Well Friday will either turn out to be the best day or the worst day. I fired a client on Friday.
We have been providing layout services for a heavy highway construction firm for a few years an all has been great except for one of their superintendents. The bad one will constantly flip his lid and start screaming, cursing and accusing the surveyor of screwing everything up. On the last project with him he was constantly bitching about 0.01' error in his string line. I tried to explain that we round things either up or down and some times, well a hundredth of a foot error is possible. He claims he can grade his rock to the hundredths with their GPS. I also got educated on the fact that once the first lane is poured the plans are thrown out the window and I can no longer calc my points from the plans. That project I swear gave me more gray hair then both of my boys.
Now he is an old salty dog and I am sure he knows a thing or two. But this guys is one of those encounters that makes you rethink why the hell do I waste my time with staking anymore. Contractors have a GPS pole rolling around in the bed of their trucks and they can do it all right?
Fast forward to Friday (my day off), in tropical storm rain, and I get a call wanting to know why we were not out staking? Then I got lectured on the need to have a crew there on Saturday and then 6 AM Monday ready to stake 4000 foot of pavement. I tried to explain that we are a small office and we serve many clients as well as the fact that no one was in the office and most of the guys were out of town this weekend and I don't have anyone availability at the drop of a hat to send someone out there. Then I got lectured again on how he runs his crews- his head explodes and the screaming begins. While he is screaming about this and that, and blowing out his O ring, he curses about something and hangs up on me.
Within 2 seconds I flip out! I cannot handle someone hanging up on my. I immediately flash back to my last experience with him...and all those sleepless nights come back to me.
I type up a wonderful email to send to to owner of the construction company stating our pulling off of the project. Then I had a long and professional conversation with him explaining that this guy is someone that I cannot work with and I will not. I remind him that prior to this project starting, we informed him that if the superintendent's behavior is anything like the last time we would be pulling off the project. I told him he was at it again and I will not go through it again and we will be pulling of the job immediately. The owner of the construction company pleas with me to try to work through it. I take a deep breath and I tell him I cannot do that.
The owner of my company fully supports me and I slept like a baby Friday night and my summer has already gotten better.
I just can't wait to talk to the next surveyor on Monday that will be replacing us, if they can even find one - since every company in town, including the DOT knows what a pain he is.
Congratulations. Very well done. Don't look back.
I worked at a large asphalt outfit for a number of years that exclusively contracted State highway work. My "longevity" is surely due to the fact that I no longer work in that business. It can be a high stress environment. Mix that up with the "colorful" personalities you run into and sometimes one single day can seem like it's a week long.
You did exactly what you needed, except you probably should have done it sooner. I finally figured out no job (or contract) was worth exposing myself to the unnecessary slings and arrows of frustrated folks operating at higher capacity than their psyche can handle.
Professional surveying services provided for highway construction are generally finite and well understood. The trick is always in the scheduling and the amount of time required to perform your portion of the job. Trust me, you're not the first surveyor that ever got yelled at by some idiot superintendent that forgot to factor in the time it takes for the surveyors to get in and out. When confronted with the scenario that "I was holding up everything" ; I always explained that if the whole show hinged on me, I'd probably be making more money.
Supervising by aggressive intimidation is a common disguise for lack of intelligence and proper planning. Things take exactly as long as they take. Sometimes they take longer. Even a junior superintendent understands that concept. A time-dependent "fluid" working schedule is the sign of a good project manager. Volume and anger are signs of someone that is losing a grip on his position.
Congratulations. I'm glad to see there are others who have to buy the super-heavy-duty brand of jock strap to provide proper support for the pendulous items that are required to get through this life. None of us should tolerate that type of behavior being directed at us by clients or their low level representatives. Life is too short.
I've already done that three times this year. Guess I'm fortunate that there's plenty of work without it, but I have very little in the way of suffering the "charisma" that seems so pervasive with superintendents. One in particular- who I suspect is working on some high-octane recipe of methamphetamines and the lord- he accused us (well, all surveyors) of not understanding how to do topo. When he said "...contours don't matter..." in a conference call, that's when I pulled the plug.
Good day it sounds.
I don't suffer thru anybody's rantings and can grow deaf to a$$hoz rap in a heartbeat.
:good:
I was in the same situation a few years ago. I told the owner that I would not work on any job that the superintendent was on, and explained why. Two weeks later the superintendent showed up at my office "to straighten me out", bad decision on his part. The last time I saw him he was driving a fuel delivery truck and we were working on a construction site for his former boss.
A wise man once told me that the hardest thing to do as a business owner is to learn how to say no to a client, but it is the best skill to master if you want to live long.
