Today was quite fun.
In the mover's truck, there is a heirarchy, and the driver is at the top. Next rung down that ladder is his helper. This is the guy who is with that driver on 95% of the jobs we go to. In this particular scenario, I'm that #2. Whoever else is on that job may as well have been picked up outside Timmies (for you americans, this is the coffee shop) for the day's work, as far as the driver is concerned.
Today's third guy was a new hire (who has years of experience at a place called Westmount, a place I've only heard stories of, and none of them good). He shows up with an Alpha Dog mentality. I'm sure you know the type, the guy who expects everybody else to follow his lead.
This attitude started with him showing up late, and expected the designated driver to get out of the driver's seat to let him drive the 5 tonne truck. Then, when we get to the customer's house to unload, we saw an opportunity to have the truck's ramp go directly to the front door. We pulled out the ramp to hook it up to the tail (there's 2 "clips" at the top to hold the ramp in place), and we're about to hold the bottom of the ramp up and slowly back the truck up to put the ramp on the steps. Only this doofus holds the ramp from the end instead of from the side. If I had told the driver to back up, this guy would have been walking backwards with the ramp pointing right into his gut, while simultaneously going up a flight of stairs while holding the ramp at the right level. I repeatedly told the guy to hold the ramp from the side so he doesn't get killed by the ramp backing into him, but I suppose he didn't quite get it. Instead of holding the ramp from the side, he instead dropped the ramp (loud bang included) and said "**** this"....right in front of our customer. Mentally i'm thinking "there goes our tip streak, thanks *******". But the customer's right there, so I can't give him **** while still looking like a professional.
Over the next 30 minutes, he's arguing with the driver (on the job sites, the driver's word is gospel, remember) about what tasks he should be doing. Now we have to carry 7 thousand pounds of furniture and boxes up two flights of stairs, and this goof is standing in the truck folding blankets, leaving myself and the driver to carry all this up the stairs. All it took was one comment from the driver about how he's not doing any work and this guy's mouth took off. He didn't appreciate the driver "being cute" with telling him how to do his job; he's still a new hire who doesn't know that you should tilt dressers back so the drawers don't open up into a wall. Apparently this alpha dog was resentful that he was the third helper instead of being in charge and now he's taking it out on us, with the customer still in earshot.
Needless to say, we didn't get a tip today.