Mike (or anyone with experience in this matter!), they finally got the stac kable Ridgid tool boxes in at our local stores. They have the 3 box/cart k it as you described for $99. So far, so good.
I went and looked at them and they will fill the bill nicely.
NO ONE at the store can answer this, so I am hoping you can. I want to be able to lock the boxes together so they are secured and can't come apart. I know there is a "lock bar" that hold them together, but I can't find out if the kit comes with it. I want to be able to roll that to a client's hou se with the tools, and if I will be working there a few days, roll it into their garage, all locked up to keep the prying hands out.
I am compartmentalizing as much as possible these days and carrying a lot o f crap around in tool bags. A pretty good solution, but not lockable, and in fact too easy to get into. They seem to create a lot of interest. So a lockable solution seems to me to be the ticket.
So the big question (before they sell out again in San Antonio) is
Do the kit come with the "lock bar" to secure all three boxes together in t he cart or not?
Long answer, the locking bar comes attached to the bottom, dolly tool box. It slides into a channel on the lid, which BTW, can come loose and be a bit of a PITA when not using it. So check a few different boxes and get the one that holds the bar the tightest.
You cam see the bar in the pictures on the HD site, and see how it locks in a couple seconds of the video. Each box has a latch for a padlock and then you can padlock the bar, holding the 3 boxes together.
Obviously, this will only keep an honest man, honest, and not stop a professional thief.
On Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 10:25:20 AM UTC-5, -MIKE- wrote: .
Thanks for the speedy answer!
That will be tough. They don't even have a display as they are flying out of my nearest store as soon as they unload the truck. Literally... I have three jobs going near a large HD, and they will have them palletized, sitti ng near the tools. Next day when I go to get material, they are ALL gone.
However, when I get it to the job, I will check that out first thing.
Sadly, those low expectations are about all we can hope for these days.
Do you really think it was all that different in days of yore?
From
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"THE USE, VALUE AND THEFT OF 18TH-CENTURY GARDEN TOOLS When Shovels and Dung Forks Were Among Life's Most Important Possessions"
Peoples' livelihoods directly depended on their garden tools. And the value of those tools also made them a common target for thieves, as illustrated by advertisements in the Pennsylvania Gazette.
Stolen hoes
In 1763, for example, Adam Reed of Lancaster County accompanied his local constable to a spot where they found Mr. Reed's stolen property "hid in the ground." Among the purloined articles unearthed were four grubbing hoes, four shovels and two spades.
In another case, during the Revolutionary War, John Jones of Southwark left personal tools in the care of one Captain Christian Grover "at the time of the approach of the enemy" to Philadelphia. In 1778 Mr. Jones advertised for the return of his property, promising that whoever returned his belongings would be "rewarded in proportion to their trouble or expense." Among his prized possessions were two spades, five garden hoes, one grubbing hoe and two dung forks."
As long as there has been some kind of law enforcement, there has been crime.
On another note, Stolen hoes. LOL What's a pimp to do?
I was watching the Family Feud and Steve Harvey ask the question, What is the farmers wife jealous of? After a some thought the contestant answered, her husbands hoe? Steve lost it.
Crime is independent of law enforcement. One must consider that at the time (1763), hoes, spades, shovels, pitchforks were all hand-made one-at-a-time. Which made them valuable and relatively rare items.
And if you think that answer was spontaneous, well ...
Never have. Over the last 40+ years I have equipped thieves with enough to ols to build a shopping mall many times over. I learned early that most pe ople range from slightly dishonest to downright thieves.
Your employess steal time from you. All of them do. Ever take an extra ci garette break? Ever make personal calls on company time? Ever take a sick day when you weren't? Ever sneak off early to see your kid play a soccer g ame, go to his band recital, a baseball game, or anything else? How many t imes did you take exactly one hour for lunch? How many days did you say, " well,we gave it our all tomorrow, but I'm beat, so let's go home and hit it hard tomorrow". Ever take a pad, a pencil, a pen, or exaggerate your lunc h/entertainment bill? Go home and take the rest of the day off when a conf erence was over early?
My employees take saw blades, recip saw blades, drive bits, drill bits, and put them on their tools and use them, then they are theirs. Since I own t he company, I must have plenty of money to buy those things since we always have them around, right? Please, no lecture on employee management from t he gallery. It is an accepted practice in today's construction fabric, as is stealing tools from your employer if you think you have been wronged in some way.
