I have a local plumber/heating engineer that I have used for years. We get on really well and have good chats about all sorts when he services my boiler. He lives in the next road to me so see him frequently for a chat outside work. He works part time until From 9 to 3ish.
I had a problem with my tap in the utility and water was pouring out and I asked if there was any way he could pop in on his way home. Nope, he was busy for at least 6 weeks.
So from my experience I take my hat off to you for agreeing to have a look in case it was a quick fix and would stick with your offer of earliest possible. You seem like a fair chap so your conscious should be clear
Andy
Your business, your rules.
If you're happy to work overtime, do it, but don't let some uppity twat guilt you into it with his "customer is always right" nonsense.
I'm sure you have many satisfied customers. Some people just can't be pleased no matter what you do.
The OP is lucky in that his job can’t be done without a workshop so he is still able to make some physical demarcation between work and hone.
So many of us do not have that anymore and society has moved at so many levels to 24/7. My sons (all working and in their twenties) know nothing other than this.
Work to the old fashioned norms that we saw our parents do is a thing of the past for most.
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I think the OP is well within his rights and respect the rigidity and I hope the OP always respects the same when he's on the receiving end
I work in healthcare, it would mean the GPs working just to their hours so they would equally be booked until october without any complaint from the public, or coming to A&E and the wait being 8 hours because people either walk out of the consultation at the end of their shift and get someone else or you have to wait longer because they don't want to start a new patient that may cause them to work late. This is at least 1 24 hour service.
I'm sure people will say but that's really urgent and a car isn's, but in the modern world it can easily be so.
All the posters saying it was the right thing to do I assume you're ok with healthcare taking that attitude?
Personally i'm flexible about it but life is about quid pro quo, i get looked after by people and when they need medical help I move heaven and earth to look after them, those who are rigid about things when they email me a question or phone up, I tell them when i can see them and how much it will cost for me to answer
I don't mind and respect people choosing life in a work life balance, but then they shouldn't expect me to be different. I believe it's a fundamental flaw in many peoples view point, there is a dichotomy, my time is precious and i want to work monday to friday 9-5, but yours isn't so i expect to be able to do a myriad of things at the weekend and evening that involve other people working
Similar here & cannot criticise the better life he provided, but I know he regrets it now he has given us all that.Originally Posted by ozzyb123
Very clear to see with the level of engagement with his granddaughter, my niece. Happy they get to do what they do over half terms etc, but would have loved it to.
I’ve moved internally to a new role that doesn’t require me to ‘be available’ whenever, or an expectation to jump onto client calls when on holiday, or have a boss suggest with a bank holiday weekend to ‘choose which day I want to work, as it needs delivering’, especially when the client was happy for the end of the week & he said we could do it earlier.
Wrong part of the forum, but many bosses can be utter ****s.
So are you planning on doing the job eventually?
Just be careful, the bloke sounds like an utter clown and could be the sort to kick up a stink if anything about the job is not to his satisfaction/expectations or may even just make a huge fuss out of a tiny detail just to appear to have the last word/the upper hand - you know the sort, oily fingerprint on paintwork, trim not quite lined up, seats not positioned how he left them etc..
They are out there....
An old friend of mine told me when we had our First Child " don't miss them growing up, you can never get that time back"
The trouble is most of us has been there when you are younger you need to work long hours to pay the bills, mortgage, etc!
I spent nearly 30 years working away to come home to hear my two kids always saying " mam this, mam that" felt like a spare part sometimes! But what do you do!
Like to think through the sacrifices my wife an I had to make when younger that we have helped our children to make a better life with such as helping with Uni and getting on the property ladder.
Do the words my old pal said to us all those years ago ring true, god yes! But
Such is life!!
Nobody said I wish I spent more time at work. You did the right thing you need as others have said family is first. I have known driven men working their way to the top but lost their family on the way.
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I;d have refused to do it at all.
Chances are you'll do it and he'll find some reason to try and avoid paying the whole bill or find something wrong that was there all along and claim you need to fix it.
You have a few different examples here, some I agree with and others I don’t.
Your GP example is absolutely fair. If I can’t get an appointment (which is fairly normal) I accept it and don’t expect my GP to work late, or work the weekend to see me.
But A&E isn’t the same IMO, and the expectations of somebody entering this field will be aligned to the fact it’s not a fixed-hour job. Police, Firefighters, etc are the same.
