Why the painter got fired

[AndyG]

This is not the whole story, but it pretty much summarizes why I let a painter go-

During one of his epic five hour workdays, this painter told the electrician if he could not take care of the writing around this outlet cover that day he would come back the next day even though it was 30 miles out of the way round trip and spend about half a day and take care if it-

I immediately confronted him and said you mean to tell me that you’re not going to take five minutes to take care of that while you’re there?

He was so stupid he said if I can’t get to it, I’ll even come back Saturday and do it…

I was like … you don’t get it-

You’re on a job and that’s the only thing you have left to finish and you can’t take a wet rag and clean or paint around the outlet in a few minutes?? While only working 5 hours anyway?


He gone.


I really hate to say this because there are some good people out there and there’s some people out in the trades that I dearly love…. But so many American tradespeople suck.

I’m targeting the statement primarily toward people that work remotely and work unsupervised struggle to get done what could easily be done in the given time.

And I’m going to add that a lot of the problem with quality is people struggle so bad to grasp the basic task, they don’t have time and energy to make things really good…. They don’t have time to rework something, to clean up well.

The can’t solve challenges and get afraid to move.



They will park their trailer so it’s 500 feet from the work area and even have it turned the wrong direction… they will use the wrong tool for a task…endless, not thinking stupidity.

The reasons are endless, the outcome is always the same- behind schedule and over budget.


I’m going to add this is also an example of programming.


Programming is a term for when people acquire the habit of staying busy, but not productive.

He was in a bad marriage before he came to work for us and he painted little rental and flip houses and things like that and I think he was in the habit of leaving things to do so that the next day he would have a reason to get out of the house-

He would also chase butter butterflies…. This is the habit of getting on the job and doing stupid things and not doing what your sent to do..

Earlier in the week, he had a 20 minute touchup and he was there seven hours.

I went by the job and he had taken cabinetry apart and had it in the garage painting components and that was not even close to his scope of work-

He was there to touch up a place on the wall.

To make it worse the next morning the customer texted me and said hey when your Painter comes back, are you going to touch up this place on the wall?

You know it’s a wonder I’m not in prison for responding to something like this the wrong way with a worker.

 

[bucky]

I saw things like this when I worked as a Union Carpenter in Wisconsin back in the day. The attitude was I don’t care because I get paid by the hour not the job. I absolutely hated those guys. They are a Cancer on the job site because that kind of attitude spreads.

 

[B1Toad]

Speaking of parking why do the painters always park right up by the door and the other trades, who are back and forth from the truck to the building 100 times park in the street?

I've seen some strange things from painters. We had one who would rather tape up the wall plates instead of removing them. Another one was painting around a running ceiling fan with a brush. The fan was on low and he just kept sticking his brush in there between revolutions, unbelievable. I asked him if he wanted me to turn off the fan and he said "yes please"

 

[AndyG]

Speaking of parking why do the painters always park right up by the door and the other trades, who are back and forth from the truck to the building 100 times park in the street?

I've seen some strange things from painters. We had one who would rather tape up the wall plates instead of removing them. Another one was painting around a running ceiling fan with a brush. The fan was on low and he just kept sticking his brush in there between revolutions, unbelievable. I asked him if he wanted me to turn off the fan and he said "yes please"

Almost tempted to ask you the guys name because that sounds like something this guy would have done-

I’m like dude would you try to change a water pump with the motor running?

There are people who are literally so non-social they are afraid to ask anybody anything…. They would prefer just to be in a room by themselves and work….. then you have idiots like the guy who worked for me that recently went into a lady’s house when she was home and she was in her kitchen and he took a dump in the powder bath right next to the kitchen.

 

[AndyG]

I saw things like this when I worked as a Union Carpenter in Wisconsin back in the day. The attitude was I don’t care because I get paid by the hour not the job. I absolutely hated those guys. They are a Cancer on the job site because that kind of attitude spreads.

You’re not kidding, and if there’s anything about my company that I can’t stand it is the fact that we are mostly paying people by the hour-

The reason for that is the variation in the different task is so much I would spend all my time in the office, trying to figure out how to pay people-


My business model works very well as long as I am on the job site. This is why I have an assistant who handles the building, inspectors and all that fun stuff.




We had a interior trim company in the area who paid by the linear foot and they were nothing short of outstanding and the owner was very successful financially

He told me the first thing that happens is you lose everybody that doesn’t really want to hustle.


When guys are paid by the hour, they simply calculate how many hours they need to make what they want to make and that’s it.

And the majority of time they will fabricate hours in someway or the other.. it is nothing more than lying and stealing.

I had a guy work from 9 to 3 one day personally with me and stood there and told me he got eight hours.

On the other hand right this minute, I am standing in a residential elevator, painting the areas that you can see when you ride the elevator from the back so it looks better

Friday I got to my second or third job by 12 o’clock and we installed a double exterior door and a single solid wood front door 8 foot tall, including removing the old doors and any framing modifications and putting on the lock set and we’re done by 4 o’clock-

This is with a helper who pretends to understand English.

Not a single person in my company would have even started the second door on a Friday and very likely would have taken out the first door and did so much head scratching they end up putting OSB over the opening… or got it done and put the door in backward.

Now do I think I’m anything special in the construction world?

Absolutely not- I’m a typical owner with decent experience and the motivation to get things done and get paid.

it is honestly terribly sad how pitiful most of these guys are compared to how good they think they are.


One time I had a guy who really had a bad case of it and I decided I would take a chance and just tell him the truth- his family had a very, very successful building company so he just assumed that he was a natural.

I told him straight up he didn’t know what he was doing.

He never came back to work.

I’m going to add a very sincere statement and that is I have seen a lot of people that had more of the mentality of today’s worker go into business for themselves thinking that they could even work less… it ain’t pretty.

I’ve got pictures on my phone right now of a contractor showing me his mixed drinks as he sat on the beach in June-

Now he is getting fired from projects , has liens on houses, owes me money , he’s just another bankrupt builder now.