self serving employee

[oneeye]

i'm a general contractor. one of my employees has decided that a lead for a new job off of a job that is under my name and supervision is "his" since I was at another jobsite the day she showed up. to make the story even better he has given me "permission" to talk to the homeowner in case she wants a licensed guy involved otherwise he'll just do it with my crew because he has her "in his back pocket". I'm pissed! am I wrong?

[loffelkopffl]

fire him

[oink]

From now on, have your employees sign an employment contracct. A reasonable noncompete would be included.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[Carey]

Make sure that the client of this guy knows that at this point, the contractor she is working for is NOT licensed, and the crew he is using is under your employ, and may be taken off of her job for jobs you are working on.
This should be done in a nicely written letter, with absolutely no judgement on this contractor made (he was one you had used, so it is assumed that his work is good)You are under no obligation, and it probably is not legal or ethical, for you to 'share' your license.
She may not even be aware of this sidestep that has happened. It is best to not make a huge deal out of it for her, but it is probably best for you to distance yourself from this contractor, and ENCOURAGE him to get his own license NOW!
I wrote this assuming that you contract out his work, & the work of the crew he is using.... i.e. that he/they are not salaried (hourly or annual) empolyees of yours. If he is your salaried employee, then you are his boss, and the same with your crew....and any jobs he 'wins' are company jobs.....The terms of employment, including how to handle this type of situation, are usually written up in the employment papers that are fairly standard when you hire an empolyee.



Edited by - Carey on 09/19/2007 08:11:59

[John S. Rabi]

If he is an independent contractor he can do whatever he wants, but if he is not licensed I would report him to the DCCA. The same thing with "your crew," if they are independent contractors they can take on any job they want to, provided they are not performing work that requires a license. In any case, I would disassociate myself from this person, employee or not.

Aloha,
John S. Rabi, ABR,CM,CRB,FHS,RB
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties
"The Next Level of Service!"


Edited by - John S. Rabi on 09/19/2007 08:28:53

[Kapohocat]

First of all, let me endorse oneeye! He does incredibly beautiful work.

Secondly, I called my SO to tell him about this post, and he, knowing Tom (aka One Eye), said no one should be on a jobsite and pilfer clients. No way, no matter how much the client says they'll pay. He has fired a guy who did this to him before and then when the owner who pilfered the worker came and said can you help me now? Said sorry nope. You gotta have ethics - he said builders get a bad enough rep that these kind of things don't help out.

[Bob Orts]

Having to deal with complaints from consumers who do not feel anyone in government is taking their concern over a contracting problem seriously, I can wholeheartedly agree with Carey that you need to make it clear to the consumer that they are not hiring you and that you and your company have nothing to do with this. Although you may not be responsible for the work, you can be dragged into an unnecessary headache down the road.

The average citizen does not always understand the contracting/sub-contracting, employer/employee, and contractor/crew relationships and very easily can assume that because this person was at the site doing work under your control, they are your representative. Clean it up now so you won't be hassled by it later.

[Kapohocat]

quote:

---

....ENCOURAGE him to get his own license NOW!........

---

Our state works really hard to promote the thing they want to end, i.e. unlicensed contracting. As I am sure oneeye can tell you, on gettign your license - being a really good builder is only a small part of it. I have known a few builders who were licensed in other states, who came here and tried to get a license. One is almost 60 years old and held a california license for almost 25 years - and he was told he has to work with a lic GC for 4 years in Hawaii before he can apply. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT???? California's codes are much more stringent -what about reciprocal agreements??? Many states have them.

Catherine Dumond
Blue Water Project Management
808 217-7578
http://bluewaterpm.125mb.com/index.html
"We help make building your dream home a reality"

[Carey]

I guess an employee that does not have the qulifications that the state requires for licensing should not be taking on jobs that might want a licensed contractor doing the work....There is much more to getting a license than the qualifying work, there are fees, & bonding & insurance that a GC normally carries. If this employee is not carrying these, then he is opening up his, and any of the employees he is hiring to huge legal & finacial problems (and as Bob pointed out, he is also opening up Tom to these same things, that is why I encouraged Tom to formally distance himself from this employee, both with this one client, but also by encouraging the employee to go off on his on...)

[Kapohocat]

quote:

---

........There is much more to getting a license than the qualifying work, there are fees, & bonding & insurance that a GC normally carries....

---

The people I know trying to get their licenses after having had licenses elsewhere have immaculate credit, could get the bonding etc - the final straw was workign under someone for 4 years - it had nothing to do with the other qualifications - in one case the state did not even look at the fact that this one guy had built 4-5 subdivision tracts in Cali as a GC and RME. All he wanted was his GC for residential here so he could build his single family residence in his "retirement" years and not have to hire a GC to do what he already knows how to do. He ended up pulling a owner/builder permit.

My point is : the state makes it incredibly difficult to get a license if you are not from Hawaii. I have known new local boy GC's that had their former bosses sign off on the requirements, when I know for a fact that they never even ran a crew, let alone framed for +4 years. Dont get me started on this one - it is the one thing that I abhor about our state and the local boy network.