Idiots you have worked with

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Pete999

Pete999

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I was Lead on on one particular job, overseas, and I had to arange a handover to a new chap we had so say trained in the particular needs of our working practices,
Any way Matey turned up all bright beyed and bushy tailed ready to set the World on fire.
Showing him around the Switch room, that switch there Mate, don't switch it off unless you have arranged with the client for a down time OK? yeah Fine Pete, no worries, the day I was flying home got a call , better get your arse round here PDQ Mate.
All Hell had broken loose, Matey had switched off without permission, lots of Damage to electronic Kit which needed a phased shut down, some Div knocking a 100Amp 3phase off was not an ideal thing to do, took me 3 days to sort the problem out change my flight and eat humble pie with Her in Doors, as well as arrangeing Matey's demise from his employment, Pillock.
 
I've done loads of silly things myself, too many to mention. The last one was in my sons house when refurbishing it, stepped off the step ladder forgetting some of the floorboards were up, straight through the living room ceiling. Go it fixed & painted, but you can still see a mark there now :(
 
i had a 1st year with me on a conservatory job, he was too scared to put his hands up the holes cut out for downlights, no access above, so i basically had to do the job myself with just rods and my fishing skills

he was also scared to go in lofts and under floors, hes now a labourer, not so much an idiot but a career spoiled by something so stupid

if we lived in australia i could understand not putting your hands into lofts with all the poisonous beasties , ive sat and fed a mouse milk on my tea time lol, rats can get to ---- though!
 
one of the other 3rd years was totally useless, couldnt wire a simple timer fan, so he was relegated by his journeyman to taking the tools in in the morning, then going back to the van till 5pm, clean up all the tools then hometime

i had him with me on a small job to swap over faceplates, so i gave him the sockets to do, nothing can go wrong there right? wrong, earths in with the neutrals, they did have black sleeving on the earth but still.

i had to show him how to push a wheelbarrow up a hill aswell

xmas night out one of the supervisors was chatting to some women at the bar, so this apprentice wanders up and tells him his wife wouldnt be happy if she found out he was talking to women in the bar, 2 seconds later supervisor has him on a table by his throat, felt sorry for the guy so i stepped in and stopped it, dont think hes the full shilling
 
I dunno, I was sent under the ground floor of a house into the floor void, where the council rat catcher turned up at that day. We were doing a rewire, and I was ordered down there by the electrician, to fish the cables, while remained in the safety of above the floorboards. Nearly phooed myself. Took a lump hammer for protection.
 
Midwest said:
I've done loads of silly things myself, too many to mention. The last one was in my sons house when refurbishing it, stepped off the step ladder forgetting some of the floorboards were up, straight through the living room ceiling. Go it fixed & painted, but you can still see a mark there now :(
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Agree Middy, my example was after I had given strict instructions and explanations as to why, your experience was an accident, mine was wanton disregard of instructions, which resulted in Matey getting the Spanish Archer. He had dome stupid things prior to this incident. Thought he knew it all.
 
Midwest said:
I dunno, I was sent under the ground floor of a house into the floor void, where the council rat catcher turned up at that day. We were doing a rewire, and I was ordered down there by the electrician, to fish the cables, while remained in the safety of above the floorboards. Nearly phooed myself. Took a lump hammer for protection.
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mice are choir boys compared to rats! i was under a floor that i knew had rats , just as i was passing under the hatch area a bit of plaster fell from the plasterers trowel onto my legs, i was out of the hatch in an instant lol, thought a rat had crawled up my leg!

big fat plumber got called to that job once all the floors were down, one of his pipes burst under the floor, poor bugger lol, glass wool netting under this floor too, so you can imagine how comfortable it is
 
