Helper Woes

Hi Airdorn,

My sympathies!!

There was a day when I had employees. My company is not a nearly as large as yours. I made a decision about 10 or so years ago that I was working harder with an employee than without. I decided to let the last one go. Now, when I need help to pull a wire or two to call some of my friends that have their own business to give me a few hours or a day. I then get a bill and happily pay it. One has a Awning Business and another has his own Electrical Company. The guys I use have a excellent work ethic as I do and we work well together. A lot of times they are doing the next part of the job before I even start to think what it is. Basically we work as a TEAM!! Not the other way around.

I could type a lot of stories, but I am sure you have a lot more as you have already have shared. I hope you find the right guys. Unfortunately you will never know what the can or can't do until you have put them on payroll.

As I have said for a long time. An employee that shows up on time, does the work right the first time, effectively learns from their mistakes, is very efficient and does it consistently absolutely DESERVES to be compensated for their time!!

However, if an employee shows up late, is slow at the job, makes lot's of mistakes and can't learn from them, and do overs, IS absolutely REQUIRED to be compensated for their time!!

I hope you understand my capitalizing of certain words.

Good Luck with all and have a better rest of the week!!

Les

At one time I was gung-ho to be a big shot. I had two full time installers, two part time installers, and myself. I also had 2 sales people and an office assistant. It was a constant struggle and I personally often worked 16+ hr days 7 days a week. Often those extra hours were so I could cover payroll for labor on other jobs I had to finish or fix myself.

One day I walked out of my office and fired everybody, and it got better. I tried just working one one guy at a time to train them up and I again found myself working long days without a day off.

I fired everybody again, and have never had a direct employee ever since. The year I found myself working solo I was in bad motorcycle accident. While I was in the hospital two guys managed to max out a gold card and a black card finishing one job. (Turns out there is a limit on a black card.) When I got out of the hospital I was an invalid in high interest debt and over my head in unfinished work. That's when I decided I was working for me. Not for my employees. I did service calls out of a motorcycle with a sidecar. I put my wheel chair in the sidecar, my tool belt in the bike trunk, and strapped a short step ladder onto the side. I couldn't drive my truck, but I could lift my shattered leg over he seat and slide onto the bike. Ever seen a tech with one good leg climb a ladder? I did it when I had to.

As I started to get work back in order I decided not to take any more work than I could do by myself and hire a temp to stand there if I needed somebody to help feed wire. I made more money and paid taxes that year on more money than I had ever made before in my life. The next year was better. The end of 2005 and into 2006 when everybody else was dying due to the market crash I was still making money and turning down work. If you were around then you will remember that was when customers started dictating terms and demanding all kinds of extras. Ordinary customers were asking for additional insured, huge net terms, and other things. I told every single one of them to go pound sand and I was still making money and turning down work.

I never had another employee after that. I lost a couple of those I told to pound sand, but they were only the ones I might have gotten rid of anyway if I were the type to routinely fire bad customers. I lost three customers because I was a solo act and couldn't jump and run this second. Every one of them I would have been there that day, but because I was solo I couldn't be there within the hour. One was a decent customer overall, but the other two I was glad to get rid of.

I once complained on this group about a lack of pride in workmanship, and I got soundly lectured by a member (an employee tech) that I was basically stupid and selfish and employees were really only interested in getting the max amount of money for the least amount of effort period. Anything was just plane stupid.

So, your complaint is not a new one. Some folks seem to have a talent for making money off the labor of others and getting them to actually do their f****ng job. I am not one of them. I consider willful incompetence to be theft. AS a contractor who installed a lot of security systems I could not afford to have thieves on my payroll. If you can learn to inspire people to be better for you then you will be very wealthy. Somehow you have to inspire people to be better. My wife did it in her business with constant pep talks and ego stroking. I just have a hard time telling an incompetent thief they are wonderful and I look forward to seeing the new and innovative way they will f*ck me tomorrow.

gly hard to come by.

sition to a service tech role. This was about 2 years ago. It hasn't gone w ell.

customer that had an existing Concord 4 system, something we generally don 't deal with but not beyond our ability to monitor.

it was acting strangely. What I found was shocking, and makes me wonder if it's time to clean house and get some new help.

He installed one of our generic summary-only communicators on the system a nd tested it. It worked fine. He used his phone to look up how to change th e master code on the panel. He was able to complete this because the custom er happened to know the existing code. Our tech then left the call.

ompany had alarm.com installed, which includes an integrated communicator t hat enrolls as a superbus device.

cessed programming, changed the installer code and deleted the alarm.com su perbus device. The thing works perfectly now.

make sure any previous company comm is removed, and left a new hook up wit hout knowing the installer code and, thus, having full control over the sys tem.

out constantly, in a friendly way, as far as to knowledge and know-how.

g a general decline in quality and care about their tech work?

