In the residential design/build world there are many different issues that company owners face on a day-to-day basis. Who will buy a project from my company? Where is the next paycheck coming from? How will I pay the bills next month? What are the latest trends and why do people do the things they do?

When you read this blog please be aware that it has the potential to cause rapid finger tapping, involuntary head twitching, gut wrenching nausea or may even cause you to break out in a cold sweat. How could a blog cause this to happen? Good question.

If you are at all familiar with the new hit series on the Discovery channel, “Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe,” you know that he travels the country and takes on one particular job for one day. The only requirement is that they are dirty. You know…smelly, disgusting and flat out nasty!

The opening line to the show is: “Hi, my name is Mike Rowe and this is my job.”

“Dirty Jobs” is a show that celebrates “hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kind of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.”
In homage to “Dirty Jobs,” this blog will explore the dirty side of people and the behavior that causes project delays and cost overruns. They do not pay attention to detail and constantly struggle to deal with each other within the design/build industry.
Let’s get dirty.

In general, people seem to be OK when you look at a large group of them. Maybe you are sitting at a football stadium, college graduation ceremony or even a funeral. Folks seem to be getting along with each other and our perception tells us that they are enjoying or mourning together as a group. Or are they? Picture yourself and a buddy sitting at a football game. Sitting behind you is a prehistoric caveman and his tribe holding their beer over your heads. In the back of your mind you know if the referee makes a terrible call against his team you and your buddy will be taking a cold beer shower.

In today’s world, more than ever, people’s poor behavior is spreading throughout society like the perennial California wildfires which consume everything in their path and ruin millions of lives. People with poor behavior that are raising children will pass that poor behavior on to their children who will in turn past it on to their children. Listen carefully and you can hear parents and children say the following; “I want the best for my child; Daddy, I want; I don’t care; I want it now!” and so on. Among the causes of poor behavior are self gratification, self indulgence and self absorption.

Poor job performance, consistent absenteeism and non-team players cause the business community billions of dollars each year and the problem is getting bigger and bigger. Dirty behavior does not discriminate as to what type or size your company might be or what it might produce. Companies with more than one person running the show have people problems because people bring their own ideas, beliefs and comfort zones to your place of business. Multiply the number of people in your company by a factor of 50 and you may start to see how big this people issue can be.

To illustrate dirty people in action here is a small but true story, about a small woman, working in a small business, in a small town. One day a small woman arrives at her work place and starts her day with a small cup of coffee and large coffee roll. She settles in for the day. On this day the small woman was taking an online class about how to handle customers calling the company and inquiring about a future project. The trainer was helping the class understand the finer points of how to handle future customers who choose not to follow the company’s protocol and procedures.

The small woman listened carefully and with great intent to the trainer’s explanation of how to handle people in a professional manner. The class was ready to move on to the next subject, but the small woman was not. The small woman told the class without a bit of hesitation, that her husband did not follow her rules of the house so she put soap in his food. This caused the husband to get sick and miss work for one week. True Story.

Hi, my name is Joe Dellanno this is my job. 

This entry was posted on Friday, January 5th, 2007 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Joe Dellanno. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.