Had to pick between hiring a friend or going with a pro, huge mistake either way

Last summer my crew was slammed and I needed an extra hand for a bathroom gut job. I had two options: bring on my buddy Mike who needed work but had zero plumbing experience, or pay a licensed pro $45 an hour. I picked Mike (figured I could train him on the fly) and it was a disaster from day one. He showed up late, forgot half the tools, and I had to redo his pipe connections three times before they stopped leaking. The job took four extra days and I ended up losing about $800 in lost labor for other jobs. If I had just shelled out for the pro, I would have saved time and my friendship with Mike (he's still weird about it months later). Has anyone else had to choose between helping a friend out and getting the job done right? How'd you handle the fallout?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesleyb201mo ago

Has anyone stopped to think maybe hiring Mike was actually harder on him than it was on you? Because here's the thing, @fiona_west21 brought up the friendship angle, but I'm looking at it different. Mike probably felt like he had to take the job because you're his buddy, even if he knew deep down he wasn't qualified. Now he's got months of feeling like a screwup stuck in his head, and you're stuck with a half fixed bathroom and an awkward friendship. That pro would've just showed up, done the work, and left you both free to grab a beer without any of this mess hanging over you. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for a friend is not hire them in the first place.

morgan.rose1mo ago

Gotta say I see this a little different. Wesley brought up the pressure on Mike part which I get, but friendships are supposed to be able to handle tough conversations. If Mike took the job knowing he couldn't do it right, that's on him for not being honest from the start. The real issue here isn't the hiring, it's that neither of them talked straight about what Mike could actually handle. You can hire a buddy for a small job like swapping a light fixture and have it go fine, the problem was this guy knew he was out of his depth and said nothing. That's not a friendship problem, that's a communication problem that would've shown up sooner or later anyway. Don't you think?

fiona_west211mo ago

Ngl, the part nobody's talking about is how hiring Mike probably cost you more than just money and time. It changed the dynamic of your friendship because now he knows you see him as someone who can't do the job right. Once that gets into a friendship, it's hard to come back from because he's always gonna feel like you think he's incompetent. The pro would've just done the work and left, no weirdness attached. You basically paid $800 to learn that mixing business with friends usually ends with one of you feeling bad.