can you believe this ?

[Tori]

The other night while working at a fannie mae data center upgrade , we were installing new feeds to some critical equipment that when finished 99% of the way we were to inform the buildings engineer whom would inform the building contract electricians to shut down the equipment so we could transfer over the feed and minimise down time.

about 50% into the job and one of the contract electricians asks if he can borrow my hack saw and I ask why and he informs me so he can cut the liquid tite open on the feed, I asked him whom told him to shut it down and how far he was into it and could he turn it back on , he responded NO -that they had already demoed the feed and they were told to do so by the building engineer
I immediatly notified the GC and he requested the eneneer come up so we could speak to him - he initally denied it but then the contract guys started getting upset and then he copped to it saying there had been a missunderstanding

LOL - my company(I wrote it, they submitted it) had to fill out a MAP - methodolgy of work listing step by step
of exactly what we were doing, so that the down time on the affected critical 3 cir. would be no more than 30 min.
as it turned out they were down for 5 hr.s and as I was leaving the Engineer was sweating bullets because the biometrics - eyescanner system to allow access into the data center - had not come back up

If we had done this they would have thrown us to the sidewalk

 

[Tori]

No comments ?
I was surprised at the lack of professional courtesy by the contract electricians to not even communicate with us before they demoed the feed ( to a panel ) .
They seemed more interested in removing the copper feeders since they left all of the liquid tite under the floor in pieces.
I will mention that we are a unionshop and they are a nonunion shop albeit a very large one - I think they ranked 4th or 5th in highest grossing in the nation in EC&M
I have not heard anything since sat morning when it happened, I wonder if the truth will be told ?
these things have a strange way of getting the facts distorted

 

[George Stolz]

How many typical days have you had that have gone right?

I can only think of a few...

 

[mdshunk]

I was surprised at the lack of professional courtesy by the contract electricians to not even communicate with us before they demoed the feed ( to a panel ) .

Sometimes, when you're certain that you're doing the right thing, you don't realize that you're doing the wrong thing. Does that make sense?

 

[Tori]

I do understand what both of you said.
I just imagined that this building would be similer to some of the other projects we have going -that the GC or the EE takes tight reighns on the project when the issue is critical to the customer.
we are very familier with writing SIPPs - site incident prevention protocal and usually they go off with out a hitch - I mean if one encounters anything not in the SIPP - then work must cease - and a new sipp written for work at another time after the powers that be smoke it over for what systems may be affected
This building threw out two of the GC's foremen for dissagreeing with the EE before we even started the project

 

[Tori]

On these type of projects you only want your good men around , A screw up will cost you big time not to mention getting kicked to the curb never to work for the customer again

 

[muskiedog]

Is this your first issue with this? Get used to it. Best layed plans only take one to mess them up. I always try and remember when I'm pointing the finger I have three pointing back at me,

could I have prevented it?
Could I have done it differently?
Will I make sure it doesn't happen again?

I have had some big egos screw up the easiest job.

 

[JohnJ0906]

muskiedog, I think you bring up a good point. My company recently had a couple of projects...ahem...not go as smooth as they could have. When I suggested we sit down and go over what we could have done differently, you know, try to LEARN from our mistakes, the foreman and VP looked at me like I had 3 heads. The attitude is "its done, lets forget about it". I just don't want the same stuff to happen next year. I see a few things I can improve, but evidently their stuff don't stink!

 

[mdshunk]

I just don't want the same stuff to happen next year. I see a few things I can improve, but evidently their stuff don't stink!

It's during those times where you compare your amount of pay to the amount of frustration an attitude like that from management creates for you. If the pay is enough to offset the frustration, don't sweat it. You tried. If the pay is not enough to compensate, sell your skill to someone else.

 

[maryl]

Your first mistake was making the assumption that the proper communication would take place between all those involved. Union/nonunion doesn't have a darn thing to do with the problem unless there is an unwritten law I'm not aware of that one shouldn't talk to the other. Remember - assumptions can kill.

 

[cowboyjwc]

We were doing a project once and the guy in charge was just one of the plant supervisors.

He told me to demo out a panel because they needed to move the piece of equipment that it was attached to I told him twice that I couldn't and then he reminded me that he was in charge and I should just do as I was told, so I did.

Ten minutes after I'm done he comes over screaming that the assembly line was shut down and we needed to get it back up. I again told him twice that I couldn't he again reminded me that he was in charge and then I reminded him that he had told me to demo out the panel that fed the assembly line and there was no way to get it back up anytime soon.

He was fired not long after that.

"The best laid plans...."

 

[dlhoule]

How many typical days have you had that have gone right?

I can only think of a few...

When things have gone right, it is not a typical day!

John, isn't it amazing how many times when you have to do as you are told, the person is upset because you finally did what they wanted you to do.

 

[JohnJ0906]

John, isn't it amazing how many times when you have to do as you are told, the person is upset because you finally did what they wanted you to do.

The best part about something like that is smiling, and saying, "Just doing what you told me to!"

 

[cowboyjwc]

Larry and John,

And if you knew the guy, I was grinning from ear to ear, especially when I was explaining to his boss what had happened.

You just can't save some people from them selfs.

 

[JohnJ0906]

You just can't save some people from them selfs.

Nor should you.

 

[mattsilkwood]

not long ago i was doing some repair work at a large home center ,the assistant manager insisted that i check in my tools at the front desk, if i need a tool i was to go all the way across the 200,000 sq/ft store to get it. i packed up shop right then , by the next day at noon my phone was ringing off the hook seems the district man wanted to get some registers fired up.
i ve benn back to that store a couple of times since but never seen that assistant manager again

 

[petersonra]

We run across all kinds of counterproductive rules and procedures when we do startups. Thats one of the reasons they are almost always T&M.

It used to bug me, but over time I realized that I could not change it so I learned to live with it.