Looking for polite (and maybe not so polite) ways to tell HO to piss off.
Already explained to him the sliding scale ($X – to do the work, +$XX – If you watch,). He laughed, but didn’t take the hint.
Guy works at home (computer), takes frequent breaks and is full of questions.
Got any good ones?
Replies
Go the "Dear Abby" route and tell him to surf this site.
I invented the Van Buren Sisters.
I like imported beer, exotic cheeses, and refried beans..a biological approach.
I perfected flatulance
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Turn the tables ... when he goes to work on the puter, you take a break and look over his shoulder.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
next time he goes back to work after a break, follow him and start asking him a bunch of questions about computers and what he does and how do do things on a computer. so he can't work
or politly tell him thay he is breaking your concentration and the job will not be as good and the price will go up
_____________________________
bobl Volo, non valeo
How big is the job? Are you going to be there for the next 6 weeks or is it just a few days.
If its a small job and not going to be there very long you can probably tough it out, on the other hand if its a big job you might have to tell him to pizz off!
Someone told this story here at Breaktime quite some time ago. Don't remember whom it was, and I may not remember it perfectly. But it went something like this:
HO is following electrician around - Asking questions and just generally being a pain. Always looking over the guy's shoulder and talking.
The guy sits down on the floor to hook up an outlet on a circuit that he KNOWS is dead. He grabs one wire in each hand and shakes violently for a couple of seconds before letting go and saying:
"GOD, what a rush!"
Supposedly the HO left him alone after that. (-:
If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electrician can be delighted and musicians denoted?
Take his interest in your work as a compliment to your skills and be a teacher. He'll learn, you'll learn, and it could lead to some good referrals.
oldfred
Or, you could tell him that you'd be happy to schedule a half-hour/hour each day--and charge him for it--to review the project and answer his questions, be/c that's what it's costing you out of each day.
He won't take it seriously until you show him that you're serious about the time.
Does he ask good or bad questions?
Or, when he asks, tell him you're in the middle of something--remembering a dimension--and can't stop at the moment, but you'll get to all his questions before the end of the day. Just keep repeating that till he gets the idea.
Really though, he's doing it be/c, in one way or the other, you're allowing it.
I like yur suggeson... make it an hour or 2 instead and do it as OT...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
I knew a guy that once wore a walkman with earphones (broken) for such a customer.
We used to seal off the work area with clear plastic. A pesky customer got black plastic.
Smile. It could be worse. You could be me working for you.
I have been dealing with the same issue on a smaller scale. The home is empty but the owners 85 year old dad who built tract homes until 1977 keeps coming out to "check things out".
He really likes our work and says so, he always says "don't let me stop you, I know you have work to do". But he asks a million questions. Often about stuff that is not in the scope but he thinks should be and his memory is not good so if he is there more than a half hour he asks the same ones over and over again.
Thursday, end of the day, been laying sub floor all day. He comes back for the third time and starts all over. I finally tell him to look at anything he wants but I've got work to do. He stays a minute and leaves. I feel bad but have to stay on schedule too. DanT
here is what we did when installing a pipeorgan in a church where all the attendee's would think it was a field trip.
We put up a sign with the answers to the most often asked questions..it went like this:
Yes, we do know how to put it together
We are from the Phila. area
There are 1,850 pipes, some are new, some are 150 yrs old.
Three of us are single, one of us is REALLY single
Only one of us really plays the organ..
Solved most of the problem.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Thanks for the laughs!
Doing this job against my better judgement, so I'm already p.o'd. (All the flags went up)
Two friggin' but joints, one 22', one 30' - right at 48" off the floor.
Sumbitch is asking "How many more coats is this going to take?"
Not my job, just helping a buddy out.
Be out of there tomorrow.
Hate these types, they ask all these questions trying to catch you out, don't know what kind of lies my buddy told him.
Cheap, shortsighted jerk, no referrals wanted.
I've found that dropping a few tools near the customer was effective, or turning around with a drill running and just missing him.
After a few near misses they usually back off.
You just gotta be careful not to actually hit him, no matter how tempted you may be.
"Dropped" a five gallon bucket of compound once right behind this superintendent.
When I went out to my truck for lunch, he was waiting there with my check!
Edit to say:
"I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
Edited 10/18/2004 5:44 pm ET by Mike Rooney
Sometimes "subtle" hints work.
Sometimes you need a bigger stick.
Had a possibly intelligent thought cross my mind...
