[Sunshine Cleaning]

As some will have noticed, I get bored very quickly. (Ross)

This is proving to be a problem with my workmate.

I've been window cleaning for myself for over 15 years, about 4 years ago a local cleaner asked for a day's work. I had work and took him on, on a sub contracting basis one day a week.

Year 2 it was 2 days, year 3, 3 days. Now we work 4 1/2 days, mostly on my work, some his.

It became an informal partnership, it worked well.

It took me 18 months to convince him that WFP was the way forward, he wanted to get one but kept procrastinating. Eventually I went out and bought a van and a system of 24/7.

He was taken aback by my just getting it, but put half toward the WFP.

First few months was a battle to convince him to use it wherever poss. Finally I gave in and we use it on selected work only.

Now we have far too much work and I want to get rid of non-WFP work, and concentrate on WFP.

I've also suggested to make more money, we split on some work, me doing WFP him trad, join up when i'm out of water. (aprox after 2:30 pm)

I've offered him £1k worth of work to buy him off (for the WFP stuff etc)

While he's not dismissed this, there are , for me, other issues. We are not a partnership, but I feel I need to pass things by him, say before I buy a new pole etc. (he does go halves)

And frankly, i'm bored of how we work. i need it to change, work smarter, earn more. However he keeps putting things of. He has suggested that I grow some b&lls and put up with the situation.

If I did, I would probably tell him where to get off.

My thoughts are, when next I have some WFP work due, to tell him i'm doing it alone and he is to go elsewhere. I definatly want to buy him out of the WFP and get more pole work, ALONE.


What do you think?

Please ask questions.

[macleod]

bear,

this is tricky... the situation has been allowed to go on and you are not happy in this relationship and I guess that breaking up is rarely easy.

You both had feelings for each other at one point, and maybe you still do.

The key breaking up is to do it maturely, without deliberate pain, so that you can both move on with your lives and find someone better suited for you. A relationship really needs two fully committed people, so if one of you doesn't want to be in the relationship any more, it's best for BOTH of you to end it. That's the key message to get across.

Don't get into lots of blame-finding. There is always fault on both sides in a relationship that fails. Make sure you sit down face to face somewhere quiet. Never break up over the phone or via email, that's completely unfair.

And definitely don’t break up when you’re up a ladder (then again you use WFP so this shouldn’t be a problem)

A relationship is based on trust and dependability - don't prove you're unworthy of that in the final hour. Sit down and explain it's not going to work. If your partner has questions, answer them as fairly as you can, but without going into lots of back-stabbing. Breaking up isn't about finding fault. It's about you both being able to find "closure" to this relationship so you are able to then move on to a new one.

It's really in both of your best interests to end this cleanly. If you don't, it will come back to haunt you in many ways. If you can both accept that this was simply not meant to be, and that somewhere out there a new person waits which IS perfect for each of you, you might even be able to stay friends. Or if not, you can look back on your time together as an enjoyable experiment which just didn't work out the way you'd originally hoped.

I guess what I am saying is that a relationship break up can be tough to deal with. If your relationship has become serious, but you can't decide if your heart is in it for the long haul then maybe you need to deal with it now.

Hope you two can work it out 

[www.crawleycarpetc]

bear,

this is tricky... the situation has been allowed to go on and you are not happy in this relationship and I guess that breaking up is rarely easy.

You both had feelings for each other at one point, and maybe you still do.

The key breaking up is to do it maturely, without deliberate pain, so that you can both move on with your lives and find someone better suited for you. A relationship really needs two fully committed people, so if one of you doesn't want to be in the relationship any more, it's best for BOTH of you to end it. That's the key message to get across.

Don't get into lots of blame-finding. There is always fault on both sides in a relationship that fails. Make sure you sit down face to face somewhere quiet. Never break up over the phone or via email, that's completely unfair.

And definitely don’t break up when you’re up a ladder (then again you use WFP so this shouldn’t be a problem)

A relationship is based on trust and dependability - don't prove you're unworthy of that in the final hour. Sit down and explain it's not going to work. If your partner has questions, answer them as fairly as you can, but without going into lots of back-stabbing. Breaking up isn't about finding fault. It's about you both being able to find "closure" to this relationship so you are able to then move on to a new one.

It's really in both of your best interests to end this cleanly. If you don't, it will come back to haunt you in many ways. If you can both accept that this was simply not meant to be, and that somewhere out there a new person waits which IS perfect for each of you, you might even be able to stay friends. Or if not, you can look back on your time together as an enjoyable experiment which just didn't work out the way you'd originally hoped.

