Slightly long story, all kind of wrong

[LONGHAIR]

As most of you know, I work in a commercial cabinet shop. The story is about one of the guys who works there too.
Even though the tools are nothing like what I owned as a mechanic, the mentality is still in me, so I buy what I need to do the job. This always grows with new challenges and techniques. As a result, I have quite the collection.
The saying around the shop, when I worked on trucks, was simple. "If you borrow it twice, you better buy one".
When I first started in the cabinet shop, one of the old dudes repeated that sentiment word for word. "No problem, it was the same in my last job". I was fresh to a new trade, so I didn't have a lot, but I did what I could and built up from there.
For some reason though, it doesn't seem to "take" with these young guys coming up? They seem to make due with whatever they can scrounge up or they expect the company to buy it for them.

All that to say, one of the guys from the countertop department came to me the other day to ask if I have a spray gun he could borrow. (We use the cheap siphon-feed guns to spray contact cement). His had quit working for some reason? (neglect I suspect) "His" isn't even actually his, it's the company's.
I said sure, you can use my back-up. He used it all day, didn't bring it back at the end of the day. I thought nothing of it, figuring it would be needed the next day too.
He comes back to me at the end of the second day to tell me that it was broken. He had loaned it to someone else. (First fail, well not first, he should have had a back-up himself.) That other person dropped it and broke the casting.
He made an attempt to the right thing by offering to go buy me a replacement that night after work. He brings it in the next morning and I stashed it under my bench as usual. Not even 2 hours later, he sends his helper over to borrow it?! (Ok, whatever, dumbass. You mean you didn't buy 2?)(in my head, this kid had nothing to do with it, I didn't say it to him)
Apparently, he did nothing about getting himself a new one?
At that point, I had enough of this foolishness. I went up front to the "buyer" guy. He is the one who takes care of this kind of thing. I had him order one for them. I was to be there the next day.
I didn't see it come in by UPS or Fedex, so I went up to ask about it. Apparently, it came in the front door by an Amazon driver. The guy who borrowed it happened to be standing right there when I asked. He jumps in and says, "Yeah, that new one is great, the one I bought you is junk"
I just turned around and walked away.
This all occurred last week, with the new one getting to him on Thursday. I still haven't gotten my "junk" one back? Tuesday

Sorry for the long story, you will never get that time back.

[kwmech]

How about calling him out on the bul......

[KW5413]

My cousin and best friend had a knack of borrowing my tools at the lake house. Then he would let someone else borrow them from him. I was about 50/50 on getting them back.

I wish he was still around to loan things out for me.

[GOPAPA]

I feel your pain in the a$$ about guys you work with that come to you to carry them .. I have at least a couple stories simular ,, one was being a carpenter one needs to carry a pensil and a wriiting tablet.. and most of the time being a carpenter I would have a pardner, ,and like your story ,,the pardener would make statements like "beings you already got a pensil paper let ,me borrow it and figure what we need ",,"no sence in both us having to carry them" , I got to where I would say go to your tool box and get yours as I need mine with me at all times..

[Accelo]

It would be the very last tool of any kind he borrowed from me. I have a very low tolerance for people that can't remember what the learned in kindergarten.

[FleetsidePaul]

My neighbor asked to borrow my floor jack. It was back in its place in my garage before I knew it was even gone. The only reason I knew he took it is because he cleaned all the dust that was on it before he immediately returned it. That's how it should be done.

I'd give that guy at your work directions to Harbor Freight if he needs another tool.

[special-K]

I'd have to let him know you bought tools to use yourself and he needs to do the same.

I got tired of guys showing up to work for me without all the needed tools or just really crappy ones. I ended up buying the full set of quality tools for each guy. If they lost one, the replacement came out of their check.

When I was contracting aluminum siding installation on new homes I made sure I had every tool I needed and some I might need. So many of the others on the job would show up without. The biggest peeve I had was them asking to plug into my generator. I would get electricians who came to the house to run the wires asking to plug in to drill the holes. What? I'd never know if there was power available or not. It depended on how far along the house was. But an electrician going to a house to run the wiring would know the house would not have power yet. Where's your generator?

