What can I do about a Labourer entering a room without reason?

Irish Lion

Hi folks,

I'm having some work done in my Living Room and got a local lad to do it.

He's a fierce nice lad and is very well-regarded in the area, so I asked him to do the work while I was away on holiday.

I have a series of "RING" cameras outside and one indoors. I put the indoor one in my bedroom while I was going away to as I have my Gun Safe in that room and if there was going to be a break-in, that's the only thing of genuine value in the house and would possibly have the best chance of identifying a culprit.

I went away on holiday as the work was being done, and when away, I got a motion alarm from the camera in my main bedroom and it was the labourer.

He stood around and then decided to go through some stacks of clothes, and off he went. He took nothing but he still shouldn't have been in there.

Any idea what I should do about it?

Thanks in advance,

IL

keithb93

Maybe lock your bedroom door next time? You said it yourself, nothing was taken.

akelly02

id wait for him to complete the work , then when hes looking for payment tell him you want a sizeable discount for him being a nosey little kernt going through your stuff in your room.

He was probably looking for something to swipe .

EchoIndia

You took the principal risk in having someone do work in your house when you were away. If the work has been done and no damage or other problems are apparent, that should be that. There's such a thing as natural human curiosity and while I wouldn't condone what the guy did, you'd be making an issue out of very little if you took this further with him.

brokenbad

He'll be hiding in your attic next....

Handyman found in attic of house where he had recently changed locks awarded €750 for unfair dismissal – The Irish Times

Irish Lion

I'm not looking for discount but an explanation would be nice and there are no locks on any of the door internally so that will change in the next few weeks.

I suppose the question should be, would "you" be happy to have this labourer working in your house?

It may very well not be his first time doing this or maybe it was? impossible to tell.

brokenbad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100713#Comment_121100713

I would never leave anyone working inside my property (known or unknown) unless i was present. While this guy didn't "take" anything - the fact that he was in your bedroom when he had no business being there doesn't excuse this behaviour. It is a breach of trust and an invasion of privacy. I would definitely confront him about it - but only after the work in your living room is complete to your satisfaction and BEFORE you have paid him.

Irish Lion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100698#Comment_121100698

Well worth the read..

Irish Lion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100655#Comment_121100655

I unfortunately agree and it was my own naivety that I put trust in these guys.

Irish Lion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100774#Comment_121100774

We will probably have a chat but I can't see anything come of it... I'll pay him for his work because to be fair, it's very good so far.

phormium

I hired a guy years ago to do a job in hallway, stairs, anyways I knew he came with other workmen and I had to be at work, couldn't stay there with them all day. However a friend of mine told me one of the workmen was known for rooting through all drawers in houses particularly underwear ones if he got the chance! He didn't take anything as such just got his kicks from it! I have locks on all my inside doors so locked everything bar bathroom/kitchen before they arrived.

Sure enough my friend heard back through the grapevine that 'the auld bit*h' locked all her doors, he wouldn't have known that if he hadn't tried them! Sometimes it's unavoidable leaving someone working in the house but all rooms not needed should be locked no matter how much you trust them, protects everyone.

JayRoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100655#Comment_121100655

Sorry, but that's bonkers. A fella, doing work elsewhere in a house, goes into his client's bedroom and goes through their clothes while the client is away.

And pulling them up on their "natural human curiosity" would be "making an issue out of very little"?

I always thought I had no more than an average sense of privacy but I'm fairly flabbergasted by some of the reactions here.

I've done jobs in people's houses before and if I'd ever seen anyone working for me going through a client's personal effects, I'd have fucked them out on their ear.

AlanG

He clearly shouldn't have done it but think abuot what will come of you confronting him. What will you get from it. You will be unable to use a good local tradesperson, which are very hard to come by. You also may be bad mounthed by him to other tradespeople.

Propbably best to just mention to him that you got alerts about movement in the room from your alarm system and ask if anyone called around while he was there. Perhaps say then you must check the security cameras and leave it at that.

bobbyD1978

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100924#Comment_121100924

You shouldn't agree, that post was blatant victim blaming.

