GC Losing Jobs To Subs

PG Builder

I was wondering if anyone else was having this problem.

I build custom home's, the subs get to know my clients from being on the job, I have clients that give out my subs names to people wanting to try to contract out there home themselves, I know and the sub knows that the only reason they got the call was due to them being on my job. At first I thought that is just the way it is, I'm starting to feel now that my subs owe me for all of these jobs they receive from being part of my jobs.
Has anyone else ever felt this way and how did you handle it??

silvertree

Having been a sub (Trim) I have been asked by owners and close by neighbors if I would do work for them. The way I always understood this is the builder or GC paid advertising and marketing costs to get those customers and they were off limits to me. I never once took a job my builder was doing work for.
Might be a generation gap thing, but NO! thats called stealing when they take that work.
Oh, how I would handle it is "your fired", no excuses---------

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davinci

i had a small problem like that long ago. i took the sub for a ride with a few other men i know and drove downa long and dark dirt road. at the very end,we all got out of the car and walked over to a deep hole that was custom dug the day before. i then asked the sub if he thought the hole looked pretty and if it looked like a place he would like to live. he looked at me skeptically but scared and replied no! i then asked if he was sure and he said yes. i then said,well,we took alot of time to dig this hole and you need to pay my guys for their labor and also,next time you take a job that you think may belong to me,you will not be asked if you want to live in this beautiful hole. you will be permanantly placed there! and also,make sure everyone else knows these accomodations are applicable to anyone that takes on an overly enthusiastic entepreneurial endeavor that affects might affect me financially.

RobertCDF

I see a problem here... Your not really using subs then you are just misclassifing employees. Do you REALLY think those people would call you as a GC when all they need is a plumber? get real. Now if I do a deck for another deckbuilder and the neighbors come over thats off limits. If my electrician is wiring a ceiling fan on a deck I am building and the neighbor comes over looking for a few outlets to be moved... What do you think is going to happen? Do you really think I am going to try and get in the middle and make 10-15% off a little project like that? Or demand that he pay me a commission because if I had not hired him he never would have met them? Get real.

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neolitic

We don't all live in New Jersey....
but that scene with Joe Pesci,
in the corn field,
....that happened in Indiana.

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davinci

it also happened here. joe is from an apartment complex in newark that was called "the village". he started as a singer and hooked up with a guy who's last name was "dente" from the bronx NY. he owned pesci for a long time. thats how pesci was in raging bull. Denti was a connected guy.

Jason Whipple

Good grief!

If you ever pulled that crap on me you'd be MIA the very next day and Bear scatt somewhere in the Green Mountians by the end of the week

Did I say that out loud?

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Historic House Restoration, Cincinnati, Ohio
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Home Serve

PG, This is the way it is, this is the way life works. Maybe you need to get out more and loosen up a little. Things like this happen, you don't need to have your little fingers in there $$$$$$$$.
Concentrate on some other things that you can make some money and have control over. Let this type of stuff go. What goes around comes around.

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Heritage

People sometimes forget perspective. When you look at everything through your own blurry specs...things get twisted.

One of my very good employees just stabbed me in the back and quit to work directly with a "flipper" I did work for. He figured the grass is greener. That's worse than a sub taking work.

If a sub does cross the line...replace him. But keep perspective in mind.

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mahlere

that GC is making money off me on the job we are doing...if the neighbor asks us to do electrical work, that GC can go pound sand if he thinks he's entitled to anything...

provide enough work to keep 10 of my guys busy year round, then we'll talk...but give me 4 jobs a year, that I only get because I'm lowest bid, and...get the **** out of here...

davinci...no offense meant, but take it if you like, you would have been wise to not post that...it makes you sound like an idiot...i've never in my life worried about anyone who threatens anything...you just sound like a wanna be tough guy...but hey, if the sub was that much off a wuss that it worked, good for you...

neolitic

Took that to be a total work of fiction.
That's why I made the "Casino" reference.

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Jason Whipple

I don't watch too much TV or the Big screen. Maybe he should have made the reference himself.