I very much have a one track mind. So whan I'm working and someone asks me a question, I often tell them - "Just a sec" until I can switch gears and talk to them. DW finds this particularly annoying for some reason.
So I was thinking maybe you could do that to your problem HO - Not answer his questions imediately. Maybe he'll get tired of waiting and wander off sooner.
Bumpersticker: If you can read this, I've lost my trailer.
Wear earplugs, you know to protect your hearing while using loud tools. When he asks something, keep saying "pardon me"? Remove them, but convey that it is a real inconvenience to have to take them out repeatedly.
Tell him .....you teach at NIGHT....for$$$$
Did not see hide nor hair of him today!
Maybe he does surf here.
Tomorrow I be Long Gone,
Like a turkey through the corn!
I was a jewelers apprentice for a year a couple years ago. We had a big window so people in the display room could stand and watch us work. One day the setter is setting a diamond that the lady just got through telling him was irreplacable because of sentimental value and so on. I hear the setter curse under his breath and I ask what's wrong. He says,"Get the owner, I just broke her diamond." I got the owner, and somehow he did a sleight of hand and replaced her diamond with another with her looking on! (I can't say I approved of this, or much else that went on in that store, but it was a pretty slick trick.)
In that store too, people would bring kids in and let them run around in back where we worked. We had torches going all the time (one had such a tiny blue flame I was always reaching through it and burning myself), hot pickle baths, and were running little drills and grinders--not a good place for kids.
That's good. You could also have a helper standing by with a particularly loud power tool, and instructions to start it the instant the guy opens his mouth. ;-)
-- J.S.
I laid a parquet floor in a household that contained a very inquisitive 5 year-old. I kept dropping hints to Mom that, while he was cute, I didn't have time to answer a million questions and a glue-covered floor wasn't the place for a kid to be.
The hints went unheard so I gave the kid a little hammer and an assortment of nails and told him to go out into the garden and practice nailing.
He practised on a set of teak garden furniture and from then on he was kept well out of my way.
IanDG
>>> so I gave the kid a little hammer and an assortment of nails and told him to go out into the garden and practice nailing.
Yeah, this works even better when you're really mad at the HO, and you ask the kid to practice in the driveway next to the garage. Nothing like nail-studded tires to get the HO's mind off nagging you ~:)
I'm usually pretty good with ho's, kids,dogs,etc.
Just really ticked with this job in general. When I first looked at this place, I told my bud I didn't want nothing to do with it.
Then he starts crying, and I know if I don't help him it'll take him three times as long, and that will delay the start on our next kitchen job which I do want.
So I relented and said I'd just do the DW.
Anyway, I thought this might be a good thread for some anecdotes.
I did a kitchen, years ago, for a very haughty Cuban lady. You could see that all the furniture and oil paintings had once adorned a much finer place than this rather cramped townhouse. And that she was not used to anyone dissagreeing with her or talking back.
Every morning she would come down to the kitchen and ask all these questions which quite obviously had nothing to do with the job and everything to do with who is who and what is what. Until one morning (after a night of some revelry), I had had enough and suggested that it would be in her best interest to GET THE HeLL OUT OF MY KITCHEN!!!
she stuttered and stammered, "But, but, this is my kitchen."
I said, "No it is not your kitchen, it is my kitchen until I am done with it, and then it is your kitchen."
We got along just fine after that.
I really like that solution. Today, I was shingling a roof in light drizzle all day. At about an hour before quitting time, the HO's grandson came over to watch. He got up on the roof, which I didn't mind. I noticed that the roof was getting a bit more slippery and attributed it to the fact that I was in the last stages and was moving a bit faster to get the job done before dark.
I had placed scrap wood in the mud around the jobsite so that I could keep working in the rain. It was only after the kid had left that I realized he had been walking on the roof with some mud on his shoes. Now I wish I had a less destructive solution for a situation like this. I like those folks and would not want anyone to start nailing on the furniture.
Furthermore, they also have a cat that likes me. It follows me around for about a half hour each day. It has even followed me up the ladder to the roof and then doesn't know how to get down. I don't mind this inconvenience too much.Les Barrett Quality Construction
We had a bricklayer once that brought his German Shepherd to work and the damn thing got out of the truck and climbed up the ladder to the second floor scaffold. It was hells delight trying to get it back down -- we had to truss it up in someone's jacket and lower it down on the wheel and fall.
IanDG
As amusing as these stories are, I would like to make a comment from the HO perspective.
