“Who are all these people?”
“We’ve been re-enforced, sir.”
–(Loosely from Starship Troopers)
So, I get on site finally, after two minor mis-adventures in navigation (one mine, one caused by a mis-conception when someone gave me directions – they assumed I knew the ‘efficent’ route to the job. Oh well.), and things have changed. I am not running a crew of 4.
Instead, I was given 4 more guys to go on my job, making 8 grand total. Parts weren’t all there (including the all-important 7′ tall rack that everything routes to!) THIS turned my day upside down quickly – I had already mapped out what I was going to do with 4 guys. Lance and I work as a team, and the two extras do pipe and wire. Easy stuff. First part of the day was going to be getting everything together, and getting the parts for pipe and wire.
Except NOW I’ve got 4 people that would be standing around doin’ nothing waiting on parts (charging labor to my job – something I’m trying very hard to make a very profitable job). Plus I’ve got parts missing, so I have to track them down, yadayadayada, blahblahblah. A shitload to do at once.
In a moment of clarity, I suddenly understood management a bit better (and why people take up drinking ;-). I was starting to work with Lance and a couple o’ guys to get them started, and had that epiffany… I looked at Lance, and basically said handle it. He knew most of what had to happen – any questions he had, he’d come back and ask. He’s not stupid at all. Did that, moved to the next crew, looked at one of the extras, had them call for parts (and sent them on a two-hour run to pick up parts.) After that, I totally changed what I was doing – instead of DOING the work, I started managing people.
Go fig, that works much better 😉 However, I did finally get things lined out to the point where I had the opportunity to strap on my stilts, and do real work – running cable across the drop in ceiling.
The day sort of sucked, but ya know what? That little lession on understanding management better was all worth it. Tomarrow will be better, since I’ll go into it with a better understanding of how to face the situation.
I do have some problems with the competency of two of the workers assigned to me, but, I think I may have a way of bypassing part of that problem. Tryin’ to decide if swaping some members around would work, or, just giving the most unimportant tasks to the crappy slow workers would be best. *SHRUG*
And IF you ever find yourself crusin’ down I80 an hour past Des Moines, IA – find a town called Monotor, and go eat at Rubes SteakHouse (Best Lil’ Steakhouse in Monotor!, they claim ;-). It’s a bit expensive, but, I just ate the most tender, delicious fliet minon I’ve ever had. And get this.. you just go pick out your steak, and cook it yourself! So, it’s always done perfectly 🙂 GREAT STUFF!
off ta’ bed – need to rest my frazzled mind.