My clients have stolen from me. They want something free as they feel like it makes them better negotiators to get something free. Some are indignan t if I don't give them something... anything. And I even had one client tr y to steal my compressor and hoses that we left (with his enthusiastic perm ission) overnight on the job. After I replaced the compressor and we were finishing the job, I saw my compressor in his shed when someone left the do or open. It was behind other tools like his lawnmower, but he claimed it wa s an honest mistake.
My own truck has been broken into seven times at this point. I have had th ousands of dollars or material and tools taken from jobs and even the back of my truck.
I never thought or have thought it was different except in the punishment p hase. When I started in the trades it was different, and if you stole a to ol that prevented a man from making a living that fed his family, you had s ome dire consequences (and a helluva a beating)to face if caught. Now, not so much.
I have always thought the idea of a completely honest man is a bit of child ish whimsy, like unicorns or roads paved with candy canes.
If I thought even a small minority of people where honest and wouldn't stea l, I wouldn't bother with the locks on anything. And for me, the honest pe ople that observe the "it just keeps honest men honest" rule are ONLY as ho nest as the lock they face.
All? I disagree, though some do. Everyone works differently. An example, some years go I was a supervisor and had a guy working for me that ran a tubing bending machine. He often took a walk to the storeroom, took the extra smoke break, etc. My boss thought he was a screw off and confined him to his machine; no more trips to the storeroom for supplies. Before that, he turned out 50% to 100% more at the end of the day than anyone else. Tied to his machine, his output dropped to the same as everyone else.
Revenge was his. A new tool came along and he asked for help to set it up. The engineer that designed it could not make the part. He had the toolmaker come and he could not get it to run either, then they went to lunch after investing a day plus of their time. Ten minutes later, Richard put a perfect part on my desk and said "can I go to the storeroom for gloves?" Yes, you can, any time you want.
I have a half dozen stories of people that are perceived as a goof off but vastly outproduce everyone else. Yes, some people do screw you on time, but what counts is what is done at the end of the day.
As for myself, I never sneaked off early. I just said "I'm leaving early". No reason to be sneaky about it.
You just made my point, although in another way. He was butt hurt, and dec ided to have an enforced slow down. He was no longer working to his abilit y, but being to spineless to QUIT, work it out with the manager (might not be possible) or accept the fact that under NLRB rulings he must be treated the same as all other employees, he deliberately decided to "get even" with a manager that was making sure the employee followed the same rules as eve ryone else.
I can see it and hear it now. "Robert... you know XXXX is taking and extra break every day to go smoke, so why are you pissed off at me for having an extra soda break behind the building? I just do it a couple of times a we ek, and he gets away with it every day". Or the manager is fired because a pissed off employee goes to management or the State labor board and compla ins that the manager has special pets that get special treatment. Employer is fined, his unemployment payroll factor is increased, and the whiny emplo yee gets unemployment based on discrimination.
As f'd up as it sounds, it is better to take a chance on a bad employee dec ision to keep all employees governed under the same set of rules than it is to make an exception that shows favoritism causing long term payment/fine consequences paid on your full payroll. So in this case, your guy decided to screw the employer directly because he didn't get special treatment.
Been there, done that, got a shipping container full of the T shirts.
I have had employees that were great earners for me, but used my tools and equipment to moonlight, adding he extra wear and tear on not only the tools but their consumables. Their reasoning? If they didn't use them, they wo uld just be sitting in the tool box. I have had great employees that use m y laptop and software, and my proprietary estimating formulas on the weeken ds to start a consulting business for prospective remodeling clients. Not t o do the work, but to help design and cost out the job. Their reasoning? " I was doing it to help me get more fluent with the software." The two guys that did that to me actually tried to sell me on the idea that if they wer e more fluent with the software, it benefited me, so ACTUALLY, they were ki nd of doing it for me! How thoughtful.
I stick with what I said. It is either on a small scale (took a pen or not epad) or something big like the guy that used one of my company trucks to s tart a small junk hauling company. Could be an extra 15 minutes for lunch; a few texts back and forth with several people ("Robert, you don't know ho w dangerous it is these days for kids... I have to make sure they are home" ) and on an on.
Take a look:
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&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
But Ed, you didn't steal the time. You announced your intentions, no one m ade or asked you to stay, and you left. That isn't the same thing at all. In this instance, no doubt you were caught up at your job or worked extra as needed to get to that position. Nope, not the same thing.
