Please watch me work I enjoy it!!!!!!!

[les81]

Cant stand the knob heads who watch you work, thinking they are like an exam regulator or something! I dont mind a bit of chit chat with a customer sometimes, but why stand there watching us work! If you could do it yourself, BLOODY WELL DO IT YOURSELF!!!!!!!

[Bob225]

This needs to be put on a tee shirt

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[Someone-Else]

Cant stand the knob heads who watch you work, thinking they are like an exam regulator or something! I dont mind a bit of chit chat with a customer sometimes, but why stand there watching us work! If you could do it yourself, BLOODY WELL DO IT YOURSELF!!!!!!!

You should look at it from their point of view.
Most of the time they do not have a clue what you are doing, so that by default makes it "interesting" Yes some will like to "get their money's worth" but most I would say are just curious. You could ask them "would you like to have a go" (offering them what ever tools are in your hands at the time)

Odd first post though

[Rorschach]

I try my best to leave tradesmen alone but honestly I am usually curious. For instance, what does the inside of a boiler look like?
I try and be polite though and ask them if they mind, tell them I am interested and not trying to nit pick etc. I don't really offer advice since I don't often have anything to add but on occasion I have offered a suggestion or a tool that has turned out to really help them.

[toolbox]

Lap dancers seldom complain.

[kellys_eye]

There's a rumour going around that someone once saw a deccie doing some work.

Unsubstantiated so far.......

[adonis]

There's a rumour going around that someone once saw a deccie doing some work.

Unsubstantiated so far.......

Apparently it was like watching paint dry

[Notch1]

I did one job, an orangery and the customer took the whole week off and stood and watched the footings being pulled and the concrete poured.

it transpired his brother had had a conservatory built which then suffered subsidence due to insufficient foundations!

Generally I find customers that are busy, or recently retired customers with a full social diary and grandchildren to mind, make good customers because they are too busy to get in the way.

Customers that project manage themselves can be hard work. Ive got one at the moment, Im doing the orangery top, customers organising the base and other trades. I made the mistake of sorting out the B'regs for him. Now he is ringing me 6 or more times a day constantly chasing me for information to specify his part of the project.

[chrrris]

I think a lot of the blame for this lies with those "Rogue Trader" type programmes on the telly. They terrify the public and make everyone assume that you're going to bill them for a load of work you don't do, pinch their jewellery, kick their dog, and have a dump in the bath before you leave. I think those programmes should be forced to state statistics for whatever trade they're featuring along the lines of "There are an estimated X thousand independent electricians in the UK. We've received complaints about fewer than 0.001% of them" (whatever the actual statistics happen to be).

Watching one of those programmes, you could be forgiven for thinking the entire base of independent UK tradesmen are con men. Like a lot of the news media, they relish is scaring people unjustifiably.

[les81]

I think a lot of the blame for this lies with those "Rogue Trader" type programmes on the telly. They terrify the public and make everyone assume that you're going to bill them for a load of work you don't do, pinch their jewellery, kick their dog, and have a dump in the bath before you leave. I think those programmes should be forced to state statistics for whatever trade they're featuring along the lines of "There are an estimated X thousand independent electricians in the UK. We've received complaints about fewer than 0.001% of them" (whatever the actual statistics happen to be).

Watching one of those programmes, you could be forgiven for thinking the entire base of independent UK tradesmen are con men. Like a lot of the news media, they relish is scaring people unjustifiably.

To be fair that is a cracking point, typical 'using scare mongering to profit'. Its a shame really, tradesmen are the backbone of the world!

[Timllfixit]

I watch sometimes to see if I can LEARN something.
I don't mind if customers watch me, maybe they're just curious or they want to learn something too.

[54aardvark]

If a client starts do pi$$ me off I just start talking about paint brushes, the hardest nut to crack finally caved in after 20 minutes - as an alternative I occasionally start on the 2010 paint regs - works every time!

[fin]

if the customer is fit then its fine. good craic when you have a tidy lass watching ya. in my experience so far they normally watching you not what your doing

[Notch1]

It bugs me when I visit a customers house for a survey and they wont leave me alone to get on with measuring, making it hard to concentrate.

Or the other thing that happens, is when fitting a kitchen you come back after the weekend and find they've filled up all the cupboards with stuff