All these foreigners taking our jobs!!!
Discussion
Monday morning we had 3 trade men's due to start work at our house at 8:30am. First English guy turns up at 10:30 saying he's self employed works to his own clock, not bothered he was late but did do a good job.
Second English guy texts at 9am to say he forgot it's the school holidays and has agreed to take his kid to gullivers world. Turns up Tuesday on time though, but has to leave early to get some supplies. He texts this morning saying he is going to be late because he has to get his hair cut and then go buy the supplies he left early to buy.
The polish guy rings on Sunday night asking if we minded him starting earlier, he turns up at 7am and grafts hard all day, cleans up after himself. Has a good laugh with my kids and does a good job.
At work we needed a new cleaner, we put an advert in the job centre and local rag. We got a record 42 applications, all of them were Eastern European. Very shocked not to see a single application from anyone local.
Have you tried to get a tradesmen out to give you a quote? It's a nightmare.
Second English guy texts at 9am to say he forgot it's the school holidays and has agreed to take his kid to gullivers world. Turns up Tuesday on time though, but has to leave early to get some supplies. He texts this morning saying he is going to be late because he has to get his hair cut and then go buy the supplies he left early to buy.
The polish guy rings on Sunday night asking if we minded him starting earlier, he turns up at 7am and grafts hard all day, cleans up after himself. Has a good laugh with my kids and does a good job.
At work we needed a new cleaner, we put an advert in the job centre and local rag. We got a record 42 applications, all of them were Eastern European. Very shocked not to see a single application from anyone local.
Have you tried to get a tradesmen out to give you a quote? It's a nightmare.
OldJohnnyYen said:
At work we needed a new cleaner, we put an advert in the job centre and local rag. We got a record 42 applications, all of them were Eastern European. Very shocked not to see a single application from anyone local.
Not sure why you are shocked. I have not seen an English cleaner since 1998! Except for the guys who are employed by the council to tidy up the pavements and they tend to be shiftless anyway. General building works (not trade specific) is a total 'mare round my parts - it's either Polish or some combination of Polish and another European country. The only English builder I know is booked up all year and even he has given up employing locals (either don't turn up or do a pants job). I'll be honest with you, I think the Poles are f*g great - sometimes a bit too enthusiastic to do jobs they are not trained to do (be particularly careful with any plumbing work) but an A* for effort.Edited by fido on Wednesday 16th April 08:52
I used a local builder to erect my new garage a couple of years ago in Edinburgh. All local staff, turned up every day on time, wouldn't accept payment until materials were actually on site, made great suggestions for improvements to the build and completed a cracking job.
I've given them the contract for the large extension I'm about to start too...
Just a wee bit of balance!
I've given them the contract for the large extension I'm about to start too...
Just a wee bit of balance!
Just to balance, we had a sole trader British chap do our bathroom and a s
t load of decorating recently.
He was great, started as early as we would allow him (typically 7-8am) worked a full day, excellent work, had some problems, came back and fixed them without fuss (several times as it happened, but he never blinked or complained).
He has a subbie to help with some of the work, he was also great, not the perfect attention to detail as the main main, but still very good none the less (you'd have to be a bit OCD to pick holes really)..
We have a young lad (late teens) and a 30-something woman cleaning at our place. both British, the woman is dead friendly, always does a great job. The lad seems like a proper grafter, anti-social as fk (always got his headphones on) but works hard and cleans up!
t load of decorating recently.He was great, started as early as we would allow him (typically 7-8am) worked a full day, excellent work, had some problems, came back and fixed them without fuss (several times as it happened, but he never blinked or complained).
He has a subbie to help with some of the work, he was also great, not the perfect attention to detail as the main main, but still very good none the less (you'd have to be a bit OCD to pick holes really)..
We have a young lad (late teens) and a 30-something woman cleaning at our place. both British, the woman is dead friendly, always does a great job. The lad seems like a proper grafter, anti-social as f
k (always got his headphones on) but works hard and cleans up!And on the flip side all our cleaners are British, work hard are polite and do a good job. In the storms we had a ridge tile blow off local English chap came round in his van spotted it and fixed it the same day for £40. We had an extension built last year 20SqM I had planned to have it finished 4 weeks before the birth of our first child, Baby BS2 decides to come 7 weeks early extension doesn't even have a roof on it! our team of local builders (family firm) pull out all the stops to get it as ready as possible for us to bring him home, it was water tight and dust free by the time he came out of hospital.
Its not all doom and gloom.
Its not all doom and gloom.
also in the interests of balance - isnt the lack of applications for the cleaning job more about the salary requirements and the hours etc
UK people, with mortgages and family no doubt, in today's increasingly expensive UK, need more £££s than a cleaning job pays.