I guess what I am saying is that a relationship break up can be tough to deal with. If your relationship has become serious, but you can't decide if your heart is in it for the long haul then maybe you need to deal with it now.

Hope you two can work it out 

Have you been reading Mills & Boon!? 

[macleod]

it concerns me when ladders and wfp break up... its very sad! 

[macleod]

time to cut your own path my friend...

[www.crawleycarpetc]

Split what work you have and move on

[P @ F]

As above , its time to move on Bear , make it amicable and do your own thing , what i can see happening is disagreement turning to resentment and maybe even fistycuffs !
Nobody needs that , he is happy plodding along and you are obviously a man with wider vision for the business .

 P.S. This other man isnt Squeaks is it ?  

 Rich P @ F  

[russ_clark]

Definately make the break mate.
Been there and got the T-shirt!
The longer you leave it the worse it will get,trust me.
Keep it amicable as possible but draw a line and divide things up asap.
You will probably have to give a little more than you would want
but it will be worth it in the end.
All the best
Russ

[gary evans]

Bear

Iwas in similar situation a few years ago, he was put on three day week, asked to help out, eventually he took reduncy because he wanted a full partnership, we discussed it & luckily hadn,t done properly.

To be honest he was becoming a problem, we had a major bust up, i continued on my own.

We had spoken if the business grew we would have mitsubushi crew cabs as comp. cars, at the time dreaming in van during rain. We had had an argument previously because is wife phoned 10 to 20 times a day & i had told him to tell her where to go which he didnt like, so hte mistrust had started, we sorted it out & he said the main thing was that if ever i made it & had a crewcab he would hate it.

4 YEARS on we have 3 vans & shiny crewcab outside & trying to grow, currently tendering for a lot of work for next year.

So the moral is get sorted out amicably quick, then take your business forward.

Gary

[Sunshine Cleaning]

He's been stressed out all summer, (the reason for not pushing him), will have to chat tomorrow.

[rosskesava]

Hi Bear

I understand the boredom thing only to well.

I work with 3 others and we have quite a substantial business but within maybe  a few weeks, I'll be going my own way.

My problem is in someways similar to yours. It's too complicated to go into detail here.

The reason I decided to leave was because as it was, although good fun and profitable, I am/was getting extremely stressed because I have a very different work ethnic and method of working to the other 3.

It's those small things like the phone calls that cause stress out of proportion to the event. Last Friday I was working with one of the others and he stops the van and phones his girlfriend for 30 minutes. I had steam coming out my ears because I want to get on. Then later on during the day he stops the van outside his bank tells me he'll only be a few minutes. 25 minutes later.... he then does some shopping.

One of the others always drives another work vehicle with almost no petrol in the tank. He's run out of petrol countless times but still will never put more than a fiver at a time in and then when he does go to a pertrol station, it's always on the way out in the morning when the queues are at their longest.

The conclusion I've come to is that no matter how many times we all discuss these problems, they always return because that is the persons nature and that is it.

I work very organised and very quickly and that is my nature.

Your friend/business partner has his nature and unless you can live and work with that, the futures already written in one way or another.

Cheers

[Sunshine Cleaning]

How do I get rid of the body?

Will tell you about it later.

[Sunshine Cleaning]

We finally had a chat today.  I will be doing WFP work, he will be concentrating on Trad work.

There will be time when we do jobs together, but he saw my point that we need to work smarter.
This will leave me the opportunity to increase my WFP work and fill in with trad for the time I have left.

His response was much better than expected, although I did rather presume he would be annoyed at me.
I must learn not to pre-judge a matter, as he had been thinking along the same lines as me.

I’ve encouraged him to take some work off me (not agreed to, but sees the benefit), my reason is to buy him out of the WFP equipment, so that I can make my own decisions.

I feel a great sense of relief, and will sleep better now.


All the best Ross.

The Bear

[windows_chepstow]

Bear,

How do you split the profits?

[rosskesava]

Hi bear again

Glad it got sorted with agreement and not upset.

I am intrigued to know if you sorted out the splitting of profits.

One of the reasons for me going my own way is that I'm on 25% (as 1 of 4) and £15 a night for doing the paperwork. With me it's not the extra money for doing the paperwork, although I reckon if you add ability to just time taken, I'm worth a lot more, but the fact I have to do it in the first place.

Sometimes 'work' is more than just distributing the profits.

Cheers

[Sunshine Cleaning]

Bear,

How do you split the profits?

If he agrees to taking some work, we will both have the same value of work. Most jobs will be done alone, if we work together a 50/50 split.