Maintaince Men

Dia Minha · #1 03-19-2009, 12:00 PM

What do you do when you have a maintenance man in your house? How do you deal with them coming in and out your front door? What do you do with your kids?

I stress when there is a stranger or strangers in my house. We have had maintenance men in and out for about seven days in the last three weeks and I'm going crazy. I feel like girls can't hang out in the front room without me because the men keep coming and going out the front door. I feel like I can't even go to the bathroom, because I fear that they will call for me as soon as I sit down on the toilet. Then there are the days they have to come back to finish or fix something and DH is not here and I have things I need to do. I need to leave the house. I just can't leave the maintenance man in my house.

I need etiquette help desperately. Can I ask them to leave and come back later if I have a meeting or somewhere I need to be for an hour? Especially when they were late and told already that I needed to leave by 12:30?

Erudite · #2 03-23-2009, 11:56 AM

First, do you know their names? Are you calling them by their name? Have you introduced them to your children so that your children can call them by name and treat them with respect? I find that dealing with them as a person with a name, rather than a maintenance man is much easier.

Second, are you treating them like honored guests? By that I mean do THEY feel comfortable entering your home? I imagine that most do not, but this is especially bad if we act uncomfortable around them. Have you offered them a drink of water for example?

I find that once I start treating them like they belong (even temporarily), that the relationship is better...especially if they have to come back. Once there is a temporary relationship in place, I would hope you'd feel better about asking that they stick to your schedule. No, you're not going to leave them your home alone or alone with your children. But you do need to let them do their work (and thus they're not there as long). If you've been specific about a timeframe, you can be firm about it. You are paying them for their services and their service should include prompt arrival. But if you can be flexible, that's good too. We all appreciate other people's flexibility. AND we all know if we've come late there will be consequences.

Hope that helps a little.

Dia Minha · #3 03-24-2009, 01:47 PM

What you have shared makes perfect sense E. I was telling Diva, that I felt more comfortable with the ones, that came in and introduced themselves, talked to me and the kids, and just seemed comfortable being there. We have had several that just don't seem comfortable, they don't introduce themselves and they don't talk. If I took the first step and introduced me and the kids and gave them a chance to introduce themselves we all would be more comfortable. I had always thought about offering them a drink, but always felt like I would be impossing. I guess I should feel free to show them where the bathroom is too.

One day we had a gentleman here that was actually supposed to have some helpers, but they got stuck at other jobs. DH helped him bring in the furnance, it was huge and heavy. He was here all day. He never used the bathroom, or left for lunch. Dh said that he did see him talking on the phone and eating a sandwich out in his truck and he was carrying his on mug so I guess he ate and drank, but I was thinking after he left that, he never did go to the bathroom. His helpers finally showed up around 5:00 and they quickly finished things up so we had heat and then two of them came back the next day.

I have always felt like I was a very flexable person. It has never bothered me when some one is running late, because I know it can happen to anyone. I get very frustrated when people complain about having to wait for an OB that is delivery a baby. Don't they understand that if it was them in labor, the doctor would be ther delivering there baby and there might even be woman waiting in his office while he does, duh. I just think that I deserve the same. So if the man that is fixing my furnance shows up 1 1/2 hours late and I have somewhere I need to be then they need to be able to reschedule with me. The day this happened the guy that was here was very sweet. He worked fast and even packed all of his things out of the house right at 12:30 even though he wasn't done. Thankfully everything else he had to do was outside, so even though I had to leave he could still finish. He was actually my favorite out of the 6-7 different men that were here.