Today my cousin Kat posted this on Facebook:
And what a coincidence that she did, because I was feeling very conflicted about an incident at work. I didn't know where to post this entry. It has to do with work, but we didn't get the work. It has to do with a home, but I'm not posting about the design aspect of it. This post, in fact, has everything to do with the conflicting emotions spurred by a potential job we were bidding. I just want to vent these emotions, so I decided to post here.
Call this post a confession from a crazy relative, yours truly.
I confess...
1. That a man and his wife were looking for a contractor to renovate a large home they bought in our town. The man, having seen our home, wanted his wife to see it too in hopes of getting her vote to hire us to do the work.
2. That we welcomed the hawty-tawty yuppy housewife into our home to see our work. We even let her keep her high wedged shoes on, while the rest of us were bare-footed to keep the floors clean and undamaged.
3. That we did not feel a connection with said woman, and turned down the opportunity to bid the job. At which time, she insisted that we put our number in for the contention.
4. That we turned down the opportunity a second time- yes, a SECOND TIME- upon receiving a load of legal jargon that felt like entrapment. At which time said lady reassured us that "it's just procedure... I ultimately make the decisions, and I still want you to bid the job."
5. That we went against our gut instinct, and spent hundreds of dollars printing full size blue prints, poured one hundred and sixty hours of our time studying the prints and gathering price points for materials, and wasted thirty hours of our subcontractors' times assessing the renovation site.
All that work we did for her because she asked us not once, but TWICE to do it. We even came in 30% lower than our contender. And in the end, we didn't even get the courtesy of a call, or even an email that we didn't get the job. We had to call to find out that the other contractor and the homeowners are in the process of writing out the job contract. The wife's excuse: that she felt more comfortable about the other contractor because he would be on the job everyday with his own tool belt on, doing a lot of the work himself.
What did she not understand about "if we get the job, because of it's immensity and our propensity for detail, I will not take on any other jobs so that we can focus 110% on this one."
We didn't have a running chance! The wife never even asked us any other questions, other than about the bidding numbers. We could have told her that 5-Star DOES wear the tool belt when necessary; but most importantly, that 5-Star cannot afford to wear the tool belt all day because he needs to MANAGE THE WHOLE JOB!
We speculate that the wife never had us in mind to do the work to begin with; that she just wanted our numbers to wittle the other contractor's price down!
What can we do if she really doesn't want us to do the work?
I confess... I want to punch her smack in the mouth, stomp on her Gucci wedge clad feet, and pull a clump of that foil dyed blond hair out of her head. But nah, today I will do nothing. Because tomorrow something better will come our way.
0.077 sec (1/130), f/4.2, 34mm, ISO 200, 0 EV