Really... never took a pen, pencil, a long lunch to run errands without per mission, made personal calls at work, went home early after a training conf erence instead of going back to work for just an hour, etc. Mind you, I am not saying you weren't a stellar employee, but never?
I have dramatically reduced my problems by going to an all subcontractor mo del for workers if at all possible. I pay them more than I would an employ ee, and they manage their own time. Typically, my average worker now is in their mid 40s, and they are trying to get their work done so they can go t o another job or go take care of their personal stuff. We agree on a price per job (as required by IRS) and I pay more if we miss and it takes longer . But I also let them keep the difference if they finish early.
I pay them when they are finished, and in some cases draws as well. I keep an account at a bank I don't like simply because they have a lot of locati ons and they don't charge my guys to cash a check. If there is a problem w ith ID, then the bank will call my cell and I authorize the payment.
With them managing their own time, their wives become their managers. They are called constantly by nagging wives that want to know when they will fi nish and when they will be home. Much better than me hammering on them to stay in the game. They know if I pay them on the spot when they are finish ed, they can go home to their wives with money in hand. If they don't fini sh, they don't get money and then they face an unhappy evening.
So my workers feel more empowered and more in control of themselves. But I still put a little extra in the job knowing they will take a few saw blade s, nails, and be sloppy with the use of my tools and hard on them to boot. Occasionally they steal big stuff, but not nearly like employees.
I actually learned of this concept about 30 years ago when I was still goin g to small business seminars in the 80s. It helped me quite a bit as I was angry all the time about personal calls at work, missing office supplies, they guys that would sneak in the back of the job when they were 10 minutes late, and all the other stuff. Once I got it through my head that they em ployees don't think of it as stealing, but rather justify their actions as needed to themselves, I got it.
Yessir! They are $99 for the set of 3 at HD and online. HD ships to store for free in not in stock. Ship to home is probably still cheaper than Amazon.
No, not really. As I stated, everyone works differently. If you tied Richard to a machine he could not consistently work at the pace he did in spurts. Another example. Loading a truck (floor load, no forklift) takes most everyone 75 to 90 minutes. Glen does it in 45 to 60 but then would take a break for 10 minutes. At the end of the day he does one or two trucks more than anyone else but you want me to take away his breaks so he does not get special treatment. Fact is, he was special and outworked anyone in the shop.
Right, and when you can do what the other guy does you can take breaks too.
Not so sure. You sound like a prick to work for. At the end of the day tally up what was done, now how many smoke breaks they took.
That does sound like abuse.
Again. what is the tally at the end of the day. Texting can get out of hand with a lot of people though.
Did it all the time. Every few months I got my oil changed at a shop about a mile up the road too. My email was always open on my computer. Never took a pen though. I have better pens that I prefer to use. My boss, the owner, does not care what I do all day. What he does care about is the plant running efficiently and profitably.
Yes, I bet they don't goof off when it is their time and money. Easier to do in construction as opposed to a factory setting unless you go to piece work.
Happens in every business. Just part of the cost of doing business, cheaper than trying to change the morals and habits of the world.
Employees are people too. I certainly wouldn't work for an employer who assumed I was stealing from him every time I went to take a piss. The employer/employee relationship is a two-way street.
As for myself, I never sneaked off early. I just said "I'm leaving
He's not assuming anything. He said he's had employees steal from him and gave examples. Yes, it's a two way street. You do the work required and go home with a paycheck. What if the employer is cheating you of the time you worked? You'd be singing a different story. Geez, you sound like a millennial.
Yep. That's all it was. Seemed like some folks (perhaps reflectively) too k it personally.
That's all I ever got where I worked before going back to self employment. You do X, and you get paid X. I never had an employer that embraced me, g ot to know me as a human being, and shared the joys, triumphs and sorrows o f my life with me. I worked, worked hard (to get promoted and more money) and got paid for my efforts.
You can always tell the difference in attitude of someone who writes the ch ecks from their own pocket, takes on the responsibility for work on a scale that one lawsuit can ruin them, puts their name on legal and binding contr acts, someone that has been sued (been sued twice myself, once the judge ac tually laughed at the plaintiff, the other was found to be without merit), and carries all the responsibility on their own back. Every bit. Personal ly, I am not complaining about it, it's a lifestyle.
