Dealing with a rude contractor

Join Date
Feb 2007
Location
Oklahoma
Posts
275
Hi to all. I have just graduated from college last May and now have a job in a large chemical plant. We are changing some electronic equipment out in which a contractor was brought in to help out. I am new at this job and just learning how to do it. The contractor is good at what he does, but is very rude and a jerk to me. He told me I had put too much tape on the end of the communication cables and it looked like ****. I did not think it looked that bad at all. Also he told me I am too slow and need to hurry up. If he told me how to do something before a few times he gets mad and lets me know he had told me before. His excuse for being a jerk is that he is from the North East states. He is in a big rush for nothing. I had a talk with my supervisor about this person and he talked with him about being more patient. I have told this contractor that I do better when he is not *****ing at me, but he just tells me that it is the way he is being from the East. I told him that this is not the Eastern USA. I am about ready to tell him off. Should I just ignore him? It is hard to ignore a person when you have to work with them. Some advice about this please. My company supervisor and coworkers think I am coming along fine in my learning process. Thank you all for your advice.
 
Ignore him. His opinion isn't important and he is going far beyond what he is allowed to do as a simple extern contractor.

You are the one in charge of the plant, not him. He has to follow his custommer will and show some professional respect. If you can't just ignore him, put, you can start being extremely dilligent at controlling his work and not hesitate to make him do things again and again.
 
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Being abrasive, critical, and rude is one way to get things done, and guys like that sometimes do very well as managers and foremen. It's just a fact of life, and you're going to work with some of them in your career.

Your manager might be watching you to see how well you can handle this guy. Your success does not depend on meeting the Yankee's demands, but on not losing your cool.

Everyone has something they can teach you. He probably does have some good workmanship tips, but you're going to have to learn them under adverse conditions.
 
Just as it has already been mentioned, ignore him. In this line of business you will have to grow some thick skin and especially, never take anything personally.
That's the way he is and he probably be has been acting like this during his entire (successful)professional career; his attitude is not directed toward you individually but toward your inexperience. Some results oriented people act this way and the better they are the more they get away with it.
If your wellness is more important than the job at hand and his legally drafted contract allows it, bring it to the management's attention, state your case and ask them to get rid of him; this might save your current peace of mind, however, your diminutive comfort zone will ring an alarm bell when your performance will be evaluated.
Deal with it, smile and try learning as much as you can....:D
 
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Thank you Iner.
My supervisor told me to ignore him also. I guess if he acts rude, I will just listen to what he says and learn from it, then go on with my work.
 
I can understand to a degree - I have little patience with people being slow as I work flat out all the time. I am therefore not a very good teacher. It has to happen NOW with me. Not everyone works that way.
There is no need to be rude though - just grin and bear it - you will run across people like that all the time.
 
Thank you Ken.
I am going to just use him as a tool to learn from and not let him get to me. I want to learn and will. He will only be at our plant until the end of Oct.
 
Thank you dmargineau.
I am just going to learn and go on with life. He is just this way and I will except that fact. When I show people how to do a job I am polite, but that is me. If he acts too much like a jerk, I am going to tell him to buzz off, but in a polite way.
 
Thank you Bob B.
He is about 20 years younger than me, so I guess I can see why he goes all out in speed of work. I have found in life to stay at a steady quick rate, but not killing myself to get work done or getting hurt. As time goes on, I will get faster.
 
Thank you all for the good advice. I am not going to worry what some temporary contractor says, because he is just a hired hand and not an employee of the company where I work. After hearing your advice, I feel a little silly for getting mad. I just need to grow some thicker skin and ignore rude contractors, but will learn from what they say by filtering out the BS and taking in good information that will help me succeed at my new job. As long as my boss and coworkers are happy with my work, why should I care what an outsider thinks, especially someone who will not be coming back after October. I will just do my best, and keep learning as I go. With a can do attitude, along with a positive attitude, I will succeed at this job. With over 20 years of maintenance experience and an associate degree in electronics, I feel I am now on my way to a rewarding career as an I/E technician. So what if there are rude contractors along the way. I know I will succeed.
 
a) What difference does it really make? The contractor's opinion doesn't change who you are, or what the people important to you think.

b) Life is tough - wear a helmet. The best lessons are sometimes the most painful. Back in the day, contractors were expected to be a little rude and crude - it is part of the learning process. Hard times are par for the course, and you will probably have worse at some point.
 
That he is a contractor is a red herring, he's a douche regardless of his employment status, so you can ignore his contractor status. It only affects the procedures used to be rid of him and you're not in charge of those procedures but can make use of them.

I've met really bad attitude contractors and I have met really helpful knowledgeable contractors. It's not something that naturally attracts only a particular sort.

Do not make excuses for people who act this way, they do it for all sorts of reasons, but it's worked for him this far and likely he has absolutely no reason to change it. But it could just as easily be because he has become familiar with how people more often back down from confrontation than stand up to it and perhaps now even enjoys it.

It's up to you how you handle it a lot more than you might imagine. I would suggest in the first instance acting like a dumb kid and begging this towering genius for all the help his advanced wisdom can offer. Getting along with people is often a matter of just finding out how to get along with them, QED. It's not a life commitment, fake it like a salesman.

Having had some issues at my latest employment, I shaved all my hair off to reveal all my scars (from childhood accidents, but my skull looks like it's seen a lot of bar fights). It's amazing how people stop giving you **** when you look like the sort of person who will throw them out a window for it.
 
Learning to work with jerks is a valuable life skill.

Some people deflect it -- they laugh it off.

Some people reverse it -- "could you show me the best way to wrap that wire."

Some people ignore it.

Everyone else in the factory knows that the guy is a jerk, so use the opportunity to try different approaches.
 

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