Let’s say there’s someone who planned to do a job on your house on Monday morning. You bought the supplies and had them all ready to go for him. But you wait and wait, and then you find out he has car trouble.
So he tells you he’ll be there Tuesday and you feel sorry for him. So on Tuesday, you wait and wait, but then he calls you and tells you he has more car trouble. So he puts it off till Wednesday. But then you wait and wait again, and he’s already an hour late on Wednesday with no text or phone call.
Let’s also say that this is a job you’ve done before – it was physically hard, took several hours and a couple days, but it is doable. You could do it yourself again or even hire it out to a company, and not just a dude who needs the cash.
Would you wait on him to get his life straightened out – even rearranging your day(s), and having multiple stupid chats with him about this project over the phone – or would you shoot him a text and say you no longer need his services? (If there’s another option I’m not seeing here, let me know.)
Also, keep in mind that maybe you don’t want to make enemies with a strange man who now knows where you live.
EDIT: There’s a detail that might be worth adding. Thinking back on our phone calls (especially yesterday), I don’t think he’s been sober. And this is concerning because I don’t want to have to worry about a person falling off a ladder while working on my property, and I know for a fact that he’s not insured.
You have an implied contract with that person and they offered a period of performance - they repeatedly breached that contract.
Legally, you had “detrimental reliance” on that contract - i.e. waiting for them caused you to miss work, lose money, reschedule an appt…something.
He can argue the same idea though if he purchased any supplies/tools to complete the job.
Did you have anything in writing?
I really appreciate the validation. Thank you. It feels cold-hearted to say no to a person who needs the job, but this whole situation is unacceptable.
I didn’t want to say anything to give him a reason to retaliate… just in case he’s crazy.
It was a huge relief to fire him. I knew that once he started, it would take him several days, and he would not have shown up consistently to get it done. And that would’ve meant having many more incoherent interactions with him.
I can understand this to some extent, but having someone like this spending time at your house would be worse. I doubt he even thinks about the fact that he missed out on the work. I find people who care about this type of stuff actually turn up for appointments
That’s what is so strange about it. Yesterday afternoon he called and apologized over and over again, told me he really needs the work, and even tried to get me to agree to let him do more.
I was pretty assertive with him in that conversation. I had the phone on speaker so Chris could hear the whole thing.
So because of that call, I thought surely he’d show up this morning, but nope. He lost his chance, and I still feel sorry for him but he’s just not reliable.
I’m a huge fan of chiropractors (and massage therapists) who weight train. And they get a million bonus points for knowing ART.
With ART, the practitioner will find the tight angry muscle, press on it, and have you move the joint (in this case my wrist) to release tension. Actually, I could be lying about that; I don’t really know how it works. It just feels like an insanely deep massage that requires you to move in ways which stretch and tense the targeted muscles.
What’s weird about your grip when shooting is that it’s not just about squeezing something hard. It’s about squeezing something hard with your arms extended in front of you. You can feel a difference! If you have a grip strengthener at your desk (or wherever you are) try squeezing with it close to your body and then extend your arm and try it again.
It fires up the muscles near and around the outside of the elbow, which is why you can get tennis elbow from shooting. I can’t remember exactly which muscles he targeted but look how crazy this is:
Has a massage last night and she does the same thing with my forearms and neck. Always feels good after. My forearms get so tight from both the weights and the keyboard bashing at work.
