The General Chat Thread (2025)

TastyReuben said:
And therein lies the solution… :whistling:
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Cmon now, are you any good at making people feel  uncomfortable?. I'm terrible at it. It makes me feel...well, uncomfortable. I mean if they seem nice and you feel a little sorry for them it's not easy to do that. If he's a jerk that's different, but I get the impression he's not...other than jerking SandwichShortOfAPicnic around not getting this job done.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
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He arrives around 10am has a cup of tea and then disappears off for breakfast returning 1-2 hours later for more tea, then he stops at 1pm for lunch and when he returns does practically nothing apart from look at his phone. Sometimes he just sits in his car.
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10 AM!!! Geez, that's half the day gone already. At 10 AM I was looking for lunch *if* I chose to stop long enough to eat one. I was typically home by 3 PM and whoever is signing my check, and the client, got their 8 hours.
 
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JAS_OH1 said:
Cmon now, are you any good at making people feel  uncomfortable?.
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I use a sort of double-backward-reverse psychology method…I let them see very plainly how obviously super-uncomfortable they’re making me, to the point they can’t stand it any longer and have to leave. :laugh:

I’d also make sure that the tea was made with toilet water, just to be on the safe side. :wink:
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Cmon now, are you any good at making people feel  uncomfortable?. I'm terrible at it. It makes me feel...well, uncomfortable. I mean if they seem nice and you feel a little sorry for them it's not easy to do that. If he's a jerk that's different, but I get the impression he's not...other than jerking SandwichShortOfAPicnic around not getting this job done.
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That sums it up.
As far as I can see he's not a bad person and I am sympathetic toward people who do manual work for a living, they have to pace themselves or pay the price with their body.

It's just he keeps saying what day he'll be finished and it comes n goes.

He said at the beginning of the week he'd be finished by Friday and I laughed because it's another "I'll be finished by" date that I knew wouldn't happen.
He looked very put out.
But now he's saying tuesday!

He's just given me a sob story about not getting home til 7pm on some days.
I replied well it's difficult isn't it because you could easily work faster but you'd rather be here than at home wouldn't you..

JAS_OH1 said:
He hasn't been given any advance payment i hope?
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Yes and no, we've part paid him because the concrete lorry and the ground worker needed paying and he's a sole trader that's been stung on not being paid before - but we have withheld a significant portion to ensure it gets done.

Which is just as we'll because he's done an awful job on the step and I just had to have a very uncomfortable conversation with him about redoing it 😬

He's ok about it now and has fessed up he's never done a concrete step before, I laughed and said it shows. Tbh it looks like one of my children did it 😆
 
Barriehie said:
10 AM!!! Geez, thats half the day gone already. At 10 AM I was looking for lunch *if* I chose to stop long enough to eat one. I was typically home by 3 PM and whoever is signing my check, and the client, got their 8 hours.
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10am is when he appears, he doesn't actually do any work then. Usually he does a tiny bit between 11.30am and 1pm 😆

It's a quote though so it's his time he's wasting and not my money.

He's always been slow but I'm kinda used to Spanish workers so it's never bothered me before 😂
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
10am is when he appears, he doesn't actually do any work then. Usually he does a tiny bit between 11.30am and 1pm 😆

It's a quote though so it's his time he's wasting and not my money.

He's always been slow but I'm kinda used to Spanish workers so it's never bothered me before 😂
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SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I replied well it's difficult isn't it because you could easily work faster but you'd rather be here than at home wouldn't you..
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Here’s a Regional US Difference in Cultures lesson:

MrsT’s response (East Coast): That’s because you’re wasting so much of your time not doing anything here.

My response (Midwest): Oh, it’s a shame I have you spending so much time here…perhaps you should finish up here and go tend to that there, if it’s not too much trouble.
 
TastyReuben said:
Here’s a Regional US Difference in Cultures lesson:

MrsT’s response (East Coast): That’s because you’re wasting so much of your time not doing anything here.

My response (Midwest): Oh, it’s a shame I have you spending so much time here…perhaps you should finish up here and go tend to that there, if it’s not too much trouble.
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I must be a bit more East Coast. I had to bite my tongue because the concreters made such a mess of his beautifully rendered wall and I wanted him to clean it off which is considerably more work.
It looked really lovely, now it looks a bit messy. Heyho, soon it will be mottled with the white and black mould colours that cover all concrete surfaces on soggy clay farmland.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I must be a bit more East Coast. I had to bite my tongue because the concreters made such a mess of his beautifully rendered wall and I wanted him to clean it off which is considerably more work.
It looked really lovely, now it looks a bit messy. Heyho, soon it will be mottled with the white and black mould colours that cover all concrete surfaces on soggy clay farmland.
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Sounds like things in the shade here. They get covered with a green layer...
 
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I don’t think you can tell from the picture it’s a very bumpy step and there are sharp metal ends poking out of the corners of the step.
He’s a messy worker and the concrete floor that was lovely and smooth now has lumps of concrete all over it.

But on the upside he’s not going to try to fix it himself, the ground worker who does know about concrete etc will be coming back on Friday to sort it out.
 
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