Have quite a few properties and use lots of different trades to carry out refurbs, extensions and simple jobs that are no more than a days work. Have got to say the standard of work and work ethic my the majority of British workers is disgraceful. Nowadays guys seem to turn up late and leave early, take an hours lunch and generally spend most of the day having a chat. They are not on day work but a price. If i use foreign labour which i am tending to do more and more they are like workers used to be. I used to work 12hr days working my nuts off and lunch was a bag of crips and a Mars bar which were eaten whilst working. Guys building a wall for me turn up at 9.30 go for breakfast at around 11.30 until 12.15 work an hour then tea break for half an hour or so then leave by 3.30. Never work weekends, They all say a job will take x days and run over. You might think why am i bothered as i am paying them a price, its the in-conveniance of having to run around and let them in ect and be on hand if any issues arise. There is so much work around that the piss taking is getting worse. Good luck Casual getting workers, hope you can find some Old School workers like yourself that want to get the job done to a decent standard in the timeframe expected. Am seriously considering setting up an academy to teach work ethics for Labourers, i used to have stuff chucked at me if i was slacking, taught me to be ahead of the tradesman so that he wasted no time, i.e getting tools out and ready, cleaning them, making sure materials were next to him when he needed them, simple but watching labourers now they want to do as little as possible and need to be told what to do constantly.

Have quite a few properties and use lots of different trades to carry out refurbs, extensions and simple jobs that are no more than a days work. Have got to say the standard of work and work ethic my the majority of British workers is disgraceful. Nowadays guys seem to turn up late and leave early, take an hours lunch and generally spend most of the day having a chat. They are not on day work but a price. If i use foreign labour which i am tending to do more and more they are like workers used to be. I used to work 12hr days working my nuts off and lunch was a bag of crips and a Mars bar which were eaten whilst working. Guys building a wall for me turn up at 9.30 go for breakfast at around 11.30 until 12.15 work an hour then tea break for half an hour or so then leave by 3.30. Never work weekends, They all say a job will take x days and run over. You might think why am i bothered as i am paying them a price, its the in-conveniance of having to run around and let them in ect and be on hand if any issues arise. There is so much work around that the piss taking is getting worse. Good luck Casual getting workers, hope you can find some Old School workers like yourself that want to get the job done to a decent standard in the timeframe expected. Am seriously considering setting up an academy to teach work ethics for Labourers, i used to have stuff chucked at me if i was slacking, taught me to be ahead of the tradesman so that he wasted no time, i.e getting tools out and ready, cleaning them, making sure materials were next to him when he needed them, simple but watching labourers now they want to do as little as possible and need to be told what to do constantly.

Agree bubble. Although as Ive got a core of good workers with me now, they all know what I expect for a day's work, any dossers get weeded out really quickly, it's just a nuisance having to waste my time on them. Have actually had a couple saying that they can't work at our pace ! ( where's the pride gone)?
my fellas know that they aren't onto a bad thing, everyone always gets paid on a Friday, none of that turning my phone off and all that old Bo****ks. Some of them have worked for people where they are always chasing their money.
We all get on, regularly we have a game of penny up the wall and I pay the winner a oner, if we've had a decent week. We had a sweepstake on how long Rolf Harris would get etc.
I know what your saying about foreign workers, but I can't do it , I want a group of fellas that have a bundle in common, also I don't aim to be cheap, so if I've priced a job and they are expecting a good standard of work, I think it's a Liberty eending someone round speaking in broken English. We get bundles of referrals as they like our plasterers
When I started labouring the fella was a f***ing nutter, honestly , I remember sitting down for a sandwich, looking at the time, the boss said ' come on back to work', we'd been sitting down for 2 minutes, literally 120 seconds! But if you've really grafted, you know how to put it in.
One of my fellas used to be an under Pinner . He would run bags of finish up a set of ladders all day, no bother , as he's always gone to work to do a graft.
I've got 2 spreads starting tomorrow and 1 Tuesday, I'll let you know how they get on. Cheers