Why I Quit Buying Tools for Techs

[Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>]

Graham would throw a temper tantrum and call me an evil capitalist pig
for this, but I quit buying tools for techs because they had no respect
for the amount of hard work I had to do to buy them.

Early on I bought Leatherman tools for all my guys.  Mostly just to be
nice, but I also found they were really handy for a quick tweak rather
than running back to the truck, but many of the guys tried to work with
only that one tool all day long.  The classic was the day I found a guy
putting in drive rings with one.  No.  Not the screw in rings.  The
hammer in rings.  I was chatting with a job super and I heard, "tap,
tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap,
tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap,
tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, ... pause ... tap,
tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap,
tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap,
tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap."  After a bit of that
I held up my hand to quiet the super and went to go look.  He had a
hammer in the truck.  He was on the tenth ring out of about 40 along a
wire path.

One day a fellow (a decent tech actually) was using an actual hammer,
and it was giving him fits.  I took the hammer to find that it was
ground crooked on the face, and the head was twisted on the handle.  It
was made that way.  I pulled a nice Estwing out of my toolbag and said,
"Here I'll trade you."  When he took my hammer I gave his a chuck as far
as I could throw it down the alley.  A few days later on another job I
found him struggling to mount some nail on boxes.  He had gone down the
alley and retrieved his piece of shit.  The Estwing was back in the
service truck.  I had to tell him if I saw that hammer on my jobsite or
in my service truck again he was fired.

I had a few guys early on (first year or two) whom I trained from
nothing.  They were always hanging out across the street working on cars
and hanging out with a car guy who lived there.  I bought them tools and
told them I would provide them what they needed, but if they lost or
broke a tool it was their responsibility to replace it.  I bought good
tools.  Estwing, Klein, Channel lock, Proto, etc.  One day I walked up
on a guy struggling with a pair of pliers.  They turned out to be a pair
of "lineman's" pliers.  I didn't recognize them at first because they
were half the size of the Kleins I had bought, and they had green
handles.  Then I looked in his tool pouch.  Nearly every tool was a
cheap import that you might find in the hardware section of your local
grocery store.    Not even as good as Harbor Freight tools.  (We didn't
have a local Harbor Freight store back then.)  Its kid of amazing how
the car guy across the street also happened to upgrade a lot of his
tools to the same quality tools I was using about that time.

The classic was the guy who left a whole tool box full of tools on a job
site and was flabbergasted that I expected him to go back and get it.

There were some honorable mentions.

A salesman who took some folding tables out of my office so he could
setup at the flea market to sell for me.  (I was paying the space fee)
When I stopped by to check out how he was doing the tables and ground
were full of misc household garbage he was selling.  I asked a couple of
nearby vendors, and it turns out he had that space for months before he
went to work for me and he always had a bunch of garage sale finds laid
out for sale, but it was only recently that he had started using tables
for his better stuff.  It took me months and threat of a lawsuit to get
my tables back after I fired him.  He seemed genuinely upset that I
expected to get my tables back because he needed them for the swap meet.

Of course we have all had the guy who doesn't understand why we held
back for replacement cost on equipment they signed for from their final
paycheck.  Something they agreed to.  Of course some of that equipment
suddenly isn't so lost when they find out they really have to pay for
it.  One guy kept calling me over and over when I was in church, and was
waiting at my door when I got home with a bunch of equipment he thought
he was going to get to keep.  I thanked him for returning my property
and informed him that he could stop by the office at noon on Monday for
the balance of his final paycheck.  When he objected I told him he was
trespassing and needed to leave. (I have more than a couple stories
about that guy, and he was my very last direct employee)

I wish I still had all the tools those guys lost, stole, and destroyed.
I could have a yard sale and retire all over again on the proceeds.
Even at yard sale prices.