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!

Some people on Mumsnet are honestly the most despicable creatures I've ever come across. Honestly. I have read that some MN'ers won't even let tradespeople use their toilet.

Anybody who strips anybody else of a basic human right are automatically put in the category marked "Total Scum"

The two most vocal groups on MN are a) naice people who shop at Waitrose, don't understand how anyone could get by on 100k, and b) Very very feminist birthing persxnz whose hatred for men is second only to their disdain for SAHM. Quite a few I think are in both groups.

If you do hard manual work for your money AND have a beaker-filler, you've got no chance on MN

Also, many of them seem INCAPABLE of recording things and following written instructions. Perhaps because their standards of literacy are low but more likely because having records you can point to makes it much more difficult to bamboozle and cheat people.

It's a bit if a trope - surely no one actually, seriously, refuse to let a tradie use the toilet?

Anybody who strips anybody else of a basic human right are automatically put in the category marked "Total Scum"

I think you mean basic requirement and basic human dignity, and I would agree there.

Not sure we have a right to poo and wee in random people's houses although if I'm wrong I am totally going to exercise that right for fun.

To be honest, I really don't know. I hope I'm wrong. There has been a thread on it regarding that situation.

Yes. That is what I meant. Sorry.

Dammit, I hoped you were going to reveal our ancestral right to do this. Had a thermos and my car keys and was ready to go around knocking doors.

Most tradesmen have credit accounts with their suppliers and pay monthly. Others use credit cards to buy materials and pay their monthly bill off in full to avoid interest. I'd be very wary of a tradesmen who didn't have credit accounts with suppliers nor a business credit card - it suggests that they don't have a good credit rating!

@TomPinch

Which isn't to say there aren't cowboys here too but you can avoid them just by going to an established firm.

Rubbish.

"Established firms" still use random sub-contractors, put substandard workers on the job. It was an established firm who replaced our boiler - they just sent a subbie who told us he'd never even worked for established firm before - it was his first job with them, and he made a right pig's ear of it, with a proper employee of the established firm having to come out several times afterwards to fix the installation faults.

Likewise with an established local independent carpet firm. We'd had several carpets fitted by them years ago when we first bought our house. Always the same fitter (owner's son) along with another much younger employee (presumably their apprentice) - they always did a brilliant job. Years later when a couple of those carpets needed replacement, we went back - the "owner's son" was now running the shop as his father had retired. A random bloke came to do the fitting - one was a staircase which he made a right foul up of (cut too short in places, and it wasn't "tucked in" enough to the gripper rods, so it came undone within a few days of fitting. Then another random bloke came to "re-fit" it and, yes, it lasted longer, but a few weeks later it came loose again. We insisted the shop owner came to look which he did, and basically said "we can't get the subbies anymore" - that's his problem, not his customers! Needless to say, he's not had any more business from us and we've now found another local carpet shop who have their own staff and do a brilliant job!

It's not disdain from me.. just frustration that the good ones are so hard to get hold of (because they're booked up). It's taken me two months to get a boiler service booked. I've had promises to get back to me but no actual quotes or dates for the job until this week.

With the profit they made from their last job - like any other business. I don't pay a baker up front for flour before he bakes a loaf of bread.

On occasion it may be necessary to pay for materials up front - where that is necessary (for example, an unusual job requiring materials from a new supplier, or such a large expenditure the tradesperson does not have sufficient to cover it), it would be normal to have the customer purchase that themselves and supply it for the tradesperson to fit.

Asking for cash for materials that are run of the mill and supplied by a wide range of normal trade suppliers... SCREAMS 'I can no longer hold a credit account with these businesses as I have fucked them over in the past 1 too many times!'.

Our church is having extensive renovation works done and the workmen keep disappearing to do other jobs, often to never be seen again. This has been going on for six years. It's very stressful for the priest.

I don't necessarily think tradies are viewed as thick however I'd say maybe there's a sense of unfairness when many highly skilled and educated professionals earn much less. There's a shortage of tradies so what happens is they put up the prices and you feel grateful that someone actually stuck to their appointment. That's supply and demand. Unfortunately though if eg you're a teacher or nurse, your wages don't go up. Your wages go down and you are squeezed to work even harder.
I have a lot of respect for the skills of eg an electrician but I don't think their job is more skilled, stressful or deserving than a public sector worker.

I've worked in education, construction and healtcare. Stresswise construction was best but tough on the body. Hours were longer but they didn't feel it. Worst paid is healthcare. Technically shorter hours but actually....nah....education/teaching most rewarding but so stressful.

Comparison is the theif of joy. Tradies always seem to be doing OK.

YANBU. People can have to put their trust in professionals of various disciplines which they don't understand and are often similarly let down, but might not even be aware that they have been.

That's a fair point about subbies, actually.

I do think that there is a lack of accountability in the building industry for the general public. Obviously there are guarantees for major builds, but for smaller repairs etc there are no real safeguards. Anyone can say they are a builder, do shoddy work and walk away once they have been paid.

I have employed numerous tradesmen on various jobs over the last few years. I can't name one that has done a good job. When their failures come to light, they don't want to know. Every job seems to be left unfinished, the place in a mess and faults arising shortly after they leave. They don't care.

@QueenCamilla thanks so much for that - in fact there is a gutter outside that window! it isn't overflowing that I can see but maybe I need to get a guttering guy in instead/as well. Or if you are anywhere in the SW I'll pay you to come over and fix it for me haha.

I've just chased the roof guy again off the back of this thread, "I hope to have a dry spell next week so I will plan the rest of my diary for March" ok...having told me since December that we're his very next job, one more week, one more week, the weather, the school holidays, etc etc etc. Ugh it's so frustrating and of course I can't express the slightest frustration or he might just ghost me like the other 3 so I have to plaster on a smile and send back a chirpy "Thanks so much! Look forward to hearing from you soon!" arrghghgh

You misunderstood. I meant it's the kind of people who live off someone else who spend all day on Mumsnet instead of going to work.

Check out the Divorce section for vomit enducing levels of entitlement from the feckless and the workshy here.

No, I don’t misunderstand. I’m making a point. There are many so-called “tradesmen” who live off someone else instead of “working” - they live off, exploit and cheat the vulnerable in society.

But they're not tradesmen, are they?

I am worried about the health of tradesmen and their families. When we had lived in Britain for three years we had had five different tradesmen cancel due to a death in their closest family.

(I am pretty sure it was true in one if the cases as they looked like people who were grieving when they came by a week later)

Likewise the state of their vehicles, which have a remarkable tendency to break down, even when they're only about 5 years old