The masons running the fireplace chimney would ask for a hand saw. I lent one out once. It comes back with tar on it and dull teeth. They used it to cut the roof out, shingles and all. That's when I put a junk saw in the truck just for them. They brought it back, "This saw is too dull to cut". Yep!

I'd be on my scaffold hanging siding, making my money, and a worker would ask if they could borrow my hammer. "What am I supposed to do while you use my hammer?". Same thing with a tape. "Sure. I already measured everything for the rest of the day".

I came up with the idea to create a rental agreement 5 pages long to have them read and sign first, but never got around to it

[Ironhorse]

One would think if a person made their living in a field requiring tools the smart thing would be to have them. That said, it does not pay to own "cheap" tools if they are used to put food on the table and a roof over one's head. Cheap tools will let you down when you need them the most.

In the past I have at times borrowed a tool I needed at the moment and did not have. If I borrowed it once and needed it a second time then I needed to have my own such tool in my tool box or garage/shop. Common sense tells one if you need an item constantly to perform your functions than you NEED to have your own.

Unfortunately common sense is not that common anymore in today's " ME " world.

[FleetsidePaul]

I have another neighbor that seems to have every tool known to man. Every time that I buy a tool he gets kind of bent and asks me why did I do that? He has one that I can use.

Maybe I want my own?

[joedoh]

i think your retirement question has been answered.

i used to buy expensive tools but i am a terrible steward. I stocked up on cardboard freight tool kits because i lose or break a socket every day, kind of like a penance to st craftsman. I should get a candle rack and a quarter box.

i would be the guy to break the spray gun i borrowed, but i would also replace it with new and never expect it to be given again. when you teach a man to fish i think buying his own gear should be step one. not having the right tool for the job sounds an awful lot like either his or the companys problem, not yours.

[LONGHAIR]

Yeah joedoh, you are 100% correct, it is not my problem at all. This was a used (back up) cheap spray gun, one of the very few cheap tools I will own. I (we all) abuse these things by spraying contact cement through them and never cleaning it. When it gets low, just refill and keep going.
Nevertheless, it did work just fine.
The thing is, if I didn't have this back up gun, they would have been shut down.
Again, not my problem, but I feel like I should help, if I can.

It's a bit of an odd situation. IMHO, the company is at least a little to blame. The culture is somewhat that they supply everything, and essentially the do.
Every Monday we have a safety meeting where one of the bullet-points is "What can we do to make your job easier and more productive?"
Usually no one says anything. All he would have had to do is mention it then/there. It would have been taken care of, which is exactly what I did. albeit a bit too late.....but again, it wasn't my problem to solve, until it was.

I hate to say "young guys" because it's not fair to lump them all together, but they just don't seem to get it.
These are the same types of people who "just push harder" when the saw blade is dull. They just won't take 5 to fix it.
I realize that I am a ridiculous exception to this kind of thing. I literally own everything it would take to be a very well equipped complete cabinet shop, which is going to fill my garage in a few months. I buy the best and take care of it to the point that they look new at all times. It's a source of pride thing. When we get vendors, contractors, architects, etc. touring the facility, they all notice my space.
They just don't seem to understand that getting the job done quicker/easier is beneficial to themselves in the long run. That's the thing that gets raises.
Most of them are too new to know my story of having started at the bottom. I was hired to do the delivery driving and the metal work, when needed. Then moved up to the absolute top, earning nearly 4 times my starting wage.

With 2 department heads leaving this month, the pressure to keep me is increasing. At least it gives me some more bargaining power, but I don't want to commit to a time, which is what they want.

The outcome of all this is that somewhere along the line, the operations manager found out about the spray gun thing. I got a brand new, much nicer one, delivered to me yesterday.
I'm still in negotiations over the rest, hopefully resolved tomorrow.

[Axle]

Whoever you had order one for them can order one for you now... Obviously the company supplies tools, time to stop being the company tool crib.

At work, people get one chance with me. Better bring it back promptly undamaged, and if you lend a tool you borrowed, you just earned yourself a permanent place on my sh88 list--its not yours to lend.
Years ago, had some real winners. I instuted a 100 dollar cash deposit and list of conditions in order to get your 100 bucks back. No 100? No tool. Tool damaged? you either go buy an exact or better replacement or forfeit your 100 bucks. People who need to borrow stuff don't bother you anymore when they realize they will have to give up the money. =-)