Hearthlist Digest #586 - Monday, April 2, 2001
 
RE: Hearthlist Digest #585 - 04/01/01
  by "John Bassemier" <[email protected]>
Bathroom use
  by "Craig Issod" <[email protected]>
 

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Subject: RE: Hearthlist Digest #585 - 04/01/01
From: "John Bassemier" <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 11:48:53 -0400
 
I have been working in customers homes for over 35 years, as have dozens
of my employees.It is an honor and a privilege to be invited into a
customers home. A home is a persons private space. Their bathroom is
their most private space. Usually they don't know you or your employees.
(How well do you know all your employees)? You and your employees often
go down a hallway, onto another floor, past a unoccupied bedroom with
expensive jewerly, all the while walking on clean carpet with, in the
customers mind, the possibility of sealing something, seeing something,
soiling the carpet, casing the place out for a future visit,  or passing
info onto shady charters later or nosing thru their medicine cabinet
just to be nosy or to find and steal some drugs.
In your mind you are a professional providing a professional and vital
service and should be treated as such.
In reality our service, in the customers mind is as viable as the
garbage hauler, the lawn boy or the pool maintenance guy.
Actually I have a lot of the same things as my customers: a nice home ,
family, education, professional degrees, high status in the community,
ect., ect. But when I'm in his home he/she is the KING. I always have a
cup to pee in or use or note the business (usually a restaurant with a
restroom) on my way to the customers home (castle)to use the facilities.
I would forget about charging my customers for a place for me and my
employees to take a dump. Instead I would concentrate on taking care of
the job at hand and try to notice other opportunities for more work at
the job at hand or in the neighborhood or sell the customer on myself
and my services an suggest the possibility of referralsOriginal
Message-----
>  From:	[email protected] [SMTP:[email protected]m]
>  Sent:	Sunday, April 01, 2001 7:35 PM
>  To:	Hearth Email List
>  Subject:	Hearthlist Digest #585 - 04/01/01
>
>  Hearthlist Digest #585 - Sunday, April 1, 2001
>
>    Aw, c'mon!
>            by "Noel Gilmore" <[email protected]>
>
 
>  home owner has told us that we or our sub-contractors are not
>  permitted to
>  use the bathroom in the home! One of them told us this beforehand, at
>  least, but the other didn't make mention of it until the subject came
>  up.
 
 

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Subject: Bathroom use
From: "Craig Issod" <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 11:58:29 -0400
 
This is surely an interesting subject.
 
I think the answer is to be found in the middle ground. First of all, 
if you are only going to spend 1-2 hours at the home, it may be bad 
form to stomp through the home and use the toilet...better to make 
certain you've stopped at the Dunkin Donuts up the road beforehand.
 
However, let's take a long job...a day or more. In this case the 
first thing to do is to suss out the house. For instance, if there is 
a powder room right on the way out to the garage or similar location, 
you can probably just go ahead and use it. However, if no bath is in 
view, you'll have to ask...and accept whatever the answer is. Hint: 
If the whole house is covered in plastic slipcovers, then the answer 
is probably in the negative.
 
Worse case, you always have mid-morning coffee break and lunch, etc. 
assuming the customer is not in the middle of nowhere. If they are in 
the middle of nowhere, the woods may prove convenient..at least for 
one of the primal needs.
 
I would never disallow workers on my home and property use of our 
facilities. However, some people are funny and if they are paying 
customers they have a right to be. As another example, they don't 
have to give you water or drinks, which is also a call of 
nature...you must provide this yourself.
 
Probably one of the many unseen hazards of being a contractor!
-- 
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Craig Issod             HearthNet at http://www.hearth.com
[email protected]    Everything your Hearth Desires
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