Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to not allow the plasterer to play his radio?

417 replies

Shedbuilder · 13/07/2021 10:22

I have a plasterer booked for four days of fiddly work all over the house, repairing the mess left by the so-called specialist fitters we paid a small fortune to install triple glazing —but I'm not going there!

We both work from home and around us we have other households with people working from home and noise-sensitive older people. It's a hot day and our windows are open because it's hot and to keep the air moving just in case of Covid. So when he arrived yesterday with his giant radio we nipped the problem in the bud early on and said sorry, both working from home, both need to be able to think and make calls without background noise — no radio. Which he glumly accepted. Today he's had a brief conversation with us about how tedious his work is without music in the background, so we suggested he use his phone and some earbuds. But no, he doesn't want to run out of data and he doesn't have earbuds.

We've ordered some cheap earbuds and we'll see if we can rig up some kind of free wifi connection for him tomorrow, but he's really huffy and I'm wondering whether we'll see him again tomorrow. He's a good plasterer and we've waited two months to get him. Are we being unreasonable?

Yes = we are unreasonable
No = we're no unreasonable

OP posts:
IntermittentParps · 13/07/2021 15:40

When we get posts about how managers treat their staff, there's outrage at anything that doesn't accommodate an employee's every need, people work so much better, are so much more productive when they're happy, don't you know?
Those posts aren't generally about staff anting to play the radio loudly in an office where people are making calls/wanting to work quietly.

IntermittentParps · 13/07/2021 15:40

*wanting not anting!

FourTeaFallOut · 13/07/2021 15:50

Well more fool you if you lose a good plasterer who has actual plaster to work with when both are thin on the ground for the sake of putting up with a bit of music.

Cooldryplace · 13/07/2021 16:11

@IntermittentParps

When we get posts about how managers treat their staff, there's outrage at anything that doesn't accommodate an employee's every need, people work so much better, are so much more productive when they're happy, don't you know? Those posts aren't generally about staff anting to play the radio loudly in an office where people are making calls/wanting to work quietly.
They are usually about something that will inconvenience either the customer or the employer though.

And OP has no idea if he was going to play but loudly as it was "nipped in the bud". If it becomes a problem, deal with it then.

IntermittentParps · 13/07/2021 16:14

They are usually about something that will inconvenience either the customer or the employer though.
This was going to inconvenience the customer.

TBF, yes, 'play the radio loudly' is my words not the OP's. But she's been clear on here that the radio would distract her and her OH.

BradleyCooperwillbemine · 13/07/2021 16:22

I'm with you OP. I cannot stand workmen having the radio on and always ask them to switch it off. I have to endure a neighbour across the road working on his garden with a drill and electric saw and the radio on. It means I cannot sit in my garden or my living room because of the noise. It is completely inconsiderate.

IndigoC · 13/07/2021 16:23

@21Bee

Having managed tradesmen previously they weren’t allowed to use earbuds to play music on site, it’s quite dangerous!
Yet loud music from speakers that drowns everything out is?
Cooldryplace · 13/07/2021 16:24

Yet loud music from speakers that drowns everything out is?

Oh for goodness sake. No tradesman is going to play "loud music that drowns everything out" in a customer's home.

VoiceFaceArse · 13/07/2021 16:26

Yet loud music from speakers that drowns everything out is?

I’ve never had anyone working on my house that has had the radio on loud. Why do people keep insisting it’s on loud?

IndigoC · 13/07/2021 16:27

I’m not from the U.K., originally, and I got a bit of a shock when I first moved here dealing with tradesmen. Firstly they more often than not don’t turn up to quote. Secondly, the quality of work on average is shoddy and done very slowly. Thirdly, this expectation that I will endure their radio and wait on them all day — provide constant hot drinks, biscuits, cut lunch etc?!

Back in my home country, though, the pay rates are much higher (my Dad was a painter and made 3x a day what you pay here) and so I wonder if it’s a sort of compensation?

Novelusername · 13/07/2021 16:28

I wonder if people would be so eager to pander to the plasterer's demands if it were a woman coming into the home to do a 'woman's job' - how many female cleaners come in and insist on having music on or else throw a strop and blackmail the customer that they won't do a good job unless they get their way? Why should OP be so 'grateful' to the person she's paying to do a job for her that she has to meet his whims? It seems like this is coming from a place of male entitlement and women all to eager too pander to it. I'd be happy to provide refreshments etc, but something that disrupts me in my job, no.