Or the idea of the wife working some extra hours for some extra income probably does not work either as the hours probably clash with other demands like the school run etc etc
UK people, with mortgages and family no doubt, in today's increasingly expensive UK, need more £££s than a cleaning job pays.
Or the idea of the wife working some extra hours for some extra income probably does not work either as the hours probably clash with other demands like the school run etc etc
I've got eastern europeans doing some road-building for me at the moment. They turn up early - or at least NEVER late, work all day, eat on the job, and when they've run out of tasks, they'll (without being asked) start sweeping the road, cleaning the machines etc. On top of that, they ALL say good morning when they turn up, all have the correct safety gear (which I issued to them at the start of the job) and they bring me pleshniak (spot-on Polish cake) every now and then (not contractual but a very pleasing benefit!).
I kicked the Brit gang of 3 off site because I kept finding them asleep in the front bucket of the tipper, sitting at Macdonalds halfway through the morning, or generally finding excuses why they couldn't do anything. Not to mention being downright rude to the public, chucking their litter from their extended lunch breaks all over the place, and breaking site rules left right and centre (no beacons, short sleeve high-vis, trainers on site etc). And their QS still insisted on billing us for their "work".
I've seen similar situations over the last 10 years which have been solved with warnings, but this was (2 or 3 weeks ago) the first time I lost my rag and actually kicked people off site.
I'd rather have Nico and his gang of Poles, Russians, Yugoslavians (or whatever the correct term is now) than Mick and his gang of Brits. Christ, the foreigners even spoke better English. Not every other word was "fk", "", or "wker".
Sweeping generalisation maybe, but our homegrown labour force is a downright fking embarrassment, and if the gangs I've seen are any indication of the work ethic of eastern Europe, then I welcome them in with open arms.
I kicked the Brit gang of 3 off site because I kept finding them asleep in the front bucket of the tipper, sitting at Macdonalds halfway through the morning, or generally finding excuses why they couldn't do anything. Not to mention being downright rude to the public, chucking their litter from their extended lunch breaks all over the place, and breaking site rules left right and centre (no beacons, short sleeve high-vis, trainers on site etc). And their QS still insisted on billing us for their "work".
I've seen similar situations over the last 10 years which have been solved with warnings, but this was (2 or 3 weeks ago) the first time I lost my rag and actually kicked people off site.
I'd rather have Nico and his gang of Poles, Russians, Yugoslavians (or whatever the correct term is now) than Mick and his gang of Brits. Christ, the foreigners even spoke better English. Not every other word was "f
k", "", or "wker".Sweeping generalisation maybe, but our homegrown labour force is a downright f
king embarrassment, and if the gangs I've seen are any indication of the work ethic of eastern Europe, then I welcome them in with open arms. 
I haven't booked any non-British trades yet (don't know why, maybe it's because I only need small stuff doing and they don't advertise locally?), but I thought it was entirely normal to book a trade to start at, say, 8.30 or 9 and not see them until 11.30? I've not had anybody turn up on time in the four years we've lived here, not even the guy who lives at the bottom of the road and can't claim he's stuck in traffic. Luckily I work from home so I'm here anyway, but I've yet to see a trade turn up within an hour of his allotted time. And about 60% of them don't bother to phone to say they'll be late, either. It just seems as though turning up late is expected these days.
OpulentBob said:
Had to check your profile...
Out of interest, you're in Essex - do you run out of the big Ambo base on Canvey?
I wouldn't make such comments if i wasn't a foreigner myself Out of interest, you're in Essex - do you run out of the big Ambo base on Canvey?
And no i don't work off that big base (which is a private ambulance service, not a 999 NHS one) on Canvey, but i do know them
Medic-one said:
I wouldn't make such comments if i wasn't a foreigner myself
And no i don't work off that big base (which is a private ambulance service, not a 999 NHS one) on Canvey, but i do know them
Aah, I pass it fairly often, I was gonna keep an eye out for your car if you did. No worries! And no i don't work off that big base (which is a private ambulance service, not a 999 NHS one) on Canvey, but i do know them
Basically sums modern British up. What the average Joe doesn't realise is that the economy is run on the back of immigrants, the government realise if they stop mass immigration, the economy comes to a stop.
If it was to to them (and rightly so) they'd get rid of 90% of 'white Britain'. Britain would be living in a prosperous land, unlike the recession hit sthole we're currently in.
If it was to to them (and rightly so) they'd get rid of 90% of 'white Britain'. Britain would be living in a prosperous land, unlike the recession hit s
thole we're currently in. Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff