Anyone Want to Know What Its Like Working on a Building Site Nowadays

kabayiri

lostinrates wrote: »

Some comercial legal work IS outsourced. In addition, thing that you would think would be handled here aren't: e.g. one firm's litigation work for EU is based almost totally in only one EU country, a lot of UK competition law, like the rest of europe's, is done in Brussels. In many cases lawyers move with the jobs.

Political admin HAS been outsourced.....to US, hasn't it?

Agreed LIR. I used a particularly wide brush, not so appropriate.

I should have clarified, I was mainly thinking of barristers / judges / MPs.

After all, as you say, much law is now written in Europe, yet we haven't slimmed down the number of MPs?

I've just been on the phone to a colleague. The last contract he had was one where he worked on something for me, for 4 weeks in the summer.

His mood was more downbeat; one of battening down the hatches for winter, expecting to earn less and therefore spend less.

Is the general feel one of deflation, folks?

vivatifosi

tesuhoha wrote: »

They were talking on this site the other day about tradespeople finding lots of private work, well I don't know where that was but its not here. Everyone competes for work here. My colleague at work phoned up a plumber the other day and he said 'I'll be there in 5 minutes.' and he was.

I'm one of those who said that some of my family are finding private work. They are doing this time round, but they have equally been worse hit in the past. I remember a time as a kid when we the nice new car and everything went when the main company my dad worked for went broke owing us a fortune. My dad's business was still recovering about 20 years later. You do have my sympathy as I know what its like when building lurches from one cycle to the next in a more volatile manner than other sectors.

This time round my dad's situation is a bit unusual. He works in specialist niches where there is little competition and is doing ok. For example he can dry stone wall, which is an unusual skill to have, though you may well ask if someone of retirement age should still be hulking around great big stones. My brother is picking up work as a general tradesperson. He has his skills (plastering and decorative), which are down but he's getting more general work on the same projects for the same customers. For example he will now do his own carpentry (because he can) and kitchen fitting because his customers like the "one stop shop" of having a reliable tradesperson. That way he only ever needs to bring in qualifieds for gas and electric.

Really2

kennyboy66 wrote: »

PetPlans, Extended warranties, British Gas cover, mobile phone insurance, Dental plans, etc etc all seem a complete waste of money to me.

They used to call it gambling.

£100 bet on your TV breaking down within 3 years. Even if you win you lose your stake money.:eek:

My favorite is when they try to sell you up to three years warranty on things that already have it.

ruggedtoast

My family has a lot of plumbers and builders in it. They're in the SE. Theres very little site work but private jobs are keeping them ticking over. One just took on a bigger mortgage and has a new baby so he cant be doing that badly.

They say its picking up - it may depend on the town you're in but there is work out there if you travel OP.

edgex

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'm one of those who said that some of my family are finding private work. They are doing this time round, but they have equally been worse hit in the past. I remember a time as a kid when we the nice new car and everything went when the main company my dad worked for went broke owing us a fortune. My dad's business was still recovering about 20 years later. You do have my sympathy as I know what its like when building lurches from one cycle to the next in a more volatile manner than other sectors.

This time round my dad's situation is a bit unusual. He works in specialist niches where there is little competition and is doing ok. For example he can dry stone wall, which is an unusual skill to have, though you may well ask if someone of retirement age should still be hulking around great big stones. My brother is picking up work as a general tradesperson. He has his skills (plastering and decorative), which are down but he's getting more general work on the same projects for the same customers. For example he will now do his own carpentry (because he can) and kitchen fitting because his customers like the "one stop shop" of having a reliable tradesperson. That way he only ever needs to bring in qualifieds for gas and electric.

it would seem to me that it would be a good idea for your brother to learn how to do dry stone walling off his dad, while he is still around & able to pass on the skill.




theres simply been too much credit floating around the system, not just personal credit, but also business to business credit

credit is not money, never has been & never will


theres this whole expectation that people will be able to get credit on anything, like its some sort of right, & that its perfectly normal to pay that way.

the normal way for much of economic history was for people to actually have to pay for things out of cash, ie. real money
that then feeds into less businesses being reliant on their suppliers giving them credit on everything & on & on
that is then a relatively stable system




some of the biggest 'crooks' in the whole mess have been the construction firms.
they have all their suppliers having to offer credit, all their sub-contractors have to offer credit, & they themselves employ a minute number of people that they have to actually pay with real money.
then, all the house buyers hand over great big wads of cash, no credit being offered to them by the housebuilders!

treliac

kennyboy66 wrote: »

I have never understood why people have insurance for other things than potential catastrophic loss. Eg Life insurance (if you have family), house insurance etc is all worth having as there is small risk but high impact.

PetPlans, Extended warranties, British Gas cover, mobile phone insurance, Dental plans, etc etc all seem a complete waste of money to me.

Agree - just take insurance on essentials. Many things are covered by household insurance anyway and the likelihood of making a claim is low. Most things, these days, break in no time. :mad:

I get fed up being asked if I want insurance for every little thing I buy - was asked the other day when I bought a set of Christmas lights!

It's good that some are honest about the need for insurance. When I asked my dentist if I ought to think about taking insurance - he said I didn't need it and it wouldn't be worth it.

lostinrates

kennyboy66 wrote: »

I have never understood why people have insurance for other things than potential catastrophic loss. Eg Life insurance (if you have family), house insurance etc is all worth having as there is small risk but high impact.

PetPlans, Extended warranties, British Gas cover, mobile phone insurance, Dental plans, etc etc all seem a complete waste of money to me.

We have the horses insured, but not the small animals. we did before we were so...liquid. (in fact only cancelled becuse we couldn't get a policy that covered us on the continent long term).

With horses its a lucky ''serious'' rider who doesn't make it worth while: if not in payments, in what you have to hand. My special girl (the one FC123 is going to ride ) ran up a vet bill of around £15k in a few weeks when she was 7...without the insurance I would have found it pretty hard. Credit would have been impossible, I was under 18. BUT there is a limit to the number of animals one can reasonably insure, especially comprehensively. My fear is greater as I know how much CAN go wrong, but my experience is such I hope to minimise a lot of that.

(edit: its a foolish horse owner who doesn't have some form of public liabilty, though this is - to a degree, available inexpensively through simple membership pf the British Horse Society)

Had vet bill yesterdy of £190 for one dog's tests and wormer for three dogs. If dog owning were a a difficult financial balance, paying a few pounds a month might make sense...even if not the cheaper option. That's always the problem though, isn't it, whether paying dog insuarance or buying a mortgage; if people have it in cash the house is ''cheaper''.

tesuhoha

kennyboy66 wrote: »

My Dad's a retired electrician and it seems remarkably like the the early 1980's, so he has my sympathy.

Presumably the Gas Safe Register replaced Corgi. Can he not do some domestic central heating work?.
Annual central heating inspections / service at say £65 a go.
Gas safety certs / inspections for landlords.
Offer to do it in the evenings / weekends so people don't have to take time off work.
At least we are in the time of year when demand for heating repairs / installations of central heating is at it highest.
I'd get a couple of thousand business cards (as people will often pin these to a noticeboard at home) and get your kids (if you have any to deliver them).

Does he know any domestic electricians that need a plumber ? Often a job will need both, so its in both your interests.

Sorry if this is all no use, but its not a million miles off what my Dad had to do 27 years ago.

He has considered this but there are a lot more regulations these days and to work on modern boilers you have to buy a meter which is about £700. To work on cleaning radiators you need a pump which is about £600 I believe. He would need to go on courses to get his Part P, to get gas hobs and gas fires. They are all very pricey. My husband worked out last year that to go self-employed it would need an investment of around £3,000 and new tools too. That would wipe out most of our savings and there is no guarantee the work is there anyway. He does do the odd private job but he is limited. When he was considering this someone said to him if you're in a hole, why dig deeper? and it seemed to make sense at the time. I'd rather keep the money as a buffer.

As for travelling well he does that already. We are hoping that the work will pick up after Christmas.

Radsteral

i used to work in building sites as a plasterer but luckily i left them 3 years ago , and started working for myself, mainly domestic... hard work, but well rewarding but the bet was it taught me other trades aswell..
The truth is, if i had to work as a plasterer , i d be employed probably 15 days,.. but now i do a bit of bricklaying, carpentry etc.. so somehow i ll find work.
People with more than 1 trade are better set. And i know the building site work is almost dead now