I usually watch some of the work being done at my place, in part to judge the craftsmanship (if I don't know the person or company - I haven't had much luck with satellite dish installers) and in part to learn what I can about the system (eg HVAC operation). Typically these are more service visits than big projects so this may not apply to all of these postings.
I do try to stay out of the way & only ask (hopefully intelligent) questions a few times but sometimes the answers lead to more questions. I tend to have more trust in people who can (and do) answer my questions & seem happy to talk about it. So far nobody has mentioned charging more to cover their time but if they did I would generally consider it worthwhile.
For most projects, I think learning a bit about what is going on is part of it. After all, you don't buy whatever the car dealer recommends, right?
Just my opinions from the other side of the fence....
I am a subcontractor and my friend is the GC.
I answer to him; he deals with the customer.
Kind of like the chain of command in the services.
I am there to "git'er done", not to educate or entertain.
OK, HO/GC/DIY'r here...since I've been in the construction trades in the past, and hate when nieghbors, relatives, etc come around to shoot the breeze while I am trying to finish up this house...I'm really sensitive, although tempted, to hanging around and pestering the few subs (excavation, framing/roofing, taping, a little electrical) I've hired on this job.
My problem, more than once, has been the sub following ME around when I happen to be on the site working on something entirely different. Especially the taper. Fortunately these were all straight bids, so the guys' time was thier own, but I quickly ran out of polite ways to say, "Now, why don't you get back to work?"
The electricians, though, I stayed out of thier way except right while they were loading up thier truck.
I've a little different prospective on this.
Have never had anyone do any work for me so don't know that side, but also never have done any building for hire.
However, have done a number of construction project for church/school etc. (not Habitat*) where all the labor was volunteer. On that type project you have to be good at telling people how, what, when, where, etc. and learn patience. Have always accepted any help offered.
An example of a related and an even more common occurance at schools/churches is to be working hard all day with a few others while some guy is just sitting across the street with a beer watching all day - when you are about to quit at 8 PM, they sashay over and tell you they need a little cash to help them out, could they do any work for pay? One guy watched me and another volunteer digging a foundation all afternoon (some simple shovel work was needed that neither of us reallye wanted to do ourselves, but did) and as I was loading the crawler onto the trailer at the end of the day he comes up and says he needs work!
In PNW, Habitat charges 'volunteers" $60 per day or part thereof - any other areas do that??
>>In PNW, Habitat charges 'volunteers" $60 per day or part thereof - any other areas do that??
I never heard of that but I have been paid pretty well to come in monday morning and straighten up all the mistakes. Maybe thats where they get the scratch.
Junk
In PNW, Habitat charges 'volunteers" $60 per day or part thereof - any other areas do that??
I'm not understanding that? Whats up with that.
Doug
I did a bathroom remodel for a guy who insisted on helping. Kept asking what he could do. The plumber was getting frustrated so he told the HO he was going to need to make a bunch of cuts. He said he needed to take 3 (leftover) lenths of 2 inch PVC outside and cut them into 3 inch pieces.
well the HO disapeared for an hour then came back with a big box of perfect 3" cut offs. The plumber said good, now they'll fit nicely in the trash.
None of us could resist a good laugh. I think he got the idea.
LOL I did the same thing to a guy I used to work for.
The guy was a cokehead, but he could get the high dollar jobs. He'd show up every morning (you could tell he'd been up all night), we'd send him to the store for materials. Come back with what we needed, then head home to bed.
One day, he shows up and tells us he's going to "help". I had to build a small bulkhead to box in a pipe in this kitchen, so I told him to cut me a bunch of 6" pcs. of 2x. He's really blazing away in the other room; meanwhile,I shot one pc. of track to the ceiling, another pc. on the wall, as he comes running into the room with his arms loaded with blocks,I'm getting the second pc. of drywall up.
Never offered to help again.
Here's a thought:
If a HO hires you, then insists on "helping", and gets hurt in the process, am I liable? Could a claim be made on my insurance since technically I'm "calling the shots" and he/she is only helping?
What brings this to mind is the sign in auto repair shops for this reason. If someone is in the way they just show them out and refer to the sign.....
Mike, just politely tell him that if you take all the time to educate him, you won't make your production schedule and you've already made a time commitment that you can't change. Then, turn and turn up the volume on your headphones....mumble a "sorry....I have to get this done".
blue
Want me to come with you for a day?
Who Dares Wins.