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?

But for as many that ate the lunches we provided..just as many turned them down as had their own .

I can see why you didn't pull yourself together in time to say no, but I think I'd have been tempted to tell him where the nearest sandwich shop or chippy was.

Wow; I can’t believe the cheeky fucker asked for a sandwich!
You’re really kind to have obliged OP, but I definitely wouldn’t have. But then again, you must have been so shocked by the request that you clearly said yes before realising how cheeky the workman was.

Maybe he was a victim of modern slavery, and was genuinely very hungry?

DH is an electrician, even the hottest day of the year customers have not offered him a drink. I always offer drinks however if someone asked for a sandwich I would point out the nearest shop or garage.

I am lucky enough to know the tradespeople I use as a friend of mine is a contractor and they are all people he recommended to me over the years. I would always offer a sandwich at lunch time but I have never been asked for one.

Honestly without knowing his circumstances it is hard to say if he is a cf or not. You hear of so many adults going without food so their kids can eat I would probably make the sandwich.

No, it's bloody rude.

Aside from that, we are in lockdown. You shouldn't be making food for randoms.

I'd like to change my reply. While the guy we had today was horrible I think what annoyed me about the sandwich bloke was the way he asked. Conversely we had a worker refuse to eat any of the large dish of biscuits we put out. I was almost offended . I'd bought own brand for the kids as they inhale them and don't care and wondered if they weren't up to his standards. .

I agree that the workmen would have been unlikely to ask a man to make him a sandwich.

Again, fine to offer whatever you like. Not fine to ask for lunch.

It is incumbent on all people goi g to work to think ahead and either take lunch or have a plan to get it. Any sensible adult knows this and takes responsibility for providing their own lunch rather than making unreasonable requests of their clients.

There could be a crisis point where someone needs to ask for food in any situation. Diabetics are usually very well provided for times they might need food, but could find themselves unusually without it....they might ask anyone for help, BUT they would say why they were asking. This is very different and no special circumstances were cited for needing a sandwich.

Most workmen are very decent and behave professionally. However a large enough minority are like the one described....trying it on in a variety of areas....a cheeky request for food, terrible communication, unreliability etc. There are hundreds of threads about it. It remains one of the few areas of work where behaviours that are seen as rogue and out of date and long gone in most industries persist.

This worker probably gauges each customer and if he thinks he can get a sandwich, will ask for one. It’s the same as gauging who might put up with a bit of over-charging or unreliability. There was a thread devoted to asking why it is that such behaviours happen amongst workmen rather than in other industries....really interesting read.

@Bluntness100 my Dad would do this. If anyone came to the house to do any kind of work, the kettle and the frying pad would be put to feed them. If he was making a roast he’d happily feed them this. Stews and curry’s were is favourite, he’d even send some home with them.

I would have made the sandwich only out of SHEER SHOCK. It’s a bit rude he should pack his own lunch.

OP could be struggling. If your diabetic I think he would have said so and even so no excuse unless he’s having a hypo.

Total liberties. He wouldn’t be getting booked again.

Gosh! I wasn’t expecting quite such a response. To spell it out, I made him a sandwich. I can afford to make him a sandwich. I left it on a table outside for him, so very Covid secure. I did nothing to make him feel uncomfortable. I was paying him what I believe to be the going rate for the task he was doing, so not slave labour and I paid the invoice directly to his business account, so not doing over the tax man! The man made no reference to being diabetic or other health issues. There was no please with the request which irked me slightly, but he was very appreciative when I took it out. Who would have thought making a sandwich could bring up so many issues!
I was a little surprised as I as brought up to wait to be offered things rather than ask.
I also feel that it’s nice to show gratitude and be a good host, when people do work in your home.
I really hadn’t considered the gender element but it does make food for thought.

