We do, a lot. We spent over $70k this year on contractors and are seeing that contractors lately are asking for more money, but …
- quality of work is going down
- they don’t arrive on time
- they have an entitlement attitude (pay is still deserved for subpar work)
- they won’t follow instructions (like calling upon arrival/before they leave the jobsite)
- they rush to finish quickly so they can run to another job
- they seem to have no pride in their work (you can’t even get them to go fix their mistakes)
I was a field tech for many years so I know both sides of this business. I feel like we take care of our techs, pay is usually above market rate, & for most smaller jobs we’ll even guarantee 4hrs of pay even if takes 1hr to do the work. I feel like this whole on-demand field service model needs change because
- as an employer, there’s extra work & cost on the backside dealing with QC, client complaints, & sending new techs to repair poor quality work
- for the techs, they need living wage pay ($25+/hr.) without the risk of being burned by companies who mistreat/won’t pay them, etc.
Anyone else with similar issues, did work ethic/pride in workmanship change, do people just not care anymore?