The little things that piss you off

[ImTheWiseJanitor]

One time, my flat had something wrong with the electric meter and the meter was going INSANE and charging me, like, $300 per month, and the electric company came out and calibrated it and said, "yup, there's something wrong with your meter" and they fixed my bill and gave me a refund of money I had paid (which was a huge amount of money I barely had) so shit happens, but when it does happen it's like INSANE HAPPEN. And one time my parents were broke and my dad was stealing the neighbor's electricity with an extension chord, LOL, but I guess that would be easy to find. :-)

But, yeah, being a shithead to any worker ... I was always taught to be nice to everyone because "you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar." Not that I'm calling you a FLY, mind you, but ...

Hahah, don’t worry, I didn’t take that as being called a fly. You’re absolutely right! There are a lotta times where someone will come to us with a problem with a level-headed attitude, and that alone makes me inclined to help someone a little more. It’s something you can apply to every situation involving another person. Just be cool and ask politely, and chances are that’ll go a looong way! Conversely, if you’re going to lose your temper and make demands that are unreasonable, well, let’s say there’s a greater chance that “the part we’re waiting for isn’t going to get here until Monday” or something. Mind you, I’d never do that if there was a real problem and it was going to lead to bigger issues or it’s effecting someone’s quality of life (such as their heater going out in the dead of winter), but if it’s something minor and you want to blow it up with negativity when it isn’t called for, you might be shooting yourself in the foot.

Edited for additional minor frustration: Reeeally wish our office staff wouldn't hand out our silver MASTER APARTMENT KEYS to residents and would give them the bronze cut copies instead. I didn't spend a whole week of my time cutting 200 apartment keys for my own personal enjoyment. :/ I'm the bad guy at work for expressing my frustration about it to the property manager, though, not the person who gave a resident a master key.

[allegro]

Hahah, don’t worry, I didn’t take that as being called a fly. You’re absolutely right! There are a lotta times where someone will come to us with a problem with a level-headed attitude, and that alone makes me inclined to help someone a little more. It’s something you can apply to every situation involving another person. Just be cool and ask politely, and chances are that’ll go a looong way! Conversely, if you’re going to lose your temper and make demands that are unreasonable, well, let’s say there’s a greater chance that “the part we’re waiting for isn’t going to get here until Monday” or something. Mind you, I’d never do that if there was a real problem and it was going to lead to bigger issues or it’s effecting someone’s quality of life (such as their heater going out in the dead of winter), but if it’s something minor and you want to blow it up with negativity when it isn’t called for, you might be shooting yourself in the foot.

I guess there is a preponderance of jerks out there, though, per the workers I’ve had at my house. A cable repair guy once told me about a customer who started SCREAMING AT HIM because he didn’t have the proper equipment on his truck to immediately fix the problem; he said he turned around and left, and she FOLLOWED HIM TO HIS TRUCK, screaming at him! I can’t even imagine that, it’s awful. Here, we offer them coffee and water and joke around with them, etc.

Last summer, we had two separate teams of workers in our back yard for over two whole months. The first team demo’d our old patio and hauled it out, installed this really complex retaining wall to prevent flooding, and they reversed the grade of our yard away from the house, then installed a new patio with pavers. The second group fixed all the messed up sod and landscaping and installed replacement landscaping.

These guys were all Mexican, played their music on a boom box, warmed up tortillas at lunch each day on a little stove they made from a mini propane tank, and they were ARTISTS!!! The supervisor on each crew and some of the other guys spoke pretty decent English, but G and I would often speak some Spanish with them. We’d bring them bottled water all day, monitor the work, they’d tell us what was happening, and we always made sure to tell them what a GREAT job they were doing. As needed, they also made amendments to things that needed revision or repair. All of this work was under the direction of our lead rep, Marion, who is a total Polo shirt khakis North Shore white dude who speaks fluent Spanish and loves his workers. (Ends up these lead guys were making over $35 per hour, each had been with the company for over 18 years.) We got to know all the guys’ names, how long they did that work, stuff about their families, etc.

In the end, the project pretty much done, G and I were talking with Gerardo the landscape supervisor, thanking him, and then he thanked US - “for being so nice” to them. He said that most of their other customers are really mean to them.

It was heartbreaking to us.

[ImTheWiseJanitor]

All of this work was under the direction of our lead rep, Marion, who is a total Polo shirt khakis North Shore white dude who speaks fluent Spanish and loves his workers. (Ends up these lead guys were making over $35 per hour, each had been with the company for over 18 years.) We got to know all the guys’ names, how long they did that work, stuff about their families, etc.

In the end, the project pretty much done, G and I were talking with Gerardo the landscape supervisor, thanking him, and then he thanked US - “for being so nice” to them. He said that most of their other customers are really mean to them.

It was heartbreaking to us.

Eesh, that sounds like a mess, but at least someone was helpful and friendly through the process. :\ And good on you for being friendly and communicative with them!! You'd be surprised how few people do that. It's insane. Some people don't seem to understand that a little bit of basic kindness will go a long way, and may even get you some free additional work if the person working for you feels like their work will at least be appreciated by another kind soul.

While we're on the topic of ungrateful people - I wasn't going to post about this, but it seems fitting with your response, heh.

