Its always exciting remodelling your home, or furnishing your home for the first time. You dream of all the wonderful things you can do to turn this place into a comfortable perfect-for-you home, imagining all of the wonderful memories you will build in each and every corner of the house. It is all so exciting, dreamy, with a touch of utopian, up until you get to deal with the most difficult and annoying 3omal ever! They soon turn your dream into a nightmare, making you regret ever considering to paint your walls, or do any adjustments to your home! Here are a few ideas on how to manage this insanity!
LET SOMEONE ELSE HANDLE THE SHIT
Hire an interior designer who has their own labourers, they will know how to handle them and get them off of your head. No need to scream at anyone or pull out your hair, pay someone to do that for you, while you boss around, and go on with your day.
HIRE SOME EYES
Often when you are remodelling or repainting, what makes it an endless job is that the labourers waste plenty of time wondering around, talking, drinking tea, and even calling it a day! If you are paying them by the day they might be doing it intentionally just to get paid more days. Otherwise, they might just be lazy and unorganized. Hire yourself some trusted eyes, someone to follow up on their work, keep an eye on the progress, and make sure they are working efficiently and doing an overall good job. This person could be your driver, butler, or someone you just trust and know that can do the job. Don’t forget to pay and bonus him!
KEEP THEM HAPPY
In Egypt, everything is for the sake of love, 3eshra (Companionship) and el 3eesh wil mal7 (“bread and salt” some sort of loyalty for sharing food). Make them like you, respect you, and they will want to be helpful and loyal, hopefully giving you the best they’ve got.
MAKE THEM STRAIGHT
Just because you are a kind boss doesn’t mean you get stepped on. Make your limits loud and clear, don’t allow anyone to pass those limits, at the end of the day they are hired to do a job, they’d better do it, and they’d better do it well; make sure you are in control at all times, no matter how nice you are to them.
GIVE A DEADLINE
Make sure you give them a specific deadline of when you need everything to be done. Make sure if you are tight on time for any reason to keep some extra time reserved incase they break the deadline, which they probably will.
PROMISE A BONUS
They might find motivation to do a good job and keep up with the deadline if you promise them a bonus. But remember, if you promise it and they deliver you have to give it to them, or it will never work on them in the future.
HELL FOR HELL
If hell is going loose, everything is going wrong, they are past deadline, and nothing is done right, then you might as well warn them that you will deduct money if they don’t straighten things up and get their act together. Be firm, serious, and super angry.
