Why is there so much disdain towards tradesmen on MN?

[Enfys1982]

I’m genuinely baffled by it. Most of the men in my family are in trade. including my dad and brother. They are not lazy cowboys or crooks, my dad has worked since he started his apprenticeship when he was fifteen and has never been out of work since (he’s now semi retired) and barely had a day off sick either. He pays all his taxes and his is a registered Limited company with companies house. All are as honest as the day is long. No tax dodging or cash in hand jobs.

Please also be assured that none of them are ‘thick’ as posters are implying on one thread. You won’t see a ‘thick’ plumber or electrician as they need good GCSE grades, particularly in Maths, English and Science, to get a place at college to train. It’s very, very competitive and anything less than a B is pushing it for a place. They’re not going to let ‘thick people’ install gas boilers or rewire peoples homes ffs🙄

Rant over!

Of course you can't judge all Tradesmen the same, but the majority of comments will be negative, because of peoples experience.

I'm SE in a manual job. I know how hard it is to run a business and do the job, but that doesn't give me an excuse to not turn up, to not be respectful of someone's home, not communicate, not do something I said I would etc. I don't take on more work I can cope with, I don't try and mug people off and apply a driveway tax, because the people have got a nice house/car/look like they've got money. I do the job exactly how I said I would do it.

I've worked with, and employed the services of many trades, and in addition to things already mentioned here, sometimes their behaviour and attitudes have been absolutely shocking. I've had issued with personal hygiene, and cannabis smoking/smell to give a few more examples.

Not every SE person is tax dodging, many will declare all earnings, but given most I encountered were very vocal about all the money they got from the government during covid, but still worked, and boasted about it, they don't help themselves.

Maths and English at level 4 is all that's needed for college here and everyone gets in. That's not denigrating tradespeople BTW. I think being practical is a good thing and obviously to do the job you can't ve totally " thick" bur mostly academic people prefer to use their brains rather than their hands.

This is a big part of it. If you know people in the trades and have family connections you get much better service.

We’ve had appalling experience and appalling experience - the latest one is a window fitter who’s stolen £3k from us.

I’ve resolved not to use English tradespeople anymore. We’ve never had a good experience. The only good experiences we’ve had have been with Polish tradespeople.

I don't think of tradesmen as lesser in any way, but I find it intrusive to have them in my home and breathe a sigh of relief when they're gone. Recently had a new boiler fitted which took hours and went to do the schoolrun at 2.30pm. Came home to find one of the tradesmen in my bedroom "checking the radiator." Which might have been true but I just find it awkward having strange men in my space all day.

My husband is a self employed tradesman and provides an amazing life for our family and a very good wage. However even he will admit that’s because he’s one of the good ones.

He is in such high demand because once people find him they recommend him to everyone they know and he can charge accordingly. He always turns up, is professional, kind and an absolute perfectionist. There are plenty who aren’t!

We’re hopeful our son will want to do a trade as it gives freedom. We regularly spend months travelling as a family then he’s straight back to work once we’re back and inundated.

Some people on MN are scared of a man with an education who knows more about a subject that they do.

When they ask for half the money up front I'm going to refuse from now on. Zero payment until job completed to my satisfaction. Like it or lump it.
I'm not losing any more money to shitty tradesman.

I must be unusual in that I've never had a tradespeople do a bad job. Some things did get damaged ( not worth more than a few ponds) but that was probably my fault for not moving them in the first place before I went to work. I've also had good experiences with British Gas and the RAC ( although not used them recently )

Because given most seem to have their life controlled by MIL/SIL/any other family member (according to their aibu's) they try to assert some kind of control/authority by being rude to those they consider inferior

There is snobbery about a lot of things on Mumsnet. This is just another one.

However having good grades to get on a plumbing course etc at equivalent to a B isn’t the case. There isn’t a minimum number of GCSEs required you just have to have a grade 4 in English and maths. If you don’t have grade 4 you can still do the course and resit English and maths alongside it. There aren’t high entry grades. The training is 4 years. Usually one or two at college and the rest apprenticeship.

user678945 why put "checking the Radiators" in quotation marks? Are you trying to insinuate he was snooping in your drawers? Perhaps he was checking the Radiators were working properly with the newly installed Boiler! You know, like he should.

Because most people have a had a bad experience with a tradesperson. Meaning that your make likely to be let down by a tradesperson than other people you are encounter for business. And the cost and inconvenience will be greater.

