that call Friday at 5:00 and expect you to have a crew at their site Monday Morning
Harumph.
Or they're closing Monday and need a drawing by then. The Friday Afternoon Surprise I call it and I watch out for it every week.
I would call that double time and a half for a minimum of two days, total days paid in advance.
It is not a NO and they have options.
😉
[sarcasm]What? You can't just drop anything else you might have planned and immediately cave and pander to their every want?[/sarcasm]
And... I'd bet they are going to tell how much they think it's worth to boot!
Oh, and... what if you close your doors the week of Christmas like a former employer of mine used to do. He was founder/owner so he came in anyway. I was on salary and had nothing else better to do so I came in as well. I only answered my phone if someone knew my direct extension or perhaps he'd take a call and ask if he could pass it on to me. I figured if he was nice enough to ask me first, I'd oblige and take it no matter if I didn't want to.
We were both into intense programming stuff at the time - he on software based fax communications and me on digital image processing (should have been the other way around if you ask me). But hey, every day we both were there, he bought us lunch and supper without a thought.
Lest I digress.... sorry for the story telling....
And now, back to your regularly scheduled program (no pun intended). 🙂
E.
I listen and do my best not to laugh out loud. Then I ask for them to explain how this dire situation happened to come about. Usually after 10 minutes or so of questions and answers they begin to realize that I am not going to save their bacon first thing tomorrow morning. They also learn that no one else that I know and would provide contact information for is going to save their bacon first thing tomorrow morning. By that time they are coming to grips with reality. The world will not explode at noon tomorrow. Accept it. There is no other alternative.
However.....in extremely rare situations.....I might be able to do what they need done.....but it's still not going to happen.....not for a $1000 bonus.....not for your daughter's (uh, something I can't say here).....not for anything offered.
Maybe once in ten years some bizarre request might come in like that and I would actually do it. It would have to be a situation where I have already done a survey for that person and know from my own knowledge that nothing has changed since that time and.....most importantly.....I have a personal reason that goads me into doing it. Most of the people for whom I would have done something like that are already dead. These are those few people for whom I would do almost anything to help them in any way at any time just because I want to.
This cartoon has graced a bulletin board above every desk I've ever occupied for probably the last 30 years. There is nothing like looking at it while listening intently to the other side of a phone conversation at 3:00 PM Friday afternoon...:clap:
priceless!
I had a call late Friday evening from a lady friend of mine. She wanted to have a piece of her land surveyed to give to her daughter for a Christmas present! I started to say that she could just come through the drive-through window Monday evening and pick it up.
"Would you want iron pins with that?" 😀
But, no, I didn't.. I talked to her for a few minutes and explained my current urgent workload. I also,mentioned that most attorneys would probably close their offices next week. There would just be no way it could happen. "I should have thought of this earlier," she said. I bit my tongue.:pinch:
We get a couple of those every month. I think its still a leftover from the great recession. Back when the economy sucked it really wasn't a problem for us to get out to a job the next day, heck we were happy for the work. The problem is now clients still think we can get things done that fast and they don't understand why we can't get their 5 lot subdivision done before the end of the year.
I saw this type of behavior 10 years ago when the economy was better. There always seemed to be those clients who, for whatever reasons, needed the particular job done 3 days ago. "Oh, the road contractor will be on site at 7 AM tomorrow, we need this done!!" The crew gets to the site for the huge "emergency" and there is not another contractor to be found within 3 or more miles.
My theory at the time was perhaps those idiots were truly not good at planning, or perhaps they "forgot" to request the job with the proper time allowances.