When we recently built our pool, we were intending to care for it ourselves. The contractor that built it paid for the first month of pool servicing to get it started off on the right foot. At the end of the month, the pool servicing company came out and gave us a one hour lesson on the proper care of the pool and equipment. Of course, it was also a sales pitch.
It worked. They offered to take care of cleaning and servicing the pool, as well as keeping the chemicals in balance for $160 per month. That seemed economical to me, so we hired them. It went well for the first couple of weeks. The pool girl that came out did a good job, until she brought along a new trainee who would be taking over the route.
The new girl, Shamiqua, screwed things up from the start. The first week, she left the control panel open for the pool equipment and left it in service mode. It stormed that afternoon, and we were lucky that the electronic controls for the pool didn’t get water damaged. We complained, and they told us how she was new and they would talk to her.
The next week, she came out and didn’t bother cleaning the water filter. She left her filter cleaning tools next to the pool until she came back the following week, which indicates to me that she went a week without using them on anyone else’s pool, either.
The fourth week of her being on the route, and I watched her visit on the security cameras. She didn’t do ANYTHING but sit there on her phone for 10 minutes before leaving. The only thing that she did was retrieve her tools from the previous week.
We fired the company the next day. I received calls and emails from more than one person, asking us to give them another chance and saying they would retrain the woman. I told them that it wasn’t a case of substandard training. This woman was lazy and had no work ethic, and no amount of training can fix that.
The district manager offered to put another person on the route. I said no, we were just going to use a robot to clean our pool from now on. I spent $2,000 on remote monitoring equipment and a robot that automatically scrubs the pool.
The monitoring equipment tells me what chemicals to add, the robot cleans the pool. All I have to do is add the chemicals and empty the filter and skimmer basket.
When I am buying services or labor saving devices, my first and only consideration is value. That is, how much money would I make if I went to work for the same number of hours it will take to do the chore myself. If the cost of paying someone or buying a labor saver is less than half of what I would make, then I buy the product or service.
For example, mowing the lawn was taking me about 2 hours. You have to do it once a week most of the year, except winter, when you have to do it once a month. In total, I would spend about 90 hours per year having to mow the lawn. My choices are:
- Hire someone. Lawn companies gave me quotes of $2400 per year to mow it for me.
- A Husqvarna Automower that can mow my 3/4 acre costs just over $2000. All I need to do then is run a string trimmer around the edges of the house and blow off the driveway, which only takes about 8 hours per year.
I went with the robot. The same sort of choice was made with the pool. I can pay someone two grand a year to not clean my pool, or I can get a robot to do it. My lawn robot cost me a bit up front, but now that I have had it for over a year, it’s already paid for itself. Now I get free lawn mowing. The only thing I need to do now is replace the razor blades that it uses once a year.
So this is what minimum wage labor is facing- I can get a robot to mow the lawn or clean my pool for less than what it cost me to hire a lazy moron who won’t do a good job. The only barrier to automating these jobs is the large upfront cost, but once that is paid off, things get much cheaper. The bonus is fewer workers eyeing up the stuff in my house, and considering that the person most likely to burglarize your home is a worker who has been in it before, that’s a big bonus. Lazy morons need to watch out- they are about to lose their jobs.
Check it out, if you are interested. The robot is pretty cool:
28 Comments
Rick T · August 5, 2025 at 2:26 pm
And that is why DEI was and is so destructive. Shamiqua knew she was the token black girl, so no matter what she didn’t do she wasn’t going to be fired. I’m surprised she even showed up to play on her phone for 10 minutes, I guess she was told she had to find the tools missing from her truck.
Sgt. Schulz · August 5, 2025 at 7:23 pm
No need for obsolete farm equipment pretty soon. The riots and wailing and gnashing of teeth may be epic. Stay strapped and watch your six….
lynn · August 5, 2025 at 2:30 pm
This is why people want robots.
Joe Blow · August 5, 2025 at 3:30 pm
Been listening to a lot of podcasts lately and getting some really far-out perspectives on issues. This is basically the argument for UBI – Universal Basic Income.
I’m as opposed to it as you or anyone else, believe me, especially in, ummm, this sort of instance? However, as the argument goes, ok, what next.
Robots grow, increase in functionality, decrease in price, huge increase in usage and acceptance. They already have little robots that deliver the fast-food on UT campus. Little R2-D2’s with your mocha latta and biscotti zooming around campus. Goodbye uber/uber-eats/grubhub gig-work. Wild times.
Back to the question: What happens to Shaniqua? As postulated, you can’t create a work ethic, and in a capitalist society, she’s unemployable outside… government subsidies (DEI, Urban League, YMCA, DMV positions…)
WHICH, actually costs you and me MORE! Because now those functions stop working. Your DMV trip that could take 12 minutes on Thursday, turns into 3 return visits at 2.5 hours each. Enter the robots…
The cycle continues, until the lower quartile OR MORE is simply unemployable. But they’re still breathing, eating, shitting.. what to do?
Pay them to stay home and smoke dope seems to be the governments answer, and they call it UBI.
Rick T · August 5, 2025 at 8:27 pm
Read BigCountryExpat’s post on getting his new vehicle registered. Hours upon hours wasted at the FL DMV because he was the wrong color for that office.
We already pay for them to sit at home, it is called WIC.. Why else do they talk about BabyDaddys and not Fathers or Ghod forbid Husbands???
Birdog357 · August 6, 2025 at 2:04 pm
The only way I’ll even begin to have a discussion on UBI is if it came with MANDATORY injectable birth control for the first 2 years, and permanent sterilization after 2 years of receiving it….
ColdCanuck · August 5, 2025 at 3:50 pm
very interesting. Including the take on personal security. Don’t have a pool and have yet to look into a robot grass trimmer (one of the neighbors has one). the closest approximation we have is robot home vacuums and Braava robot floor mopper.
when the sex robots are perfected a lot of women are going to find their worth dramatically reduced. and not just in Japan. lol
Divemedic · August 5, 2025 at 3:57 pm
I can spend 90 hours a year mowing the lawn, or I can spend 8 days a year working overtime shifts. Same amount of hours spent working, but instead of ‘saving’ $2400 by mowing my own lawn, I make almost $6,000 working the extra hours.
Sgt. Schulz · August 5, 2025 at 7:26 pm
No brainer
Dan D. · August 5, 2025 at 6:04 pm
Shamiqua, obviously the sister of Lamont running ATC at Dulles.
In southern CA I grew up with cholos and wetbacks. They were rough to a Protestant whitboy like I but they held a sense of tribe and a work ethic. Not so the beaners, these 2nd gen entitlement types who think they will reclaim the southern states through lawfare.
They are the retards we should be wary of.
oldvet50 · August 5, 2025 at 8:08 pm
After all that you bought a black robot????
Divemedic · August 5, 2025 at 8:28 pm
Funny.
Steve the Engineer · August 5, 2025 at 9:12 pm
On deciding the break point for do something yourself or hire it out, you and I think alike as I’m sure a lot of regular readers of this blog do. The “the world owes me something” mentality seems concentrated in certain ethic groups, and is it me or has this phenomenon become more prevalent following introduction of social media?
@HomeInSC · August 5, 2025 at 9:14 pm
We have a lady who comes once a month to give the house a clean. She’s not super detail oriented but she works steadily.
Her daughter(18) and boyfriend have an apartment. The mom pays the rent.
The kids were fired from their jobs at Waffle House. The mom asked us if we had any yard work for the kids. We have a mini farm, there’s endless work. No tractors, skag mower, chainsaws for the kids – just the kawasaki mule, trailer, rakes.
The first time they showed up (2 hours late) they had the boyfriends 9 year old sister with them. They expected me to let her help. That day was a bust. The next attempt (late again, Waffle House issue?) was a little better. After 1-1/2 hours the boyfriend was ready to pack it in and go fishing in our pond. They made it to 3-1/2 hours then went fishing.
Many nasty things going on in our country but I think I can describe one. Unskilled workers have no American Dream, their wages will never catch up with modern life. They are aware of this, consciously or not, and it is demoralizing. I’m not sure there is a fix. Even skilled Americans are under heavy pressure. Deporting all of the illegals, halting H-1B and F-1, may help.
JimmyPx · August 6, 2025 at 9:26 am
You hit on the key reason that they are lazy and layabouts.
Even if they DON’T work, Mom is paying the bills. If not Mom then Uncle Sugar.
I have seen this over and over, if we cut all welfare and parents showed some tough love, it would be amazing how all of a sudden most of these people would suddenly work.
Right now there is a large percentage of young people who work or half ass work. Look on Youtube these kids saying “40 hours a week is SLAVERY”. Somebody is paying their bills otherwise they’d get off their asses and work.
Biggun · August 5, 2025 at 9:56 pm
How does the robot mower work out? How much grass are you having it cut?
Divemedic · August 6, 2025 at 7:16 am
It cuts the back of the house, and does a good job. Like a Roomba, it cuts until it needs a charge before returning to the charger.
I have it cut 3 hours per day, in the mornings when my sprinklers dont run.
Anon · August 7, 2025 at 6:43 am
Can you write more about the robot lawn mower, like brand and model. How well it works, etc?
Thanks for all your stories!
Cb cb c · August 6, 2025 at 12:58 am
Salt water pool?
Divemedic · August 6, 2025 at 7:13 am
Yes
Jim · August 6, 2025 at 6:23 am
What you described is why I decided not to grow my small pool service company. A couple of tips if you are keeping your own pool in Florida. Purchase a Taylor test kit. It’s industry standard. For the DIY homeowner a salt generator will save a lot of time and mess from handling/transporting chlorine. Every pool I service gets brushed, vacuumed (sand is always there) and raked weekly. If you are screened you should only have to clean filter once a month and the filter will last at least two seasons. When I sign a new pool for service the first three months is all about regaining trust with the homeowner. If they don’t have a CPO than they are cleaners not technicians.
Rick T · August 6, 2025 at 10:22 am
Oh man, Jim. You just tickled an old memory…. We had a pool in Phoenix in the late 60s and my teen-age brother and I were the pool techs, I think the time spend testing with our Taylor kit helped me do well in HS and College Chemistry. This was back when having a trickle-feed chlorine unit was da Bomb, so we adjusted the feed rate instead of dumping in powder. The enclosure was the favorite home of black widow spiders so you had to be careful to sweep a path before refilling it with muriatic acid. Yes, gallons of 30% HCl with in a storage shed with no locks, warning signs off the bottles, etc. We knew it was strong acid and not to be f*cked with, and that was enough precautions 50-odd years ago.
At 30% concentration you can do some fun things with screw top glass 2l bottles, aluminum foil, and no adult supervision.
My mother was a saint for what she let my brother and I get away with growing up…
Jim · August 6, 2025 at 4:59 pm
Muriatic acid is like tear gas. Especially on low wind days! I’m sure you are aware to never mix it with chlorine outside of the pool. It’s a crude form of mustard gas. Read some stories about WW1 and think about the training these kids are receiving! And yes I have done the aluminum foil.
Pat H. Bowman · August 6, 2025 at 7:25 am
“The bonus is fewer workers eyeing up the stuff in my house, and considering that the person most likely to burglarize your home is a worker who has been in it before, that’s a big bonus.” I do a similar calculation when deciding on paying for a service, but I flip it and consider the security aspect first. Or at least it’s more heavily weighted in the equation. I end up doing almost everything myself. It takes longer, but I enjoy the work, and the sense of accomplishment. And I really hate re-doing substandard work done by someone else (that’s already a big part of the day job…). We’re in a tight spot as a country for sure.
Divemedic · August 6, 2025 at 7:41 am
If I am going to be working for X number of hours, it makes more sense to be making almost $70 an hour at work than performing manual labor to save $40.
lynn · August 6, 2025 at 1:52 pm
Now automate the two septic tanks that I own at my house and office building. Both are almost automated but for that quarterly service where the Tech screws with the control system and messes things up.
JB · August 6, 2025 at 3:37 pm
Well the name Shamiqua says it all. African. Lazy. Entitled, Welfare Junkie. DEI hire. Perhaps even a Killer Whale attraction at Sea World.
The robotic pool cleaners have come a long way from 30 years ago. If they can analyze pool water chemistry and inject the chemical dosing to add it still requires the pool filter and skimmer be cleaned, and chemicals kept on hand to add. Can it save the pool owner money over a pool man over time ? I would like to see it. Even pool salt systems require human attention and are costly to buy. I gave up pools after my kids were grown and we moved away although my daughter has a pool for her kids pleasure. She decided on a pool man. Yes. A white guy who speaks english who shows up weekly and on time. And the pool is always clean and in pristine condition.
Jim · August 6, 2025 at 4:34 pm
I used to train new pool technicians. I would go out with them for two weeks on the route that they would be working. I do everything by the book. Usually by the fourth day they decided that they didn’t want the job. What did management do? They took me off training. After that I was sent out to fix their fuck-ups and pacify angry customers. After 20 years I went out on my own. Best thing I ever did. I don’t need a time clock to make me get out of bed in the morning. I keep a set number of accounts so I don’t sacrifice quality for quantity. I also offer a background check to all new customers. I have long term customers who I only lose because they sold the home and the new owner didn’t pick me up. The only value bigger companies offer these days is a number to call and complain. BTW my price starts at 120/mo. I make a comfortable living too.
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