Current Events > Day laborers: if the homeowner buys you lunch, does it mean anything to you?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Will you actually do better work, or nothing special?

When I have people working on my house for an extended time, I occasionally buy them lunch. For example, when I had painters paint my entire house, I bought them lunch a few times; when I had my roof replaced, I bought them lunch and breakfast/coffee a few times. I also give them free access to our basement bathroom (mostly because I dont want them to pee or poop outside on my property lol).

Im just curious, from the other side, if this will impact the quality of the work any bit. Im not doing this to get better results, but I am doing it because physical labor jobs like that for days on end is incredibly difficult and I cant imagine myself ever doing something like that.

P.S. I have definitely tipped more for better service before, such as movers (tipping $20/laborer and $50 for project manager, so they take extra good care of my stuff)......

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I'd imagine lunch is a nice bonus.

Letting them use your bathroom is basic fucking decency.

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Yes definitely. Well fed people typically work harder and quicker. It adds even more respect for the Home owner so I would be more willing to take extra care in my efforts and not cut corners cause your a good person. Good work comes as a given though so its not going to change all that much.

But for assholes you can be sure people wont care as much about the work and try and get out of there as quick as possible

DrizztLink posted...

Letting them use your bathroom is basic fucking decency.

It's not a normal thing, apparently. For large jobs, like when I had my entire house repainted (I'm talking inside and outside, since the outside of my house is wood), they quoted it'll take 20-30 days; so they had a portapotty delivered and placed on my property. I still let them use the basement bathroom though, and the women generally used the basement bathroom, but the men generally used the portapotty.

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IdiotMachine posted...

so they had a portapotty delivered and placed on my property.

Ok, that's a fair point.

Big jobs are a different beast, I didn't consider that.

If there isn't a portapotty, the point still stands.

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As far as work goes, it can be the difference between "meh good enough" and "here let me add this little extra"

Happy workers and all that

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I let them use the bathroom, give them water bottles or drinks, and give a tip at the end.

I'll only give them money for lunch if I see they're doing an amazing job, but otherwise eh lol

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cjs28 posted...

give a tip at the end

I never thought to give them a monetary tip... I mean these day laborers do get compensated very nicely lol

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Turns a job into a more personal gig. I'll pay closer attention to small things thatd probably only bug a pro

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