It's not just the first electrician...

After the horrible experience I had with my first electrician, I decided that I was no longer going to use his services and instead, look for the electrician that majority of my colleague in my company uses. They had good things to say about him, so I was optimistic that it will be a much more pleasant experience then my first.

At the start, the experience was great, the workers he send down on the very first day were competent and they were able to get all the electrical works done within a day, I was with my client that day and even he complimented at how experienced they were, things were optimistic and I was really happy that I was finally rid of the first electrician.

A few days passes by and the flow of the project was going well, I had some hiccups with the uplifting of goods and the masonry works, but they were all quickly rectified by the contractors the very following day after I brought up my concerns with them. 

Today, I get woken up by a phone call from my tiler, and when I get such a call early in the morning, it can't be anything good. So he calls me up and told me that the electricity in the unit had been cut off, that there was no way for his workers to continue work without their electrical equipment, I quickly contacted the electrician right after to send some of his men down to help me rectify what was causing the issue, since I had just gotten up, I was mumbling quite a bit and that irritated the electrician quite a bit, which was fucking ironic because he himself is also guilty of mumbling, but anyways, after rudely going "huh?" at me a few times, he understood my request and went...

"Okay okay. Text me the address."

... as I have stated, he mumbles, so I kept asking nicely for him to repeat himself, which really irritated him, but once I finally understood what he was mumbling, I did as he requested and send the address to him via Whatsapp, he doesn't tell me what time his worker will actually go down to my site, so I called him again to check exactly what time he will bring his workers there, and he goes...

"Around 12.00 pm to 1.00 pm."

... I was assured that he would go down at the time he had told me, so I relayed that information to my tiler and decided that I should probably also drop by the site to see the progress of the work.




I reach the site at around 11.30 am and only one worker was present, sitting on the floor having his lunch, not really able to do much due to the lack of any electricity, he tells me that the other workers have been relocated to other job site around the area while he waited for the electrician to come and fix the electricity. So I spoke with him a bit, told him the electrician will arrive shortly, and waited a little while, hoping the electrician would show up soon so I can at least be on site to explain to them what needed to be done and actually see for myself that the issue was fixed.

12.30 pm passes and at this point, I was ready to leave, I have already taken all the pictures I needed to show my clients, I have already seen what I needed to see, measured what I needed to measure, so I told the tiler I was going to leave first and left for my other site. I was very skeptical whether or not the electrician would be there but I remain relatively hopeful that he would show up, thinking that if he didn't show up, my tiler would call me up before 2.00 pm and actually inform me about it so I can double check with the electrician if he is coming over. 

So the period from 1.00 pm to 2.00 pm, I was nervously anticipating a call from my tiler, thinking that if he doesn't call after 2.00 pm, that would mean the electrician has dropped by and rectified the issue. I mean it doesn't make sense for the worker to just sit around and doing nothing for the entire day without asking his boss why the electrician isn't here yet when the designer has personally dropped by to let him know that the electrician will be arriving by 1.00 pm.

Well, for a short period after the 2.00pm mark, I wasn't really thinking too much about the electrician, in fact, I was a little surprised that he delivered as promised, because I have heard from my other colleagues before that despite this electrician being a lot better than the first one I worked with, he still had his own issues, such as being a complete no-show sometimes. The possibility of him doing that to me ran through my head a few times, but I kept thinking, if something was amiss, my tiler will let me know about it, and since it has already been an hour pass the stipulated timing, everything must be going smoothly for my phone to remain so quiet.

And then I finally receive a call at 4.10 pm from my tiler....

"Your electrician hasn't come yet? Is he going to be coming today? We are going to knock off soon, my worker has been waiting for the past few hours, unable to do any work. If the electrician can't make it, then he should have just said that right from the start instead agreeing to come and then not showing up at all, he just completely wasted my worker's time."

.... somehow, I am not surprised, my tiler was angry, but his anger wasn't directed at me, I didn't really feel angry, just felt really sian, that what could have been an entire day of progress, has been reduced to the workers either waiting around doing nothing, or getting send to another site to work on other projects.




Just the idea that the progress those workers were able to make at the other site could've been done at my site is what really grinds my gear. The amount of work that could have been accomplished today, completely gone because the fucking electricity decided to give in.

When I called the electrician to tell him about his absence, I literally told him...

"You didn't come down today"

....he doesn't even sound remorseful for not showing up, he just carries on the conversation like he did nothing wrong, and then tells me he will send his guys down tomorrow, which was not even convincing at all, I was the one who said...

"You didn't come down today, so my tiler has left, come down tomorrow morning instead."

... I made the mistake of making it come across as just a trivial mistake on his part, like..

"Oh, you didn't come today, well that's alright, no damage done, just make sure to pop by tomorrow."

....which was fucking stupid of me because it is not fine to be a complete no show, and the way I said it made it sound like I was a pushover, so he just went...

"I tomorrow morning send my guys down."

Doesn't ask me to text him the address and number lock, just saying it for the sake of getting the conversation over and done with, it's like I was talking to a fucking parrot who's just repeating the last few words I am saying.



I really should learn to emulate my senior colleagues or my boss when I speak to the contractors




All my other contractors are fine, they actually treat me like a client....

When my haulage guy forgot to uplift all the tiles and cement for me, which resulted in a few stolen items, he was so apologetic about it and kept apologizing to me profusely, going so far as to replace those stolen items for me.

When my tiler forgot to order the necessary materials for me for my first site project, he was very apologetic about it and got one of his own workers to personally deliver the materials up to my site.

When my carpenter couldn't show up for a site visit due to a family emergency and had to send his worker to replace him, he kept apologizing to me about it and he made it up with good service.

But when both the electricians that I have used so far does a no show for an agreed appointment, they just give zero fucks. Not apologetic at all whatsoever, doesn't care if they have wasted your time and energy, just completely fuck all and then sometimes complaint that the work I have given them is not even worth their time and effort, that I should be feeling honored that they are willing to accept my job

What really irks me about this whole situation was the fact that my electrician only read my text at 3.05pm, a text I had send to him at 10.00am.

That means by the time he read that message, he already knew he was 2 hours late, but for some reason, doesn't bother to call me to tell me he was going to be late or not going to make it, just decides...

"Well fuck it, since I am already 2 hours late, I might as well not go at all today."

... what the actual fuck? What kind of bullshit work ethic is this?

If you can't make it, say you can't fucking make it, don't just keep quiet. I did not call for shits and giggles.

I guess switching electrician isn't going to make the electrical work aspect of any of my renovation projects easy, my company has 4 electrician contacts, I have used 2 and so far, these 2 have been horrible pieces of shit, I heard the third one also has issues with punctuality and the inability to give a fuck about responding to text messages, so I guess for the third project, I am going to have to try using the fourth one, the brand new electrician that was only recently introduced into the company that hopefully won't be a stench filled experience.