"I'm showing bus failure" was a typical questions from installers on Concor d systems usually because it required an alpha keypad to program (customer had fixed english keypads so the tech added an alpha to program then powere d up the panel). The panel has the ability to add a keypad to the programmi ng port for this purpose

The thing is the tech either ignored or paid no attention to the trouble di splay afterwards which is disturbing

The Concord and NX-series panels are the once I miss now that Interlogix is gone

BTW why would you prefer installing a summary-only communicator when Alarm. com is so much better on that panel?

6, Airdorn wrote:

s from installers on Concord systems usually because it required an alpha keypad to program (customer had fixed english keypads so the tech added an alpha to program then powered up the panel). Th e panel has the ability to add a keypad to the programming port for this purpose

no attention to the trouble display afterwards wh ich is disturbing

I miss now that Interlogix is gone

ly communicator when Alarm.com is so much better o n that panel?

He ignored it all. I get it when someone doesn't know something about a system. But it's the one s that don't care nough to pick up the smartphon e and say "Hey, what does this mean??"

I would not have installed a summary-only cell in that instance. I woudl have gone with a full-da ta one that uses the panel's dialer. Alarm.com is nice, and I probably could have used the other company's communicator that was still there, but the new owner's monitoring fee was very low and we signed him up with 0 dollar sign up fee to get the account. We have a stash of freebie s ummary-only cells (and a few full data ones) becau se of previous promotions from the supplier.

Funny thing is, when I went back behind that tec h, I started upselling a bit and now the guy w ants alarm.com onhis Concord, haha!

Thanks for the reply.

On Monday, January 25, 2021 at 10:08:42 PM UTC-5, Airdorn wrote:

gly hard to come by.

sition to a service tech role. This was about 2 years ago. It hasn't gone w ell.

customer that had an existing Concord 4 system, something we generally don 't deal with but not beyond our ability to monitor.

it was acting strangely. What I found was shocking, and makes me wonder if it's time to clean house and get some new help.

He installed one of our generic summary-only communicators on the system a nd tested it. It worked fine. He used his phone to look up how to change th e master code on the panel. He was able to complete this because the custom er happened to know the existing code. Our tech then left the call.

ompany had alarm.com installed, which includes an integrated communicator t hat enrolls as a superbus device.

cessed programming, changed the installer code and deleted the alarm.com su perbus device. The thing works perfectly now.

make sure any previous company comm is removed, and left a new hook up wit hout knowing the installer code and, thus, having full control over the sys tem.

out constantly, in a friendly way, as far as to knowledge and know-how.

g a general decline in quality and care about their tech work?

We have had this conversation here before.

My experience just about mirrors Les's. Except I'm much better looking than he is.

I've been in this trade since 1969 and have had many different kinds of emp loyees. Some (very few) were actually good. But right off the bat, if you'v e hired a good one you know that they're going to find out that they're goo d soon and will go out looking for better pay and benefits. When I was in m y heyday, I could afford to pay more and give more but there is always some one out there who can offer more. And additionally, more times than I can r emember, as soon as one of them could install a number of panels, they lear ned some installing techniques, was able to trouble shoot on some service c alls, they would up and leave and next thing you know there's a new company in the area and guess who owns it? . Well typically they sell a few dozen systems to their friends, neighbors an d relatives and now it's time to learn how to market and actually sell a sy stem and it's time to do the taxes and the licensing and the book keeping a nd the insurance, and buying parts and scheduling jobs and dealing with emp loyees - - - - - TADA TADA TADA The big question is - - - - now that we' ve seen you install and trouble shoot the hardware, can you run a business? So that lasts about a year or so and next thing you hear is that they've sold/given their accounts to their central station because they couldn't ke ep up the payments - - - because they couldn't keep up with the taxes, beca use they couldn't keep up with payroll - - - TADA TADA TADA. Now they're t o embarrassed to come back and ask for a job so they've opted to go with a National or Freebee alarm company where they can use their tremendous exper ience on their resume and get a job where they can hide and get away with o nly doing the least of what should be done. They actually think that all th ere is to running a company is installing the equipment. Well, actually -

- - they don't think. . I gave that all up about 15 years ago ( maybe more, I've forgotten). I fina lly figured out that I was working 10,12, 16 hours a day chasing after inco mpetent people and not doing what I liked to do. I've never looked back an d never regretted it. I'm of the same mind as Bob, - - - there are some pe ople who have the knack of getting people to work competently for them. I d on't have it. I'm not one to do a half assed job or be able to tolerate peo ple who do. Now, when I do installations time is not a issue. How ever long it takes me to do the job and do it right is the amount of time spent. I c ouldn't tell you how much I make an hour. I take a check once a month for t he same amount, for to many years to count. . I was in the alarm business before RMR was available to the small alarm com panies. (That's about 10 -15 years before the digital dialer) So I had a lo t of years to build up my account base, However, I've pruned it back substa ntially from years ago though. Got rid of all the bad, inconvenient and sl ow payers. Like Bob, that's during the time that I finally came to the real ization that I was never going to be a millionaire. . But obviously now - - - the RMR is always there to fill in the gap when t hings get a little slow. But anyway, as long as the bills are paid and I ge t my check every month, I must be doing something right. When things get a little tight I just look at my back log of work, make a few calls and pick up speed for a couple of weeks and things settle down to coasting speed aga in. And the biggest and bestest thing of all ? I'm one of the lucky few who has a hobby that I can make money doing., Coming up on 53 years and still counting.

ce just about mirrors Les's. Except I'm much better lo oking than he is.

