Been in my new house six or seven weeks now. The days rush by in a whirl of work — the kind I do and get paid for, the kind I do and don’t get paid for (except in satisfaction and sweat equity) and the kind of work I have to pay other people to do. Can you guess that the latter is outstripping the former right now? Ouch.<\/p>\n
Still, nothing to be done about it. I’m at that stage of things where I have to pay contractors to do some fairly heavy lifting. Some jobs I simply can’t do myself. Some jobs I could do if I had time, but I’m scrambling to get them done before the heavy rains come and scrambling to get them done for the insurance company. Roof repairs. Gutters. Replacing windows that have lost their air-tight seal, etc.<\/p>\n
One part of me loves the thought of not<\/i> doing everything myself (as my desert rat friends do). But another, deeper part quails at the thought of relying on other people. And not for any high-minded reason, not because of some DIY ethic. But simply because I have a deep-down, in-the-gut fear of putting my reliance on people who will let me down.<\/p>\n
And OMG, do they ever. It always seems as if half the people in the construction trades take the concept of “independent contractor” a bit too far to the “independent” side — meaning they do what the heck they want, when the heck they want. Which would be okay if they just looked me right in the eye and said, “Well, I might be there tomorrow. But if it’s sunny, I’m going fishing,” or “Hey, I’ll be there tomorrow if I don’t get drunk tonight.”<\/p>\n
Instead they say, “I’ll see you at 8:00 a.m.” Then when I finally call them at 9:00 or 10:30 or whenever I finally admit to myself that there’s no point waiting any longer, they’re just dragging themselves out of bed. Or they’re on another job. Or they just plain forgot. Or they’re fixing their wife’s car and can’t even imagine why I think they should have called me if they weren’t going to show up.<\/p>\n
If this happened once in a while, no problem. I definitely understand that anything to do with construction can be unpredictable. But I’d say about 50 percent of the time people tell me they’re going to be here, they don’t show — and don’t communicate. That’s the really sucky part. That they change their plans and see no need to say something. Plans do<\/i> change, no problem. Just pick up the phone and clue the other person in.<\/p>\n
But no. Their time is important to them. My time, to them, is inconsequential.<\/p>\n
There never was any good excuse for that, and in the age of cellphones there’s less than none.<\/p>\n
When this first became a problem, I used to try to tell people upfront that reliability and communication were as crucial as the quality of the work. Figured things would get better if I clearly stated my expectations — or that if they were the kind who were “relaxed” about schedules, they’d tell me upfront and we could part ways or make some accommodation on both sides. But I merely found that guys would look me right in the eye, say, “Oh yeah, me too. I really believe in doing what I say I will” — then do whatever. People who are reliable will be reliable, because that’s who they are. People who aren’t reliable will just go on not showing up — or showing up unprepared — or showing up drunk — or showing up but leaving early with the job half done and no word about when they’ll be back — no matter what I say. In fact, if I dare complain, I become “the nagging woman.” So I lose, either way.<\/p>\n
Hire somebody better, you say? Tell me the magic formula for finding the guy who does what he says or takes the initiative to communicate when he can’t. It’s a mystery to me.<\/p>\n
Whatever happened to the concept of a man’s word being his bond? When did “being a man of his word” become so utterly, utterly unimportant?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Been in my new house six or seven weeks now. The days rush by in a whirl of work — the kind I do and get paid for, the kind I do and don’t get paid for (except in satisfaction and sweat equity) and the kind of work I have to pay other people to do. Can you guess that the latter is outstripping the former right now? Ouch. Still, nothing to be done about it. I’m at that stage of things where I have to pay contractors to do some fairly heavy lifting. Some jobs I simply can’t do…<\/p>\n