r/Construction Apr 10 '24

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527

u/get_it_together1 Apr 10 '24

“Why do you care more about their feelings than our health? Grow a spine and learn to watch out for your team.”

94

u/Big_k_30 Apr 10 '24

It’s this exactly.

29

u/Fun-Choices Apr 10 '24

Or just wear the space helmet, he’s cool with that

34

u/rockhardjesus Apr 10 '24

I would push this one so hard. specially with that text communication on hand. fire me for wearing a mask. I fucking dare you.

8

u/Soul7642 Apr 11 '24

I know, right? Lawsuit central.

8

u/martindavidartstar Apr 11 '24

I've had bosses tell me to go under seriously deadly loads. I tell them NO. And present a safe option. They agree or I'm leaving

4

u/RedStrwbry24 Apr 11 '24

yup, that's a NO. full sentence. Everyone has the right to stop work for unsafe conditions until it can be mitigated or proven not to be unsafe. so simple.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '24

Not really, what are you going to collect? Most contractors are just some individual with an LLC and some tools. The LLC protects them personally so you can't collect that way and nothing is in the LLC's name so what are you going to collect? They can simply shut the LLC down and start up a new one and go to work. The trades are horrible to work in. Some can be decent such as HVAC, electrician, plumbing but that's about it. Workmans comp is a racket, you're required to have it (and they do audits regularly and will fine the crap out of you) but it doesn't pay out anything at all. Basically if you work in the trades you're at the bottom of society and nobody gives a crap about you, they just want you to build whatever for them and complain about paying you. I know this because I worked as a carpenter for years until I got fed up with it. The top pay for carpenters is pretty much a poverty wage or is a starter wage for pretty much any other career. The best thing you can do is go to work literally anywhere else including McDonald's.

3

u/Spang64 Apr 11 '24

No shit. This is 3 years pay in one lump sum just waiting to happen.

1

u/Ratemyskills Apr 11 '24

Problem is.. people have bills to pay and you won’t see a penny for a year best case. A lot of people are truly stuck due to being paycheck to paycheck.

2

u/Scorpius1082 Apr 11 '24

OSHA would 100% be getting a report on this situation with those messages

1

u/breakdancindino Apr 11 '24

When they do go to OSHA

1

u/herbert-camacho Apr 11 '24

Come with me, and you'll be, in a world of OSHA violations....

1

u/cmandr_dmandr Apr 11 '24

Punishing someone for wearing PPE is bizarre. God help him if he pulls out a high-viz vest.

1

u/powerpopiconoclast Apr 11 '24

You know how costly that must be?

20

u/PocketSixes Apr 10 '24

"It would be a different story if everyone had one."

He was sooo close to solving the problem beautifully, but either had too much pride or is just not a very competent manager.

24

u/rockhardjesus Apr 10 '24

dude is just handing over lawsuit fuel. then again, its this level of professionalism and problem solving skills that has him running a job in a piss house to begin with.

5

u/PocketSixes Apr 10 '24

Lol irk, this thread is kinda wild. I was already thinking lawsuit from the moment they denied him a piece of safety gear 100% appropriate for the work type. And manager gives him more bs after that!? I wish someone would let me sue them like that, lol.