Pete999 said:
Agree Middy, my example was after I had given strict instructions and explanations as to why, your experience was an accident, mine was wanton disregard of instructions, which resulted in Matey getting the Spanish Archer. He had dome stupid things prior to this incident. Thought he knew it all.
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i dont even turn off peoples socket outlets without asking if they have a pc running lol
 
had a bit of a delboy and rodney moment with one of the older guys i worked with, removing a chandelier above a staircase

after we set up the scaffold he went up to "test the weight" of the chandy, he lifted it right off the hook and almost fell right off the scaffold , clearly a 2 man chandy but he was bald , so i dont know if that has anything to do with his choices
 
and to go slightly off topic, for those of you who do have a follicle deficiency on your head, i suggest trying regane for men, a hairdresser done god knows what to my head but a small patch of my head wouldnt grow hair for a year, till i got some regane on there, it took a while but hairs actually re-grew!

wanna know whats worse than being bald? being bald on only a small portion of your head LOL
 
Fair time back now but asked one of the lads to check a box of BS88 fuses to find a 63A which had not blown and when he hands me one it is duff. He insisted it was good so I got him to show me how he checked it, he placed it on some steel trunking and said see it is good.
 
i came out of the wholesalers once with a bunch of stuff in my hands, popped the rcd on the roof, put big box in the van, jumped in the van and drove to the job that needed the rcd, went to look for the rcd, then it hit me, its probably somewhere on the road between the wholesaler and where i was currently
 
ive driven around all day with my snips on the roof of my van and only found them at the end of the day, had a tin of half full irn bru stay on the roof aswell from the wholesaler to a job

i had to make a rule after the rcd one though, NO MATERIALS ON THE ROOF lol
 
westward10 said:
Fair time back now but asked one of the lads to check a box of BS88 fuses to find a 63A which had not blown and when he hands me one it is duff. He insisted it was good so I got him to show me how he checked it, he placed it on some steel trunking and said see it is good.
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Classic is that.
 
westward10 said:
Fair time back now but asked one of the lads to check a box of BS88 fuses to find a 63A which had not blown and when he hands me one it is duff. He insisted it was good so I got him to show me how he checked it, he placed it on some steel trunking and said see it is good.
Click to expand...
Classic is that.
 
I was on call out during Xmas, I was sent to a house that had no hot water. It was a plumbers job really as it was boiler fed. The young lady with two children was stressed as the appointment for the heating engineer was a week in January. So I tried my luck and bypassed the thermostat and to which the boiler kicked in the heat water. So I gave her some hot water and put everything back to place as it is dangerous to leave thermostat bypassed. I explained that I could not do anything permanent and she just had to wait. After new year I was sent to the offices and got fired because the lady, or her partner, bypassed it again after I had left and told the heating engineer I did it.
 
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sham said:
I was on call out during Xmas, I was sent to a house that had no hot water. It was a plumbers job really as it was boiler fed. The young lady with two children was stressed as the appointment for the heating engineer was a week in January. So I tried my luck and bypassed the thermostat and to which the boiler kicked in the heat water. So I gave her some hot water and put everything back to place as it is dangerous to leave thermostat bypassed. I explained that I could not do anything permanent and she just had to wait. After new year I was sent to the offices and got fired because the lady, or her partner, bypassed it again after I had left and told the heating engineer I did it.
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Theres no 'like' for that, guess you won't be so obliging again. :(
 
I worked with a guy who was a minor TV personality, a football commentator in the evenings. He left all the real work in the office to me, and swanned off to the tv studios a couple of times a week...I would work my butt off tidying up his sh*t, then get home at 10pm to see him pontificating on the telly...(and getting paid a pretty penny too)
I moved jobs..and he was "moved" too, eventually. Moral: Do your own work, for yourself, whenever possible.
 
Remember on a job about 10years ago, we had an agency sparkys mate fitting containment.
The task involved fitting galv trunking to plasterboard wall.
I noticed he was drilling a load of random holes in the back of the trunking, then offered it up to the wall. At this point I walked over and asked how he knew where the studs where in the wall, he said he never bothered finding the studs, one of the holes he drilled was bound to hit a stud!
 
