Side Work

In all these years i have never required anyone to work on a Saturday or a Sunday! Although we have worked many of both but it was always optional not mandatory. I have no right to tell a man roofing must be his life with little to no family time. Its my opinion that side jobs are simply a part of being a roofer, a subcontractor or a contractor. As a roofer i have the right to roof my cousins house for money on a saturday even though i work for mr. x thru the week by the hour. As a sub its the same. The lead must not come from the company i am working for however. As a roofer or a sub its my duty to refer the company. As a contractor its my duty to make sure no roofer or sub is stealing my work. lol But if he got the lead somewhere else and i was never going to get that lead anyways then what difference should it make to me if he wants to make some extra cash and get a nice boost to his bankroll? Maybe the baby needs a new pair of shoes? Or mama's car is broke down! Or theres no groceries in the fridge due to some unforseen bills that popped up!>>>

Egg,

How rainy is your locale?

Curious just because of the frequent rain in our area. I've never had a mandatory Sunday, and this month has been the first time in 15 years that we've even asked for Sunday work, but if we only get in 2 days M-F, Sat's are often mandatory. Sometimes you gotta feed the horse if you want the wagon to move.>>>

I take a philosophical position regarding side-jobs. It comes down to a careful reading of loyalty and abundance. Loyalty is a two-way street and I can read it quite well from either direction. I have a few hard and fast rules, but putting them aside, I can smell disloyalty a mile away anyway. On the other hand, I don't happen to ascribe to the notion that abundance is something reserved exclusively for the owner and I consider that attitude merely another form of disloyalty. I'm not a dog-eat-dog kind of guy. I'm not worried because "they" can't do what I do. I want "them" to grow up strong and competent. If it's undermining my business, it's over. I think everybody knows what that means. It's not that abstract. They do NOT have to recommend going through channels if it's something they can handle on their own. Everybody needs to get off the tit once in awhile. Right? It's against the law here to contract without a license. You can work anywhere you want for wages. As Mike says, it can't undercut the primary responsibility to the primary employment, although I differ regarding weekends. After years of experience, I have come to believe that weekends are sacrosanct and I feel I have zero right to compel someone to work for me on the weekend, for any reason whatsoever, even though there are a number of very compelling reasons from time to time. I believe it needs to remain entirely voluntary.>>>

Hi Jesse,

I hope things are going well.

Like Jed and others, side work was an important income subsidy when I was young, and I've always remembered that. Side work was never a problem until some guys did not show for work on a mandatory Saturday, and I found out they were working for a competitor, $25/hour cash.

My policy still allows side work, but has a number of limitations. If you'd like I can e-mail our policy to you.

The short version of my policy is: Side work is allowed as long as it does not detract from duties at the company. IOW, if we need you, you better be there. If it's low slope, it needs to be less than 10 square. Materials should be purchased from us. Needs to be a family or friend reference, not an open market project. Our tools are not available for use.

The longer part of the policy goes into a laymens explanation of why side work is potentially harmful to the ocmpany.>>>

Jed, I think I might start doing that. ;) We can have races every monday. Ciak, I don't think it is about trust. I think it is about when we go to our potential customers and tell them they should be using insured contractors and then I have employees going out and doing work uninsured and no license. I also then believe they are also competition. Pete in the pick up truck is competition and there is enough of that out there.>>>

If they are doing side jobs then they are competition...gotta have consequences,lay the rules if they wanna work for ya.>>>

Jesse If you are worried about the employees scamming and scheming against the company from the outside in , Well , you need to make a statement to them that you don't trust them and what you will require of them . That is what this is mostly about anyways isn't it ? " i dunno ">>>

They can do all the "side" work they want as long as it isn't roofing related or come from one of our jobs. If so, they're history.......

JET>>>

Well, the work was about a mile from our shop. He is not a foreman. He did not use any of our tools or any of our material. He got the job from a friend of his girlfriend. If they are doing side work isn't just like steal it from you. Shouldn't they refer the compnay they work for to do the job. I also worry about guys getting hurt and not being able to come to work of having a claim and saying it was from our job.>>>

There is one more serious problem with guys doing side work and thats injury's. Just suppose a guy blows a knee or injures his back and comes to work Monday morning and acts as if it just happened at work that morning and files a comp. claim on you. I had that happen.>>>

I agree with Willie, where the lead came from is the first thing I would want to know. Side work is ok as long as they are not stealing from me.>>>

It may seem compassionate to permit side work, as many of us had done. However, should the shhht hit the fan, in the eyes of a jury and a sharpie attorney, these employees could be construed as your agents, making you and your insurance carriers responsible. Moon lighting has been done forever, but the consequences for employers can be disasterous. By being a good guy, you can wind up w/ the short end of the stick.>>>

Alright , oddly enough I find myself in alignment with Jed s post Whoa!! B) :woohoo: :woohoo: B) The H/O can pull their own permit in Fl. That wold settle that problem . As long as you are not stealing work from the company and or using equipment not requested . That is where I draw the line .>>>

I guess it all depends on to what extremes the employee will go to get the side work. Is it a friend of his or someone from his church that asked for a favor or is it one of your potential customers that you quoted at $5000 and he quoted at $3500? We had a lot of that going on here several years ago and it damn near bankrupted this business.

Is he using your residual supplies for the job? Things that you would normally keep in stock (coil nails, felt, flashings, etc). If so then I would spank him hard. I would give him my bid for what it would take for me to finish the job and he would have to pay my price.

If this appears to be a first-time thing that went wrong for him, maybe I would help him out for a small fee. I would most certainly have a long talk with him and his "crew". Make them realize that if they want to make the big bucks during the day, they can't steal work from the boss.

We have a loose policy about side work. We ask to be informed about it and have no problem if it is a family member or close friend but that is where we draw the line.>>>

My first question is where did this "side" work come from. I mean the lead that sold it. Was it from one of my jobs? If so hes fired! If not then How well do you know this person. Is he one of the good ones or not? If hes a good guy and loyal to you and would truly be grateful then i would help him out explaining that this is a one time deal. Never again! Comprende' Amigo? Of course i would have to get my money back on the deal plus at least a small profit.>>>