April 2022

Contract Talk
In his words: “If nothing else, Covid has made us
focus on individual people”, and this is so true.
The days of just providing good facilities,
employment and wages are long gone.
Anxiety became a real issue throughout the
pandemic – there was concern over the health of
loved ones and families, children couldn’t go to
school, and at first, we were unsure if we could
we visit people’s houses to work.
And two years on, many of these struggles
remain. People can only cope up until a certain
point, then everything becomes overwhelming.
Thom Emerson speaking on the podcast
Faisal Hussain, Chief Executive of the DGCOS
Difficult conversations
It may be difficult to talk
about your mental health
and it may make you feel
vulnerable. The key is honest
communication and an opendoor
policy to your staff that
allows them to talk about
their feelings. Pastoral care
could be as simple as asking
how they are and listening to
the response.
This level of empathy
extends to your customers
too.
As Thom said in the
podcast, if you are feeling
stressed, it’s more than likely that your customer
is too – we’re all worried about the health of our
loved ones – and sometimes the easiest way to
ease frustration is to complain.
As an installer, you’re probably doing your best to
manage issues which are outside of your control,
but your customer feels let down because their
installation has been delayed.
It can seem like consumers don’t care that lead
times that were once five days are now more like
five weeks and that sourcing products over the
“Our mission is to
support both installers
and consumers”
last 18-24 months has been a nightmare.
This is the reality of the current situation and
installers are doing their best, but relaying this to
a consumer is never an easy conversation.
You want them to know you’re on the case but
when you don’t really have any news, you can
aggravate the situation further.
DGCOS has many conversations with consumers
following this issue. It could be viewed as a form
of mediation but really what we are trying to do
is support the installer who may have told their
customer the same message two or three times,
but it takes a third party like DGCOS to make the
customer feel reassured.
Ultimately, our mission is to support both
installers and consumers in any way we can.
Be part of the conversation
DGCOS wants to open up the conversation with
the industry about mental health.
That’s why we’ve launched a Glass & Glazing
Industry Mental Health Survey.
It’s confidential and will only take five minutes
to complete. We want to understand the
thoughts and experiences of mental health in the
fenestration sector over the last two years.
The survey will close on 12th April 2022 and
we will be releasing the results in the weeks
following. DGCOS invites you to be part of the
conversation.
To take part in the survey visit: https://installers.
dgcos.org.uk/news/glass-glazing-industrymental-health-survey-2022.
Contact DGCOS:
0345 053 8975
www.dgcos.org.uk/
@DGCOS
PRACTICAL CONTENT FOR THE GLAZING INSTALLER & HOME IMPROVEMENT SPECIALIST
APRIL 2022 TI 49