(Ok, so this is a freakin novel, dont read it if you don’t have 20 min)
Tl;dr Damnd if you do damnd if you don’t.
This is a long one, sorry but only like a little sorry.
I remember the day that everything changed. This is the story.
Years (8-9) before the day I was introduced to a guy who owned a business and needed more workers. I came highly recommended for my knowledge and ethics of a good worker. I love what I do. This is construction based.
Was sent to a job that had 4-6 other constant workers. I hadn’t been there before. Job was not up to par from what the company is know for. I was sent to do some high end/complex work, not to lead.
Owner boss friend stopped by and chewed me out because the job wasn’t up to par. I had done what I could in a few hours to get the job back on spec for what we do in 4 hours. (No cigs on site, have a clean site, the list goes on about what makes the neighbors want to hire us if/when they want work done) it’s just what we do. It’s how we are successful. Somebody else dripped the ball.
So chewed out because I didn’t fix a months long problem in half a day. But I tried.
I mentioned no smoking on site to a couple guys. I’ve smoked cigarettes years ago, and when I did it was all the time so I get it, mostly mentioned there can be ZERO buts on site. Otherwise someone’s going to get in trouble. Didn’t know that was me at the time.
Front yard looked like a pile of junk that needed one person half a day to toss in the dumpster. I mentioned to a couple guys that we should clean up the job site when nothing else to do . Owner wasn’t going to like that and someone was going to get the gruff, I didn’t know at the time that was me.
I’ve still only been here for half a day while also doing my specialty work.
I get called off to anothe job that is more time sensitive down the street so I start loading my tools. (I hate multiple job days, what I do takes an hour of setup and an hour of packing up which destroys an “8” hour day of work.
While packing up, owner shows up. He knows this isn’t my job that I’m not charge of, that I have bee. There for today. I do have seniority by years though.
My ass gets chewed out about cig butts, condition of the front yard, the lack of progress about stuff I have nothing to do with. (Why arnt you doing this job to our parr!!!?) On top of that get chewed out that I was packing up my stuff when the #2 of the company sent me somewhere else to finish up.
Whatever, I can deal with that assuming a lack of information on his part.
Then a couple days later he comes to me and says he got complaints that I showed up on site and tried to run the ship . (I tried to right the ship as much as I could)
I was disciplined for both not righting the ship and trying to run the ship.
Took me 2 more years to leave. Im currently laying in my tent in the middle of nowhere building a house for a great client, building under my own license enjoying the sound of owls. My dog is chasing off coyotes or laying next to the fire pit.
Just wanted to share my story, sorry if there are typos, my phone is acting very slow for some reason.