My faithful and amazing lead carpenter, and friend, Harold, was in a bad wreck early last Monday morning, broke his lumbar, and is on the edge of paralysis- The situation is so serious the doctors and hospital insisted on surgery this week to get him out of the danger zone….despite having no health insurance.
In addition to financially helping with consequences of the accident and his pay, We are committed to doing all we can for as long as we can to get him through this- We don’t know the length it will take for him to recover or the extent of his recovery. Like myself he is approaching 60 and he has worked long and hard and it had already taken a toll on him before the accident.
To say there is a shortage of qualified people in the construction business is an understatement. It has changed my world immediately- We don’t have a single guy that even comes close to the experience this man has.
So here are some amazing ramifications-
First- over the years I was pretty frustrated that a lot of the guys did not take my lead in terms of tool organization work ethic and jobsite cleanliness. I could not figure out for the life of me why I couldn’t get the results I wanted. I was sure I set the example. So here is the deal-
When I had to step into the role of active lead everything immediately changed for the better. Why? Well I was amazed to realize that all of my workers did not look at me as the senior lead- Harold has the most experience and the guys followed his pattern- For years they have seen me as the finance department and grumpy quality control. Harold is not as I am uptight about all those details and never will be - But I know it’s good for business and I will never back away from high standards of cleanliness and performance. I think the thing that I’m learning is true leadership is a little bit different than owning the company.
Next, It is amazing how crystal clear it made the immediacy to do some things I’ve wanted to do for a long time- Sort of like the old adage knowing you’re going to get executed in two weeks clarifies everything - I have been able to radically change our path, In terms of the kind of jobs that we take. Fortunately I had already signed quite a few that were right in line with our new direction at the same time it has made everything crystal clear what is going to be best -
We are going in the direction of full house remodels with no one occupying the residence so we are free to come and go, This will be about 80% of our work with the other 20% to keep and maintain clients and occasionally meet new customers to sustain a customer base.
We are also going to negotiate trade rates with our fellow tradespeople to keep our costs on the significant jobs down- In exchange for that all the work that comes to us that we don’t accept we’re going to direct them where they can contract it out directly and charge their full rate.
Also work that comes that does not burden the company- Like a driveway- That is purely sent to one subcontractor- Is going to be priced and managed by my assistant with him getting up to 50% of the profit as a bonus and the remainder going to Harold or a fund for him and his family- We have to accept the fact that he may not even make it through the surgery without paralysis and we don’t know if he’ll ever make it back to work- What we do know is that he enabled my company to reach the market in a way it never had and our gratitude will be shown as long as we are here.
Right now the most stressful part of this is the level of competency of some of the workers that I’ve hired to replace him and technically they’re not replacing him they are helping me to replace him- One in particular has construction experience- bless his heart he cannot come close to keeping up with the speed that I like to work at. It is not egotistical - it is just that I’m a fast paced person and I have thought through the project in detail and the task at hand and when I get to the job I don’t need to meditate on every door swing, header size or layout decision. And realistically in construction a lot of the speed does not come from how fast you nail
things but how fast you make decisions. Plus I don’t have to ask the boss. @Hog can tell you I sorta get into what I’m doing at the time
.
I’m not the best teacher, I’m too fast to learn from, and need helpers to pay close attention to where things are going.
Another thing that has happened is I’ve had the opportunity to hire some Hispanic (Mexican) guys and that has been a lot of fun- The dad is super nice and wants to work and make money in the two young sons aren’t afraid to work at all even though they don’t speak much English- And the odd result of that is they have to pay close attention and they are right there with you. The more I watch them the more I see the potential to create something really beautiful- And we are working on helping them get some English lessons that their dad wants them to get. Plus they don’t stand around and talk. I have no problem with people from other countries being here- To be fair about it we just showed up- It has just been so long everyone forgot that.
Anyway wish me luck and I am open to any ideas do any of you guys have in a situation like this. The best thing that I can think of is to rest and not get myself or anyone else hurt, be efficient and just take it one day at a time. I do spend a section of my day supporting other workers on other jobs or meeting clients so that I’m not constantly stopping and starting when I’m wearing my toolbelt.
