I have a personal hate of labs going back to my teenage days. I had an Uncle who had to employ labourers and work with them for the most of his working life.
Anyway Friday nights over a few beers I used to give him the weekly moan about what I had to endure over the previous week. He was often amused which pissed me off a little when I was being so serious and I told him I don't find the problems I am having with labs amusing!
He told me that I am a dedicated peson to my profession and also have had a proper upbringing and have discipline. But he also said that I expect everyone to be just like me! Well that is not how the world is. Although I look down on labs a brain surgeon probably looks down on me as some thicko who only has the brains to be a plasterer! He had studied labourers and found that most of them came from poor backgrounds and who had not done that well at school. Learning for these people was not easy and also they did not like having to take responsibility for their own actions. So perhaps I should be a bit more patient and understanding with labs as they are a breed of their own.
I later slept on it and then thought back about what he had said. He was right.
I have asked some labourers why they would want to be a labourer to someone else for? Most say dun no but some have confirmed what my Uncle said. In childhood they would be scolded for doing wrong and found school difficult. So they had a fear of learning, getting things wrong and preffered not to be in a position of taking responsibility for themselves but let someone else take the blame for when things went wrong.
Well I did have more patience for them but to a limit. They are nothing like me in education, dedication and moral values. By moral I mean to to the customer as I am a dirty little bleeder in my private life lol but that is another subject this is business.
So now I see labourers as for what they are. They have limits and you need to keep an eye on them. But there are some good ones out there. I came across one 3 years ago. A dedicated builders labourer. Always there 1/2 an hour before us, set up and ready to go. Never had to ask for anything it was there already. Mega clean and all you had to do was put the stuff on the wall. Within 10 minutes of the last trowel full you was off home. But he was only temporary, his main source of employment had dried up for a few month but it shows there are some good monkeys out there.
My current lab has been with me for 18 years on and off. Thick as two short planks but fit as fu*k! I know his limits and you need to check everything he has done but he is reliable, happy and cheap.
