Ken,

This is really discouraging.  My experience is so limited and sheltered.  I need
to be reassured.  Tell us about the clients who fly your family to Jamaica for a
week just because they like your work.  Or at least about the tickets to
Broadway plays.  Oh I know, the one the lawyers were talking about the other
day...box seats at the Hockey Arena, where pop corn costs $25.00!  Oh, sorry,
didn't mean to imply a connection between you and those people.  Its just that
sometimes the private sector looks glamorous....and I do so want to believe that
it is.

-jc

Ken Follett wrote:

> In a message dated 12/21/00 5:59:54 PM Central Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << it was more that they were unable, to handle the work, for what ever
> reason....   lack of capital to handle that size job, stretched too thin, not
> enough people, not enough equipment, you name it.... >>
>
> It is difficult to maintain resources as a steady stream.
>
> We work to secure a plum restoration job to keep a good craftsman, our rising
> star, employed and then he tells us he is going to Cambodia for two months on
> a bycycle tour, and is not so sure if he will ever come back -- so we go into
> crisis mode to show him where he can go with his career if he stays with us.
> We secure a fine job taking down the stone quoins on a building, expecting to
> make repairs to the steel columns behind, and the welder says he is going to
> Chicago for 9 months to divinity school because what he really wants in life
> is to be a reverend. We get the brightest estimator we have ever seen to work
> for us for two weeks. A previous estimator we worked with for two years
> before they came across with a job to pay for their salary, then they quit to
> go back to engineering school. We secured a project for another foreman, and
> he left to "do his own work", and left us with another guy who ended up
> getting caught on a penthouse terrace naked at 1 AM. Long story. We had one
> woman that we were promoting as a site supervisor, after she left we
> eventually found out that she was shagging w/ the subcontractor's foreman in
> the elevator bulkhead.
>
> Though we have never had a situation where someone told us not to go after a
> job, we have had situations where we have not wanted to. Customers that do
> not pay their bills rate first on the list, which includes a lot of general
> contractors, both large and small. Customers that do not stand up for their
> relationships, which includes a lof of CMs, don't go far with us. There are
> CMs we will work with, and promote, there are CMs that we absolutely do not
> want anything to do with, been there, done that, won't be burned twice. We
> are increasingly growing gun shy of working on townhouses as the owners
> exhibit irrational behaviour most of the time -- it must have something to do
> with having enough money to buy a building that needs facade work to begin
> with. We have had problems with churches stiffing us for the money, or
> playing other unethical games -- it is a losing battle when a church decides
> to say bad things against a contractor. We have sworn off church work several
> times, but they keep coming back and we are suckers for punishment. On
> occasion we find a good one and we do everything we can to honor the
> relationship. We never seem to find a good townhouse, meaning that we never
> find with a townhouse a customer that is not irrational.
>
> Customers, especially once the contract is signed, do not want to hear about
> any of these problems. So, if I act hesitant when a potential customer calls
> it is that I am weighing a whole lot of past experiences before stepping out
> and saying, "Yes, I'm interested."
>
> Best,
> ][<en