Worker Consideration

[Tommy T.]

Interesting items - at least to me - regarding Filipino culture here in Davao City:

I found a woman here who is now my wife. She is lovely, temperamental and very smart!

Between the two of us, wa are not wealthy, but have two properties. L has an apartment building with a few units, including her own. Out here in the country, we also have our own home that we had constructed and maybe 1k sqtm.

At various times, we each require outside help to clean or landscape each property.

My God! it is difficult to find people who are reliable to do the relatively  simple work. We have a guy we can rely on to do masonry, welding and even carpentry. He does good work mostly. We have found an electrician/plumber who is licensed in both and is good with both. We also have a sort-of relative who comes in to clean as requested, We also have a guy who comes in from time to time to do gardening and grass cutting.

The problem lies with responsibility and consideration. L feels exactly the same as me. We pay them all much higher than the normal rates. I will not mention them here. Even with higher than normal pay rates, most of these workers often just don't show up for work. L is the one to contact them and'" Oh I forgot.....,  Oh I had a family situation to deal with....Oh I don't  feel well....Oh my driver has something to do in another town so he cannot take me there....." The excuses go on and on... We treat them well with cold water, treats and snacks....

The problems seems - to me - to be lack of consideration for the people who employ them and also the "I am a millionaire for today," syndrome.  I don't really know.... 

But the bottom line of this small rant is that finding people  who are even minimally qualified for their work is almost impossible to find. We have found a few but often they don't show up and when L calls them they have an excuse....sometimes valid, sometimes we think is bullshit. We (L) have told them so many times to just tell us that they cannot make it or have another obligation....  We can deal with that. But they don't advise us in advance.... That's my gripe - and L's too...

Does anyone else have this problem?

Rant over....

Edited December 12, 2023 by Tommy T.

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

Does anyone else have this problem?

We used to have a good gardener from about 2013 to 2018.  We had him 2X week and he did a lot of work for us, including handyman work.  He only skipped work about once a month.  We tried a few others before giving up and my wife and I do the yard work.

The guy who bought my house has had the same gardener for 20+ years living here in the freeport and I am sure he pays well.  The last month in the house I knew I would not be able to do the yard work, and I asked him how his gardener was, and if I could borrow him.  "Yes, he is good, when he shows up!"  20+ years and still the same.

Truth below in red

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

Oh I forgot.....,   I was drunk  Oh I had a family situation to deal with...    I was drunk Oh I don't  feel well....   I was drunk h my driver has something to do in another town so he cannot take me there....."   I was drunk

 

[hk blues]

5 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Interesting items - at least to me - regarding Filipino culture here in Davao City:

I found a woman here who is now my wife. She is lovely, temperamental and very smart!

Between the two of us, wa are not wealthy, but have two properties. L has an apartment building with a few units, including her own. Out here in the country, we also have our own home that we had constructed and maybe 1k sqtm.

At various times, we each require outside help to clean or landscape each property.

My God! it is difficult to find people who are reliable to do the relatively  simple work. We have a guy we can rely on to do masonry, welding and even carpentry. He does good work mostly. We have found an electrician/plumber who is licensed in both and is good with both. We also have a sort-of relative who comes in to clean as requested, We also have a guy who comes in from time to time to do gardening and grass cutting.

The problem lies with responsibility and consideration. L feels exactly the same as me. We pay them all much higher than the normal rates. I will not mention them here. Even with higher than normal pay rates, most of these workers often just don't show up for work. L is the one to contact them and'" Oh I forgot.....,  Oh I had a family situation to deal with....Oh I don't  feel well....Oh my driver has something to do in another town so he cannot take me there....." The excuses go on and on... We treat them well with cold water, treats and snacks....

The problems seems - to me - to be lack of consideration for the people who employ them and also the "I am a millionaire for today," syndrome.  I don't really know.... 

But the bottom line of this small rant is that finding people  who are even minimally qualified for their work is almost impossible to find. We have found a few but often they don't show up and when L calls them they have an excuse....sometimes valid, sometimes we think is bullshit. We (L) have told them so many times to just tell us that they cannot make it or have another obligation....  We can deal with that. But they don't advise us in advance.... That's my gripe - and L's too...

Does anyone else have this problem?

Rant over....

We've been slightly luckier when doing our 3 or 4 major projects - we had one gang do 2 projects and 2 other gangs the 3rd and 4th.  Barely a day missed other than for weather and work was done to an acceptable quality which matched the price we paid.  My wife was the model host - provided morning and afternoon snacks and refreshments throughout the day - I looked after the Saturday night post-work beers.  I was, I think, the ideal client i.e. at the outset I was clear about how I wanted the job to look but how it was to be done was down to them as experts. I didn't look over them and only inspected their work at night after they were gone and clarified anything next day which they were cool with.  We paid only a little over the going rate.  As for getting small jobs done, yep, it's a challenge at times but we have a couple of go-to guys in the street so we get by.  

