[paulingrad]

he pulls up in a nice rig. you're impressed. he wears whites and looks the part. you show him the job, give him a couple of gallons of emulsion and walk away happy that you got the right man.

...he then asks you for white spirit, to clean his brushes with.

looking back it's very funny - who's the biggest chancer you've employed?

paul

 

[greensboro84]

i dont hire n fire but ive worked with so many guys my own age that just can't cut it. wont do whats asked, even little things, complain about every job we walk onto. i think someone who complains alot is goin to be the worst to work with, it brings the morale of the whole crew down.

 

[Brian]

Years ago I had a guy helping me on a job. When we got back to the shop and were unloading, I noticed a beer keg tap under his seat. I also remembered seeing a beer keg at the customer's house. While he unloaded the truck I called the customer-- their tap was missing.

Of all the things to take, that seemed like one of the most inane. And then to try to do it with me as an unknowing accomplice...

Brian Phillips

 

[vermontpainter]

The worst employee:

-thinks he is a better painter than he is
-has frequent excuses for why he cant get to work on time
-has frequent reasons for needing to leave early
-doesnt keep an accurate timecard
-doesnt properly maintain company equipment
-doesnt adequately protect surfaces
-doesnt take responsibility for his mistakes
-doesnt understand the need for proper language on the jobsite
-brings alot of personal problems and drama to work
-has too many personal calls on cell phone during work hours
-occasionally is inclined to steal small tools or even materials
-spills paint alot
-is convinced that the company makes enough profit to absorb his shortcomings
-doesnt last very long with a good company

 

[CApainter]

Thinks his music played at 95db's sounds good to everyone else.
Thinks that chatting with the customer is part of his job description.
Thinks his humor is enjoyed by everyone.
Never cleans his tools.
Always borrows others tools.
Regularly looks for cash advancements from his employer.
Always has an excuse to cut out early.
Calls in sick on Mondays.
Shoots heroin in the customers home.... I actually witnessed this.

 

[MAK-Deco]

The worst employee:

-thinks he is a better painter than he is
-has frequent excuses for why he cant get to work on time
-has frequent reasons for needing to leave early
-doesnt keep an accurate timecard
-doesnt properly maintain company equipment
-doesnt adequately protect surfaces
-doesnt take responsibility for his mistakes
-doesnt understand the need for proper language on the jobsite
-brings alot of personal problems and drama to work
-has too many personal calls on cell phone during work hours
-occasionally is inclined to steal small tools or even materials
-spills paint alot
-is convinced that the company makes enough profit to absorb his shortcomings
-doesnt last very long with a good company

Sounds like the guy I hired a few weeks ago.

 

[timhag]

I had this guy tell me that he could paint right handed, Left handed, back words, upside down and standing on his head. I found him by placing an ad in the local paper. The first day he shows up on time without any tools. I tell him what the agenda was for the day and he had no clue as to what I was talking about. He did not understand basic paint terminology such as cut pot and cutting in. Asked him to get me a pot hook out of the van and he was clueless. I ended up using him that day only for clean up and other sh*t work.

 

[NEPS.US]

Let see....so many to choose from.... I once had this bozo decide to take a crap in a toilet at the new construction house we were working in. The only problem was ...(besides the fact I forbid anyone from using a new toilet or sink) ..the water hadn't been hooked up yet. I made him scoop up his turd and clean the bowl....then I fired him.

The ones I hate the most is the ones that tell you how great they are when they suck. I tried out a guy to be a foreman one day. He interviewed great, had his own business, went through a nasty divorce and couldnt handle runnig a business. Brought him onto a job with 5 other guys that had all been with me for over a year. This guy was 5'4" 110lbs and tried talking in a deep voice when I intoduced him to everyone ..."Hello Gentlemen". His name was Harvey ...So my guys called him "Harvey-Wall-Painter". Everyone already had their task for the day so I had this guy start off with painting a 14x18 Kitchen ceiling that had 3 soffits. It took him 8 hours to paint one coat on this thing! At the end of the day he told me now that I saw what he could do he wanted 28 bucks an hour. He also had the balls to tell me that I need him more than he needed me. I gave him $100.00 for the day and told him to go **** himself.

 

[Joewho]

Thinks his music played at 95db's sounds good to everyone else.
Thinks that chatting with the customer is part of his job description.
Thinks his humor is enjoyed by everyone.

Did I ever work for you?

 

[daArch]

The worst employee I have is:

me


but then again,



I work for a real a-hole

 

[kenscar]

Ha! Now that's funny.