It’s not rocket science that this is why tradespeople get a bad rep.

But you’re saying the criticism people have when they don’t turn up or say they’ll quote and don’t, isn’t justified because you’ve never experienced it. You’ve tarred us all with the same “liar” brush but that’s ok is it? Someone is thick as mince but it’s not the tradies.

Even when experience indicates that the vast majority are the same?

@QueenCamilla surely it’s not rocket science to understand why you can’t get a chimney stack taken down in the middle of winter?🤔

Many of the replies on here have just demonstrated the snobbery I believe is at the heart of it, I bet you all sit there with the bill afterwards with a calculator going through like a fine tooth comb don’t you?😂

Facts are:

You will not be their only clients at one time

They will have other quotes to prepare not just yours and it can take time to put it together

Sometimes jobs will overrun

Bad weather will impact work

They are as entitled to lunch breaks as people who work in offices etc

Likewise they are entitled to go to the toilet.

It has sweet fa to do with class and everything to do with unreliability, crappy work and overcharging. Like pp, I make tradesmen welcome, everyone is offered a cuppa, bacon sandwiches, cold drinks. They are shown where the toilet is and not told not to shit in it.

In return, I would like them to do the work agreed, for the price agreed in the time frame agreed. This rarely happens.

The guy who fitted my electric shower wired it into the hall light so the light flashed when the shower was running. That was quite shit. It took him ages to come back and put it right.

He also made it very clear that he expected me to fuck him and was quite difficult to dissuade. So getting him back was a challenge. And then he kept calling by my house to try and tap me up for sex.

I don't know why he was like that. He was a married man.

I don't judge all plumbers by his behaviour, but it made me very wary of tradespeople and being a single woman, as I was at the time.

Because snobbery - just look at all those mind-numbing and aspirational threads on markers of working class/middle class, working in a trade is often cited as working class or chavvy.

You're biased

Sorry this is bollocks. I’m WC my dad lorry driver and my mum a carer. It’s because of all the reasons listed on this thread - the lack of professionalism, the shoddy work, messing people about and their attitude to their customers. They do it because they can, because one you’ve sent the money or they’ve started the job there’s nobody to hold them to account as they’re sole traders

I'm surprised that having so much family in the trade you haven't heard the horror stories yourself OP. Nearly every male relative I have is in a trade of some sort and growing up I'd constantly hear about my Dad or Grandad having to turn up for jobs that someone else had bodged, or started and never returned.

My Grandad ended up working into his 80s because he was so worried about the "old dears" being ripped off by cowboys. My Dad can get away with working short days and short weeks because his customers know he's going to turn up when he says, do the work in the time he said and leave the place clean.

Besides gas engineers and electricians who are required by law to be qualified/registered, etc., it's pretty much "wild west" out there for other trades. Joiners, decorators, roofers, general builders, etc., don't have to have qualifications, professional bodies or any other form of "regulation", so those jobs are a "honeypot" for people who don't have qualifications, experience, etc. It must be infuriating for the qualified/experienced/regulated ones to have to try to complete with the chancers and incompetents. The fact that there's a shortage (isn't there a shortage of ALL kinds of workers?), means it's so easy for people to set themselves up and start to get work very quickly and easily.

We desperately need new laws to protect customers from rogue tradesmen. It's far too easy in the UK for someone to set up a business - literally, no registrations required. Lack of registration also feeds into tax evasion etc as HMRC have no kind of central database to link into to check self employed are registered for paying tax. In other countries, there are formalities and registrations. I'd go further and insist on compulsory "training" sessions for people wishing to be self employed before they were allowed to do so, just simple sessions covering consumer law basics, insurance requirements, tax registrations, business admin, etc.

I just found it disrespectful that he chose the time I left the house to go into my bedroom. My home is my sanctuary and I do have anxiety so I just didn't like it.

For what it's worth I have a son and would be fine if he was a tradesmen, and I always offer cups of tea.

You’re bang on the money @taxguru

Loads of them don’t declare their earnings either, a few have quite openly told me this

And yep a couple of times I’ve had a ‘good morning beautiful’ message the day after they finished the job!! 🤮

I couldn't give a flying fuck if they went to university or not, or what they got in their GCSEs. I couldn't even give a fuck if they were illiterate.

Just show up when you say you're going to show up, it's not that hard!