I started working for the owner Mr. Marshall as a personal favor. J got his start in the business as a salesman (which he is very good at) but, as I found out later, he consistently failed to follow through on his promises.orginally, Mr. Marshall asked me to simply supervise 2 Mexican brothers. I was told I could take a book and that I was not expected to do any physical work.
Mr. Marshall was unable to show respect to these two and was therefore unable to effectively supervise them so they returned the lack of respect by purposfully refusing to work at the same time, taking extended breaks, taking double time for lunch, having to take 1/2 hr bathroom breaks with supposed cramps, getting "lost" in transit, failing to show up without notice, showing up late, failing to follow expressed directions etc. I quickly saw this was an impossible situation and suggested that Mr. Marshall use me exclusively.
As it was, the three of us were getting paid but no more than one person was working at any one time.By doing it by myself Mr. Marshall therefore saved $20 an hour $10 for lunch he didn't have to pay them and $5 he never compensated me for lunch.in addition, I was on time every day, followed instructions, worked smarted and more effectively, didn't take frequent breaks, didn't take lunch (if I ate it was something I brought and ate while I worked), didn't get "lost" etc.
In other words I saved j a ton of money! I had extensive contact with customers and sub-contractors and found out almost without exception that they had serious complaints about j's business practices. It was common for j to promise someone something one day and then change later. One digger told me they had come to an agreement about the pool's dimensions and set up flags to outline the work area. The next day when he brought his back hoe to do the work he found that j had added new flags and extended the pools dimansions substantially.
Since they had agreed on a price he was being asked to do the extra work for free. Since he was already there had not scheduled any other jobs that day he figured he might as well go ahead and finish the job anyway but he was very wary thereafter. I could go on and on but let this serve as an example. I was being paid under the table so j avoided IRS and disability and unemployment costs.
0 comments