Handyman/person

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Having now been in the world of work for a few years I've come to the conclusion that the 'skeleton staff getting contractors in to do all maintenance tasks' has its shortcomings, one being that you can never get any one to do the one-off or low-level stuff which you really do need to to keep somewhere running. I've worked in the electricity supply industry for 30 years, at either gas-fired sites or for the last 8.5 years an energy from waste plant, and they've all needed one thing, a bod who is content to go round and lubricate door locks and maintain the doors, paint walls and floors where required, fix domestic plumbing and do the million and one little projects that no-one has time for but which make life far easier. There's always been a struggle to get a Facilities Management company in as they want a whole bunch of jobs to do to make it worth their while, and with this site in particular being small-scale it just isn't worth their while.
Am I alone in thinking this or is this a common theme in industry now?

 

[voipio]

It seems a common enough phenomenon. In some companies at least, the little jobs that matter, and keep the wheels of industry turning, are done without management really knowing how, or by whom, it happens, until that person leaves. There then follows a period of "ooer, such and such a thing isn't working" to which the reply is, "so and so used to fix that, but they've left/been made redundant/or whatever". There follows a period where there is a desperate scrabble to find someone with the requisite skills and knowhow, to be brought in at great cost, and condierable loss-making downtime.

 

[knighty]

it feels like I can't get anything done I'm doing handyman type stuff all the time :-o

 

[Screwdriver]

Yes thank goodness we are (literally!) a dying breed.

I spend my days fixing "stuff" for the neighbours. Today I put up some shelves, bleached a stained ceiling (upstair leak), fixed a broken diverter valve among other handyman trivia. Luckily, recent events mean there's a lot of unmarried women without access to a handy man...

(not that handy! )

 

[MattF]

Luckily, recent events mean there's a lot of unmarried women

?

 

[Guineafowl]

?

Er, shortage of vicars?

Round here, if you have some tools, and particularly if someone drops by and sees you in your workshop, you get brought stuff to fix.

 

[Screwdriver]

?

Marriage is no longer considered the norm but merely an expression of the patriarchy. Women have been encouraged to go out to work, same as the men, to be independent and career focussed. At the same time men are on a warning not to flirt, make any advances towards women with the upshot being women find themselves effectively ignored as potential marriage material. On top of THAT, social media has pressurised women into waiting for the "perfect" man and I am no longer available...

 

[MetalMonkey]

I think it is pretty much a universal thing the world over.
Enough to warrant a SouthPark skit.

The problem is most places don't want the associated costs of retaining staff on payroll for that sort of work so it gets outsourced with all the predictable challenges that involves.
Anybody that does have a general skillset rather than a specialism is seen as low value asset and pay seems to reflect that.

I've noticed there are always a ton of handyperson/snaggers jobs being advertised locally - universally rubbish pay for a work that includes everything from groundskeeping to decorating and tiling and plumbing and electrics.

A lot of new build work too, presumably unbodging all the slapdash work from the throw em up quick type housebuilding outfits.
I can't imagine anything more frustrating than trying to rectify something that would have been ten times easier to have just done right in the first place, especially for £11 an hour.

Or lots of work in refurbishing social housing voids, the skin crawls just thinking of the horrors...
Proper wipe your boots on the way out jobs.

 

[Mick Annick]

There’s a job going just like this at a garage I occasionally use - someone to manage minor maintenance, cleaning, helping the mechanics and managing the yard, three-five days a week. I be there like a shot if it wasn’t so far away, just a bit too far to commute for a pensioner. It’s run by an ex-F1 suspension engineer and sees some lovely cars go through there.

 

[roblane65]

Surely they will give you a very nice company vehicle .

 

[m_c]

Non-productive staff.
Paying somebody to sweep the floor and empty bins isn't productive, so they don't make any money for the company. Very few bean counters understand that by not having somebody to do those jobs, that the productive staff are having to do those jobs, which reduces their potential productivity.
My previous employer did have an understanding accountant and managers who understood these things for a period, but they didn't last long, and the non-productive staff didn't last long after them.

My view on it was, I got paid the same whether I fixed a vehicle, or swept the floor, and I know which one was far less stressful.

 

[Easywelder]

Round here £25/hr to get a handyman to put up pictures/shelves/curtain rails etc

 

[MattF]

into waiting for the "perfect" man and I am no longer available...

Another soul as deluded as I.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I've been retired for six years now and with the bad weather upon us I decided to have a look for a part time job. Looked at handyman jobs and was also surprised to see them all advertised at or close to the minimum wage.

Maintenance jobs advertised at £35k to £45k, finding a part time one is the issue there.

 

[dobbslc]

Or lots of work in refurbishing social housing voids, the skin crawls just thinking of the horrors...
Proper wipe your boots on the way out jobs.

Did that as an apprentice
One place we went to the lady welcomed us in where we found the whole house littered with dog turds!
Filthy pigs and that's a disservice to pigs.

 

[Screwdriver]

My last two callouts have involved dishwashers.

Flat full of twenty somethings couldn't get their diswashwasher to work. In fairness it has an unbelievably complex program and hilariously inexplicable hieroglyphs. Two rather obvious red lights too. "When was the last time you refilled the salt and the rinse aid?" I ask. "Oh what's that?"

Then the young lady downstairs had exactly the same issue. Two big red lights on the machine; salt/rinseaid. I bought some for her (having just fixed a ton of other household trivia) but incredibly, she didn't know that you need to refill the machine either.

 

[Chippie]

Round here, if you have some tools, and particularly if someone drops by and sees you in your workshop, you get brought stuff to fix.

Got a text message from one of my wife’s Avon customers…

‘Could I replace the steering rack on a Ford Kuga?

I respectfully declined citing health issues..

Its not the sort of job that can be done on the drive, despite having the tools to do it..
What if something went wrong the car was involved in an accident?

There was a request from a neighbour on the estate asking for an electrician to replace an outside light. ( quite well within my skill set..)….


Nope don’t want the responsibility…

 

[tigdlo]

I see plenty of handyman jobs that require an electrical or plumbling qualification at 50p or so above minimum wage, I do wonder who fills these positions when a specialised qualification is required.

 

[chunkolini]

Screwdriver, is she singing about you?
beer spittingly funny

 

[angellonewolf]

dont sound bad painting next fix a washing mechine next sticking door today i looked at a broken glass panel in a cooker got to order the part then fit a new tap in a kitchen where some prat had installed the tap conectors behind the sinks wood panels must been like it since new had to cut the back panel install islators as there was none (thinking ahead to the next time) every day is different for a few weeks i was driving a dumper truck once