He entered a private area and went through personal property for absolutely no reason. That's not a good local worker, that's a creep that hasn't been caught before

Irish Lion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101255#Comment_121101255

I think your sentiments are what my initial thoughts were but it seems like regardless of what he did, any action on my behalf would have negative repercussions on getting my house done the way I want it.

My initial reaction was to splash it all over Social Media and embarrass the hell out of the lad. I was under the impression that it would make other Tradesmen in the locality think about hiring him for a job, but most people seem to think that he would receive pity from the masses and that I would end up being blacklisted by Tradesmen.

Doesn't seem right to me and as an employer, I would like to know if one of my employees was doing something like that and remove the risk of him doing something that would make me lose my reputation of being trustworthy...

Claw Hammer

Yoiu would be better off to say nothing. You had no consent from him to have a camera on him when he was working. If you confront him, you wont be able to get him for work again.

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101469#Comment_121101469

The camera was in the bedroom, the man was working in the living room. There was no camera on him while he was working.

listermint

Don't be going on holidays letting strangers work in your house. The end. Move on. Putting it on social media would be absolutely bizarre and probably illegal you've no camera signage and he could probably sue you handly enough.

Suggest parking this moving on and not go on holidays with strangers having access to your home. Yes that's extremely naive and not victim blaming it's common sense.

There's an awful lot of this 'I'm a victim' these days. There's no victim here some flute went somewhere he shouldn't be. A true victim suffers. This isn't that so I despise the term being absolute abused at every turn.

JayRoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101469#Comment_121101469

Is the fella gonna say "I didn't consent to being filmed when I was caught on camera sneaking into your bedroom and rummaging through your belongings looking for money to steal and knickers to sniff! I am outraged"?

Fitz II

As this is a legal discussion thread....is this not the inchoate crime of attempt?

EchoIndia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101360#Comment_121101360

I was not intending to "victim-blame". I was counselling some restraint rather than jumping in without thinking things through. Obviously there are people with other views and it's up to the OP which tack he/she takes.

Like others, I would not as a rule have tradespersons working in my house while we are away, but sometimes that's unavoidable. A few years ago we had our house rewired and had no choice but to get out for a week while the work was under way. Having established to our satisfaction that the people doing the job were trustworthy, we let them get on with it. We ensured that valuables were removed from the house and stored elsewhere but whether they poked around in the place, we will never know. We haven't got, nor do we feel the need for, cameras or other gizmos that allow us to monitor things in and around the house.

Irish Lion

I’m have chosen a response.

I’ve called both the contractor and the labourer and explained the situation. The labourer first totally denied any wrongdoing but when I told him I had a recording he quickly changed his tune. He begged for forgiveness and I told him out straight that forgiveness was not on table.

The contractor was also in denial so I asked him to call to me earlier this evening. I showed him the recording and he got very irate, not with me, but with his labourer. He called him on the spot and asked him to come over. The labourer refused. Things got very heated on their call. He ended the call quite abruptly.

The contractor apologised and said that he’d call to me tomorrow evening after he sorted it out.

Water John

So the fella gets fired. At least you have the moral high ground to stand on.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121102416#Comment_121102416

Here... your OP has no mention of a contractor. The story has changed??

You advised "I'm having some work done in my Living Room and got a local lad to do it. He's a fierce nice lad and is very well-regarded in the area, so I asked him to do the work while I was away on holiday."

That paints one picture of a local chap with a good reputation. Now you're saying the work was done through a contractor and this lad was only a labourer for them??

Maybe the contractor is the local lad?? Confusing :)

Water John

The other conclusion may be that it's a bull***t story.

Irish Lion

Apologies for the confusion. There is no contractor. It’s just a local lad that does building jobs and labourer works for him. This thread is running on several forums, I’m getting turned around with other peoples phrasing.

Irish Lion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121102620#Comment_121102620

What a legend…….

con747

...

nachouser

I read Labourer as Labrador and thought to myself, this should be fun.

