By golly, he's right. Sometimes, roses really do smell like poo poo!
Hey y’all. Dad called me yesterday with the good news that he thinks he’s got a buyer lined up for the San Antonio building. He also told me that he’s got Fernando running one crew over there pretty regularly too. And to cut down on the bullshit leads, he’s charging people $100 for pier & beam estimates in San Antonio when it looks like there’s not much potential for a sale. In other words, if the house is a run-down dilapidated piece of shit and the people don’t look like they’re likely to have 5 figures in their checking account. The idea is to chase off the bullshit leads for people who are only interested in the lowest possible price.
He also told me that he had a sales meeting the other day. Both Jim and Tom (2 of his estimators) called and said that they couldn’t make it. Jim had car trouble and I think he told me Tom overslept. So, sweetheart that he is, Dad fired both of them. I laughed my ass off when he told me that. Jeez, what a fucking hardass! And I don’t mean that in a disparaging way, either. Y’all are going to think I’m crazy for saying this, but sometimes I kind of miss working for Dad. Say what you want to about him, he always told the truth as he saw it (which admittedly, didn’t always agree with the way I saw it) and you always knew where you stood with him.
Coming back into adjusting after 3 years away, I sometimes feel like the business has been taken over by a bunch of touch-feely types who want to bend every rule so as to not be too confrontational with claimants. I’m talking about my clients more so than I am my colleagues here. Now, I don’t believe in picking unnecessary fights with people and if you can catch more flies with sugar than vinegar, so be it, but the sad fact is that this business is adversarial by its nature. And sometimes that means that you have to tell people to fuck off a few times before you can tell them what they want to hear. If some asshole’s got the idea in his head that his toe injury is worth $50,000.00 you’re not going to convince him otherwise with a soothing tone of voice and a smile on your face.
I don’t know, maybe it’s always been that way and the 3 years with Centex has just changed my perspective on things. What do y’all think?
And Mikey, we haven't heard from you lately. Mom tells me you're interviewing. How's that going?
He also told me that he had a sales meeting the other day. Both Jim and Tom (2 of his estimators) called and said that they couldn’t make it. Jim had car trouble and I think he told me Tom overslept. So, sweetheart that he is, Dad fired both of them. I laughed my ass off when he told me that. Jeez, what a fucking hardass! And I don’t mean that in a disparaging way, either. Y’all are going to think I’m crazy for saying this, but sometimes I kind of miss working for Dad. Say what you want to about him, he always told the truth as he saw it (which admittedly, didn’t always agree with the way I saw it) and you always knew where you stood with him.
Coming back into adjusting after 3 years away, I sometimes feel like the business has been taken over by a bunch of touch-feely types who want to bend every rule so as to not be too confrontational with claimants. I’m talking about my clients more so than I am my colleagues here. Now, I don’t believe in picking unnecessary fights with people and if you can catch more flies with sugar than vinegar, so be it, but the sad fact is that this business is adversarial by its nature. And sometimes that means that you have to tell people to fuck off a few times before you can tell them what they want to hear. If some asshole’s got the idea in his head that his toe injury is worth $50,000.00 you’re not going to convince him otherwise with a soothing tone of voice and a smile on your face.
I don’t know, maybe it’s always been that way and the 3 years with Centex has just changed my perspective on things. What do y’all think?
And Mikey, we haven't heard from you lately. Mom tells me you're interviewing. How's that going?
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