It's a very distressing feeling when you're telling your boss that you understand what he wants you to do and that you have no problem getting it done in the required timeframe while looking him in the eye and getting the feeling that hes disappointed in you.
I had that feeling today and the only thing I can think that he's thinking is that I should've thought to do what he was telling me to do already.
The Deep Beam candid answer is that I had thought of much of what he was saying, but since it involved the Special Permit that we've been working on for months I was hesitant because I wasn't sure what the City wanted to see.
I hate this feeling because while I, and you True Believers, know that I'll do better next time, the next time I get into this kind of situation with this boss is likely to be a long time from now. What do I do in the meantime to let him know that I'm learning from my mistakes and from his experience?
One way is to simply lead, which is the theme of 2011, but that's not easy for me. I need some backbone building exercises.
I am trying to lead and in some situations I've done so effectively, but me taking the lead on a problem often means that my bosses don't find out there was a problem in the first place. Nice catch 22 huh? In don't really want to be That Guy who goes around telling stories about how awesome he is for handling things.
I guess I keep thanklessly going on trying my best.
Normally my postings are written hours or days after the event I'm describing, but today, on a very special installment of Deep Beam, I give you a posting mere minutes after the event.
I just had a phone conversation with a GC that I thought was simply to arrange a time to have a different phone conversation tomorrow with my boss. Instead it led to her almost walking away from the job. I'm stunned not only at the direction the call took, but also at how cool I remained through it.
First off, yes I said that the GC was a she, which many of you may know is rare, and I'll continue to call her that even though she is not actually licensed in this state. It's just convenient; she owns the company that has a licensed GC but so far I speak with her more than him.
The gist of things are that she's the higher of two bids by about $300K, and she knows it. Our internal agenda for tomorrows call was to make sure that the low guy hadn't missed something that she had caught, but we told her it was to better understand her costs (also true). When I picked up the phone I hoped I'd get her to say that we're on for tomorrow and that's that. Instead she went right into talking about her number for the Electrical scope of work and how they priced the drawings and specs and her number was fair. Then she went on to say that it was professionally disrespectful to her that we were having phonecalls and not meetings. That was the first time I was stunned by her call. I tried to explain that we hadn't even gotten to the call yet since we kept having calls to set up the call!
The conversation went on and at a certain point I just decided to let her go and I'd say as little as possible since she was off on a tear and going a mile a minute. Pretty soon it came out that each number in the price had a 15% fee added to it for potential mistakes or other cost overruns. She's also charging about 13% straight overhead and profit on everything, therefore the client is paying 28% of the cost of the job that potentially does not go to any physical thing that will be part of his house when it's done. Amazing. When I told her that the other GC wasn't charging the additional 15% overrun fee because if he made a mistake it would come out of his profit she was floored. Basically she wasn't willing to put her profit at risk in the way that is pretty standard in the industry. That 15% delta is going to lose her this job.
At this point I still hoped to get a time to talk tomorrow, but then she went on. She straight out told me that there was no way she could do the job for the lower GCs price. Effectively she was taking herself out of the running in this competition! I thanked her for being candid and told her that if that's the case it was the clients call. A few minutes later the call was over and there was no need to have the one tomorrow.
I'm proud of myself for keeping cool and not punting the call to my boss, but also because I realize that I couldn't have had that conversation a year ago. Not only am I more confident now, but I also have more experience and know better what to say to people who are older and more/differently experienced than I am. It's amazing to have experiences that allow for such clear self-examination.
As promised last week, here's the post about Change Orders.
So what's a change order?
A change order is the instrument by which the construction cost as stipulated in the contract is either increased or decreased.
When do you need a change order?
When the scope of works is changed, which can happen for any of a number of reasons. The homeowner can add scope by deciding they want something more than what was in the original scope, like say a jacuzzi, or another bedroom, which would be a straight add. A client can change from a more expensive to a less expensive building material (value-engineering), for example from a slate roof to an asphalt one. These are elective change orders that the client initiates and usually aren't that much of a problem. In the case of an add, the GC is happy because they get a mark-up on the additional work, so their profit increases. Similarly if the Architect has a design fee that is tied to construction cost, they get an increased fee to cover the additional design work that the change requires.
There are also change orders for "unforeseen circumstances", which are conditions that no one could justifiably have predicted. There could be rock ledge under the area where the basement is intended to be, termite damage in a wall that was meant to remain untouched, or even the discovery of hazardous materials like lead, mould or asbestos where none was anticipated. In these cases the team of the GC, Client and Architect come to a conclusion as a group to decide if the situation was truly "unforeseen" and a change in scope, or if the GC should've had a reasonable expectation that the problem was there and provided funds in the contract amount for it. These change orders can be hard for a Client to swallow, but usually they can be made to understand their necessity.
