Being on, staying on and working on any job.

I was born into the business in 1953. After a year my SeaBee dad decided I’d been lollygagging enough and put me to work as day labor...somewhat limited in what I could do at one year of age, I was still on the job. That was his one of many rule of thumbs about construction...be on the job. If you truly want a train-wreck to take place at your site....just go away for a long lunch and leave the crew behind.

It holds true for every phase. If you want the inspector to show up...go up the street to use the payphone (I know. What can I say...I’m old!) and get a 7-Eleven hotdog. When you come back the red flag will be flying on the inspections card. If you want your 60,000 bricks to show up and be placed around the house rather than the most convenient place for the delivery truck....go take an hour for lunch. Eat a good lunch because if 60,000 bricks get placed on the asphalt...the police will stand there and watch you move them off of the road. If your concrete crew doesn’t show up in the morning to set up forms for an early pour...it’s fiasco city when you:

a) call off the ready mix trucks;
b) listen to the dispatcher cuss your name for 30 minutes;
c) head for the home/office.

In my case, 20 miles away after fighting traffic coming in to get to the site on time. Also in my case, the secretary hands you a phone when you walk in the door...and sure enough, there’s your concrete crew wanting to know a) where I am since they don’t know where to set up the forms or where to knock out the curb for the apron; b) what time the concrete will show up. Or that hot to trot purchaser that shows up and passes you on the way out of the subdivision after you waited and then left...to go use the phone and get a cup of coffee.

In short...you go away...you’re at fault. Thus making you the tidbit at the end of the food chain. But...it is after all...YOUR investment in money, time, people and materials. You have to be the HMWBIC (head moron what be in charge) at all times because you are the responsible party at all times.

That’s pretty much lesson number one of Job One for construction. Mistakes happen and the end result is...you’re at fault no matter who or what created the mistake. Many...MANY great practical jokes find basis in you not being on site. I’ve set people up and have been set up in kind more times than the law should allow.

After enough years of trying to uphold that very fundamental issue of responsible business practice...the only way to reduce site time is to reduce the number of sites. Myself...I can do it in a semi-state of retirement. On the other hand, if you’re providing the general contractor service and can’t be found on the job....it won’t take long until your volume of clients and potential clients have dried up. There’s always something to do. Getting off your ass to do it is the chore. Sometimes due to age or infirmity but many times due to the lazy streak that many general contractors develop when they have minions on the clock to take care of the increasing number of chores that won’t get done...when YOU leave the job to go play golf or hang out with other builders at a Waffle House.

Those of you shaking your head...”it’s not like that.” Yeah...it is exactly like that. I've seen new GC's that hang out with older guys at the coffee shop for hours and get too used to that daily schedule of meeting, eating & drinking. When you get started, it's a hrd habit to break...it took me a while to stop it bascially by telling the guys to stop coming by my jobs. Not that I'm not sociable...which I'm not....but you have to act like Boss Man every day and nearly all day to keep from losing control or your schedule; the crews in line and your steady supply of materials du jour. If you allow your workmen to see that the GC considers that job as secondary....they begin to consider you, your expertise, acquired construction acumen as well as the job as....secondary. Leaders lead. They don't stop on the way out and ask...."anyone want coffee?" In today's climate...your workers simply start looking for short cuts. It used to be I'd show up on the nose at let's say....3:00 on a Friday to let the framing crew take off. I'd show up with their check and as soon as I pulled up....it became apparent that the crewboss's statement, "I reckon we'll knock off at 3 today" actually meant, they started putting away at 2:30 and were sitting in their trucks at 3. About the 2nd time, I would show up at 3:30 and then bitch if they had not swept the place down while sitting on their ass in the trucks for a half hour. I knew it was time to start looking for a new framing crew. It was my own fault, too. Once that day labor or general building laborer starts playing you....the choices are beat them with a long piece of 4x4 until they learn their lesson or to fire same and don’t let this type of thing get ahead of you again. When I started slouching off on how to deal with someone on the clock and not getting the work done...it only compounds the problem to other sub-contractors and workers who start to realize that you’re pretty much a push-over. Staying on the job is what you're getting paid the big bucks for. If you can't deal with or control your force in good times....if things go big time Poochscrew, you'll find that your loyal force of workers are loyal but only while on the clock. I can't find fault with that....however I prefer subs that want to work with me or for me but continually ask if I'd like to go fishing or hunting in S.Georgia or Alabama for the weekend...because we do have a rapport. The money is one thing...your personna speaks just as loud and being watched all day on the job. When the crews include you into the practical jokes...or make you a target, you're going in the right direction. That may have been then....but as for the 21st century...it's a whole different breed. There are outstandingly good trades and crafts men/women that are having to deal with the same problems as GC....finding labor and keeping labor. When their particular specialty starts getting too ornerous a burden but the debts are still there for their investments into the company or partners...they develop poor control as they start to wear thin on something of a routine that they can't escape from because their dream profession has turned sour and not as they had planned. At that point....you inherit their problems in quality control or lack of skills. Sometimes you simply have to find replacement subcontractors once or twice a year...clear the existing Subs List on your contact page (you DO have a contact page...right?)...and use your General Contracting acumen and charm to bring in the replacements that know you’re the boss and expect things done according to drawings and agreements. Even then...it won’t last forever...it’s the New Broom Sweeps Good adage that applies here. If you leave a job site or find that your good lady wife wants to take a trip up to Maryland to visit family for a week...you plan ahead for that event and schedule your crews and general labor accordingly. My rule that I explain to any police or deputies that patrol the neighborhood that I may be in for new construction and an empty house....”if my vehicle is not here, I’m not here...and no one else should be here.” I’ve had too many pieces of plywood, pre-cut studs, 50lb boxes of 16d and 8d nails, sheathing and rolls of barrier material walk off when I was not around to control my inventory. Peculiarly enough...I rarely had anyone steal concrete blocks...which does not speak highly of the low life lazy thieves that surround us.