There are at least two sides to any scenario and a key to staying in business is understanding how the other side to a situation views it. Consultant Michael Stone shares an example on Markup and Profit of a subcontractor being mistreated as a caution to general contractors for what not to do.
In the situation, the subcontractor faced a hostile general contractor who was upset when the sub refused to do work not in the original scope of work free of charge. Additionally, the subcontractor learned the superintendent of the job was trying to hire one of the subcontractor's workers behind his back to do the extra work. Stone shares the advice he gave to the subcontractor in this situation with his readers of Markup and Profit.
He needs to get their attention, and the sooner the better. He also needs to start taking pictures, now, of everything he's done and is doing on the job so they can't start the "you didn't complete", or "you didn't do it right" argument.
If, by chance, they change their mind and agree to pay him for the changes, he should get paid before doing the change and make sure the general contractor signs the agreement, not the job superintendent. He can't be too careful, because this general contractor and/or job superintendent aren't to be trusted.
Dishonesty doesn't work. In this situation, neither the general contractor or his job superintendent realize that exploiting another contractor to put money in their own pocket won't pay in the long run. Word will get around; eventually they'll run out of specialty contractors to use.
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