Friday night, I was called by a resident at about 9 pm who was furious, saying that "when maintenance came and fixed my roommate's shower, they locked our cats in her bedroom and left the front door wide open, like they always do, and I demand someone come right now to take care of this. Bye." Mind you, there are only three of us on staff, and not a single one of us went to her apartment that day, nor would any of us jeopardize our jobs by doing something as minor as leaving other people's front doors open. We all have a master key, and we all know the stakes of abusing the access that key grants us. People have been fired over misuse and losing their keys, so we don't take that lightly.

I live close to the property, so I went right over. I'm talking less than a 2 minute drive, as my apartment and my job are on the same super-long block. I came up to the door and knocked, announcing myself, and she was waiting on the other side immediately ready to open it. I tell her I was here to assess what's going on with her locked doors, and is immediately taking an accusatory and angry tone, saying that we need to do our jobs and that we're constantly leaving her front door wide open, and she's absolutely sick of it. So I apologize and try to level with her, trying to figure out what happened. I ask her to run down what she thinks happened, from the top. According to her - Her roommate put in a request that morning for us to fix a spot of drywall next to her shower wall that was peeling away from getting wet. Around 6:30 pm, somebody came to their home, went to her roommate's room, locked her roommate's door on the way out, and then left the door open.

1) I was on property all day, and never saw a request for their apartment, let alone one for a shower with any drywall issues.
2) We leave at 5 pm, every weekday. Almost no exceptions, barring big projects that need more time than others to complete. Even if we have to be in an apartment after hours, if it's anything after 5, we require resident permission to do so.
3) We never set foot inside that building for anything that day, let alone the apartment. This apartment has a cracked window, cracked by the residents, that they reported to us early in the week, which has been inspected, cleaned up, and has a replacement on the way. However, my supervisor wanted to see which window it was, and we DID drive past it and look from the outside so he could see. Didn't even have to enter the apartment for that. Just drove past in a golf cart around 3 pm. And luckily, every window on property has 2 panes, and only one of them was cracked, so there's still no way for air to pass through the broken glass, and there's no security risk. No reason for us to follow up until the window is delivered and ready for install.
4) All three of us were together for the entire shift, except for lunch, during which none of us stay on property. No one would have had an opportunity to break away and do this that the other two of us wouldn't have known about.

After discussing all this, she still insists that we did it. And even if we didn't, that meant that we were neglecting our jobs by not coming to do the requested work order. That wouldn't happen, because...that's...kind of my job, and at the very least, we're supposed to be in touch with residents regarding the progress of any of the requests, including telling them whether anything can be done that day or not. However, I wasn't in any position to be calling the resident out if she's so insistent that something happened, especially because I'm still trying to piece everything together myself. But then the greatest thing that could have happened, happened.

After I unlock the bedroom door, let the cats out, and talk with the resident trying to understand the situation, her roommate, whose door was locked, comes home. I tell her what I was there for, and the girl who I was speaking to cuts me off to say that we didn't even fix her shower. At this moment, her roommate turns to her and says, "Well...but I haven't put the work order in yet, I was going to wait until Monday to say something." There was never a work order put in. We had never been called to their apartment, and we certainly didn't go in after-hours and lock her cats in a bedroom.

Guys. I've never had so. much. pleasure. watching someone immediately try to backpedal on blowing up at me over something that I had absolutely no control over and that could not have happened. The look on her face after realizing that she'd made all the incorrect assumptions about the entire situation was damn near euphoric, and it took everything I had to stifle the biggest, most shit-eating grin I've ever made in my life. But all three of us stood there, quiet for a moment, just ravishing in the realization that this girl had been yelling at me and accusing me of things that I didn't do, for absolutely no reason. We had another issue to figure out, though - If we didn't go into their home and lock the door, who could have?

She ended up giving a slightly half-hearted apology, saying that "I probably sounded way, way too mean on the phone, so, I'm sorry for that." I'll admit, I was surprised, and told her that it was all a misunderstanding and that it was all okay. But I wanted to squeeze a little comment in there just to drive it home, without coming off as snarky or anything. I eventually told her "Don't worry too much about it. Unfortunately, part of this job involves yelled at by angry residents and parents for something that we had no control over, and then trying to mitigate the situation so that everyone comes to a mutual understanding about the problem. But it really is part of the job. It's a very confusing situation and I understand not knowing where to direct any frustration, so I can't hold that against you." She had a certain look on her face, and just looked to the ground in what I'm going to assume was embarrassment/guilt, but we continued to talk and reached a good common ground where we were all on the same page about what happened.

I did try to come to a conclusion with them regarding what was happening with the situation, but we couldn't quite come up with anything, so I just encouraged them to be vigilant and keep an eye out for anything else that happens and to let us know immediately, especially if someone enters their home and doesn't announce themselves as being one of us. We have security, but if push came to shove, I live close enough to get there in under 5 minutes if they need to place an emergency call, after calling 911 first. I even had them come to the door with me so we could all check the lock and the keys together, and found that they were working as they should be. I let them know to call us immediately if anything came up, thanked them, and that was the end of it for the time being.

So just let that be a lesson - If you're in a situation that's confusing and frustrating, but you don't have all the pieces together, it's probably best not to just explode on one person who's trying to help you, because you could end up looking really, really silly, and the next person you do that to might not be nearly as willing to be understanding of your situation.