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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:
ZeroFuchsGiven · 13/07/2021 13:51

@Lotusbiscoffdreams

Can I ask a question? I’ve never had a cleaner so I don’t know what’s normal, but do people who have one supply their cleaner with tea, coffee, biscuits, lunch etc? Whenever we’ve had tradesmen, those things have always been offered and gladly accepted, and I know it’s ‘the done thing’. I will also ask the people I know who have a cleaner about this, but just thought I’d ask on here too after reading this!
I do, I actually stop work and we eat lunch together but I class her as a friend as well as a cleaner. I don't think I would provide lunch if it was someone from an agency but deffo tea/coffee/snacks.
Ohthatsgreat · 13/07/2021 13:52

Yeah god forbid your big wig clients hear the common working class oaf in your house and his dreadful tunes blaring out.

Some people need a grip. If you’re working from home some background noise is inevitable surely. And if your job is so important it must be done in silence then don’t arrange to have work done at all.

It’s also well known in the ‘industry’ that plasterers will piss in the bucket of plaster of clients they hate. So good luck :)

dreamingbohemian · 13/07/2021 13:54

oh lighten up about the IBM comment, there was nothing weird about it

you can't have been on MN that long if you think that's pretentious

ZeroFuchsGiven · 13/07/2021 13:55

@dreamingbohemian

oh lighten up about the IBM comment, there was nothing weird about it

you can't have been on MN that long if you think that's pretentious

only about 15 years so yes I'm new.
igelkott2021 · 13/07/2021 13:57

It doesn't make sense because the nature of the work he's doing would mean that he was having to cart the giant, heavy radio around the house every 10-15 minutes. Either that of he'd have to have it blaring out on the landing or stairs so that it could be heard from every room in the house

Nope, still don't understand. Why "blaring out". Radios have volume controls! And even if it's quite big, it must still be portable. I've seen "industrial" radios and they are quite robust (and waterproof) but they are still very portable. All he needs to do is keep it on low and move it when he moves rooms.

Original poster
Shedbuilder · 13/07/2021 14:01

These are what we're talking about:
www.dewalt.co.uk/categories/site-equipment/radio-audio/radio

They're a thing in the industry. Some of them are very loud.

OP posts:
FourTeaFallOut · 13/07/2021 14:04

Oh God, send him my way, we need a plasterer. I'll let him crank it up to 11 and endure the glare of the neighbours. Anything for a plasterer.

Wroxie · 13/07/2021 14:05

Ugh no one would be playing their shit radio station in my house whether I was working from home or just being at home generally. I quit a job once because people insisted on playing the radio in the office - one of the stations with advert jingles all day between the same 15 repetitive songs.
I would, however, let him on my wifi. Takes five minutes to set up a guest network.

onlyhereforthecake · 13/07/2021 14:05

@Ohthatsgreat

Yeah god forbid your big wig clients hear the common working class oaf in your house and his dreadful tunes blaring out.

Some people need a grip. If you’re working from home some background noise is inevitable surely. And if your job is so important it must be done in silence then don’t arrange to have work done at all.

It’s also well known in the ‘industry’ that plasterers will piss in the bucket of plaster of clients they hate. So good luck :)

nice goady post.. so working class people can't employ tradesmen in their homes? Really?

You are the one who needs to get a grip.

HaveringWavering · 13/07/2021 14:06

@Lotusbiscoffdreams

Can I ask a question? I’ve never had a cleaner so I don’t know what’s normal, but do people who have one supply their cleaner with tea, coffee, biscuits, lunch etc? Whenever we’ve had tradesmen, those things have always been offered and gladly accepted, and I know it’s ‘the done thing’. I will also ask the people I know who have a cleaner about this, but just thought I’d ask on here too after reading this!
Are you planning on getting a cleaner, or just interested?! Smile

The answer is no. I would expect my cleaner to have lunch outside his/her hours working for me. They usually bring a water bottle of their own though I’d have no objection to them taking a glass from the cupboard for a drink. I would not expect the hours I pay for (usually 3) to include a tea or coffee break. Perhaps might be OK with that, and offer the tea/coffee if he/she was here for more than 4 hours. Similarly, if it was an all-day deep clean I’d be fine with them stopping for lunch (BYO or go out).

