Over the summer of 2015, I worked for Total Lawn Care, a lawn mowing business out of Little Falls, Minnesota. My job consisted of mowing and trimming our customers’ lawn, as well as blowing off their sidewalk and driveway after. While working, I learned how to deal with various types of people with different attitudes toward their lawn. Some have a good attitude, while others do not, making my job easier at times and harder during others. There are four different types of lawn owners: Nice Old Ladies, Rich Snobs, Tightwads, and Know-it-alls. My favorite type of lawn owners are the Nice Old Ladies; they are very generous and never picky with how their lawn looks. After mowing, they always compliment and thank me for doing my job; sometimes
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The Tightwads typically live in a sketchy neighborhood and seem to have less money than other owners. So to save money, they wait until the lawn is at least six inches tall before wanting it mowed, requiring me to go slower for it to look nice. Tightwads are cheap, except when it comes to buying lawn ornaments, filling their yard with lawn gnomes, wind chimes, and flower pots. This forces me to either pick up the ornaments or trim around them, also increasing the time it takes to mow. One of our customers this summer lived in an dingy brick house with rotten shingles scattered atop the roof. Rarely wanting her grass mowed, the Tightwad waited for her small, half acre lawn to grow over eight inches tall and extremely thick, making it a pain to cut. Also, even though she did not have money to fix her house or have her lawn mowed regularly, she somehow managed to buy lawn gnomes and wind chimes, displaying over one hundred ornaments throughout her yard. Combining the thick grass and the abundance of obstacles to cut around, it took me two hours to mow her lawn, three times longer than a typical half acre yard. Which is why Tightwads are the most dreaded lawns to …show more content…
Typically older men, the Know-it-alls always tell me how to do my job, as if they forget I do it everyday. For instance, this summer I mowed for an old, crippled man in a wheelchair. A guy who always mentioned how he lost his leg to a hunk of shrapnel back in “Nam.” He lives in a town home with a very small, quarter acre yard. Every week, when I came to mow his lawn, he would chat for fifteen minutes, explaining how he would like his lawn mowed, including the height of the mower, which directing I should mow, and “don’t blow dat grass in dat rock bed over der.” Not only did he explain how to mow his lawn, but after I was done, he also tried to tell me how to load the mower on the trailer, as if I had never done that before either. Instead of taking thirty minutes to cut and trim his yard, it took me an average of forty-five minutes due to his explanations. Which is why the Know-it-alls are the most annoying type of lawn
The Tightwads typically live in a sketchy neighborhood and seem to have less money than other owners. So to save money, they wait until the lawn is at least six inches tall before wanting it mowed, requiring me to go slower for it to look nice. Tightwads are cheap, except when it comes to buying lawn ornaments, filling their yard with lawn gnomes, wind chimes, and flower pots. This forces me to either pick up the ornaments or trim around them, also increasing the time it takes to mow. One of our customers this summer lived in an dingy brick house with rotten shingles scattered atop the roof. Rarely wanting her grass mowed, the Tightwad waited for her small, half acre lawn to grow over eight inches tall and extremely thick, making it a pain to cut. Also, even though she did not have money to fix her house or have her lawn mowed regularly, she somehow managed to buy lawn gnomes and wind chimes, displaying over one hundred ornaments throughout her yard. Combining the thick grass and the abundance of obstacles to cut around, it took me two hours to mow her lawn, three times longer than a typical half acre yard. Which is why Tightwads are the most dreaded lawns to …show more content…
Typically older men, the Know-it-alls always tell me how to do my job, as if they forget I do it everyday. For instance, this summer I mowed for an old, crippled man in a wheelchair. A guy who always mentioned how he lost his leg to a hunk of shrapnel back in “Nam.” He lives in a town home with a very small, quarter acre yard. Every week, when I came to mow his lawn, he would chat for fifteen minutes, explaining how he would like his lawn mowed, including the height of the mower, which directing I should mow, and “don’t blow dat grass in dat rock bed over der.” Not only did he explain how to mow his lawn, but after I was done, he also tried to tell me how to load the mower on the trailer, as if I had never done that before either. Instead of taking thirty minutes to cut and trim his yard, it took me an average of forty-five minutes due to his explanations. Which is why the Know-it-alls are the most annoying type of lawn