I keep digging in the ground and I keep finding dirt! What is the meaning of this? Explain now!
You also get on an elliptical machine, treadmill or spin-bike and no matter how hard or how long you go, you GO NOWHERE, but you burn calories. Need you any further explanation?
Allow me to contribute to this thread. I'm an insulation contractor, we insulate attics & walls of residential homes. We charge by a price per square foot and I generally quote the price per square foot over the phone and then send out the crew...we generally don't need to go to homes ahead of time for estimates. If I had to drive around giving estimates I wouldn't have time to post here! (plus, it'd be too much like work).
Homeowner calls me, says his attic area is about 1,000 sq/ft, wants a price on R30 blown cellulose insulation. I tell him it's 80-cents per square foot and he's looking at $800. He tells me he found another price from another company for only 65-cents per square foot and wants me to match it. I agree to do the job for 65-cents per square foot, he says: so long as the job cost me $650, you got it! I tell him, if the attic is 1,000 sq/ft...then no problem; BUT...we'll measure it when we get there.
My foreman Bryan arrives, measures the attic, it comes to 1,487 sq/ft (about 50% larger then we were told). The homeowner isn't home and the nanny let him in...so he calls the homeowner on his cell phone to get his "okay". He tells the homeowner the attic measures 1,487 sq/ft and based on 65-cents the price would be $966....the homeowner then says to my foreman: "No, I have an agreement with Steve that the job would be done for a flat-rate of just $650".....
Does my foreman call me to confirm? No
Does he try to haggle half-way or argue? No
My foreman proceeds to just do the job. After the thousands of times I've told my foreman "if you have any questions or problems, call me...that's why you have a cell phone".
Later, I see the paperwork and ask Bryan WTF? He says "The homeowner told me you had an agreement to do it for a flat $650"
Me: No, we had no such agreement, I merely told him we'd do it for $650 IF the square footage was 1,000 sq/ft.....HE LIED TO YOU
Bryan: Well how was I supposed to know?!
Me: Well, you have a phone, you could have called. I also put details on your worksheet...did you notice it didn't say anything about "doing it for a flat $650"?
Bryan: No, I didn't see that...it did seem a bit strange....but I didn't want to waste time and I wanted to get to work!
Me: Well, that's very admirable of you and I appreciate your productivity...but the job you just did actually LOST the company money...we didn't even cover our material use...and I suppose you want me to pay you for this too?
Bryan: (very proud & upright)...I BELIEVED THE HOMEOWNER, what's wrong with that!!!
Me: The homeowner LIED to you...I suppose it's a good thing he didn't tell you it was being done for free?
Bryan (rolls his eyes as if it's unfair he's being given a hard time)
Me: You have a phone, why the F%@K didn't you F#@KING call me? You don't have a problem calling your girlfriend 20x per day, could you have called me to verify the info?
Bryan (very proud again)...I'm a WORKER, I'm paid to work and get things done....I don't have time to make phone calls and play games!
Me: Then I'm afraid I've made a gross error in judgment and you're evidently incapable of executing simple remedial decision making and as such not qualified to be a foreman....how can I let you run the truck with reasoning like that?
Bryan...I got the job in!
Me...you cost us money, we got duped; he lied to you and played you like a chump, all along the phone was in hand-reach....I would have told you to walk from that job!
**From there we got into a more verbal arguement, he handed-in his cell phone & drove-off...I've never seen or heard from him since. In the weeks to come I replaced him and to this day wonder why I hadn't fired him earlier. All the things he used to fix & repair around the shop and on the truck...were evidently things he broke himself! (Homer Simpson sydrome)**
I did call the homeowner and he refused to pay more...he argued that the house wasn't larger then 1,000 sq/ft and when I offered to measure it with him, he refused and defaulted on the arguement that he was only willing to pay $650 and no more.
Want more?
A year earlier I see Bryan jumping off the back of the truck instead of climbing down. I tell him "Don't do that, sooner or later you'll land wrong and hurt your ankle". 2 weeks later he's limping, I ask what happened...he said "I jumped off the truck and landed wrong"......he ignored my advice and sure enough, got hurt.
Better? Bryan worked with his brother Tony....3 weeks after that I saw Tony limping...I asked what had happened...yep; he jumped off the back of the truck and landed wrong. Dumb & dumber!!!!!!
I'm telling you, it's not easy being a contractor.....you have to take the high-school drop-outs, alcoholics, morons, losers and idiots and train them to do a job...then rely on them to make your company do good work for homeowners. And homeowners can be unreasonable, overly demanding and difficult to work with too.
Ughh...I'd say "don't get me started"....but we're past that now!
