Feeding workmen

ATM with Covid the rules mean that you cannot feed them - certainly the rules for my removal quotes state that the (wo)men will bring their own refreshments and I am not to offer them anything.

Another of my OH's clients was an extremely wealthy man with houses all overe the world. He even employed staff to do his collecting for him. So, he might decide to buy aboriginal artefacts and the staff would search for the good stuff and go to auctions etc. He also bought a Rubens for his father as a birthday present. You may remember reading about it. Anyway the foregoing is to show how rich he is.

This man used to moan at his staff for buying the coloured plastic coated paperclips. The ordinary ones were quite good enough.

The story about the instant coffee for the tradesman reminded me of an instance when I was younger.

When I was a student nurse in the RAF some of the sisters came from wealthy backgrounds and considered us as ‘below the salt’. One Christmas another student and I were offered a glass of sherry for a ‘treat’. The sister asked us if we had had sherry before, assuming our families were too poor to have it at home. My friend, the other student, looked at the bottle and said, “Yes, Ma-am, but, but never South African. We always have Spanish at home”

this reminds me of a plumber who told me about a person who rang him out of the blue because she had a leak or some such pressing problem.
despite not being a customer of his, he agreed to come round.
when she realised he was the plumber she literally told him to use the tradesmen's entrance and was closing the front door.
no, he said, my father had to put up with that nonsense; if i'm not good enough to come through the front door, you can get someone else. and he left. good for him !

I always offer tea. coffee or a cold can from the fridge and biscuits.

Tea and coffee, squash and biscuits or cake is what I tend to offer.

If you are a real coffee drinker do yu offer that or just instant

I only ever offer the best of what I have. There’s no two tier system of eating or drinking in this house.

If you are a real coffee drinker do yu offer that or just instant.

One day my husband went to someone's house to look at some furniture or maybe to ploish something too large to move. the people had recently moved from London and bought a rectory. Anyway, the lady of the house was sitting at the kitchen table with a friend and a large cafetiere in front of them and asked him if he'd like some coffee. When he said he would, she got up from the table and made a mug of instant. He drank very little of it. Had that been me I would have said no thank you, I only drink real coffee and thrown the contents down the sink. He's more restrained than me.

Mawbe You are naughty! ?

I have had quite a lot of work done on this house and, as others have said, tea, coffee and biscuits but, they always bring their own lunch

When my kitchen was refitted I literally moved all kitchen ‘stuff’ into sun-room.... microwave sat on top of fridge.... I told workman I would not be making endless cuppas BUT they could help themselves to kettle and milk and teabags .... they much preferred this way of going on .... and on the odd occasion ( refit took over a week) offered them a bacon butty if I was doing it for myself. They took the offer over whatever they had in their lunch boxes...which I said they could leave I’n my fridge overnight so as not to upset anybody who had taken trouble for them. Also included them in ‘cream cake runs ‘ once or twice. Also instead of the. Sitting in their vehicle eating their packed lunches ... as it was an extremely hot (2018) summer... I let them use my garden table and chairs/ umbrella..... also kept the spare fridge in garage stocked with bottles of soft drinks and told them that fridge was theirs for the duration, and they kept their lunches in there rather than a sweaty van! Little consideration went a long way to an excellent job done!

Yes. I always offer something to eat and I’m happy to share what we have if they say yes but I’m equally ok if they say no thank you because they have something with them.

Depending on the time they arrived - on a week long job, the 2nd day I found 3 of the 5 lads sat in their van at 7.45 am waiting for the others. I quickly cooked up 5 bacon & egg sandwiches which were eagerly demolished by the 3 lads present. When the other 2 sleepyheads arrived at 8.05 am, they didn’t half get a ribbing for missing out!
Needless to say everyone turned up at 7.40 am every day until the job was finished and I only cooked ‘brekkets’ once again on the final day!
Sometimes it’s donkeys and carrots/strawberries ?? Isn’t it?

Tea and biscuits is enough in my opinion , and always appreciated

I’ve had boiler serviced and oven cleaned this week, two separate days. Both left in kitchen while I sat in the other room, I apologised and said normally we’d have a cup of tea and chat, both in their masks said fine, I felt rude, but needs must.

welbeck

did she never see there might be a connection; treat em mean, get ripped off. treat em sweet, keep them sweet.

This is bananas to me

You shouldn’t have to bribe people to do their jobs.

Tea and a biscuit are fine. Many workers doing physical jobs don't even break for a lunch these days. They seem to want to crack on to get the job done. Offer of a can of soft drink would maybe be appreciated in the warm weather.

Tea, coffee and homemade cakes here, plus use of a toilet. My plumber friend says he always remembers who treated him and his colleagues well and is more inclined to be available next time.

I wouldn’t start this! Just tea and biscuits they normally bring there own lunch .

did she never see there might be a connection; treat em mean, get ripped off. treat em sweet, keep them sweet.

I always feed anyone working in my home, but I had a friend who wouldn’t even let them use the loo. It’s all down to personal generosity and kindliness. My friend was always being ripped off but I’ve always been happy with a job well done.

A month ago we had a couple of builders round to look at some work we want doing and offered them tea or coffee. They told us we shouldn't offer drinks etc at this particular time.

You sound lovely as well, Riggie

We had a workman who liked beer and we made the mistake of getting beer in and he drank like a fish! Lesson learnt and the next time he had some work to do, I forgot to get beer and only had squash or tea/coffee and he sent his mate out to buy their drinks which were the energy ones. I usually offer tea/coffee and biscuits if I have them (but hide the good ones).

Tea/biscuits/cake. And use of the loo unlike people on mumsnet

But then I will make a cuppa for a postie sheltering from the rain and offer to refil the veg box mans flask or water bottle depending on the weather

Thisismyname1953

My daughter is bonkers! Any workmen get a lunch of BLTs ,plus cakes and biscuits x x

She sounds lovely!