Ch 4.The Dirtiest Word In Construction...(it's not dirt)
The Dirtiest Word in Construction…
It is said that experience is the best teacher, and that very much applies to me, and very much to this post, but I might also tend to disagree. Admitting my bias, I think my Dad is the best teacher (he was a schoolteacher also), and as I’ve mentioned here in this blog at least once, he told me as a young man in a heated debate about trying/failing/learning “son, you don’t have to make all the mistakes to learn from them, you can learn from other people’s mistakes too!” The amount of times I’ve used this dirty word, I am not proud of, so hopefully a reader or two somewhere can follow my Dad’s advice to me and will learn from my mistakes.
Now, if my juicy title has sucked you in and you’re hoping for some profanity, I will let you down easy. The dirtiest word in construction isn’t profane. If you’ve spent any time on jobsites, or around construction workers, you’ve likely learned all kinds of foul descriptors for the portable toilets on site, a unit of measurement that is infinitely small, or heard all kinds of weekend exploits on Monday morning that could make your hair curl. This isn’t that.
In fact, I would argue that this word is worse than any other foul verbiage you could hear on site, because those words don’t cost money, and this one does.
The dirtiest word in construction is…should. Should? That’s it? That’s why I clicked on this damn blog title and read this far into it??? Hold on, hear me out, give me one paragraph to explain why, and then you can leave if you want.
(True) “Hey, did your coworker get a utilities locate so we don’t dig and hit any buried water/sewer/electrical lines?” “Uhhhh yeah he should have.”
(True) “Hey is that gas meter disconnected?” “Yeah should be.”
(True)“Hey, do the drywallers know they’re scheduled to be onsite on Monday?” “Ya, they should be there.”
So What To Do…
You get the idea? The amount of times I said that word early in my construction admin career was not great. All it takes is one time for the should to bite you and hopefully you learn. It took me a few more times than one. I am happy to report that now, if that word ever creeps up and into my mouth, I swallow it faster than a late night shwarma in my 20s. After eating that horrible word, I pick up the phone and I make a phone call to confirm that what I think should be happening, is indeed happening. As I tell my students, phones are for more than texting, and phone calls are free. In fact, in this context, phone calls can save you thousands.
So if you’ve made it this far, I’m hoping the next time that word enters your brain about almost anything, you get rid of it faster than sour milk and pick up the phone. Should has cost people money, time, and unfortunately life and limb. If, like me, you don’t learn this lesson right away, you may find yourself using some of those other construction site words, but they don’t fix the gas meter once the pipe’s been cut, or get the drywallers to your job site. Hopefully you can learn from others’ mistakes, or at least, you should.