I just remembered a funny tradesman/ sandwich story of my grandad's. My grandad was a career soldier and after he left the army he was a lorry driver (1960's). One day he dropped some wood off at a house and Sir John Mills came out - grandad was thrilled to bits because Ice Cold in Alex was one of his favourite films. Sir John asked him in for a cup of tea and a cheese sandwich and asked him loads of questions about his experiences fighting in Africa in WWII. He said it was a terrible sandwich (the bread was hacked in wedges!) but it was great to meet one of his idols and see what a decent person he was.

@ItsJustARide

Would he have asked your husband the same question?

Good point. I very much doubt it...

I'd be so pathetically grateful a tradesman had actually turned up for a small job I'd have dished up a banquet 😂😂😂

It’s only a cheese sandwich...

@arethereanyleftatall

Wow. I've never been asked that.

The big question is - would he have asked a bloke the same question?

The answer is no. So, because of that (if I thought of it in time), I would have told him no.

True I agree. I bet he wouldn’t dare ask OPs husband. Makes you wonder doesn’t it...

I think this is all about how it’s phrased - “Sorry to ask but I forgot to bring my lunch and there’s no shops near, is there any chance you’d be able to give me a sandwich or something” is very different from “knock me up a cheese sandwich while you’re there”

The first I’d say yes to, the second... well I might say yes just out of shock but I’d be pretty peeved.

@CheesyWeez

I would have made the sandwich but thought it was cheeky. I would have been scared that 6 of his mates would turn up to help and all want a sandwich too

We recently had fibre broadband installed and I got an email from the company explaining the installation process including this:

"Step 6:
Ahead of the engineer’s arrival, make sure the biscuit tin and tea caddy are full, connecting your home to Britain’s fastest Full Fibre network is thirsty work."

So there, it's official that tea and biscuits are expected.

What company was that ? .

We had broadband issues today. Man was shit and rude. Luckily he didn't ask for anything. Mind you, we didn't get what we asked for either which was a fix. Manners would have been good.

Cheeky fucker for sure. He’s clearly used to making cheeky requests and seeing polite people just do what he wants out of embarrassment/inability to say no.

It would be different if he had said that he was really hungry and things were tight atm and could you possibly get a sandwich/anything else that you could provide for him.

But no, the first way is total CF and I’d not have him back for any more work.

I think there can be a lack of respect for customers from some (not all by any means) workmen.

I think it comes from often not having an ongoing relationship with clients but doing lots of smaller jobs and knowing you’ll never work at the same place again. And amongst workmen there can be disrepect for customers and kudos amongst themselves in boasting about ways they get away with unreliability or over charging or outright cheekiness. And a key thing I think is that some haven’t really ever worked in industries with customer focused behaviours and so haven’t learned that you don’t turn up late without communication etc. People put up with it all because we still do t have a reliable enough system for rating and vetting workmen so that we can make informed choices about who to hire. Usually most people don’t hire a particular trade more than very infrequently so we rely on either word of mouth (usually best way) or almost randomly picking or relying on some kind of unreliable review system. And the crap of poor communication, lateness, unreliability, iffy charging and cash in hand etc etc are so widespread they are accepted as the norm and people expect to need to bend over backwards supplying drinks and snacks every hour in the hour, to ensure there is decent service, when they are paying for service. They feel they have to put up with large chunks of unreliabilty, as that’s just how it is. It’s all very poor and I think over time it will change but it will take a long while.

On whether he’d ask the h

Say oh I’m going into a meeting I’ll ask h to do it.. see if he looks uncomfortable

I realise it’s happened already but in general

All this ‘he might have been hard up and struggling to feed his children’....absolute nonsense of an excuse.

People do struggle financially of course and it’s terrible. They don’t look to reduce the weekly food bill by saying to a paying customer ‘knock us up a cheese sandwich while you’re putting the kettle on’.

If there is a good reason to ask for an unusual favour, then ask and give the reason. Anything else is just trying to take advantage and basically showing a lack of respect to the customer.