My button: it has been pushed.

"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
10/30/2020 at 10:00 • Filed to: yes male escorts are the oldest skilled laborer when you think abou it

I’ve been doing this for many years, and MOST customers really do get it — B ut I still get clients that tell me they can’t meet me during the week because they “ have a job,” and want me to come out on the weekend, when we are closed and I do not work, after I just told them my availability. Oh, and that’s not a reach: I’ve been told verbatim I don’t know how many times: “Well I have a job! ” Or my favorite one: “Uh no, that doesn’t work for me because I work for a living! ”

Really? Tell me more about this “jo b ” of which you speak, since you seem to be the only person that has one.

And I’m not just totally full of shit too!

I am actually taking tomorrow off (not really, will be glued to my work phone and home office) because I am having my furnace and hot water tank serviced. I made the appointment weeks ahead, you see, and they gave me a available dates and a time window of arrival, an “E-T-A” if you will. So did tell them, “Well I can’t do it when you guys actually operate, because I have a job?” Ah, no. No I did not. Did I pout and explain to the dispatch how sometimes getting time off at my work is like pulling teeth? Of course not.

I have worked my fair share of Saturdays (like two weeks ago, for example) , Sundays, and late nights (basically a regular thing now, oh well) for special circumstances: convenience of access , taking a weekday off and making up for, making extra money, begrudgingly (but with a smile!) offering a favor for a long-standing customer, or more rare my direct boss asking for a favor to achieve the same effect .

Everyone here has worked when they should have been at home with something cold and looking up bad project cars. That’s part of being employed. That’s a employer-employee hazard that varies depending on where you work and what you do.

But when a customer does it in a tactless manner (and I’ve heard them all, from childish-tantrums, to “do you know who I am” ), they may — MAY — be tipping their hand that they feel that their time is more valuable than mine. “Oh you’re not working Saturday ? Well then you have all day to make time for me when you think about it. No, no, I don’t want to hear about your personal life. I’m the one talking here!”

By all means, ask. We want your money and we want you to want us. It may work out! But once you hear an answer you don’t like, don’t press. Or maybe call someone else. Why do they never call someone else? Please call someone else, you’d reeeeeally be sticking it to me then. Except of course, I suspect competitors also don’t work during non-working hours/days off ? Fascinating.

Please forgive the rant — but remember to treat your humble laborer as your fellow man.

DISCUSSION (30)

Poor_Sh > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 10:10

What are you doing on this site during your job? Get back to work! But really fuck those people. I get the problem, it sucks sometimes trying to schedule things, but to pretend that a job in a single building is somehow more important than one that goes house to house is asinine

facw > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 10:11

Not that these guys aren’t assholes, but I do think a lot of sectors would do better to have wider operating hours, to make that sort of accommodation. Of course I also think that more businesses should flexible with employee time so that it’s not a problem to step out for a few hours to take care of this sort of thing during normal working hours if needed.

smobgirl > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 10:18

I was trying to get my washer repaired so, like you, I scheduled a time while they were open and rearranged work so I could be home. They didn’t show for two of the appointments, we had three more where they were too incompetent to actually complete the repair. And they wouldn’t refund any money.

Now, I work a job where I can’t just take “a few hours” off or make a last second change where I stay at work when the washer tech is sick. I’m either working and not available (because I’m a thousand miles from home), or I’ve lost money by staying in town. I couldn’t get the company to understand that and it was eventually cheaper to get a new washer just so I stopped missing out on income. (And this is not intended to insult you or other folks in similar jobs - I can generally arrange things so I’m home for a specific day and it’s no big deal, but six specific days with no progress on the repair was unsustainable)

This just to say, people are dumb and don’t understand how many varieties of employment there are but a business is either open or closed. And if it’s closed, it’s CLOSED.

boredalways > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 10:18

I take it that you don't have the options to charge them more for your time if they want your services outside normal business hours?

ibRAD > facw
10/30/2020 at 10:21

When I ran a business I used to open saturday and sunday and then close monday. It’ll be great! I can do all my errands and stuff when things are open!

Too bad all the other business owners ALSO took Mondays off. Oh well, at least my customers were happy.

benjrblant > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 10:21

i can’t read this now because i... you know... have a job. please post it on the weekend.

