I am not saying don’t replace him.
I am saying give him a call and prompt to motivate himself first, asking for a recommendation will let him know you are going to replace him. Don’t replace him before he knows you are doing so.
You did tell him to take as long as he needs. Grief has its own timetable.
There is usually a difference between merely being kind and holding someone up. It doesn’t take much to do the former.
Where we live the gardeners who mow and blow tend to charge a monthly fee and come and take care of the lawn as needed. It is not every week. I didn’t get it at first but they see it as they take care of your lawn and if it looks goods it doesn’t necessarily need to be mowed weekly. He may feel that way. That said we have had gardeners that say can we switch your day and miss that week, miss without calling or texting and give many excuses over and over. Ask him if he just needs time and in the meantime he wants you to get someone else or if he intends to be back and what day? He will appreciate you giving him a choice and will likely be honest about if he can do it or not. His wife’s death may mean he has trouble with childcare, his jobs, money, his/her families, keeping up around the house and much more. Be upfront but ready to move on
This isn’t an employee but a contractor. You hired him because you need your grass cut NOW, not in some time in the future where he can still get the project done.
Unfortunately, people who are self employed don’t get to take the same amount of time off as employees with benefits, but honestly not many employees would give 2-3 months off. They might hold a job, but if something needs to get done they’d put someone else in the position and then shuffle when the employee returned.
You weren’t planning on having him come back next year, so he’d only likely earn his fees for Aug and Sept.
I would reach out one more time but be more direct in that you need to have regularly lawn maintenance now. If he isn’t in a place to be able to return to work, offer your condolences again and move on to a new provider.
I reached out to him three times already. I think that’s enough. I will give him another week and if he doesn’t call by the end, I will assume he isn’t interested in working.
That is so. I looked up On average employees get 3 day’s off paid if it’s immediate family. If they need more time they may get up to a month without pay. No one is mentioning two months although they note for valuable employees, they may be flexible.
I’m sorry you’re in this position @iglooo. It really does seem that you’re ready to cut him loose. I’d either wait the week as you plan or text/email him and let him know that, if he’s unable to resume work, or refer you to an associate by x date (I’d give about 3 days), you’ll need to go in a different direction. Of course, I’d offer condolences again and say that you understand if he’s not ready to work, etc. It’d be a compassionate communication but a direct one with a deadline. Good luck.
@Iglooo You’ve been more than generous. I feel bad for the guy but as a consumer you have needs and he’s not meeting them. I like @collage1 suggestion
That is so. I looked up On average employees get 3 day’s off paid if it’s immediate family. If they need more time they may get up to a month without pay. No one is mentioning two months although they note for valuable employees, they may be flexible.
That may be true for an employee that works for a company. It sounds like your yard guy is an independent contractor, so the “rules” don’t apply. Unfortunately, his wife’s death may cost him his business. It is sad but there isn’t anything you can do about that. I would reach out one more time and ask for a recommendation and then move on.
Don’t you think it is still a good rule of thumb to go by? You would think independent contractors get less time off. I get that he is sad. I also think he is rude to keep me waiting this long. Calling him again feels misrepresenting. I am sorry this happened to him but I don’t value his service that much warranting four phone calls and two-month wait. I think it’s time to let it go. For all I know, he may not be expecting my job after a long absence. When I started the thread I was confused on how to handle. Hashing it out cleared how I feel.
No, it’s not reasonable to expect someone who’s been widowed to resume work 3 days later. He’s not being rude, he’s grieving. He’s also probably not expecting to keep your business.
This man’s wife died unexpectedly 6 weeks ago (mid-May according to your posts). I don’t think “sad” is the word I’d use. I also don’t think there are written “rules” for compassion.
Call him and tell him you’ve been looking for a short term provider but haven’t had any luck. Ask for recommendations but tell him that if you don’t have any luck by the end of July you’re going to have to sign a contract with a long term provider.
It occurs to me that maybe he’s using this as an excuse to fire you. You’ve given him ample opportunity to get back in touch, tell you what’s up, etc., and he hasn’t. View this as a dating experience. Maybe he’s just not that into you.
I think when you consider the responses here you have to consider the majority of the population here is very involved parents, mostly moms. They are more focused on the human aspect than the business aspect. That’s not bad, but I suspect it is not the case for the general population. If, instead of asking on the parents section of a college discussion board you interviewed 100 randomly selected people off the street and asked them if they would mow their own lawn for two months while their lawn guy took time off for any reason, most would look at you like you are crazy and respond with a variation of “Hell, no!”
When our area was hit by Hurricane Irma last year, we were fortunate enough to avoid widespread devastation, but our business was still significantly disrupted. Most of our area didn’t have power for around 2 weeks, shipping and mail weren’t happening on a regular basis, most of our employees had evacuated and the few remaining were not at work - they were home dealing with flooding, damage or power outage. So our production line was down for several weeks, severely impacting our ability to ship product to our customers during their busiest time of the year. The hurricane was a huge national news story, so our customers were aware and very kind. To a point. For the first week, when we were able to receive calls, the customers were very empathetic and mostly concerned about our well being. After a week or two, the calls (understandably) shifted into more of a “when are we getting our stuff?” mode. And by 3-4 weeks after the hurricane had passed if we hadn’t been able to ship our customers their product most would have gone to other sources, which I completely understand.
Things happen. We need to be human. We also need to be realistic. Waiting two months is more than kind, more than human. It’s OK to get another lawn service.
I think you’ve given him long enough. My thought is he might be taking advantage of your generosity. Id bet he is back working but possibly not at full speed and the clients who are pushing are getting service and those who aren’t are getting no work done. I’d call him and say while your sorry for his loss you need him to come this week or will need to go with someone else.
Was going to say what someone mentioned previously- this is not an employee- this is a contractor hired to do a specific job they are not able to do for whatever reason. Time to move on.
It may sound crass, but I don’t think it should matter why your guy who was giving you a service can’t do it anymore.
Yes, you would perhaps be a terrible person if you didn’t give him a couple of weeks of grace knowing the circumstance. But, you need a service, which you are willing to pay for, and you should find a reliable provider. I think 4 phone calls is enough. I would move on.