To me (and others) it came off just the way it sounded.

I hate punks

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bob_cntrctr

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

On the one hand, you want a no-strings-attached independent contractor relationship with these guys so you can call them only if and when you need them, then leave them to fend for themselves when you don't.

On the other hand you want them to exercise the loyalty of an employee.

Gotta choose.

mahlere

i'm from jersey...i've dealt with guys like him all to often...they really try to do that, and they really think it makes them sound tough to threaten...

oh well...you get the people you attract...btw- we haven't worked for a resi GC in years....to many blood sucking scums for my taste...

tnt specialty

Good points by RobertCDF & mahlere.....

I'm a GC as well as specialty contractor,,,,more out of neccessity than choice. For lack of better words, Colorado's construction industry operates with a strange set of ethics......but that's a whole other story...

silvertree

Maybe I'm confused, but if one of my subs were asked to do a job for a neighbor I would not expect money because they were at the right place at the right time, but if they were asked to do remodeling thats a different story. I am a GC and will do anything from a service door on a garage to an addition.
So if its the plumber. electrician or HVAC guy I understand. If it is a closet or even one window, its stealing in my opinion. I think the guys I work with would tell me they have been asked to do some work.

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wizendwizard

Does anyone have stipulations about what is appropriate in their "sub"s contract?

Do you make your subs aware of what would be proper and improper?

This sounds like a communications issue.

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Mitch M

I had a problem on a project that I am still working on with my ceramic tile guy. I scheduled him, paid him, and am trying to get him to finish up some work in the main part of the house. We still have the master bath and bedroom to do. He lied to me, not show up when he said he was going to, and would not return my calls.

I had some people lined up to meet with him one morning and he got there 45 minutes late. By then everyone else had left because they were tired of waiting. He talked with the owner when she came by and gave her some sob story. Next thing I know he is giving her a price directly for the master bath. Does not even say anything to me or even send me a copy. Understand that the owner has been paying for some things her self but I have been dealing with this sub from day 1. On top of all of that his man damaged the brand new wood floors with some thinset material. She blasted me and my painters and no matter how I tried to tell her, in so many words she said that it was not him.

He emailed her and told her that he was coming over Tuesday to do some grouting on the first part of the project. I am hoping that he is going to be there when I get there.

I have gotten a price from another ceramic tile guy and I have told my client and her interior decorator that I do not want the first guy back in there. I have to bite my lip with this client as her husband is one of my oldest and best clients and I am in the middle of a huge project with him now.

This to me is stealing. I don't care if the market is soft or not, you don't go around someone who got you on the job in the first place. My subs and I have a gentlemans agreement. They can do work for neighbors without me but if there is work that I can do they are supposed to call me. At least I have right to first refusal. I do have in my contracts that the owner cannot fire me with the purpose of hiring them. Also I have non-compete with all of my employees.

mdshunk

After your job is done, all bets are off. They're no longer "yours". If they want changes done while the job is in progress, I will direct them to you. If they call me 6 months from now with more work, or if they give my name to their friends, that's not my problem or yours.

Jason Whipple

We all know about those prospective customers that see no value in leadership and planing. I would suspect these are the types of folks that would solicit your subs. For the most part, we as GC's would probably never get the opportunity to do the work anyway. If that be the case, there really is nothing lost, let the guy's take the risk for themselves.

If by chance the subs are being solicited for a good sized project without your knowledge then you may want to take a closer look at your roll as a leader and figure out why it is that your own team doesn't see you as a value. I've seen far to many Contractors in the past that show up once a week to check things out and leave the planning and scheduling up to the subs in the field only to show up after things have been figured out or to say what a jerk another sub is for not falling in line with the H/O's expectations. In this case I would say that the GC has put himself in this position and it shouldn't be taken badly if they take other work for this reason and decide to leave the GC out.

Once in a while, you do come up against a back stabbing sub. This is just part of what we have to go through to gain harmony within our team of players. If you find a bad apple, throw it out.

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