Dash-doorhandle-6 cyl none the richer > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 10:21

Mine was “you taking an extra 5 minutes to finish what you’re doing is really inc o nveniencing the office staff”

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 10:30

Well being a door-to-door chandelier photographer is admittedly not a job most people think of. . .

But yeah, that’s just absurd. Rant accepted.

Kind of reminds me of when I walk into a certain food hall right before closing I don’t ask for my usual special order of just a hamburger without a bun (gluten intolerant will do that) if they’ve already cleaned the grill. It’s not hard to not be that customer so just don’t be.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > boredalways
10/30/2020 at 10:33

There is no such option and I hope one is never implemented. Employees deserve days of unavailability.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Dash-doorhandle-6 cyl none the richer
10/30/2020 at 10:34

Oh don't even get me started on the office drama.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
10/30/2020 at 10:36

Walking in 29 minutes before a restaurant closes is in poor taste. Or when I had a retail job... If you walked in one minute before closing, we couldn't close until you LEFT and they NEVER told people to leave.

Future next gen S2000 owner > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 10:40

I usually ask and try to schedule on the weekends, well used too. Now I never leave the damn house.

I get it, it sucks to take time off of work to have a repair completed but that’s how society works. If you don’t want to deal with that, fix it yourself.

foghat1981 > ibRAD
10/30/2020 at 10:42

Take Tuesdays off. My dentist has done this for years and seems like a nice balance. He does work Saturday mornings, though.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 10:43

I think everyone should work a crappy retail or restaurant job at some point so they treat workers better. It shocks me how little regard some people have for places being able to close on time.

I once worked at a restaurant that didn’t have a customer. As such, management wouldn’t pay for enough employees to run the restaurant . So even on normal days it took me till like nearly midnight if my manager made me do everything I technically was supposed to do when closing as I had no one to help me. So if someone walked in right before closing and wouldn’t leave it might delay me till the AMs. Terrible job but I do have more sympathy for restaurant workers now.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 10:45

When I was selling cars the only reason I wasn’t working 7 days a week is that it’s illegal for a dealership to operate on sundays in Wisconsin. I was so great full for that law on all the weeks I worked 6 days. 6 8- 11 hour days. I wouldn’t go back to that job for anything less than like 80k a year lol.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > boredalways
10/30/2020 at 10:49

There’s only a certain amount of whoring people should be subject to. Yes, OT pay is good (sliding scale, time and a half, or what have you). I work a pretty good amount of OT, I love it. But there’s a certain point where, as the good Doctor says, employees deserve complete and total unavailability.

Cash Rewards > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 11:02

You gotta really trust your employer. A few years ago they mandated we take lunch, which means I have to be at work for 8.5 hours, instead of 8 if I so want. I lost the ability to work through lunch if I so choose in an effort to make sure bosses didn’t pressure people to work through lunch. Bit of lost autonomy to protect the bulk. I get it, but I got kids I'd like to get home to, and working through lunch is worth it to me.

ibRAD > foghat1981
10/30/2020 at 11:03

I’ve moved on to other things now, but Tuesdays might have been a good day. Things are quiet on tuesdays too.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 11:05

Yeah, I used to get the “can you come at 9pm? I work during the day” when I was a roadie.

Uh no. No I can’t

fintail > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 11:23

Funny thing, most of these shitbirds WFH anyway, they’re just screwing around.

shop-teacher > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
10/30/2020 at 11:26

Same thing in Illinois .

Deal Killer - Powered by Focus > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 11:26

I can certainly relate to this. Trying to schedule appointments to walk thru a home is sometimes like pulling teeth. Especially as I try to do several homes in a day, so as to limit my drive time as much as possible. The”well I work”, or “can you come Saturday” is laughable. I used to set appts on Saturdays several years ago, but I’m older now, and like my weekends too.

shop-teacher > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 11:34

I think we’ve all dealt with these assholes in one capacity or another at some point. To hell with them all.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > facw
10/30/2020 at 11:34

I’ve always wondered why more businesses do n’t do this. The one that always infuriated me the most was “ banker s hours” , at least before secure online transactions and such were a normal thing.

facw > Snuze: Needs another Swede
10/30/2020 at 11:41

Yeah, banks are terrible offenders. And of course the Post Office’s weekend hours.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 11:43

Rant accepted.

I do testing in a lot of remote sites, so travel is involved, and I’m usually in locations without things like cell service, reliable internet, etc. So it’s always my favorite when a customer comes out and wants to quibble over test plans (that get established months before), come to the test site grossly late each day , or try to beg off early. It’s like “No fools! I had to leave my nice comfy life to come out to this hellhole to test for you all, so we’re going to do the damn test!”

