyhow)

If its by the hour, I'm right there "helping"... (Screaming, bleeding, and crying broke!) Eventually they'll prefer giving a bid.

Someday when I get smarter, and tired of bleeding, maybe I'll hire a foreman, who I can trust. I have a sneaky suspicion, salary for foremans is preferable to hourly?

ARI001

Why are you sub-contracting work by the hour? You are getting dangerously close to these guys being able to be considered your employees. The more control you exert over them the higher the likeliness of you being considered their employer. You should have had a contract stating the work to be performed and materials to be supplied (if any) by the sub-contractor with a fixed price and estimated time of completion.

BrianFox

This is a very good portrayal of laborers in our area. I love the whole don't get lippy with me comeback...leave the tough guy crap on your neighborhood corner or lippy your @ss off my jobsite then...

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bob_cntrctr

Well, apparently my concern was heard. Today the young guy I suspect was the problem was sent to another job and "the boss" took his place on my job, and things went at a pace I'm more used to. End of day 2, we're rady to start re-framing, bathroom is prepped for backer board instllation...Much happier.

monkey

I used to be able to outwork anyone and now I'm finding that health problems suck....

I guess I started with insanity and then became an idiot

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rselectric1

The squeaky wheel gets the grease

Edit-I see that I'm starting to sound like Jimmy Wonton with all my sayings.

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220...221...whatever it takes!

Cdat

I was referring to my work only. That was actually someones quote for driving. I just used it 'cause it fit.

orson

We were doing a 3000SF house that had multiple layers of wallpaper in every room. We used Labor Ready temps to remove it. I tried every strategy I could think of to get them to move including the one you listed. Didn't make a lick of difference.

I think part of the problem is that if you need to remove old wallpaper you have to be smarter than the wallpaper.

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abacab

I usually find that if I confront subs it doesn't make a lick of difference. The same problems that made them bad workers to start with are still there after I yell at them. I work by myself most of the time, and sometimes work can go a little slow because I also have to run a business (and pick up every damn nail myself). It's not a problem on smaller jobs, but big jobs have too many details to attend with, and you can only ignore your personal life so long, but i do know if a customer got upset with me, I'd be working 12 hrs a day and not feel any pain.

fast fred

why does something like demo seem like it's an unskilled task?

If you consider it to be unskilled your asking for problems.

Had a homeowner wonder why we punched small holes in the drywall with hammers then ripped the drywall off in big chunks without using any power tools or large demo devices.

He told me the last guys at his house just sledged it, kicked at it, and jabbed sawzalls into the wall.

When I told him that I didn't know what was behind the wall and didn't want to explain to him how a water line or power line got cut he understood.

bartnc37

what kind of skill and work ethic do you expect for min wage? A lot of those guys would be flipping burgers if they could pass the drug test.

KennMacMoragh

The only time you can run an efficient crew with a young guy, or an old green guy, whatever, is if you have at least a 2:1 ratio of skilled workers to unskilled. I find that even with a 1:1 ratio, I can't hardly get anything done, I have to spend all my time showing them what to do. You said your sub has two young guys? So he's at a 1:2 ratio? I can picture him showing one guy what to do while the other just stands there, and him having to go back and forth trying to teach both of them. That along with sub-standard tools for the job isn't good. Good that he took care of the problem though.