Arrive on time? Listen to advice? And no cellphone? You're hired

Gary Freshwater attracted social media attention and applicants for the labourer/hammerhand role he advertised in the Herald last week. Photo / iStock

A builder who wrote a funny and directly worded job advertisement seeking a reliable employee has found his man.

Gary Freshwater attracted social media attention and applicants for the labourer/hammerhand role he advertised in the Herald last week. He simply wanted to hire someone who was keen and eager, and would turn up for work.

After all the public attention, and even after Mr Freshwater placed great importance on reliability, he said two of the six people he shortlisted did not show for their interview this week. But he confirmed he'd hired someone for his home renovations business, and the worker starts on Monday.

"There was a lot of comment and a huge amount of applicants," Mr Freshwater said yesterday. "I was supposed to be interviewing six people but two didn't turn up."

More than 6000 people Facebook-liked last week's Herald story and it generated comment across the media.

His tongue-in-cheek ad read: "Please don't apply if you oversleep, have court often, have to get ride to work later than our workday begins, have to hold on to cell phone whole day, or will become expert at your job with no need to learn or take advice after the first day." He also made it clear that idle chit-chat on the worksite was unacceptable, and the successful candidate "should not expect to receive gold stars for being on time".

He wasn't interested in having unreliable and distracted people working for him any longer, as he had already employed them all.

He told the Herald last week: "I'm sure I haven't heard all the excuses, but I've heard a lot of them. And there's only so much you can put up with."

Mr Freshwater is quietly confident his new employee is the right man for the job.

"He's previously worked in hospitality and is looking to get some building experience. I was looking for someone who was a little more mature and intelligent. He wants to learn and gain some skills in the building trade."

Sixty-year-old Mr Freshwater, who lives in Albany and works predominantly in Ponsonby, admitted last week that recruiting can be frustrating.

"I had one guy who didn't come back for a week after Easter once. I asked him what happened and he said 'I've been in prison'.

"I don't want to be disrespectful but you are giving someone a job. Okay, it's not the highest-paying job in the world, but you've got to start somewhere and in the building industry you can go a long way."