Following your comparisons and analogies, the car mechanic is like the GP. It’s not a time critical service. I can hire a car or get a taxi; there are genuine workarounds. Equally, I won’t be calling my GP if I have a life threatening emergency.
Although the op deals with land rovers which are often used as work vehicles (for moving materials and tools to work etc) thus the client may be unable to work until his vehicle is repaired. Client may also be using said Land Rover as a second car to take the dog to the woods, who knows. Neither life threatening as such, but a month unable to work because your vehicle is sat outside a garage would be bit of a bummer to say the least.
A friend of mine once said to me (I think someone else said it to him) - you won’t lie on your death bed and say I wish that I had spent longer in work!
Made me chuckle, but it often comes to mind at the end of a day.
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I like the attitudes being expressed here.
I got my work life balance wrong - going to work when the children were still in bed, coming home after they had gone to bed, then doing paperwork at the weekends.
With London commuting times though, I am suspect that this is still the case for many who do not work extreme hours.
This situation has me reflecting, now 53 and financially sorted i only do stuff i want and of sufficient reward,but unlike F.F.F no premises and the staff went 4 years ago.
10 years ago i would have done it,squeezed it, upset some other customer with a lie to make room, subbed it out whatever to get the monies, grumbled a lot to the wife etc but smiled at the price as im wiser now and stuff is more on my terms
20 years ago i would have made it happen regardless ,tried to charge a bit of premium, got the job started then employed some delay tactic or other
30 years ago, when i thought successful was measured in how busy i was i would have squeezed it in for standard rate and felt great as i was forever chasing round like a bees wing, ergo i must be doing well.lol
The client may be unable to work until they have hired an alternative vehicle.
Indeed, completely agree... but you can hire commercial vehicles, you can find another Land Rover garage (even if it's a trip further afield than you'd like, or at a higher cost), these things are options. Potentially expensive and inconvenient, but options.
If you cut your arm off, you're going to use emergency medical services. If you work in that field, you enter it with the expectation that if somebody walks in with a horrible injury, you at least ensure they're being looked after before clocking off.
If he needs it that desperately for work hire something while it’s waiting to be repaired and charge it to the company. This whole attitude of it must be done now will have to change, especially with garages if you want a good spanner man it will be an age to wait and if you don’t you have wait ask the question why?
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I’d have told him to leave and take his vehicle with him.
The client of the OP reminds me of so many people when I used to work at an Apple store.
Everyone had a reason why they should be seen right now and have their phone/Mac fixed instantly, avoiding the 7 day queue.
Apple do actually sell a product to skip all queues worldwide for £379 per year but when offered this only about 1% took it. Everyone else was just entitled and rude.
Can’t possibly say,
I like the saying ‘no success makes up for failure in the home’
My dad was a freelance photographer and had many years of demanding clients who wanted their pictures ASAP. But when he retired a few years ago he told me how much he regretted putting those clients before the family. The clients are nowhere to be seen now, they’re just temporary. Whereas family is for life.
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I remember something similar, was a Saturday afternoon around 1pm and we were shutting up shop, phone rang, I answered and a customer said can I come in for some work (probably no more than an hour) I can come in right away.
Asked the gaffa he said no, we were officially closed by this time, I told the customer and he said tell the gaffa it's xyz from [insert Indian restaurant name], I told the gaffa and he said no.
I was thinking I could get a curry on the house tonight, I was a young and naive apprentice, gaffa had his priorities right - although he would have done it for a genuine friend/very good customer.
One thing I've learnt is someone will say something is mega important and needs doing right away, you say no, they plead with you, you inflate the price, they throw a tantrum, hmmm not so urgent as you make out if you're not willing to do whatever it takes.
Same thing happened when I was an apprentice, woman came in, had an issue needed it sorting, could do it without a lot of faf etc, woman pleaded and said it was urgent, price went up, no problem, she wasn't wealthy by any means just in a desperate situation, gaffa did it while she waited (after work hours) and charged her standard rate - he said that was a genuine person in need not a business opportunity - he did his good deed for the day.
Learnt some important lessons from gaffa!
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I think most garages are being more picky with opening hours the other week I suddenly remembered the Mrs mot was nearly out no probs I thought take it down for mot sat morning, took 25 mins of ringing round local garages to find one open were as before covid they all seemed to work sat morning
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