Is it okay to fix something when that’s technically what someone else is hired to do?

In today’s story, no.

The hotel maintenance engineer wants to be called about every single problem that needs to be fixed, and he got upset when another employee tried to fix some of the simple problems on his own.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

Maintenance Engineer Upset We Fixed Something Without Him. Okay, We Won’t Fix Anything Anymore.

For context, I work at a Hotel with 1 maintenance engineer.

Not a large hotel, so 1 is enough.

Any regular day, he insists I call him about maintenance work rather than putting in a work order so he can just fix it and not have to go close out an order on the computer.

This leads to me calling 4-5x a day.

He calls when he needs help fixing something.

I call him for things like broken a.c.’s, hanging up a picture frame, cabinet door falling off.

If it’s something easy like a lightbulb or clogged drain, I just fix it myself.

Recently he took 2 weeks off work for a surgery.

He tried to fix more things on his own.

I tried to figure most things out myself, and only called him if I really needed assistance.

Instead of 4-5 calls a day, I called him maybe 4 times the entire 2 weeks to let him recover and rest.

I tried to fix most things myself and figure it out to not bother him.

The maintenance engineer was upset that he did the job.

When he comes back from his vacation, he sees something was installed incorrectly.

A shower wall shampoo holder.

I put it on the wall but did not grout it.

He responded by saying, “if you want to do my job, let me know and i’ll go elsewhere” and was generally petty for the rest of the day.

Okay. I won’t do your job for you.

Now he doesn’t even fix the things he knows how to fix.

Lightbulb out? Call. Phone unplugged? Call.

Remote out of batteries? Call. Toilet not flushing? Call.

Drain clogged? Call. Probably called over 20 times.

Do i know how to fix these things? Of course. But i don’t want him to leave, so i’ll let him do his job.

I could see how the maintenance engineer could’ve felt like his job was threatened.

Maybe he should’ve explained that he was trying not to bother him and really didn’t want his job.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted…

This reader points out why the maintenance engineer was “rude.”

Another reader thinks he gave the maintenance engineer exactly what he wanted.

This reader thinks it was a communication issue.

This person thinks he is just petty.

Another person points out why work orders are important.

Here’s another vote for writing work orders.

I agree with writing work orders from now on.

It’s best to just keep everything on the level.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.