If I worked for any of you all, you'd fire me. Simple as that, and I'd deserve it. I need to limit my exposure to the general population for sure.
I've had a builder buddy that has burned the phone up all week trying to get me to pin a lot for him. I generally turn down these things, but he's a twenty-year client and we're both getting close to the finish line, so I agreed...on Monday afternoon.
Shucks! I let it go all week and forgot about it until Friday afternoon!
Everybody else had grabbed their check and gone except one employee. I asked him if he had pins in the back. We grabbed the plat and away we go. This 'hood is a nice, newer area, with lots of brick and coded gates. The price tags are probably 400 to 500k. This is the LAST vacant lot on the block.
As soon as we get to rootin' around for some pins, ol' nosey neighbor plants himself in my personal space with his arms folded.
"This lot is too small to build on." he announces.
"That's too bad." I didn't even look up.
"Who do you work for?" he asked.
"None of your business." I replied.
He was unsettled by my reply and reiterated they couldn't build anything on the lot because it was too small.
I finally stopped, looked at him hard, and asked, "What in the world are you talking about?"
"Well the builder told us nobody would ever build here because none of his houses would fit on the lot. I kinda like having all this space as yard."
I went into "fun mode" and told him this would be a special house. The organization Habitat for Humanity had permitted it for a nice lady and her six kids. It would be a smaller house...but it's a noble thing to give down-on-their-luck folks a chance to make it by building and giving them a house. Most of them do real good once they adjust...
He turned pale. I could see him fumbling with his cell phone as he walked away...
We set three pins, flagged everything up and took off. My help was quiet for about a mile. He finally told me he thought I probably ruined that guy's day.
I told him he was probably right.
Like I said, any of you all would probably fire me if I worked for you. B-)
:good: :good: :good: 😛
> Like I said, any of you all would probably fire me if I worked for you. B-)
No, that shows initiative. I'd promote you to management.
> "Well the builder told us nobody would ever build here because none of his houses would fit on the lot."
Was that right about the time he quoted you a price on your lot?
I stopped working for friends and family years ago. Ok, maybe help my kids for free, but "friends" just want something for "free". Too many horror stories to put in one post here.
Instead I've just given them a market price and some phone numbers of peers, or at least a copy of the yellow pages and suggest they go shopping. If I don't get the job, just as well IMHO. My bonus is I get on the good side with a peer by sending them work, and typically it is recriprocal.
$0.02
Fire you? I'd most likely take notes.
(why the heck wouldn't this rich guy buy an itty-bitty lot and keep it for a yard if that's what he wanted?)
Fire you? Personally I'd give you a raise for showing initiative. If that was a firing offense, I'd have been canned long ago. 🙂
Last time something similar happened to me with a pushy and nosy neighbor getting in my face pressing me for answers, I ended up telling them I'd heard their new neighbor was going to be a Drug & Alcohol Rehab Center/halfway home. That one ended up coming back to me when I was called up by management to explain myself and had to promise not to do it again.
I'm assuming they meant the same person and place.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
I get treated rudely by the public on a constant basis it seems. For the most part I hold my tongue. For the real a**holes, I find out where they work and return the favor!
I'd worry a bit that he could get mad enough to pull the pins, and you'd have to place them again for free since it would be hard to collect from him and you wouldn't want to double-charge your friend.
I'd have asked him if he really thought the developer would create an un-buildable lot. Then I'd have said it was a matter between the owner and the zoning board. But that wouldn't have made him happy either.
Our weird encounter this week...eating lunch on a windshield day. First guy literally gives us chocolate cupcakes and thanks us profusely for what the fire department did (the public thinks we are fire fighters...there are only two survey crews statewide).
First guy leaves and 20 seconds later second guy arrives roaring drunk. Why didn't the effin' fire department save his house (in the big fire)? Four engines were on their way up there (sounds like a strike team) but got pulled back. My partner tried to explain that we work on investigations of burn overs were fire fighters were injured and in some cases killed but he didn't want to hear it. At that point I knew appealing to reason wouldn't work. He effed away for a while and finally drove off.
Oh, you are a bad, bad boy.
Are you sure we weren't “guests” at the same time at “Rehabilitation Center for Disoriented Surveyors”?
Damn, my train of thought has left the station without me again…..sigh 😉
I like your style. As I age, I grow more impatient with these types. Had a buddy who when pressed by a nosy neighbor would ask, "Are you paying for the survey" Well no. "Then you don't need to know"
> ...As I age, I grow more impatient with these types...
It apparently gets worse with the years.
You know, I am REALLY the nicest guy in the world. I'll go out of my way, if I can, to help somebody that needs it. But my fuse gets real short with folks that are over-impressed with their own ability to suck in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.
If that guy had have just asked what we were doing...hell, in 30 seconds we would've been talking about marigolds and crepe-myrtles!
He just had to come over and push my button....:pinch:
I tell the neighbors they are either building a prison or an airport+o(
When the neighbors keep seeing us out there for a few days thats when the dumb questions and statements come out. " i had a chance to buy that awhile back". Then when they say we're in the wrong, thats when my mouth gets me in trouble. I ususally tell the I-man to get me the plans for the "new landfill limit of disturbance area". I've never gotten a phone call faster from a mayor in my life. (Luckily hes a good friend)
As far as people pulling stakes out, thats when we know they might get disturbed we put a bunch of random stakes around with writing like "gone fishing". " thus is not a stake". " to be removed".
Gotta have fun sometimes or this job would be boring for some people 😉
Fire you? You'd get a raise for this.
The question I used to get all the time was, "Are they going to widen the road?" I could be on the lot closest to the turn-around bulb of a cul-de-sac in a fully developed subdivision and get asked that question.
Usually I'd say "no", but sometimes my onery side would kick in and I'd say things like, "I'm not sure, but I heard the city is moving the sidewalk to about 3 feet from your front door."
Some of my favourite questions and answers are:
"Are they going to widen the road?" "No. This is a preliminary survey for the hazardous waste storage facility going in."
"Is that a camera?" "Yes. If you go stand by that guy with the red and white stick thing you can be in the pictures."
"Can you tell me where my property line is?" "No. You'll need to contact a surveyor to do that."
I mostly stay in the office now and only interact with other surveyors. My public relations privileges were revoked long ago. 😀
I'd promote to one level below to the Peter Principle.
excellent
Fun with the neighbors on a Sunday afternoon
>"Are they going to widen the road?"
I sometimes recover bench marks and report to NGS. There was one in a small town we pass through on the way to visit family that didn't look right (distance from street, distance from RR, height from rail, and 1 ft from a signal building not mentioned in the data sheet description). So I made a level run from the post office disk to the one near the RR to check it out.
Here we are on a hot Sunday afternoon, no reflector vests, stakes, paint, or flagging, in tourist clothing, my wife holding the rod on the sidewalk, and some guy stops to ask-
"Are they going to re-pave the road?"
Guess I have to give him credit for not asking what we were taking pictures of.
I was gratified, though, that my level run checked out -0.005 ft from the NGS values, with estimated accuracy +/- 0.050.
One stake set anywhere, marked "NW corner of Landfill". 😀