[Possum]

23 minutes ago, hk blues said:

We've been slightly luckier when doing our 3 or 4 major projects - we had one gang do 2 projects and 2 other gangs the 3rd and 4th.  Barely a day missed other than for weather and work was done to an acceptable quality which matched the price we paid.  My wife was the model host - provided morning and afternoon snacks and refreshments throughout the day - I looked after the Saturday night post-work beers.  I was, I think, the ideal client i.e. at the outset I was clear about how I wanted the job to look but how it was to be done was down to them as experts. I didn't look over them and only inspected their work at night after they were gone and clarified anything next day which they were cool with.  We paid only a little over the going rate.  As for getting small jobs done, yep, it's a challenge at times but we have a couple of go-to guys in the street so we get by.  

My experience has been similar. We also put in writing exactly what we want and it's signed.. I do keep an eye on them until I am sure they use proper steel and concrete practices then just an occasional check. On occasion my wife would provide a snack but it wasn't regular thing as she is notoriously tight with the pesos and most of the workers knew this going in. For well done work I would pay a small bonus at the end of the job though for one very good worker I gave him a concrete vibrator when the job was complete.

[Tommy T.]

 

27 minutes ago, Possum said:

concrete vibrator?

Really?

Maybe I need to get me one of those!!!???

Edited December 12, 2023 by Tommy T.

[gbmmbg]

We have been very lucky with the workers that built are main house and remodeled two others. Were my wife and I have the  big problem, well its my wifes pet peeve, so it makes it a problem for me by default, is the people that clean the house. My wife has always been very neat and a bit of a clean freak. After working in a hospital for 27 years i cant blame her. She tells the ladies that help her, blue rags are for the counter tops and above, green are for anything underneath, white for the bathroom and red for the toilet. Easy peasy...nope, Come home today and one of the girls is wiping the kitchen counter tops with a red rag. I knew my wife was going to blow her top when she looked at her and asked, are you color blind, dumb, or just Fuc@ing with me? That was my cue to go out side and check something......

[Possum]

3 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

concrete vibrator?

Really?

Hey he enjoyed the better job he could do with it while pouring concrete. He lusted after my table saw but my generosity has its limits,

[Lee1154]

21 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Interesting items - at least to me - regarding Filipino culture here in Davao City:

I found a woman here who is now my wife. She is lovely, temperamental and very smart!

Between the two of us, wa are not wealthy, but have two properties. L has an apartment building with a few units, including her own. Out here in the country, we also have our own home that we had constructed and maybe 1k sqtm.

At various times, we each require outside help to clean or landscape each property.

My God! it is difficult to find people who are reliable to do the relatively  simple work. We have a guy we can rely on to do masonry, welding and even carpentry. He does good work mostly. We have found an electrician/plumber who is licensed in both and is good with both. We also have a sort-of relative who comes in to clean as requested, We also have a guy who comes in from time to time to do gardening and grass cutting.

The problem lies with responsibility and consideration. L feels exactly the same as me. We pay them all much higher than the normal rates. I will not mention them here. Even with higher than normal pay rates, most of these workers often just don't show up for work. L is the one to contact them and'" Oh I forgot.....,  Oh I had a family situation to deal with....Oh I don't  feel well....Oh my driver has something to do in another town so he cannot take me there....." The excuses go on and on... We treat them well with cold water, treats and snacks....

The problems seems - to me - to be lack of consideration for the people who employ them and also the "I am a millionaire for today," syndrome.  I don't really know.... 

But the bottom line of this small rant is that finding people  who are even minimally qualified for their work is almost impossible to find. We have found a few but often they don't show up and when L calls them they have an excuse....sometimes valid, sometimes we think is bullshit. We (L) have told them so many times to just tell us that they cannot make it or have another obligation....  We can deal with that. But they don't advise us in advance.... That's my gripe - and L's too...

Does anyone else have this problem?

Rant over....

Now you know why there are so many "poor" people.  I think about this each time I see a hand out and being told they are hungry.  Lazy people should go hungry!

[Lee]

30 minutes ago, Lee1154 said:

Even with higher than normal pay rates, most of these workers often just don't show up for work.

That has been our experience as well. 

Hiring family members can be even worse. Most would rather we just give them the money (they have opined that we are obligated to do this as we are family) as opposed to working for it.

[Tommy T.]

3 hours ago, Lee said:

That has been our experience as well. 

Hiring family members can be even worse. Most would rather we just give them the money (they have opined that we are obligated to do this as we are family) as opposed to working for it.

My limited experience both here and elsewhere (including USA) is not to mix work or money or business with family. Yes, sure, sometimes it works out for some... I believe that more often it develops into irritation or outright battles...

L is sort of mixed with her thinking about it. We agree that we really don't want relatives working for us. Then we are back to square one.... finding qualified workers to employ at usually much higher wages than the usual.... We have two now who are constructing a storage "house" for us. They are mostly reliable, but every day is a new story - sometimes good, sometimes not so good....