farrellpainting

You guys have any stories of the worst people you've ever employed?

thom

I think I've employed all the worst people.

Painted ceiling fan blades and had them laid out on the saw horses. My guy wants to use the horses. I tell him "Do not stack the blades" They are tack free but not dry. Tell him to put them on the shelf in the bedroom, separated. Come back the next morning and they are stacked and stuck.

Loaned a bunch of hand tools (shovels, hoes, wheelbarrows, concrete stakes, floats, trowels) to one of these "Christians" who spend their time telling the rest of us how to live. He never came back to work, never returned my tools. It was a Friday so he was paid through the week.

Had several new drop cloths I'd set on a deck we would be demoing. The guy knocked over a full 5 on the new drop cloths. By the time I found out the next day, they were all trash and $100 in paint was gone. He never said a word. When I asked him about it, he said "Oh yea, but the drop clothes protected the deck.

Then there was the drywaller who, when the job was complete, sanded all the texture off all the bull nose in the house. He couldn't explain why he did it.

I can't understand why some guys write their names on the walls in the port-o. Do they want their name associated with sh*t and piss?

Then there's the guys who need to get your approval every 10 minutes for the work they're doing.

The taper who mudded the screw heads with his finger in a circle motion. Really.

KellyPainting

I had a guy who I had to pick up every day.. we were on a exterior garage
and just about finished with all the prep when I figured we were short one tube of caulking needed to finish. This was a friday, the end of the day and it would have taken me 40 minutes to go to my paint store and back.
He would have had to sit around and wait for or go with me. Now the great part..... he had a few tubes of caulking in his bag, I asked him If I could use one and just replace it on the way home. He said No. "What...
I got to use my materials ...now?".... I explained it would be for only a few minutes... but he kept giving me sh*t.

I told him to pack his stuff and drove him home... almost made him walk
...never spoke to him on the way home and he never worked again.




Years ago I was a forman with all summer help under me. We were on a rectury... with nuns and priests coming and going all day. My two guys were a drunk and a heroin addict. The boss would sometimes pay us on friday afternoons and the heroin addict would go for coffee and never come back.. with a fresh exuse every time. The drunk would show up stinking of booze.. walking sideways and trying to climb ladders..I almost hit him when he refused to go home.


And of course, i still hire myself...so what can I say...

boman47k

Is it really necessary to hire people like these? These are some of the reasons I do not go into roofing. I'm assuming, with the drunk and addict, you were still new?

Joewho

Some rough painters:


What red paint?

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Joewho

on a good day. Hair combed, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Most of the time, you'll find me with a reversed sweatshirt too.

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Joewho

Nice guy, but had to let him go.

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Joewho

Old timer after work.

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KellyPainting

High end paint company's hire unexperienced people all the time,
they are called helpers... they are hired when the weather gets good and get 8-10 bucks an hour, they usually don't even last a season... but they do prep and some non detailed painting. As far as I'm concerned, there are enough painters who do not know how to paint that can be hired first.

MakDeco

Hey Joe, I wear my sweatshirts inside out all the time. Not sure why but i do.

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MAK Deco

MarvinWilleyJr

A company I worked for a few years ago had a guy that claimed he could paint, and new everything. But he literally boxed up some paint for us. We told him to box up those 2 fives, and this idiot when and fold some cardboard boxes and poured the paint into them. What a complete idiot! Paint leakin out made a hell of a mess.

Also a year or so ago my boss hired and guy and sent him on one of my jobs. Break time the guy asks if I minded him puttin a beer in his drink jug! lol To each his own, but didn't think it was the best idea seeing as how we were painting the DMV, which also has a State Trooper office adjoing. The guy asked that on his first day......then asks for a 100.00 advance on his second day.....then never saw him again..... Crackhead painters! Gotta love their work ethic

KellyPainting

F.Y.I
It's a prison thing,because laundry is done on a limited basis and done so poorly. You wear your sweatshirt every minute of every day.. sometimes sleep in it too (very cold) . After a while it's turned inside out or "clean side out"
From there gang members and inmates alike brought it back to the streets when they are released...the prison look meant that you were "HARD" or tough..... and also,it's just hard to break old habits.

Don't even ask how I know.... I think I seen it on t.v.. ....ya..thats it

Joewho

Mine get worn inside out on the job, and right side out on the way home or in public. Makes them last a little longer. I like wearing white sweatshirts when I'm not working. It's just frugal to me to save the outside for days off. LOL, I've had a lot of em.

Workaholic

Well my story is really more about me. I used to drink a lot and after work i would get ripped. Met this guy at the bar, and when you are wearing your whites people like to tell you how they are, or have been associated with painting in some way. So i am sitting there BSing with this guy and he tells me how he kinda knows how to paint knows how to prep, which is good cause i had been looking for a good helper. So i tell this guy where to be in the morning. When i get there and he is about half an hour late, at this point i figured he was going to be a no show. Any ways he shows up and i look him in his eyes and he is cross eyed. I could'nt believe i was that ripped that i did'nt notice a cross eyed painter, there is no way you could pull a good line if your eyes are going in different directions.
So needless to say i had to quit drinking which turned out to be hard at first, i almost got divorced over it. Yet i can happily say that i over came that.

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Sean

Joewho

So, the guy had bad eyes. He could have closed one, just like when you drink too much.

Workaholic

Yeah but he could'nt caulk worth a flip either

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Sean

4thGeneration

My Grandpa was a heavy drinker. Our family used to have a member who bootlegged rum on two of his boats from cuba or something back to the U.S. Made a killing, but back to the story. My Grandpa who always drank some started to drink heavily after a fall from a 40 foot ladder that ruined some disks in his back that he did not get corrected until 40 years later. When he fell he di so on the homeowners rose bushes and ruined them. She ran out and cursed my G-pa out. Abvout that time the builder cam around the corner, cursed out the homeonwer and demanded a apology for my Gpa. She refused so work was stopped on her house and I mean everyone was ordered from her site until the apology came. He told her he did not care if the house ever got built and to build a lean to for shelter. She came around in two days with the apology. She was a total jackaxx. My Gpa still could not believe he fell from some simple touch ups to this day. Anyhow, he was drinking when he quit a 1/5th of shine a day, 12 shots of hard wiskey, and 12 beers to just keep steady and never missed a day of work. He went cold turkey after my Gma died during an operation. He promised God and then when he found he had asbestos from the shipyards back in the 30's he quit smoking after 50 years as well. He always said people can quit if they want to without all that weak minded drug pushing patches and pills people seem to need today.
Mind over matter I guess.

Joewho

Well, I didn't get a rise out of farrell.

The thread was about bad employees and it invariably went to drinking.

I posted monkey pictures for the humor value and to avoid the stories about bad employees. Even though the stories are true, among virtually all painters, it leaves a bad public perception. And the public reads this forum.

Workaholic

Well Farell needs to change his name to the Angry Painter.
to quote you:
I posted monkey pictures for the humor value and to avoid the stories about bad employees. Even though the stories are true, among virtually all painters, it leaves a bad public perception. And the public reads this forum.

This is true but it is really no different form any other trade, you will have bad employees and sprinkled with drunks and drugies. That does not mean that this is how everyone is. So the viewing public should take that into account. If you look through these threads 98% is about business. And lots of free advice.

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Sean

KellyPainting

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