KEV 1 N said:
Remember on a job about 10years ago, we had an agency sparkys mate fitting containment.
The task involved fitting galv trunking to plasterboard wall.
I noticed he was drilling a load of random holes in the back of the trunking, then offered it up to the wall. At this point I walked over and asked how he knew where the studs where in the wall, he said he never bothered finding the studs, one of the holes he drilled was bound to hit a stud!
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Lol, logic
 
Not an idiot, but I remember one lad working for us, upstairs in a main street insurance brokers. He was sinking a box with a lump hammer and chisel for a socket when I heard a loud 'kin ell' with all the banging. He'd smashed a brick straight through a single brick wall into next door...….. Barclays bank.
 
ipf said:
Not an idiot, but I remember one lad working for us, upstairs in a main street insurance brokers. He was sinking a box with a lump hammer and chisel for a socket when I heard a loud 'kin ell' with all the banging. He'd smashed a brick straight through a single brick wall into next door...….. Barclays bank.
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I've heard it called hole it the wall before but that takes it to another level.
 
ipf said:
Not an idiot, but I remember one lad working for us, upstairs in a main street insurance brokers. He was sinking a box with a lump hammer and chisel for a socket when I heard a loud 'kin ell' with all the banging. He'd smashed a brick straight through a single brick wall into next door...….. Barclays bank.
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Reminds me of the movie, Casino, Hole In The Wall Gang. True story.
 
I hated working with a young lad who would throw his tools about, shout, swear every time something didn't go to plan.

Everyday something doesn't go to plan in this kind of work. It's the nature of the beast. There are times I do have to take a deep breath and carry on, but does getting angry with inanimate objects really help?

I think he is in the wrong trade. To be honest I don't think any trade would be good for him. His attitude was all wrong.
 
Paignton pete said:
I hated working with a young lad who would throw his tools about, shout, swear every time something didn't go to plan.

Everyday something doesn't go to plan in this kind of work. It's the nature of the beast. There are times I do have to take a deep breath and carry on, but does getting angry with inanimate objects really help?

I think he is in the wrong trade. To be honest I don't think any trade would be good for him. His attitude was all wrong.
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Patience is indeed a virtue!

Ok, here goes....I certainly felt an idiot after the following happened....

I suppose I was in my mid 20's. I had been working for the same local respected company for about 6 years.

I was given the job of installing a load of down lights in a run down sea-side hotel, (Awful things I know and at the time these were 240v, no transformers). Once I started to lift floorboards it became apparent that much of the installation was still wired in VIR cables (the braided waxed things that snap when you move them).

I called my boss, explained the situation. He asked me to carry on, get the down lights working and the rewire situation would be addressed as soon as possible. I followed his instructions.

When I got home I sat down with my dinner and turned the TV on.
I nearly choked....there, live on the local news was coverage of the hotel totally ablaze. The hotel was on fire! I was directly on the phone to my boss, he was watching it too. Awful.

Anyway, the next day it turned out that some guys were putting new lead flashing around a large bay window at the front of the hotel and had set light to the window in the process.

Ha! I was saved!
 
Idiots I have worked with?

Usually Managers who climbed their way up to the office by brown nosing and giving out blow jobs, horrible slimy lackies.
 
MDJ said:
Idiots I have worked with?

Usually Managers who climbed their way up to the office by brown nosing and giving out blow jobs, horrible slimy lackies.
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Would that description include Team Leaders? who think they are one of the team, but in reality they are the only tea, team ME.
 