IndigoC · 13/07/2021 16:30

@VoiceFaceArse

Yet loud music from speakers that drowns everything out is?

I’ve never had anyone working on my house that has had the radio on loud. Why do people keep insisting it’s on loud?

I have. On multiple occasions.
Cooldryplace · 13/07/2021 16:32

I don't think it's to do with them being male but about it being really hard to find one, so if you have one you're happy with, you do what's needed to hang on to them.

Cleaners are usually only there for a couple of hours, not full days, but yes mine can have the radio on and tea and biscuits.

Crepescular · 13/07/2021 16:32

@Cuppaand2biscuits

I come from a family of tradesman and I'll assure you, you'll get a much better finish and quality of job if you let him have his radio playing. If you've passed him off he might finish the job but not as carefully as he might have done.
So members of your family deliberately do a shitty job if their every whim isn't met?

Nice.

VoiceFaceArse · 13/07/2021 16:32

I have. On multiple occasions.

Then you politely ask them to turn it down. I don’t believe it for a second though.

Crepescular · 13/07/2021 16:33

Or are they the kind to piss in the plaster, as a poster upthread suggested?

DeflatedGinDrinker · 13/07/2021 16:34

I wouldn't trust a man who can't go £1 shop and get some headphones and who thinks using your wifi will use his data 😳

IndigoC · 13/07/2021 16:38

@VoiceFaceArse

I have. On multiple occasions.

Then you politely ask them to turn it down. I don’t believe it for a second though.

Why would I make that up?

And no, I didn’t ask them to turn it down for the exact reasons many of given here, I wanted them happy and willing to complete the job. The noise didn’t bother me that much, the initial reply was in relation to earbuds v loud radio safety.

Gwenhwyfar · 13/07/2021 16:45

@DeflatedGinDrinker

I wouldn't trust a man who can't go £1 shop and get some headphones and who thinks using your wifi will use his data 😳
He probably doesn't have time to go to the shops in the middle of the working week. And what does his IT knowledge have to do with plastering?
Alcemeg · 13/07/2021 17:00

@Cuppaand2biscuits

I come from a family of tradesman and I'll assure you, you'll get a much better finish and quality of job if you let him have his radio playing. If you've passed him off he might finish the job but not as carefully as he might have done.
Is this something to be proud of?

I don't get the bullying attitude on this thread, that we either kiss the ass of a tradesman or expect to be done over by them.

Extreme focus and concentration in a physically skilled job probably does benefit from music playing, but extreme focus and concentration in a mentally demanding job can be really undermined by it. And that's not just being precious.

There seems to be some real inverted snobbery here, that the dear ol' lads should be able to make themselves right at home while their sniffy upperclass employers wince, tee hee.

Callybrate · 13/07/2021 17:02

Voicefacearse how quietly do you play your music?? Hardly seems worth bothering.

VoiceFaceArse · 13/07/2021 17:08

how quietly do you play your music??

Today, not very loud as one of my children is in bed poorly. I had it on in the kitchen whilst cooking and could hear it fine. Number 3 on Amazon Alexa. 🤷🏻‍♀️ We have Amazon Echos throughout the house so if no one is working or ill, it’s often played through the house. Not really sure what your point is though. Confused

motogogo · 13/07/2021 17:11

Every tradesperson I've hired has had music on despite me wfh. Yabu

Spanielstail · 13/07/2021 17:13

I'm have Asperger's and completely noise intolerant so there isn't a chance anyone would be playing a radio in my house whilst I worked. Low is worse as you get that awful bassy hum.

IllForTooLong · 13/07/2021 17:45

Nothing to do with that @Alcemeg.
It has nothing to do with social class (are only mc or upper middle that are working from home? No wc then?)
It doesn’t even have anything to do with this country (it’s the same in other countries too).

It’s the fact that having a workman in your house is a two way Relationship and the ‘customer’ can’t impose everything to suit them and expect said trade man to just accept it ‘because they are the customer’.