Tradesman asking for a sandwich

[AtleastitsnotMonday]

I’ve had a tradesman working on the outside of my property today. Got here about 11.30, job was about a couple of hours worth of work. About 1200 I went out and asked if I could get him a tea or coffee. He answered “Tea, white with two please, would you be able to knock me up a cheese sandwich while your there?”
Now, admittedly I’m rubbish at saying no at the best of times and I wasn’t expecting this so obliged, even returning to check if he would like pickle/tomato etc with it.”
Dp thinks I’ve lost the plot and he was being grabby and to be honest I’ve only ever made drinks with the odd biscuit before, the only exception being when we had an extension built which was a much longer project and I outdone make them bacon sandwiches on a Friday morning if I wasn’t working.
Would you have made a sandwich?

I wouldn't do that for a two hour job! You should have just laughed and then sent your husband out with the drink. No way would they have asked him for food.

Why not? If a women asked me for a sandwich I'd make her one.

No fucking way would women get lunches made for them Friends SiL works in a very male dominated trade. Has lunch made for her all the time at customers houses. Says it's a perk of the job

And loving the assumption that this tradesman only asked because the OP was a woman based on... absolutely fucking nothing.

Theres a difference between offering hospitality out of courtesy (tea, coffee, biscuits, etc) and actually being asked to make someone's lunch for them.

He's pushing his luck.

I also thought of the Archers storyline

I had new central heating last year; 5 days of work. The workmen bought me something from Maccies every morning, even if I said no when he called he'd bring me a muffin

This is brilliant..love this.

No never been asked nor would I offer.
I'll supply a cup of tea but they should bring their hot water lunch teabags.
Dbro runs a building company it is a strict no to staff on asking/expecting clients to fetch refreshments.
Each crew has their flasks.

I probably would have laughed and said really?

And he would’ve said yes really or no don’t worry about it, grumpy or whatever

That was a chilling storyline, @Myoldtable.

@UrAWizHarry

It makes no sense to say that you would happily provide tea/coffee/cake etc but not a sandwich. It takes no effort to stick a bit of cheese in between 2 slices of bread, certainly no more than making a cup of tea or cutting a bit of cake.

But typical MN of course there is plenty of people going "oh noes, the slaveman is hungry! How dare he request something more substantial than a biscuit. He'll have a single rich tea and he better be grateful."

My husband is has a trade and charges £250 a day. He’s hardly a slaveman and perfectly capable of knocking himself up a box of sandwich’s before work 🤣

I would 100% of made the sandwich. Rare of someone to ask but for you all know he could have diabetes and have forgotten his. Or forgotten his wallet or lunch or whatever. In my mind, he wouldn’t ask unless he needed it and what’s the harm ☺️ Hope he said thank you though!

I’d make sandwiches for a tradeswoman, but I’m not sure a lot of blokes would. Might depend on whether they fancied her or not.

When I have any tradesmen in my house I always make rolls n sausage/ bacon for them and have plenty cakes and biscuits, tea/coffee.
Growing up my mum always fed workmen breakfast/ lunch.

I say offer a drink, but coming from Ireland, any time I've had removal or tradespeople in and I've been there, I see it as my job to keep supplying drinks and biscuits. So I'd offer at least once an hour, if not more. And I'd run to the shop if we ran out of their biscuits too, come to think of it!

I would always offer a tea or coffee, sometimes biscuits and occasionally a bacon sandwich on a Friday if they've been there all week (and I like them).

That said, as mean as it is, I've stopped making hot drinks for my gardeners. Three of them come for four hours in total. I realised that they were each sitting down for 20 minutes to drink their teas, have a chat and go on their phones, so in effect I was paying them £20 to have a tea break. I wouldn't have minded 10 minutes or them working a few minutes longer, but it was starting to annoy me after a few months.

I would think it a bit cheeky to ask for a sandwich, without an explanation of why, particularly if they've just turned up.

This thread is bonkers, next someone will come and say you will need to offer a shag too, otherwise you are just rude and treat the builder like a slave labour. It's only couple of minutes, what's your problem? Don't be so up yourself. He's there at least two hours to do hard labour you know.

I've found that fostering good relations with tradesmen is THE way to get the best service .

If they're workin at my place all day I always offer them food; either homemade soup and bread for lunch, or cake to go with their tea/coffee. They appreciate it and its a great investment.

Men. They expect to be served by women.
And serve we do.

I always offer, I have tradesmen in my family, most would decline because they have been in so many houses they wouldn’t touch anything offered to them. If they accept it’s usually because they’ve checked your house out and don’t thing they would catch Ebola from it.

I was brought up to always offer something to eat and drink. But most tradesmen I know do take their own food and drink. Given the current climate I would definitely not say no to someone asking for a sandwich.

I say offer a drink, but coming from Ireland, any time I've had removal or tradespeople in and I've been there, I see it as my job to keep supplying drinks and biscuits. So I'd offer at least once an hour, if not more. And I'd run to the shop if we ran out of their biscuits too, come to think of it!

Yeah if we had workers in for a few days running or longer, rolls,sandwiches,meat,crisps etc were left out for them daily. If they were too shy to touch them one of us would butter them and make them on the first day and they'd help themselves afterwards. Constant tea,coffee and biscuits left out too.
It's just the done thing here, for the most part.

Did he actually ask like that??? No please? No am so sorry to bother you but if you could I would be really grateful?

That's a very odd way for a tradesman to ask practically a stranger.
If that was me I would be in total shock and say yes of course, because what else can you say! It would be mean to say no.
I offer drinks and biscuit cakes to tradesman we've had. I've offered food to the ones that are there for quite a while.

When we were having our kitchen renovated, I had a tea/coffee station for them with plentiful snacks. I had told them they can use my fridge for the milk. One of the workman popped in with his 18 year old son, just to see how the progress was going, his son just helped himself to my fridge, my dh walked in and the son very quickly closed it. Didn't say anything, but we thought how cheeky and rude

Lol I've never known a trade to ask for food. I'd have fed him but would be a bit shocked to have been asked

They'll be wanting cash in hand as well.
No Invoices 'or you see it'd be more because I'd have to charge you the VAT'.

FGS nobody cares what you'd OFFER voluntarily. The thread is about someone ASKING his client to make him a sandwich (despite being there for only a two-hour job).