Charlie Seymour Jr Asks About Working From Home: Do you have your plumber lined up?

Do you have your plumber lined up for emergency help when you work from home?

When we work from home, we don't want anything to get in our way of keeping to our schedule.

If the Internet goes down, many of us do too. If the toilet backs up beyond your own capabilities, you could be in trouble. And if your air-conditioning stops in the hottest week of the year (just as you are about to head out of town), what do you do?

That has just happened. It's near 11:00 PM Eastern time, it's still 92 degrees outside and we expect 4-5 more days of heat and humidty like this, and I leave for a church mission trip with middle schoolers tomorrow after church.

Needless to say my wife isn't happy… and neither am I.

She noticed that the A/C fan wasn't staying on as she had programmed it. The house still felt cool enough for me, but Pam is super sensitive to smells, sounds, and now I see to temperature changes (it only took me 27 years of marriage to learn that!).

But she was right… something wasn't working right with the A/C.

So… do you call the A/C folks or the plumber (who, in this case, is good friend and plumber extraordinaire, John Luke of John Luke Plumbing: (610) 328-1110 for the Philadelphia, PA USA area).

Not so fast… this one needs extra care before you decide.

Whole-house air-conditioners take a great deal of moisture out of the air. The water has to go somewhere, and in this case it all drains to a small pump which then forces the water the ENTIRE LENGTH OF MY HOUSE before it squirts it on my lawn. Ridiculous way to construct all of this since the outside of my house is about 12' from the A/C unit in one direction, but the builder took the piping the whole length of the house to evacuated the water near where the A/C compressor is… and that's probably a trip of 100 feet.

It seems that in our area, this water can't be put into the sewer system because our sewer tax is dependent on the amount of water we use, and so if we give the sewer system more water than we pay for from the water company, the sewer system will be over worked and under compensated. (Again, there has to be a better way, but city hall practices aren't my concern right now).

So… I had to clean out this little pump (which gets gunked with the most disgusting slime) and then put it back online. But now after 10 years, the evacuation piping is sooooo clogged up, the pump isn't strong enough to send any of the condensate out of the house, so I either turn off the A/C on this sweltering day OR I figure something else out.

A call to John's emergency number got me the answer. We have rigged a temporary solution (all the condensate is now flowing into a large trash can which we will check in the morning before church) and then John will come arrange another plumbing system to be sure this water safely leaves our house.

No return call from the A/C folks' emergency number… I called them just in case, even though I really felt the problem was one of plumbing and not air handling.

So… I ask the question again: Do you have your plumber lined up. Can you imagine the headaches (and heartaches) this would have caused… and with me 800 miles away for the rest of the week.

Service – TRUE SERVICE – is being there when someone needs you. Are you there for YOUR customers and clients when they need you?

I'm sure glad John is here for me!

Charlie Seymour Jr.
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Charlie Seymour Jr is the founder of RaisingGreatFamilies.com, FathersAndTheDaughtersTheyLove.com, and ILearnedItAllFromMyKids.com. He is also working with his daughter, Liz, as she publishes her own website and releases her first solo CD: LizSeymour.com. Charlie is a Social Marketer and Community Builder and often consults about marketing through his site, GetThemOffTheRaftMarketing.com. He's a prolific writer, including blogs on each of these sites, his book Dream Inc (32 Philadelphia-area Entrepreneurs and their Million Dollar Secrets For Success), and articles about Social Marketing for national and regional publications including NSA Magazine (for the National Speakers Association) and Spotlight (for the American Association of Community Theatre). He's the father of two daughters and lives in Wallingford, PA with his wife, Pam.