Husband going into hyperdrive when workmen are around.

[DidgeDoolittle]

Does anyone else's husband do this?

My husband has worked in an office all his life. He's average at diy but we do need to get workmen in occasionally.
When a workman is imminent he goes into headless chicken, hyper drive mode. He's up at the crack of dawn making sure everything is out of the way and perfect for said workman. He couldn't possibly be caught still in his pjs. The disgrace.
When man arrives, husband goes up a gear. There's lots of " yeah mate, yeah mate, I'm sure you'll be using your blah blah blah on that". It's like he's a different person, eager to impress the manly man that has entered his domain. My kids ( now adults) take the piss something terrible. He gets very bad tempered.

He's just refused to help me unload a massive supermarket shop as he's 'assisting' ( distracting) a neighbour with manly garden things. This is top priority and cannot be interfered with in any way.

Anyone else have a partner that does this?

Gary in Miranda did it too very funny

My husband is even worse. Having worked in an office all his life, he proceeds to suggest little helpful ‘tips’ to tradesmen.

The holes typo has made me belly LOL and my cat is looking at me as if I’m a weirdo.

DH is awesome at DIY and does most stuff himself and largely, when we do have people in for the stuff we really can't do like electrics and replacing the roof for example, he is okay. Enthusiastic and loves to chat all things nails and hammers of course but mostly inoffensive. But he does suddenly ramp up his v slight Kent accent and calls them "gents". And tea suddenly becomes "a brew".

Our last builder was 25 and had a little baby at home. We got chatting during his lunch. He mentioned their bfing troubles and I sent some links and advice for his wife (I'm a bfing peer supporter) and the next morning he came round and DH started his "can I get you gents a brew?" routine and he answered "no thank you but can I ask about block feeding?" DH looked crestfallen that we weren't going to talk about rawl plugs.

I am sniggering reading through this thread, my husband does this too! He makes me cringe so bad when he does, we did actually live in London for many years but that’s no excuse as most of the trades weren’t Londoners anyway and now we have moved away he still does it!
Always insists on showing his DIY knowledge too when they are working.

@Nesbo

I think it triggers all sorts of weird social discomfort, particularly around class issues, having people “working for you”, memories of the sort of antagonism that would sometimes come up as a child at school (e.g having the piss taken for speaking too “nicely”) all that sort of stuff.

Prolonged “social” interaction with someone you wouldn’t normally come across in your usual social bubble, so grasping inelegantly for ways to connect.

Also the intrusion of having that person enter your home and potentially seeing a less filtered version of your life, which feels peculiarly and uncomfortably intimate.

It just leaves a lot of people just feeling really uneasy and unsure how to handle it all.

I've been reading 1930's sources recently, and surprised to see how many people, not high in the social scale themselves, had maids. Only one source I have come across mentions any discomfort about it (re lack of privacy).
Also it made me wonder whether the fact that so many people were employed as servants in the recent past helps to explain working class pro-Toryism (deferential attitude passed along the generations).