The worst kind of change order is for omissions in scope. This could be because the GC failed to understand the project as bid, or that the Architect either described the scope inadequately or omitted something that they Client had requested. Omissions in scope caused by the Architect are in my mind the worst (I'm biased) because it means that we've (I've) failed or misunderstood the Client in some way.
By the letter of the contract (depending on the form used), if the Architect and Client can show that a disputed area of scope was in fact in the original drawings or specifications then GC is bound to provide the scope without an increase in cost. It seems cut and dry, but it's actually pretty tough to deal with because it calls into question what else the GC has made mistake on. Inevitably there are arguments over who's responsible for the cost and it creates a contentious atmosphere at the job site, which leads to aggravation and discord that get in the way of making progress on the project.
The finger pointing can lead to any of the three parties to the contract being responsible for the cost. We've seen how the Client and the GC can be responsible, but at times (rather perversely) the Architect can be on the hook for the cost (Something that has happened to me quite a bit lately and is really hard).
With this as background I'll be writing future posts about my experiences in being on the butt-end of change orders, and all of the negativity that can go with them. It'll be good times.
Yesterday was the final scheduled launch of OV-103 Discovery. You'll find that many sources will say final "scheduled" launch, but let's not kid ourselves, she's made her last ascent, and no amount of wishing or letter writing is going to get the STS program restarted after this summer.
I make it a point to watch every shuttle launch if it's at all feasible, and that has often meant streaming NASA TV while at work, and my coworkers pretty much know that if I have headphones on, we must be close to a launch. This was true yesterday and I started watching about an hour before launch, which was perversely actually T-15:00 (NASA time is WAY worse than football time). I had the coverage on the screen and did my best to stay billable at the same time. At about 30 minutes to go a consultant called and I worked on getting him to lower his contract price (which I eventually did, a new skill that I'm learning). While that was happening my client called twice, and when I got off the phone I left the client a message and learned there was a potential problem with Range Safety that could postpone the launch.
The client called back at about T-7:00 and he ended up venting to me until well after ET staging (it's hard to say when, the streaming hung up at about T+5:00). I'll be honest, I was tempted to put off the call, partially because of the launch, but also because I suspected that the client was upset about some change orders I had forwarded him earlier in the day. I sucked it up though and took the call, which was the right thing to do, and the end I'm happy I did.
He was upset, but to my surprise, not with me. For only the second or third time in 5 years he was upset with the Interior Designers and not us, and he unwound about them for the first half of the conversation, then he moved on to the GC moving slowly, and finally he came to the change orders. He is not interesting in paying them at all, he thinks they're high, and he thinks that the lighting design was inadequate. Full disclosure, I did all the lighting drawings and I've never felt that they were properly reviewed by the rest of the design team, mostly due to rushed schedules, so if he's questioning the lighting design he's questioning me. This is not the first time that he has questioned my designs, but this time was a bit different. It was less direct, a bit more passive, and had a delaying tone as if his criticism was something that could wait for another conversation. I wasn't afraid to speak up and defend the design, but didn't feel the need to draw him into a larger conversation about it.
Anyway, we made it through the conversation without any shouting, and I kept my cool even when I saw the foam strike near Discovery's wing root at about T+3:56. It did freak me the hell out, but I saw no obvious damage and knew that the risks were low in the high thin atmosphere the shuttle is traveling through after staging. I went to discuss the conversation with my boss, who was a little on edge about it. My other boss isn't as involved in the project and joined the conversation with a little more detachment, something that hasn't gone well for me in past conversations like this. This time it went pretty well, boss #2 was in a jovial mood and made jokes that seemed to suggest that he was on my side.
We went back and forth through all the issues that the client had brought up and even branched out to a few that he hadn't. In the end it was pretty clear that the client was venting, and that's when boss #2 said something very interesting and insightful. He said that people tend not to vent to the people that they're mad at, they tend to vent to someone that is close to the problem, but not actually the cause of it. That might seem obvious, but it's hard to stay objective when dealing with emotional people who have millions of dollars on the line. I was glad he said that and it made me realize that during the call I had been letting many of his comments fly past without getting me riled up. I had subconsciously recognized that he was venting and detached myself a little bit from what was happening which enabled me to not loose my cool about the fact that he was disparaging my work. I'm learning, and realizing that made it almost worth missing most of the launch of STS-133.
In any event, I went home reviewing the launch coverage on my DVR while on the phone with my father. The event I saw was not 1 but 2 foam strikes, but NASA isn't worried about them just now. Here's the video:
Maybe tomorrow I'll write about Change Orders and project burn out. Gripping stuff, stay tuned.
