Jobsite Bosses Putting Up With Crap

By Author: Howard
Total Articles: 8
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I've been running jobsites for more than a quarter of a century and done so with great success I might add. Being in charge poses many challenges on a day to day basis. And, it's not always easy. Responsibility runs much deeper than constructing a slab, four walls, some doors and windows.

I would say that whoever is running a jobsite is accountable for everything from form lumber quality to portable restroom rentals. Years ago, I had the luck of working for a man that was referred to by all as a perfectionist. There were a few choice swear words associated with the term perfectionist as well, but I won't reference those in this story. The man I came to know as Steve Monroe was loved by those above him, the owners of the general contractor company I worked for and those that hired his company, for he never disappointed them. Steve delivered above and beyond their expectations and did so in a timely manner, never complaining about anything. Nor did he toot his own horn. His work spoke for itself.
Steve was a king in their eyes, but loathed by those of us that worked ...
... under him. He was nitpicky about everything. And anal? He took the word to an entirely new level. Looking back now I realize that Steve was the company's cash cow. He took lemons and made lemonade, he spun straw into gold for two General Contractors. Yeah, looking back now I recognize that Steve did the work while his bosses did the divvying up of profits from Steve's skills.

At the time, I was 23 yrs old and thought it was just bad luck that I ended up on Steve's crew. I would have quit but I needed the job and I was what was called a green horn, new to the trade. My first day of work, I showed up in brand new Wellco work boots. I had scraped together my last few bucks to buy them so I would fit in at my new job and the first thing Steve said when he saw me on that early morning is Kid you ain't worked a day in your life in this business and them boots prove it. I was embarrassed and busted. I had fudged a little on my application by stating that I had worked a year as an apprentice for a masonry company. He looked at me a long time like he was measuring me up and walked off without so much as a word. To this day, I don't know why he didn't fire me Johnny on the spot for lying. He was a Christian man, we all knew that.

Steve had this voice that was deep by nature but that voice was compounded or so it seemed when it was you he was riding roost on. If he thought you were doing substandard work. His voice would boom across thejobsite as loud as if the heavens had opened up and the man himself wanted to be heard across the world. He would yell out that you thought you were better than everyone else and did they all think it fair that your shoddy work was left as testimony to their performance. It was humiliating to say the least and I wasn't alone in trying to avoid the wrath of the Steve. We all performed to the best of our ability and made every effort to avoid mistakes.

I had been working under Steve for about four months when all ‘you know what' hit the fan. Apparently it had started a bad day for Steve before his truck ever left his driveway. But of course, none of us could have known that, Steve wasn't the type to share his personal life. Heck, he wasn't the type to share anything in a verbal way unless it was something needed to be said and it was usually reprimanding words that escaped his lips. But this particular morning it was like the devil himself had shown up in a hardhat and he had changed his name from Lucifer to Steve.Everyone gave a wide berth to him that morning and I'm telling you that not one man said anything for more than three hours that morning. All you heard was the crunch of gravel under the wheelbarrow wheel and the scraping of trowels on the masonry walls.

It was about 11 AM when the porta potty company showed up to pump out the rental Jon. I can't remember the name of the company, Western or Waste something or another, but they were the second toilet rental company that had been onsite since I had been hired. Even the restroom rental companies couldn't escape Steve's intolerance for substandard performance. The first company had forgotten to put toilet paper in the rental toilets not once, not twice but three times. So he fired em. And let me tell you the day he fired that company, they knew they would never work for him again. He told them to get their crappers of his jobsite in manner that cannot even be repeated in writing. But this second company Oh, their timing was lousy.

Ole Steve had been in the toilet about two minutes when the septic truck pulled in. Apparently he was fully aware of Steve's bristling personality and thought he had better pull in as close to that toilet as he could get and clean it from top to bottom to satisfy the guy that ran the jobsite. Unfortunately thought, we was unaware that Steve was in the rental toilet and also unaware (as all of us were) that Steve's home septic tank had backed up that morning and Steve had already had to clean up a backed up toilet mess at home that day, the pump truck driver started backing his truck up so that his hose would reach the bank of toilets located between two very tall stacks of lumber.

We didn't see it but boy did we hear it when that truck backed right in to that toilet and knocked it clean over on its side. There was a ruckus and then yelling and cussing and for a minute nobody ventured over to see what Steve was yelling about this time. But none of us had ever heard him go off like he was right then and curiosity got the better of everyone on the jobsite that day and about the time we walked up was about the time Steve climbed out of that rental toilet on his hands and knees and covered with poop and toilet paper. He didn't say a word to anyone just walked over to the hose spigot and took a jobsite shower.

Needless to say that was the last day on the job for that porta potty company and Steve brought in a company called Diamond Environmental Services. Diamond always put extra toilet paper in their rental toilets and they never backed up to get to a toilet, at least not our job they didn't. And we were all pretty sure that Steve had hired them under the condition that they never back in!
Reflecting back now, I recognize that it was my good fortunate to have worked under this man. I learned a lot from him. But two things I will share and recommend. Never wear new work boots your first day on the job and never back up with anything as big as a toilet rental pump truck unless you can see where you're going. If you follow my advice on those two things, you won't get a load of crap.