1969 and have had many different kinds of employees. Some (very few) were actually good. But right off the bat, if you've hired a good one you know that they're going to find out that they're good soon and will go o ut looking for better pay and benefits. When I was in my heyday, I could afford to pay more and give more bu t there is always someone out there who can offer more . And additionally, more times than I can remember, as soon as one of them could install a number of panels, they learned some installing techniques, was able to trouble shoot on some service calls, they would up and leave and next thing you know there's a new company i n the area and guess who owns it?

ly they sell a few dozen systems to their friends, nei ghbors and relatives and now it's time to learn how to market and actually sell a system and it's time to do the taxes and the licensing and the book keeping and the insurance, and buying parts and scheduling jobs an d dealing with employees - - - - - TADA TADA TADA T he big question is - - - - now that we've seen you ins tall and trouble shoot the hardware, can you run a bus iness? So that lasts about a year or so and next thin g you hear is that they've sold/given their accounts t o their central station because they couldn't keep up the payments - - - because they couldn't keep up with the taxes, because they couldn't keep up with payroll - - - TADA TADA TADA. Now they're to embarrassed to c ome back and ask for a job so they've opted to go with a National or Freebee alarm company where they can us e their tremendous experience on their resume and get a job where they can hide and get away with only doing the least of what should be done. They actually think that all there is to running a company is installing the equipment. Well, actually - - - they don't think .

e more, I've forgotten). I finally figured out that I was working 10,12, 16 hours a day chasing after incomp etent people and not doing what I liked to do. I've n ever looked back and never regretted it. I'm of the sa me mind as Bob, - - - there are some people who have the knack of getting people to work competently for th em. I don't have it. I'm not one to do a half assed jo b or be able to tolerate people who do. Now, when I do installations time is not a issue. How ever long it t akes me to do the job and do it right is the amount of time spent. I couldn't tell you how much I make an ho ur. I take a check once a month for the same amount, f or to many years to count.

business before RMR was available to the small alarm c ompanies. (That's about 10 -15 years before the digita l dialer) So I had a lot of years to build up my accou nt base, However, I've pruned it back substantially fr om years ago though. Got rid of all the bad, inconven ient and slow payers. Like Bob, that's during the time that I finally came to the realization that I was nev er going to be a millionaire.

now - - - the RMR is always there to fill in the gap when things get a little slow. But anyway, as long as the bills are paid and I get my check every month, I m ust be doing something right. When things get a little tight I just look at my back log of work, make a few calls and pick up speed for a couple of weeks and thin gs settle down to coasting speed again. And the bigges t and bestest thing of all ? I'm one of the lucky few who has a hobby that I can make money doing., Coming up on 53 years and still counting.

Jim,

Very wel l typed!! That is, except for the comment about being

better looking!! Because of that statement I have g one to the mirror and have decided that you are absol utely correct. LOL

I was going to ask my wife for her opinion.............. but then again I decided wh at would be the point!! After being married 44+ year s she would not agree with either of us.

BTW there is so much truth in the rest of you typing that it is scary. I have had many similar employee stories as w ell.

My youngest brother asked me a number of years ago. "Why don't you retire, your old enough?? I sai d, "What would I do? He says, "Well you like electron ics start a hobby in electronics." To which I said, " I do electronics now, and people pay me."

Bob has f ound his nitch as well. As have others. It is not lea rned overnight. As in, you learn from your mistakes. Well some people do, others not so much!! Just hav e to learn and stay on track.

Best to all and have a good hump day!!

Les

To be straight up I never really wanted to be a contracting business owner to start with. I wound up as one thru a series of events. I enjoyed being a technician and solving problems. I think the only reason I stayed in the business as long as I did was stubbornness and ego.

I had a growing business as a computer service tech willing to work on machines other people wouldn't (or didn't know how) working out of my house. (I had a huge inventory of old parts and boards nobody else had too.) All the regulars here have read the story about how I wound up owning an alarm business instead I am sure before.

OOOW OOOW OOW Tell it again uncle Bob Tell it again! OOOW OOW Please, please please !

(I can hear Lenny/ Lon Chaney Jr. pleading with George / Burgess Meredith, Tell me about the rabbits George. Pleese Please tell me about the rabbits again ___ in Of Mice and Men.)