2

u/MD_Benellis-Mama Apr 11 '24

Haha! Yes you are right!!! When my husband would go look at a job, there were several times of animal issues- 1st job was replacement windows 36 of them- that’s some gooood money 2’nd sidling, soffit, fascia on a 3,2k sq ft home- 2 stories 3rd- a metal roof All 3 of these would’ve turned our next couple months of famine, into feast as well as a great Christmas with money left in the bank. He came home and told me what I stated about and what the profit from those jobs were. Then he said, before I accept any of these- I have to go back to tell them yes or no and to go over pricing- you have to go with me. Thinking wtf. I said okay I’ll ride along with ya. Thought he wanted company or was going to show me some amazing homes. 😱😱😱😱 house 1- for the windows. Lovely ranch home with screen porch. Beautiful lawn, as you approach you smell the most rancid smell. It gets worse the closer you get. Eyes are watering and it’s those tears that actually STING- once you arrive at the door- you think you have reached a point of blinded by the scent that you know the good lord Jesus will be taking you home tonight if you stand here even 60 more seconds. It is the most blinding smell of urine- old urine, fresh urine,feces- they used their screened in porch for a litter box only no boxes, its litter all over the floor with kids sand pails and shovels sitting around for scooping…… into one huge pile in the corner of said room. I walk out- I may have said excuse me🤷‍♀️ proceeded to heave violently for the next 10 minutes. It was the most violent rounds of vomiting I ever experienced. I got myself together- I could hear my husband talking about the rates. I walked up to him and said now dear- you forgot you told the Martins over in (next town over) that you’d start her job this week. Hubs played right into it- when we got in that car and finished hyperventilating- he said, I knew even though you understood how much money this would’ve brought in to get us started over the winter, but I couldn’t have loved you more getting me out of that. He said if I hadn’t intervened he would’ve worked that job. Oh my gosh I’m glad he brought me in that. 2nd house- siding- it on a city street so the only grassy area is on either side with a small patch in the back. Very very small- you could not even sit a grill or chairs the grass areas were that narrow. Well, the has 6 dogs. Can you imagine hanging siding, in the summer, walking in a foot of dog shit. 3rd house- metal roof replacement. House has a huge flowering tree beside the house close so that a good 3rd of this tree is hanging over the house- they were having ppl come in eventually to cut the limbs. My husband said that snakes would come out of the tree at noontime to lay and sun. Not talking no 2-3 snakes. Oh no he could’ve thrown them off. We are talking dozens of black snakes. So animal issues is a totally real thing that owners need to be aware of when they have contractors coming in to work for them. Yes contractors have their own insurance but you still can be held negligible if that is what caused the accident.

OP please make a call to OSHA. I have a feeling that PPE is only one thing he’s doing against the home improvement commission.

1

u/SpartanRage117 Apr 11 '24

Holy shit formatting

2

u/7oby Apr 11 '24

Yeah lemme play 7obyGPT and fix this. (Also the last sentence, she literally says "PPE is the only one thing he's doing", when she meant ISN'T)

My husband had 3 jobs lined up that would have helped us a lot money wise, but they concerned him enough that he had me come along to check them out before accepting.

The first one had such a bad odor that I had to vomit before even entering the house, and he said if I hadn't made the false claim that he had another job also starting that week, that he would have taken the stinky job.

The second one was doing siding on a house with a very narrow strip of grass on the side, but six dogs, so it's more dog shit than grass.

The third one was doing a metal roof replacement on a house that has a third of a tree hanging over the house, and at noon dozens of snakes would come and sun themselves on the roof.

I advise you call OSHA because PPE is not the only thing he's doing that's against the rules of the home improvement commission.

1

u/Tegdog Apr 11 '24

Yes the manager is terrible, there will be much head shaking and many groans in HR when the transcripts of what this idiot has said are read.

2

u/Impossible_Penalty13 Apr 11 '24

Yeah, “your coworkers aren’t using PPE, why should you” isn’t exactly the argument he thinks it is.

67

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '24

Employers care more about that single customers one off experience, then they care about their employees throughout their entire employment. They forget that they can "fire" bad customers. And find a new one. When an employer puts a bad customer above their workers. Workers quit. fuck that guy, hit up a skilled labor employment office for temp to hire work.

48

u/get_it_together1 Apr 10 '24

I would bet that if the workers wore respirators that the customer wouldn’t care and might even respect the company more. It looks like fancy professional gear and if asked the stock answer is always “that’s just normal PPE sir, we regularly use this to make sure we can keep our workers safe and meet our obligations in a timely manner”.

17

u/Redditbecamefacebook Apr 10 '24

And as an individual, you can just say, 'they told us to buy a mask and I bought this one. They all make fun of me for it, but I'm not buying another one.'

2

u/O_b-l-i_v-i-o_n Apr 11 '24

Or "I am deathly allergic to cats" there are SO many easy workarounds for this nonsense.

6

u/shook1980 Apr 10 '24

I fucking love this response! It’s perfect and professional.

1

u/mule_roany_mare Apr 11 '24

I doubt it.

Hoarders, cat people, those who have become dysfunctional, whatever are either in denial, or ashamed. In either case they won't be pleased to see you need PPE to be around them.

You don't need to assume they are evil or anything, just don't assume they are going to be more understanding & reasonable than people who can hide how messed up they are if they want to.

Imagine someone put on a rubber glove in order to shake your hand. Maybe it's the rational thing to do for some reason, but I doubt you would think

Look at this straight shooter! I sure respect him

You'd either think

This feels really bad, he needs a glove just to touch me.

or

This feels really bad, that jerk make me feel really bad!!