Thanks for reading,
Andy
In addition to financially helping with consequences of the accident and his pay, We are committed to doing all we can for as long as we can to get him through this- We don’t know the length it will take for him to recover or the extent of his recovery. Like myself he is approaching 60 and he has worked long and hard and it had already taken a toll on him before the accident.
To say there is a shortage of qualified people in the construction business is an understatement. It has changed my world immediately- We don’t have a single guy that even comes close to the experience this man has.
So here are some amazing ramifications-
First- over the years I was pretty frustrated that a lot of the guys did not take my lead in terms of tool organization work ethic and jobsite cleanliness. I could not figure out for the life of me why I couldn’t get the results I wanted. I was sure I set the example. So here is the deal-
When I had to step into the role of active lead everything immediately changed for the better. Why? Well I was amazed to realize that all of my workers did not look at me as the senior lead- Harold has the most experience and the guys followed his pattern- For years they have seen me as the finance department and grumpy quality control. Harold is not as I am uptight about all those details and never will be - But I know it’s good for business and I will never back away from high standards of cleanliness and performance. I think the thing that I’m learning is true leadership is a little bit different than owning the company.
Next, It is amazing how crystal clear it made the immediacy to do some things I’ve wanted to do for a long time- Sort of like the old adage knowing you’re going to get executed in two weeks clarifies everything - I have been able to radically change our path, In terms of the kind of jobs that we take. Fortunately I had already signed quite a few that were right in line with our new direction at the same time it has made everything crystal clear what is going to be best -
We are going in the direction of full house remodels with no one occupying the residence so we are free to come and go, This will be about 80% of our work with the other 20% to keep and maintain clients and occasionally meet new customers to sustain a customer base.
We are also going to negotiate trade rates with our fellow tradespeople to keep our costs on the significant jobs down- In exchange for that all the work that comes to us that we don’t accept we’re going to direct them where they can contract it out directly and charge their full rate.
Also work that comes that does not burden the company- Like a driveway- That is purely sent to one subcontractor- Is going to be priced and managed by my assistant with him getting up to 50% of the profit as a bonus and the remainder going to Harold or a fund for him and his family- We have to accept the fact that he may not even make it through the surgery without paralysis and we don’t know if he’ll ever make it back to work- What we do know is that he enabled my company to reach the market in a way it never had and our gratitude will be shown as long as we are here.
Right now the most stressful part of this is the level of competency of some of the workers that I’ve hired to replace him and technically they’re not replacing him they are helping me to replace him- One in particular has construction experience- bless his heart he cannot come close to keeping up with the speed that I like to work at. It is not egotistical - it is just that I’m a fast paced person and I have thought through the project in detail and the task at hand and when I get to the job I don’t need to meditate on every door swing, header size or layout decision. And realistically in construction a lot of the speed does not come from how fast you nail
things but how fast you make decisions. Plus I don’t have to ask the boss. @Hog can tell you I sorta get into what I’m doing at the time
.I’m not the best teacher, I’m too fast to learn from, and need helpers to pay close attention to where things are going.
Another thing that has happened is I’ve had the opportunity to hire some Hispanic (Mexican) guys and that has been a lot of fun- The dad is super nice and wants to work and make money in the two young sons aren’t afraid to work at all even though they don’t speak much English- And the odd result of that is they have to pay close attention and they are right there with you. The more I watch them the more I see the potential to create something really beautiful- And we are working on helping them get some English lessons that their dad wants them to get. Plus they don’t stand around and talk. I have no problem with people from other countries being here- To be fair about it we just showed up- It has just been so long everyone forgot that.
Anyway wish me luck and I am open to any ideas do any of you guys have in a situation like this. The best thing that I can think of is to rest and not get myself or anyone else hurt, be efficient and just take it one day at a time. I do spend a section of my day supporting other workers on other jobs or meeting clients so that I’m not constantly stopping and starting when I’m wearing my toolbelt.
Thanks for reading,
Andy
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