Irish Lion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121102663#Comment_121102663

Probably made it a better read….

nachouser

They're tricky beasts.

bobbyD1978

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121102345#Comment_121102345

Fair enough.

bobbyD1978

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121102500#Comment_121102500

He should be fired. It's a breach of professional trust at best, a questionable motive + trespass could well lead into criminal territory at worst.

Irish Lion

The builder (main lad, boss, contractor, chose your title…) called to me there and he told me that he wouldn’t be using the labourer on the rest of my job. Also he told me that a good labourer is hard to find so he said that he wouldn’t be using him for a few weeks but would use him later in the year.

He apologised again and said he’d be on again tomorrow..

callaway92

Have to say, there's some nasty prícks in this thread.

bobbyD1978

I know, tells a lot about people that they see trespassing with intent and invasion of privacy as no big deal. Very telling

Irish Lion

It is interesting that some people don't see this an invasion of privacy and think its okay to wander around someone else's home without permission and go through stuff.

I get that we all have a curious side of it but there is a level of trust involved that in this case was violated (in my opinion).

Surely this is not acceptable behavior from an adult.

Water John

Since I'm one of the pricks referred to, I'll explain. It's not ignoring what happened, it's using perspective on the scale of the issue is where we may differ. In this situation, a quiet word with the lad directly would have worked. He'd still finish the job but would behave himself, knowing his card was marked.

JayRoc

Edit: I think I may have misunderstood callaway92's post. Apologies

Glurrl

Victim with no forgiveness on the table

Wtf?

Irish Lion

Not a shred of forgiveness but maybe that will soften in time.

I do think that some people fail to realise that this wasn’t a mistake, it was an intentional act.

I’m not sure if people would feel like it was as trivial as some have suggested if it was their house, their items being rummaged through, but at the end of the day, everyone is entitled to their opinions and I thank everyone for their input.

Dogspaw

I wouldn't employ either of them again. If the boss will take him back the boss's apology is not sincere. And I would tell everyone I know in private but not on Facebook

Deregos.

Back in the 80's when I learning my trade, we were working in someone's house and they'd left the radio on in the kitchen, but it was tuned into RTE radio 1. As none of the owners were at home, myself and the lad who was working with me thought nothing of turning the station over to 2fm rather than listen to the pompous ramblings of Gaybo and Co.

Talk about regretting a rash decision . . The owner arrived home in the evening while we were tidying up, and while he didn't say anything to us directly, he rang our boss that night giving out shite about us being disrespectful and interfering with his personal property.

Our boss ripped us to shreds the next morning and demanded that we apologise to the owner, and he docked us both a days pay. There was a horrible atmosphere at work for a couple of weeks after that incident until our boss eventually cleared the air one teabreak.

Learnt an important lesson though, never touch any clients personal belongings, especially the poxy radio without their express permission.

mickdw

The NCT guy changed my radio to country music..... now that's a sackable offence.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128264#Comment_121128264

In principle. most would be against the death penalty..........but there are limits as your example suggests

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100713#Comment_121100713

I wouldn't be happy with a labourer looking around my place when I'm not there (similar reason to you safe in bedroom).

But I also wouldn't have left a labourer at home unsupervised, as that's literally inviting something like that.

r65

Who knows what he did in the rooms which don't have a camera.

In six months time you might realise you can't lay your hands on some little item, and you'll be wondering if the lad "lifted" it.

Lesson learned about locking doors!

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128247#Comment_121128247

An extreme example of overreaction from client and indeed employer but actually bang on too in some ways - if you want to listen to radio bring your own one. Interfering with anything of the clients property just isn’t on- the kettle, the extension cord the hoover -I’ve had all of those used without my permission in the past- especially the hoover- if you think I’m going to let you use my 380 euro hoover to suck up your builders dust you can fck off !!! 😀

I think the OP has done the right thing here- calling it out to their employer is totally bang on the money - it appears the employer probably doesn’t care as they’re willing to use him again. The guy has got off lucky- I’d be expecting a small discount off the bill or some extra work done for free - the contractor can take it out of the guys wages