I also work for and with myself most of the time these days. I'm a real pain in the ass.

However, for many years I was a lead scenic artist for corporate theater companies, TV shows and regional theaters in California. One of the worst guys I ever hired walked in with the coolest portfolio I've ever seen. Wow - he worked on "Aliens". Wow - he worked on "Star Wars". Wasn't until I hired him, discovered right away he didn't know s**t about s**t, still gave him a chance until he screwed up a major project with his ineptitude, and then finally fired him that I thought back and realized, wait a minute, in every picture of that portfolio he was simply posing with a set piece near the back of a truck. Turns out - he didn't have anything to do with creating or painting those things, he was just the guy that loaded and unloaded them out of the truck!! In other words: He took his picture with other people's work, put those pics together into a portfolio and passed himself off as this great scenic artist when really he was just a truck driver/mover. Oh, but that's not all - a couple years later I was working on a TV show when the same guy showed up with the same portfolio looking for a job - except he's updated his portfolio with pics of the projects he'd screwed up for ME, claiming he'd designed, painted and done them all himself. Wow indeed, eh? Unfortunately for him, he didn't recognize me until after he'd produced his BS portfolio and I quite literally kicked his ass out of the shop.

 

[acrylicrecoating]

The employee that tells you he has been in the business for years and is worth 25.00 an hour and then puts the ladder up upside down. Luckily we stopped him from climbing it that way. DUH!

 

[mjkpainting]

I can top it!!

A few years I booked more work than me and my guys could handle. I put an ad out for a painter and told this guy to come work with us for the day and we can discuss the possibility of bringing him on board.

He shows up the next day (He was looked like and was built like the Rock) to a job where we were scraping popcorn cieilings 2nd and 3rd tape coating and making them flat. This guy worked circles around me and my guys. At one point I was standing next to him like his bitch moving his ladder and handing him things. This guy was a MASTER Painter.

The next day I bring him to an exterior to do some scraping. He told me he was all set. By the time I came back he somehow convinced the H/O that the second progress payment was due ($2,200) and he collected it with a check written out in his name. He also told her he would fix some roof shingles and her leaking skylight by reflashing it. He collected a $400 desosit on that as well.

Needless to say he was gone by the time I got back.

 

[greensboro84]

dang mjk, thats almost scary

 

[Purdygirl]

Hoo Boy, this is a huge pool to pick from.. first guy that comes to mind is an older dude who'd come to work in the morning sweating heavily with white crusty stuff stuck to his nosehairs. One time I found him sitting on the floor rubbing two pieces of sandpaper together (he was supposed to be sanding some doors..) Another time he spilled some thinner all over his feet and somehow it melted his nylon socks. He took off his shoes and his socks had disolved into a sticky paste and his feet were all blotchy red and we laughed so hard we almost died and that was the last we saw of him. No, I didn't hire this guy but he was one of the worst employees ever. Oh wow, I almost forgot!! This same guy spilled paint all over the rug one time, grabbed the owner's little dog and rolled him in the paint, then screamed, "That damned dog!!!" Little dog went running all over the house, paint everywhere, owner freaked, thinking his dog knocked over the paint.. I wasn't on this job but heard about it.. can you believe that &^$*? He was Irish.. a quick thinker.. betcha he's not with us anymore.

 

[CApainter]

Melted socks. That's funny!
OK I confess. I Hired this "Labor Dude" from Home Depot. Real convenient. There all over the parking lot as you pull in. All shapes and sizes. Any way, we whisk this dude off to the job site. No problems so far, except for the language barrier. I'm keeping it simple for him, prep only. As I'm thinking about all the money I'd be making off the back of my cheap labor, a collapsing sound followed by a jolting crash woke me up from my day dream of dunkits. I run to the front of the house and find, I'll call him Jose, tangled in a twenty foot extension ladder. He was twisted unnaturally amongst the bent aluminum, but insisted he was OK. The fixed grimace of agony on his face convinced me other wise. Apparently, he placed the ladder fully extended on a plastic sheet he had laid out. After refusing medical treatment, we quickly returned him to Home Depot.

 

[crow]

The werst I ever seen was this olboy that couldnt stay outta the customers hampers! he finally got caught (by the HO) this guy was a real freak! he was addicted to the odor of dirty pantys! like a crackhead man! I belive he really could not stop on his own, he needs therapy or somthin. the HO walked up behind him while he was gettin his fix, and plumb freaked out! she couldnt belive her eyes! nasty dude was munchin on the brown part. after gettin ridd of him she still watched the rest of us like a hawk man! it was emmbarresin!:yes: