"I tried to put up a shelf in my kitchen, and I ended up putting the biggest hole in my wall. The shelf has been sitting on the floor for two weeks, because I'm too scared to put it back up. My building's maintenance staff is too flirty, and they expect tips. I'd rather just do it myself."
"I grew up on a farm in Yugoslavia. We were driving tractors by the time we were six. There's never a calm feeling about a blue-collar person coming in. You're invading someone's apartment for an hour, and I've seen horrible experiences of how guys walk in. They come in grumpy. I always came in smiling."
"Every doorknob works on the same system. Some are just more of a pain."
A maintenance instructor named Srdoč conducts a hands-on workshop teaching students basic home repair skills including shelf installation, doorknob replacement, and electrical work. Students range from a baker frustrated with her building's maintenance staff to a couple expecting their first child who typically hire professionals for such tasks. Srdoč grew up on a farm in Yugoslavia and moved to New York for maintenance work, where he observed the tension between service workers and clients. He approaches his work with a positive attitude and now shares practical knowledge to empower people to handle repairs independently, reducing their reliance on hired help.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]