But a lifestyle entirely different from someone that simply manages project s, manages employees and manages themselves. It is easy to spot comments f rom folks that have not sat in front of their State labor department while they decide how to determine your future as an employer based on the action s of not only yourself, but your employees. You have little or no say as t he State labor boards are set up to protect the employees from unfair emplo yment practices, so they make certain assumptions before your hearing even starts.
That being said, I guess it has made me a real dick. I pay about 20% more than the prevailing wage to get the guys I want to work for me. They hate that, of course. I am paying a guy that has some rough times every single day, not once a week. A PITA, no doubt.
Today, one of the guys that has been with me for a while was on the verge o f a breakdown. Going through a nasty divorce and probably getting lesser c ustody of his kids, he is in awful shape. So I paid him $20 an hour to dri ve me around on my rounds today, bought him a great lunch at a favorite Mex ican food joint, filled his truck up, and when his battery was dying at the end of the day (he was too embarrassed to tell me something else was wrong ) I had him pull into Walmart on the way back to the shop and I bought him a battery.
I can't tell you the animosity that starts with employees. I can do that n ow because I only have him, no one else to use the nine year old voice and say to me "Mike gets to do that, and I can't. That's not fair".
It is foolish and shows tremendous lack of responsible managerial skill to think you can sit and judge each employee according to your own set set of rules and metrics of achievement. Again, folks that say that haven't sat i n front of an board of inquiry from by the State to to determine why some e mployees get preferential treatment. Go ahead and try to explain how you l ike one worker better than another using any criteria.
In 35 years of employing people, I got serious about following the exact ru les of the State when I had my one and only grievance filed with the State. That was in the mid 80s. I went to every single class on employee manage ment the State offered, and took paid classes in Human Resource Management as well as writing employee handbooks. So one grievance FILED since the mi d 80s.
My model employee is this guy, and I have a few (not a lot!): We start at
8, so he shows up 10 minutes early, says his hellos to the guys, and gets h is tools out and goes to work at8 or shortly after. Works independently, a nd I know if he is stopped he is just taking a breath or getting some water or Gatorade. Stop time about 10 minutes, usually around mid morning. Sto ps for lunch, repeats the morning schedule. If not working with them, I wil l bring them something cold to drink in the afternoon and get a handle on p rogress and any material needs. Repeat the next day.
If we finish a job a day or two early, I usually buy everyone lunch.
I don't know how old the folks here are that responded are, but their chest thumping about me caring when they piss is pure baloney. It does have the stench of a sensitive young man's hyperbole, though.
Maybe it is an age difference thing. My jobs are pretty happy places and t he guys get along great. The age factor though... no youngsters. The youn gest guy I have working for me right now (the aforementioned future divorce e) is 39. The rest that I have from time to time are anywhere from mid 50s to mid 60s. I guess maybe a bit old school, they don't expect any special consideration, just a fair shake. Still, if I don't watch them, the tend to round their time cards up a bit if they can. Strangely, that's OK, but not so much for me if I round their time in my favor.
That's the way of it. I will continue to work to find the best guys that I can and treat them as fairly as possible. But like MIKE said, it has to b e a two way street.
Supports my story. You cannot work at 100% every minute of the day. It is the amount of work done in the end that counts. Just check down at the Widget Factory. Some of the people taking a lot of breaks make more widgets per day than the ones that never leave their work station.
Oh, forgot to mention, I also took a short nap most afternoons too.
When you filter out all the extraneous opinion, personal ideology, and bias based on negative experiences, you're BOTH right.
I think it's very clear that Robert isn't painting with a broad brush. Setting aside those that outright steal physical items, he's talking about slackers and workers who try to get as much as they can for as little as possible. We've all seen these people and anyone who's worked in any kind of civil service knows this type very well. These are not the type of people referred to in that article.
I'm guessing Robert has employed quite of few of those 52/17 types. Those are the type of employees you attract by paying more. Even though the type of work in this article is completely different from construction (which I can personally attest to), those differences are mostly irrelevant to this discussion.
It's about attitude and work ethic. This is why the whole $15 minimum wage thing is such a joke. The people asking for it are too stupid to realize that if their employee starts paying $15/hr., most of them will be out of a job because the higher pay will attract workers with better attitudes and work ethic.
If some guy busting his ass all day working landscaping in the brutal heat figures out he can go work a cash register in air conditioning for the same or better money, that's one replaced fast food worker who likely doesn't have the kind of attitude nor work ethic it takes to bust your butt doing landscaping.
But that's a tangent and we never go off on tangents in here. :-)
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