As the husband in such situations, I find this very frustrating from a practical perspective.
Guy comes over to install some tech. Me and my wife are both home. I’m working, she’s doing chores. She knows her stuff and did the research, I very clearly don’t know shit about fuck. Guy looks for me every time he has a question. The answer is always “I don’t know, but my wife does”. After I tell him this, he still doesn’t ask her, just makes a decision on his own, so I have to drop everything and get her to make sure he doesn’t fuck things up. At one point, I had to ask my wife to physically stand next to the dude so that he wouldn’t interrupt an important meeting. She later told me he still tried to look for me.
When we need repairs or some kind of work done, I have to be the one making the call because I’m less likely to be ripped off or treated rudely. And since I’m dumb, I have to prepare for these calls because they sometimes cross-examine you with terms I never even heard of. In the middle of a busy workday, while my wife has the time and the know-how. We share household tasks with my wife as equally as possible, I’m just stuck with this.
Female contractors popped up in the area recently. I instantly chose them every time. No such issues.
Because the others we asked quotes from were worse. They didn’t just ignore my wife’s specs, they deliberately went against them, offering a build we didn’t actually want.
Then again, this is my experience with 99% of contractors where I live, so I’ve also sort of given up.
IMO, if you’re a homeowner, DIY skills are non-negotiable. At least one person per household should know how to get things done so there’s no need to involve contractors in any but the most extreme cases.
Absolutely! But you should also know your limits - I don’t fuck with gas and mains electricity for safety reasons. Flooding the house is fine in my book, so I only call the plumber if someone has a gun to my head lol
As the husband in such situations, I find this very frustrating from a practical perspective.
Guy comes over to install some tech. Me and my wife are both home. I’m working, she’s doing chores. She knows her stuff and did the research, I very clearly don’t know shit about fuck. Guy looks for me every time he has a question. The answer is always “I don’t know, but my wife does”. After I tell him this, he still doesn’t ask her, just makes a decision on his own, so I have to drop everything and get her to make sure he doesn’t fuck things up. At one point, I had to ask my wife to physically stand next to the dude so that he wouldn’t interrupt an important meeting. She later told me he still tried to look for me.
When we need repairs or some kind of work done, I have to be the one making the call because I’m less likely to be ripped off or treated rudely. And since I’m dumb, I have to prepare for these calls because they sometimes cross-examine you with terms I never even heard of. In the middle of a busy workday, while my wife has the time and the know-how. We share household tasks with my wife as equally as possible, I’m just stuck with this.
Female contractors popped up in the area recently. I instantly chose them every time. No such issues.
I’d be tempted to play dumb and keep saying we need a bigger discount until the guy gives up and talks to my wife about the project.
The Rom and Leeta gambit I approve
Why the hell did you let that jackass keep working
Because the others we asked quotes from were worse. They didn’t just ignore my wife’s specs, they deliberately went against them, offering a build we didn’t actually want.
Then again, this is my experience with 99% of contractors where I live, so I’ve also sort of given up.
IMO, if you’re a homeowner, DIY skills are non-negotiable. At least one person per household should know how to get things done so there’s no need to involve contractors in any but the most extreme cases.
Absolutely! But you should also know your limits - I don’t fuck with gas and mains electricity for safety reasons. Flooding the house is fine in my book, so I only call the plumber if someone has a gun to my head lol
Yeah. Most contractors are so bad at communicating that I went to trade school so I could work on my own stuff.
It sucks working with people who don’t value so-called “soft skills” and also spend so much time arguing about stupid shit.