honesty in the job

[Guest111]

Lately a lot of things happen which revolve around honesty or morales,just thought I'd throw this out and see the reaction.
Your boss is a decent sort who lets you use the van outside work,and is the type who says "if you ever need any bits just help yourself"
My question is this,A you use the van for shopping and trips locally (say40 miles) at weekends,do you put any fuel in.
B although he has said help yourself to bits,do you tell him if you take say 5mtrs 2.5 and a socket front? The reason I ask is once at my old firm we were discussing this and I was the only one who put diesel in van on a regular basis,if they are good enough to let you use the van then to me it seems only fair that you put some fuel in.As an example one lads father was taken seriously ill about 300 miles away and the lad was trying to get their as he didn't have a car,boss just said throw 30 quid in diesel and take the works van.very decent I thought.

 

[Engineer54]

As i stated in another thread a few min's ago, ....It all starts and ends with being honest to/with yourself!! lol!!

 

[Sintra]

I am allowed to use the company vehicle for whatever I want without having to pay for fuel. Just before Christmas I had to go from London to Perth Scotland for a funeral and said to boss that I would pay for fuel. Don't need to he said but I bunged £50.00 quid in anyway as I felt guilty. As for materials I always am upfront and willing to pay for anything I take.

 

[JulianC]

If it was me, I'd just ask him if he wanted me to put fuel in it. Problema solvitur

 

[ipf]

There's 'give and take' and 'take for ride'. If someone is kind enough to offer the first option DO NOT be a t***** and take the second. No excuse for theft, especially by taking advantage.

 

[dan86]

Sintra- Perth is only about 15 mins from me!
as for work- I can use the van anytime I like without paying for fuel.
that said, I don't feel I'm taking advantage because I'm the only one that turns up early Every morning and the last one to leave every day.im also the one that offers to do any overtime (cash in hand) there's give and take and it works for us.

 

[monkeyelectric]

The boss pays for all my fuel, unfortunately i am the boss :annoyed:

 

[amlu]

pay them for materials, they should be getting them at good price anyway if big company, whats ok for couple of sockets is not ok for a rewire worth of stuff.

 

[londonlec]

I see the van as a bit of a 'perk', seeing as most firms are paying **** money anyway.

 

[ifindoubtdont]

My boss says I can use the van and tools onboard any time I want, as long as I take her shopping on Saturdays.

 

[richy3333]

Lately a lot of things happen which revolve around honesty or morales,just thought I'd throw this out and see the reaction.
Your boss is a decent sort who lets you use the van outside work,and is the type who says "if you ever need any bits just help yourself"
My question is this,A you use the van for shopping and trips locally (say40 miles) at weekends,do you put any fuel in.
B although he has said help yourself to bits,do you tell him if you take say 5mtrs 2.5 and a socket front? The reason I ask is once at my old firm we were discussing this and I was the only one who put diesel in van on a regular basis,if they are good enough to let you use the van then to me it seems only fair that you put some fuel in.As an example one lads father was taken seriously ill about 300 miles away and the lad was trying to get their as he didn't have a car,boss just said throw 30 quid in diesel and take the works van.very decent I thought.

I'm a great believer in 'what goes around, comes around' type karma and I wanna sleep easy at night

 

[Swicade]

Last firm i worked for before going it alone used to let some of us take vans home for 'Breakdown/callout duty' (apparently it solved a tax issue at the time giving that title)....always used to put some fuel in from time to time, clean it out and wash it in my own time (not very often admittedly) and basicaly tret it as my own vehicle.Some times i'd even remember to pass on the fuel receipt to the boss so he could claim for it.

Others thought it was thier right to have a vehicle and basicaly abused it.......unfortunately i got no better thought of for looking after the van than those who abused it.....but made no difference i still looked after my skip on wheels.

 

[Adam W]

Just to even things up a bit the last company I worked for expected my to job around using my car. As time went on they were giving me less and less work - it got to the situation where they expected me to sit around waiting for the phone to ring and then spring into action and get to the job within an hour or so of the phone call. I was grateful for the work and didn't want to take the proverbial so I used to put in as much petrol as I thought I'd use on that job (usually about a tenner for one job if a fair distance away or a tenner for 2 jobs if fairly local), and give them the receipts with my daywork sheet and risk assessment, which as agreed they reimbursed me for. The jobs seemed to get fewer and further away to the extent where every time I went into the office I'd give them one daywork sheet, one risk assessment and one petrol receipt. The cheeky such and such accused me of taking the pee because I was "filling up" on "every job" and charging it to the company!
Yes, it would be nice if I could "fill up" for a tenner.

 

[PEG]

When i was younger,i worked for a boss who always let me use the company vehicle for my own jobs.He would never accept fuel or payment and insisted i had full use of it,"it's made for work son,get some done!" he would say.......Yep,there are lots of days where i really miss driving that hearse........

 

[PEM]

I think if you can look at yourself in the mirror each morning and know your a good honest guy and have treated any person or situation how you would expect to be treated then job done. I never mark up materials what I pay is what the client pays, even copy receipts for them to show this.

 

[Robert Turnbull]

I think if you can look at yourself in the mirror each morning and know your a good honest guy and have treated any person or situation how you would expect to be treated then job done. I never mark up materials what I pay is what the client pays, even copy receipts for them to show this.

I wouldn't say that is a honesty thing there really. Business is business and a 20% mark up on materials is fair play.

I tend to make a extra bit by spending time and effort sourcing the best deal I can on materials.

If the customer is buying the materials then that's obviously different.

 

[grantr37]

I worked for a company a while back and they gave the sparks and plumbers a ford transit connect each (think it was connect, is that the small square edged mini van?) but they said "absolutely no using after 6Pm".... they had a tracker in all of them and when a few of us did overtime and they used the vans going home at about 7:30 instead of 5Pm they kicked off and took £80 from each of their wages.....they were also prone to phoning mobiles and criticising your choice of fast food restaurant or filling station,then laughing...going to the wholesalers also got 20 questions.. that's how sad the office staff were....


I was lucky as I was in digs (that I paid for myself) and just used a bus to get back and forwards between the B&B and work every day...was only 3 miles on a regular bus route...

One of the BMS installer sparks got given a red ford focus car with a tracker and told "never drive after 6PM" they said it was the insurance but I don't know.....
The tax took £40.00 extra a week from his wages due to "benefit in kind" which they work out/calculate based on how nice the car is....ie a ford fiesta or an Audi equates to £30 a week or £100 a week in extra tax...or something along those lines...based on what they think the car rental cost would be if you rented one...then taxing a percentage% of that...he never drove it after 6 and some times when he did overtime he had to leave it on the site and get a lift away....collecting it again next day...

He was driving it up to the carpark one day on a really bad site road mashed up by diggers and lorries and run over a boulder thatwas sticking up in the middle of the road....smashed open the oil sump plate and the engine blew up.....they took it away on a low loader, due to the large distance from the head office vehicle depot, they chose to get him a rental car to replace it, a Brand New Saab with no tracker.....so he got to use it and take it home at weekends and nobody was any the wiser....
Another of the blokes who got a car instead of a van stuck petrol into a Diesel and that needed replacing as well....

 

[grantr37]

I have used my own materials and parts on a few sites where they have been stuck for a small amount needed to finish a job, with the usual "we will order that on Monday" so you end up needing something on the Friday and it probably won't arrive until the following Thursday afternoon....
It just saves a whole lot of hassle....I never got anything out of it other than saving a lot of hassle and inevitable stupid questions about why something is not finished...from the person who's supposed to have ordered the parts...