Mid Engine > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 11:46

PTO is worse, people don’t care if you’re on paid time off that you earned. It’s gotten to the point I remove my Outlook app on my phone and refuse to answer phone calls or texts. Fuck off, it’s me time. I’m pretty adamant about it, and everyone I work with knows better than to cross that line.

AestheticsInMotion > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 12:50

Most customers quickly decided otherwise when I introduced them to my weekend rates. And a few still pushed for the work to get done, which was much more palatable at 300% cost!

Dr.Jeckyl > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/30/2020 at 13:44

This just irks me. In my line of work we are 365 days a year. Inevitably we will go to a customer’s home on a holiday and they’ll say something along the lines of I can’t believe they have you working on a holiday. Ok, I get that the company could just not schedule us on holidays, but you could also not ask for us to come out on a holiday you know.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/31/2020 at 00:30

Let’s see... already worked a 50 hour week this week , including pushing some of my duties to cover shifts for co-workers who are truly unfortunately ill and staying home to get better.

That is t ruly not a complaint, just a window into a situation that some working professionals find themselves in. .

That’s the job . Other people out of the office means that I cannot be, because someone has to be available to do the work, and get things done before other scheduled things WILL happen that depend on that preparation.

T here are reasons that people can’t take time off during the wee k. I’ve taken 1 non-holiday weekday off in the last 7-8 months, to take care of some medical checkups, consolidated into that scheduled day, and even then I got called back in to handle things that fell through the cracks.

This is my weekend to be on-call, so anything I do for the next 50 or so hours of the “weekend” could be interrupted at any moment, for any reason, and I have to stay close to infrastructure to be able to respond.

Oh, BTW... The wonderful effect of three calls at the end of business on a friday afternoon, which always seems to happen. Two of them were : (paraphrased, of course)

“I have been having problems for 3 days, and now I need it fixed at 4:45pm on Friday, before you leave. NOW!!! Why is this happening to me ? Why doesn’t this work without interruption, indefinitely, forever? Even when I change things that I don’t know what they do? Why isn’t it already fixed by now while I am talking ?

And then two more after-hours calls after that this evening.

It is all customer support/service... n ot new revenue, not added profit, not a commission on a sale, not anything other than maintenance.

However, I do agree with you, and I don’t blast other people that I personally try to do business with as their customer, for not meeting my schedule . C hances are, I go without if I can’t make an arrangement that meets their regular operations. That is business not being done, which is also not an economic positive for the prospective customer or vendor.

Keep in mind, though, when people say they can’t just take time off... some of it may be rude arrogance... but some of it may actually be legit, that it isn’t as simple as:

‘sure, let me just walk away from my obligations and responsibilities for a while to do this other thing.’

I have often wondered why many businesses that cater to the public, as in private people on their personal time , rather than business-to-business interaction , other than just direct retail shopping,

Why such a business would c lose down outside of business hours... They are open precisely when most of the rest of the public is also working, and closed precisely when those people AREN’T working, and might be available to do their personal business.

The higher priced and more specialized the service, the even more unavailable... Bankers, Doctors, Dentists, etc... tend to have even less availability than 8-5, Mon-Fri, let alone evening or weekend hours for their would-be clients, who otherwise also work 8-5, Mon-Fri.

Retail hours are retail hours for a reason... and staffing rotates accordingly, so that time off can also be available.

I n an economy with high unemployment due to various factors... there are a lot of under and unemployed people who will eagerly step into someone’s place who isn’t doing what they should, and often above and beyond.

If I were in that position of being unemployed and locked down, rather than an in an “essential industry”, I would be looking for any and all opportunities to be back in gainful employment to support my family, including 50 hours at the office, and on call for a weekend and three or four weeknights a month, and a rotating annual holiday every year.

If that meant replacing a previous employee that wasn’t doing that... them s the brakes, I guess... so I take my responsibilities seriously, and try to take a bit of pride in my work, because generally the people I serve do deserve the service and support, and I try hard not to take my livelihood for granted.

T aking personal days that affect operations can be seen negatively in an unofficial way , even though it objectively shouldn’t, and is legitimate, and perfectly reasonable to be able to take time off. It isn’t good, but it is a fact of working life.