worker doing personal chore while on the clock

You have to wonder: what else is the crew you’re paying a hefty sum for, and entrusting the well-being of your property with, doing when you and the boss are not around? Tattle away.

colonialrevival

in General Discussion 1 year and 8 months ago

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Guest User | 1 year and 8 months ago

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We are in the uncomfortable position of living in upstate NY while our house in Greenpoint is being gut-renovated. I like the GC and trust him, although he is expensive (no global contract, time and materials and his markup, I know.). Today I am in Brooklyn and stopped by. Two workers were there, one I know and one I don’t. The one I know has been with the GC for years. I asked him what the younger worker was painting (it was a board of wood) and the first one said it was a shelf for his tv, but not to tell the GC. Thoughts? I don’t want to be a snitch (and risk possible reprisals) but we are paying for his time.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 1 year and 8 months ago

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Is this REALLY such a big deal?

Lurker | 1 year and 8 months ago

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Well, Ithaca is paying that GC and thus his workers an hourly wage, so yes it’s a very big deal. It’s not taking 5 minutes to take a call, it’s doing manual labor while on the clock. If it was a project fee who cares I guess, but not in this case.

tetz | 1 year and 8 months ago

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who is the gc?

tetz | 1 year and 8 months ago

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who is the gc?

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 1 year and 8 months ago

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IMO painting a shelf is a small thing vac and O wouldn’t make a fuss.

Master Plvmber | 1 year and 8 months ago

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I appreciate Mr. Marvin’s very rational position on this. I really do. But the GCs I work for would fire that person at the first sight of the paint can. Honestly, it would just never happen on the projects I’m on.

justinromeu26 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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Bob. Yes, you are kind. But the worker may not understand the terms and something should be said to let them know who is paying them and it cannot become a habit. If something is not said they will start doing all sorts of things and it won’t be one employee – it will be all of them. And if you wait to say something when another person does they will say “but you let them ….”

If op was on site everyday and in control of the place it might be ok to allow this once in a while.

hasibur.rahman07 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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Tell the worker that you aren’t comfortable with him doing personal work on the clock at your house. See where that goes first.

Guest User | 1 year and 8 months ago

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When I started to talk to the worker this morning he said to talk to the GC, which I did; I am assured that while workers can do personal things on their breaks , I don’t need to worry that it is a common occurrence.

justinromeu26 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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You have to know your employees before you can allow anything like this to take place on a job on “their” time with no supervision around (and even with supervision around, it is not fool proof).

Some employees would never cheat someone and would never take what is not theirs. when those people ask for things – left over materials or even a good piece of material, screws, half a can of paint, we give them things freely – simply because they will always ask and will never take and if you give it to them, you condition them to ask. If they have a family emergency or a child in the hospital, let them take extra breaks to be in touch with their family by phone (or relax cell phone rules altogether) or let them leave a little early (and don’t dock them).

Then there is this kind of person (this is true):
I heard that my guy that opened a building early every morning (the lead mechanic or maintenance guy) was standing around the front desk talking to the desk person for an hour every day before i arrived. i snuck into the building early and hid someplace watching this guy lean on the desk talking away. i then snuck to my office and sat at my desk. At his usual break time, he came into my office and said he was going on break. I said to him “what do you mean break? you just took an hour break at the front desk”. he turned white as a sheet. I will ad that this same employee had put something for personal use on the company hardware store account a month or so previous. if it had not been for his union, i would have fired him.

What will happen is, the employees who cheat this way “blur” the lines. They might work on their little project for a half an hour at 9:30. If you show up they will say they are on break. If you don’t show up they might continue working on it or put it down and go to work and pick it up again at 10:30 and if you show up then they will say they are on break. they might do that all day until you show up and their might be more than one shelf or whatever it is they are working on. My point is, anytime you catch them, they will be “on break”. if you show up everyday and they are on break you will begin to realize that something does not “smell” right and you will not fully know it until you set a camera up and look at how many breaks they take.

Having a person like what i describe above on a team will hurt the operation because the other employees will know that someone is not pulling their weight and will resent the bosses for not getting rid of that person or they will think, “he’s doing it and they are not stopping it, so why can’t i do it?”. In the case of two men on a job, one guy might let another get away with this if they are friends or come to some sort of arrangement between themselves (that costs you even more money).

In bigger operations, where supervision is in on it, they can go on unnoticed for years with all of the employees on that team benefiting from it. They might be producing side work for their own customers while on the clock. Employees at this level get into all sorts of side hustles that may be detrimental to your operation.

As a contractor, I would tell them they can do things off the clock, at the end of the day and then i would let them use my paint brushes or tools or whatever, would probably even give them the paint if it is not an entire can. Bad habits must be stopped immediately.

Master Plvmber | 1 year and 8 months ago

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> @Ithaca
> When I started to talk to the worker this morning he said to talk to the GC, which I did

I would’ve thrown him off my job myself with that answer. You did him a solid not going over his head.

justinromeu26 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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> @Ithaca
> the first one said it was a shelf for his tv, but not to tell the GC

by asking you not to tell the GC something means that someone thinks something is wrong with what someone is doing but they are allowing it anyway. they are also asking you to conspire against the person who is responsible for your property in your absence.

i can tell you this as well: the GC might have acted like this is ok (even though he knows it is not) because he might not want you to think there is a problem and he does not have control over his team. he is afraid you will say “i need you on site all the time”.

I have never been much for these organizations that have multiple employees around (even just two) and there is not one lead person or supervisor among them who is paid a little more to act like a supervisor and take charge of the newer or younger people. this is when crap goes wrong and people point fingers and do not accept responsibility.