On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 20:03:16 -0500, "twfsa" scribbled
this interesting note:

Problem is you think like you're hiring the carpenter as an employer.

I am!


When you hire a craftsman, it is different than hiring a grunt to clean your
garage or dig a ditch. With the grunt, you tell him every little thing you
want him to do and how you want him to do it. As he goes along his merry
way, if he isn't doing it up to snuff, you cut him loose. Most of the time,
you have to stand there, or they stop working.

When you hire a craftsman, you tell him the end result you want him to
accomplish. You may outline some of the parameters of the work, but by and
large if he is a real craftsman, he knows how to do his job, and other than
color and size and style, you don't have to tell him much.

Some people have a problem because they tell a craftsman what they want,
then if the craftsman does it in a short time, they crow about the "hourly"
rate being too high. No mention that yesterday, the basement was flooded,
excrement was backing up into the house, and the dogs wouldn't even come
inside. They wail, "But it only took you four hours to snake the pipe and
get the basement drained!" They forget about how bad the situation was 24
hours ago, and completely discount the years it took to learn what to do and
how to do it.

You can't have it both ways. Either you hire a guy by the hour and stand
and watch him work, or you hire a craftsman and turn him loose. You hold
the craftsman accountable at the end, but you don't hang over him.

If I were the craftsman who was being questioned here, I would suddenly be
too busy to take this job. The "employer" is going to bitch about
everything from the brand of nails on down.

Steve