Another tale....this time an apprentice. He was taking the order from the lads to go to Greggs at bait time. He wrote his list and off he went. He came back with a large carrier bag and everyone got their food, however there were several items left in the bag! They we’re corned beef pasties, on his list 2 people wanted pasties, so he put two tally marks, when he ordered, the silly bugger must of asked for eleven! Best of it was there wasn’t even that many on the job!:tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:
 
Here’s another one....same apprentice with the pasties!
This time we asked to fix some double back boxes to a smooth and flat concrete wall that was going to get dot and dabbed.
A few hours later he came back and said “do you want the boxes level with the level or level with your eye?”
I glanced over at the lead electrician who looked at me in a way as if to say “WTF!?”
We went and had a look, and oh dear the wall looked like a machine gun had been fired along it and not one box was the same height!
 
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Sym said:
Ha! But the poor little bugger had to pay for them no doubt.

Pasties all week for tea!

Funny.
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He did something similar when he went to Mc Donald’s. Took the order off the lads but didn’t ask for money, so we just though we’d sort it when he got back. Any way he comes back and gives everyone their food and sits down without anything!
“Where’s your food at?” Someone asked
“I didn’t have enough money to pay for mine” he replied
We all nearly choked with laughing!
 
KEV 1 N said:
Another tale....this time an apprentice. He was taking the order from the lads to go to Greggs at bait time. He wrote his list and off he went. He came back with a large carrier bag and everyone got their food, however there were several items left in the bag! They we’re corned beef pasties, on his list 2 people wanted pasties, so he put two tally marks, when he ordered, the silly bugger must of asked for eleven! Best of it was there wasn’t even that many on the job!:tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:
Click to expand...
Similar vane Moscow BIG job Maccy Dees 10 mins away, it was my turn to go for burgers, counted up 23, the rule was it was double cheese burgers, no nuggets or Big Macs d ouble CB and fries, goes to the window, and there is a picture of what they sell (this was early days of Maccy Ds in Moscow) so in my best pidgeon Russian I said 23 double CBs 23 large Fries please, never in a million years was I expecting the response I got " to eat in or take away", nearly fell ove on the way back to site through laughing.
 
KEV 1 N said:
Another tale....this time an apprentice. He was taking the order from the lads to go to Greggs at bait time. He wrote his list and off he went. He came back with a large carrier bag and everyone got their food, however there were several items left in the bag! They we’re corned beef pasties, on his list 2 people wanted pasties, so he put two tally marks, when he ordered, the silly bugger must of asked for eleven! Best of it was there wasn’t even that many on the job!:tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:
Click to expand...
Similar vane Moscow BIG job Maccy Dees 10 mins away, it was my turn to go for burgers, counted up 23, the rule was it was double cheese burgers, no nuggets or Big Macs d ouble CB and fries, goes to the window, and there is a picture of what they sell (this was early days of Maccy Ds in Moscow) so in my best pidgeon Russian I said 23 double CBs 23 large Fries please, never in a million years was I expecting the response I got " to eat in or take away", nearly fell ove on the way back to site through laughing.
 
Pete999 said:
Similar vane Moscow BIG job Maccy Dees 10 mins away, it was my turn to go for burgers, counted up 23, the rule was it was double cheese burgers, no nuggets or Big Macs d ouble CB and fries, goes to the window, and there is a picture of what they sell (this was early days of Maccy Ds in Moscow) so in my best pidgeon Russian I said 23 double CBs 23 large Fries please, never in a million years was I expecting the response I got " to eat in or take away", nearly fell ove on the way back to site through laughing.
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They might have thought you were just very hungry!
 
Midwest said:
I've done loads of silly things myself, too many to mention. The last one was in my sons house when refurbishing it, stepped off the step ladder forgetting some of the floorboards were up, straight through the living room ceiling. Go it fixed & painted, but you can still see a mark there now :(
Click to expand...
I did almost the same thing my late uncle the joiner had just sheeted the ceiling on the floor below me and I had finished terminating a socket stood up and stepped back fell through one of the gaps where I had the boards up and took down a good chunk of the ceiling luckily I had a spare sheet of gyproc on my van flung that up before he came back the next day he wouldn’t have been happy at all if he knew :fearful:
 
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