Most cleaners will do 2 or 3 jobs in a day and eat between jobs.

Lotusbiscoffdreams · 13/07/2021 14:07

@ZeroFuchsGiven oh I think that’s really nice Smile

dreamingbohemian · 13/07/2021 14:08

@ZeroFuchsGiven never would have guessed it

I suggest you stay away from the food chats or your head will explode

Lotusbiscoffdreams · 13/07/2021 14:10

@HaveringWavering thank you, that’s interesting and sounds totally what I’d expect as well. I’d love a cleaner but we can’t afford one at the moment, good to know about the etiquette just in case we have one in future!

21Bee · 13/07/2021 14:11

@AlmostSummer21 attitudes like yours are why construction has one of the highest workplace fatalities. The plasterer will be presumably up a ladder, noise cancelling headphones playing music mean he won’t be able to hear anybody approaching. He could easily jump and fall off the ladder, drop plaster onto himself. Nobody working in construction should we wearing noise cancelling headphones.

Novelusername · 13/07/2021 14:28

You're not unreasonable at all. If I wasn't working I would just about tolerate someone else's music begrudgingly (I'm very particular in my music taste). I wouldn't be able to work if music was on, even if the music was to my own taste, I just find any kind of noise very distracting. Those saying he could have it on low just don't understand, different people have different sensitivities to noise.

sophiasnail · 13/07/2021 14:37

If you had to wait 2 months he is obviously not short of work, and you say he is a good plasterer. If I were you I'd accommodate his every little whim.... Good, reliable tradesmen are worth their weight in gold. You sound like you think you are doing him a favour letting him plaster your house.

Blondeshavemorefun · 13/07/2021 14:46

Looks similar to radio my df uses as a workman - tho his is a Mikita or something like that, matches his drills

Yabu - he’s not in same room as you, he can have on low

It’s horrible being in someone’s house and all quiet

I was a nanny for 20yrs and always had radio on in background

IntermittentParps · 13/07/2021 14:47

Nope, still don't understand. Why "blaring out". Radios have volume controls!

As the OP says clearly, if he didn't cart it around the house every 10-15 minutes (which doesn't seem feasible) he'd have to have it turned up loud so that it could be heard from wherever it was.

I don't get why it's so bad or so hilarious to say 'No smoking, no radios.' to tradespeople. And what's wrong with supplying tea/coffee/biscuits and inviting people to sit in the garden for their breaks/lunch?
You all just seem desperate to put the boot in.

Jesus, Yep thats what tradespeople do, get customers wifi passwords and sit outside their house to connect
What a silly thing to say. I can see the Wifi for neighbours all up and down my street.

MagicSummer · 13/07/2021 14:49

I agree with you, OP. It drives me nuts when workmen have the radio on, loudly, all day long. I like peace and quiet and it makes me really agitated to hear all the inane chat and thump, thump, thump from the speakers. Tell him to get earphones - I don't believe he doesn't have any.

VickyEadieofThigh · 13/07/2021 14:53

We had a decorator who simply turned up with ear phones (it was pre-ear buds) - job's a good 'un. I can't bear workmen playing radios in or outside my house and don't allow it.

Nocutenamesleft · 13/07/2021 15:04

I wouldn’t ever allow someone to use my WiFi. So totally understand not allowing it.

He’s there to do a job?!? So tough?

Cuppaand2biscuits · 13/07/2021 15:07

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.

Cooldryplace · 13/07/2021 15:18

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? You'll lose staff if you don't allow homeworking treat them right.

But tradesmen are there to do a job,what the employer says goes, no consideration for their needs or wants at all...

MaMelon · 13/07/2021 15:23

there's outrage at anything that doesn’t accommodate an employee’s every need

Not really - there’s usually a fair amount of people on the other side of the fence saying ‘your employer gets to say where snd how you work, if you don’t like it then leave’.

From what I can see there seems to be a similar range of views here, from one extreme to the other and with a fair amount in the reasonable middle.

IntermittentParps · 13/07/2021 15:39

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 blackmail, then, basically?
And I wonder how much repeat custom your family gets from customers who've 'pissed them off' by not letting them blast the radio when they're trying to work and purposely done a substandard job?