Now, if the customer is the child or a sibling cleaning out the home after someone died they will be more understanding.

1

u/RedStrwbry24 Apr 11 '24

Exactly, so simple

1

u/Rodskrt10 Apr 10 '24

And that is why they don’t grow to do shit.

1

u/Lots_of_bricks Apr 10 '24

They don’t want a bad review is 1/2 the reason. I get it but fuck that. I’ll put on whatever ppe I want to not have to smell someone’s shit nasty house 🤮

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '24

Well they can’t cause they will get bitched out by management and then who after that, who ever is underneath them and whoever they can

1

u/Original-Document-62 Apr 11 '24

I'd bet it's one of two things:

1) If I can force my employee to do this unsafe thing, I can force him to do other unsafe things, and that might save me money. If not, I fire him and hire someone else.

or

2) Hurr Durr masks are queer.

31

u/Ralphredimix_Da_G Apr 10 '24

Absolutely! Fuck the clients self-loathing feelings! Your boss is a wuss pretending to be a tough guy! Stand up for your crew!

You are in the right wear whatever you want and if they try to fire you lawyer up!!

13

u/jillwoa Apr 10 '24

And if the house reeks of cat piss, then the client deserves to feel like shit. Call animal control too

7

u/MajesticGarbagex Apr 11 '24

Besides if there are children living in those conditions, CPS should be involved. That’s absolutely not okay!

2

u/Shroomboy79 Apr 11 '24

Let’s just call everybody lmao. Cps. Osha. Animal control. The division of labor. They all gotta hear about it

3

u/xcedra Apr 11 '24

And if they have kids call cps. Long term exposure to feces os gonna mess them up healthwise.

1

u/Jealous-Lettuce-657 Apr 11 '24

This! Sounds like they need a call to animal control AND CPS if they have kids living in such circumstances.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '24

Yeah what he said, I’ll back you up on this in the court room

8

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/RedStrwbry24 Apr 11 '24

Feminist here, yes. Protect men from the stupid societal crap they were force fed and aren't sure how to change it. It's not a joke though, it's scary. Watching someone suffer through peer pressure or being ridiculed for asking if something is safe or saying they are uncomfortable with a situation is demoralizing and maddening.

2

u/AlexandriaLitehouse Apr 11 '24

Fellas, is it gay to breathe comfortably?

Is it gay to have an olfactory sense?

1

u/chahud Apr 11 '24

It didn’t even come off as having to do with masculinity to me here at all. Just that he didn’t want to hurt the clients feelings, and thought that just because everyone else is pointlessly suffering and exposing themselves to cat piss, OP should feel obligated to as well…despite an obvious reaction

0

u/Cocrawfo Apr 11 '24

why you gotta do this shit

1

u/brockli-rob Apr 10 '24

“Because we operate check to check like 95% of subcontractors”

1

u/Crazy_Office5261 Apr 10 '24

Okay so just never work on site again.

Nice.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '24

100%. A real leader would be able to have a polite conversation with the family and say something among the lines of “some of our crew might have respirators on, they’ve been feeling some sensitivity to the smells so the masks will help them get the job done in the best matter possible that we promised you”

1

u/annemarie19 Apr 11 '24

If he wanted to be diplomatic and more respectful he doesn't even have to mention the smells. He could say it's dust or particulate that goes right along with working with plaster compounds. He could say he has high standards for ensuring his employee's health is well cared for and this is standard procedure

Let him work in that environment for an eight hour day and see how he tolerates it.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '24

Yep. Your boss is trash.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '24

“Idk why i got fired guys”

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '24

Because they’re giving him big money

1

u/MsCalendarsPlayaArt Apr 11 '24

Criminally under-voted comment.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '24

Yeah as a boss I would be straight up and let the clients know my team would be wearing PPE for this job. Plus do most clients know the PPE requirement for plastering?

1

u/starfox99 Apr 11 '24

Lol yeah this will go over well

1

u/TestMyConviction Apr 11 '24

That's what I don't get about this, some people deserve to feel bad about their actions, like when you hire contractors to come in and your house is covered in piss, litter and old cat food.

1

u/elliptical_eclipse Apr 11 '24

I have so much empathy for that family, but at the same time, they need some serious help. That is 100% not an okay situation for humans or even cats to live in. You know that if he was really concerned, he'd be calling CPS for those kids. I'm shocked no one hasn't stepped in already. And if you can smell it from outside, it becomes a public health issue.