We were supposed to have a brand spanking new wall – what we got was an invoice.
I’m not kidding.
After having waited for two days for the workers to come finish what they started, we finally lost our patience and told them not to bother with the painting and niceties. We got another guy to do that.
You would expect them to be angry, right? But, no. Actually the foreman seemed relieved. So let’s recap: Not only did they do a bad job when they were actually there, they also broke a light fixture, failed to clean up the unholy mess they left behind and remove the left over drywall, they didn’t finish the job and just got on everybody’s nerve for the duration. They cost us money twice – we lost income during the time they were there and they also expect to be paid. And to top it off they were relieved not to have to finish what they started.
Take all of that into account and you might see why we felt more than a little inclined to just slip that invoice to the bottom of the pile once we got it and let it sit there for a while.
This is where things get funny in my world.
The foreman showed up today in person at the front desk and handed over the invoice asking for it to be paid in cash or at least as soon as possible.
Coffee went down the wrong pipe at this point. I feel myself looking at the guy with that slightly odd seasick sensation you get when you realise you’re obviously not living in the same space/time continuum. I want to tell him exactly where to stick the greasy paper. Or, even better, one of the sawed off pieces of 2*4 laying about. I am not allowed to do that sort of thing. (Remember – little voice on the inside of the head). So I try not to apply too liberal an amount of sarcasm as I tell him we’ll see what we can do. And echo his own words back at him along the lines of “we’ll get right on that”. Sheesh.
I really don’t understand the attitude, the sheer oblivious lack of pride in your work that makes that kind of thing ok in your own head. It’s one thing to run into snags during a project, encountering problems you didn’t foresee or whatever, but really… These guys are just bad at what they do. That’s it, that’s all. Just plain bad.
I’ve had a lot of shit jobs. The only thing that gets me through is taking some kind of pride in what I do. Along the lines of “if you’re going to do it, do it to the best of your ability”. It’s not about what any one else thinks, it’s just about being able to look yourself in the eyes in the mirror in the mornings. I don’t know who to blame for that… Calvin, St Benedict, the Spartans, you name it. I don’t think I could gaze upon my own visage having just performed such an incredibly shoddy piece of work and then handed over a bill for 54 hours. Come on, guys…
I handed the bill to my boss. I’m sure a vein that size should not be throbbing that way. He looked at the request for immediate payment and actually sniggered. His only comment as he let the paper gently float to the pile of papers on his desk was “yeah. Right.”
And that about sums it up.
ROL
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