jeff kushner
Well-Known Member
This is a fun one, because I'm not anonymous....
I don't sugarcoat it...if you suck, I'll let you know very quickly, and if you are an Ace, I'll let you do as much as you can do.
My only time was when an owners kid came to work for me that didn't work out was out in the field years ago at the Washington Cathedral in the mid 80's. I worked that kid like a dog!
I worked him so hard that I knew he'd cry at the dinner table with mom & dad. It worked and he was sent to a different jobsite.....guys who worked out there know, I didn't need "daddy's boy" reporting on my jobsite. It's what you do when you don't know what else to do as a 26y/o foreman but it seemed pretty right at the time. LOL
Offices are very different.....people can "hide"......
Fast forward a minute or two and I dodged a big one and I don't mind saying it. The owners brought in their kids to the office over the last 2 yrs as they also get ready to retire.....some are sharp, some not up to expectations. LOL
My protégé has to deal with one of them falling on his face from lack of "give a sh*t" over the past 18mos. It's his first big challenge as a Chief Estimator, other than securing enough work for 100 guys. He has been infinitely more patient with the kid than I would have been. The owners kid may suffer from dyslexia as his dad does.....but in the world of exact counts, missing half of the piping after you have been doing it for over a year, isn't making it, not at all but it's up to the protégé, it's his call now.
The way I see it, he will either be forced to coverup for the owners kid, or he'll get rid of the problem. Takes stones to do that.....I'll support him though. Some owners think their kids are as sharp as they are, even when they aren't so it can require tact.
.....I think he's at the point where he will suggest to the owners that kid goes back into the field.
Anyone else ever have to deal with a situation like that?
I don't sugarcoat it...if you suck, I'll let you know very quickly, and if you are an Ace, I'll let you do as much as you can do.
My only time was when an owners kid came to work for me that didn't work out was out in the field years ago at the Washington Cathedral in the mid 80's. I worked that kid like a dog!
I worked him so hard that I knew he'd cry at the dinner table with mom & dad. It worked and he was sent to a different jobsite.....guys who worked out there know, I didn't need "daddy's boy" reporting on my jobsite. It's what you do when you don't know what else to do as a 26y/o foreman but it seemed pretty right at the time. LOL
Offices are very different.....people can "hide"......
Fast forward a minute or two and I dodged a big one and I don't mind saying it. The owners brought in their kids to the office over the last 2 yrs as they also get ready to retire.....some are sharp, some not up to expectations. LOL
My protégé has to deal with one of them falling on his face from lack of "give a sh*t" over the past 18mos. It's his first big challenge as a Chief Estimator, other than securing enough work for 100 guys. He has been infinitely more patient with the kid than I would have been. The owners kid may suffer from dyslexia as his dad does.....but in the world of exact counts, missing half of the piping after you have been doing it for over a year, isn't making it, not at all but it's up to the protégé, it's his call now.
The way I see it, he will either be forced to coverup for the owners kid, or he'll get rid of the problem. Takes stones to do that.....I'll support him though. Some owners think their kids are as sharp as they are, even when they aren't so it can require tact.
.....I think he's at the point where he will suggest to the owners that kid goes back into the field.
Anyone else ever have to deal with a situation like that?