I could spend all day writing about Space or finding and posting about cool images and videos that I find online, but I don't think that the world needs that right now, and I also don't think that's what's going to help me be a better Architect. However, as with the recent anniversaries that we've endured, I feel that on occasion there are things that are too important to not interrupt our irregularly scheduled programming.
Today that interruption comes to us in the form of two videos from what's being called The Sagan Series, which feature modern, seemingly hi-definition video of our world and the Space Shuttle set to the calm, thoughtful, nigh-immortal words of Carl Sagan.
I encourage you to take 7 minutes and watch these videos and listen to his words. The message is really very simple, it costs so little to explore, and learning about the unknown is truly what human beings do best.
Amongst the things my boss mentioned to me at my review back in December was that some people in the office set goals for what they want to get accomplished in any given day so that when they get there they can get right to work. This is was not a new idea to me and is something that I had been doing and still do, but apparently he didn't think that I did. Last Friday I showed up to work with two tasks that I definitely wanted to get done and felt that the small amount of work on my other project wouldn't keep me from completing the other two.
I had to make one phone call to my client to clarify something that was going on with another member of the design team and it got out of control and became a shit show that consumed the rest of day entirely. My boss and I talked about me calling the client to talk about the situation and instead of just picking up the phone and calling him like I probably should have, I decided to email him and ask when he'd be free. He runs a company so it made sense to me find out rather than to just surprise him with a call. He responded fairly quickly to say that he'd call me in a half hour. That was fine with me, it gave me time to work on my two main tasks of the day (incidentally not a part of this clients projects). Giving him that half hour sealed the fate of my productive day. In my email I mentioned to him what I wanted to discuss, and I find out later that hadn't been paying much attention to this particular issue and in that half-hour he was able to look into it and to get himself pretty worked up about it.
He called me from the road and started right off on the offensive and shouting into the phone about the problem and how it shouldn't be his responsibility, nor should he be on the hook for the cost, and even further that he was the one coordinating the project when it should be my company. This isn't remotely true, we've coordinated more than he realizes, and it's only when he's struck with an additional cost that he accuses others of not doing their jobs. Regardless, he was upset and came at me with such a fervor that I couldn't respond, I was caught so off guard that I didn't know what to say to him, which is exactly what he wanted I'm sure. Clearly I don't react well to being yelled at, never have in my life, and unfortunately this project has seen me being shouted at on multiple occasions by the client, the GC, the designer, and less directly, by my other boss at my review.
But I digress.
Aside from the fact that I had a lot of damage control to do, this conversation so flummoxed me that I couldn't recover for the rest of the day and made no progress on my other tasks. And its not as though I sat around moping all day, there was a lot of management-type work to do on this project to keep the client happy. I feel as if I've been talking for the last two weeks and not actually getting any work done. This project has had a series of deadlines set first by the GC, and then by the client, and now the GC has set another for this Friday, so I once again feel that I need to get through this week and everything will be fine - again. I hope this time is really it and that 95% of the remaining project close out work gets done this work so theres less to be yelled at about.
Even once this project gets done I'll still have to deal with the fact that I'm going to get yelled at by people who want to have control and the upper hand in a situation. That's a real fault of mine and one that is not conducive to leadership.
On this date 8 years ago I was awoken by a phone call from my father, who told me that the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry and that all hands were lost over Texas. It took me a few minutes to understand what he was saying and why there was absolutely no hope of seeing seven parachutes carrying the crew to a safe landing. I held some hope anyway and it wasn't until after I saw the footage of those faint contrails in the blue sky that I truly accepted that the crew was gone.
As the years have passed I've thought of that day often, and I realize that I mourn the loss of the vehicle as much as I do the crew, which is not the case with Challenger. This probably has something to do with my age at the time of the accidents, but also because Columbia was the first Space Shuttle, I watched her first lift-off, saw the "Hail Columbia" IMAX film in 1982, and even featured her in my thesis. Columbia was the first, and in my opinion, best of the fleet and I was sad for her when I found out that she was too heavy to reach the International Space Station's orbit, thus reducing her usefulness in the post-ISS world.
Unfortunately its hard not to view the tragic end of the STS-107 mission as the beginning of the end of the Shuttle program, and for the short term the winding down of our country's human spaceflight program. Longtime opponents of Shuttle saw the damage to the heat shield as an inherent weakness that threatened to call into question the Shuttle program right down to its fundamentals.
The Deep Beam disagrees, and in fact sees the Space Shuttle as one of the pinnacles of human achievement, that provides a unique and important capability that has no peer, and sadly no replacement. OV-102 Columbia will be sorely missed, as will her crew.
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