Geez Ken, I am moved.  This reads like poetry to me.  Get yourself a big hug
from somebody nearby who will take my IOU.

-jc

Ken Follett wrote:

> In a message dated 6/8/00 6:30:13 AM Central Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> > And (at great personal risk in this forum), since when do contractors get
> to work only with materials they like?
>
> John,
>
> Forget about our choosing materials. You give us too many challenges at one
> time.
>
> I'm still working on a goal of only working with people that I like -- too
> bad some of my friends keep moving. At one time the criteria was to not work
> for anyone that could not read the backside of a cement bag.
>
> Then there are choices, not mine particularly, in places like Manhattan, to
> only contract work that can be reached in an hour by bycycle or on foot.
>
> I'm well aware that customers when looking for contractors do not understand
> the complexity of how contractors filter the assortment of projects that they
> will, or will not, work on. The prevailing attitude appears to be that a
> customer assumes that if they are willing to pay the money that there is no
> other criteria. You go to the store, you pay your money, you have a brief
> interaction with the teller, and you go on your way. Contracting requires
> relationships, and that goes further than a simple consideration of pay and
> perform.
>
> Recently I was asked to give a budget price, within one week, to clean a
> building on Wall Street from top to bottom. This would be a really nice job
> if I could get it and I was flattered to be asked. No drawings, suspect
> specification. Go down to Wall Street, look at building, roughly estimate SF
> area from site and pacing the sidewalk. Cogitate, pull number out of bun
> crack, stand on head, consult a subcontractor, add $100,000 for CYA hurry up
> fee. I came up with a budget of $600,000 that I felt was fairly tight for the
> fact that there was an incredible amount of information that I did not have.
> We aways are bidding in the dark and required to look as if we really do know
> what we are doing -- I think it best if everyone admit right out that they
> have no clue. I was then asked to provide a proposal (hurry up, hurry up, you
> are taking too long) -- this is a bit more serious of a commitement. Well,
> sorry, no can do. Is this a waste of time, or what? I then countered with a
> three page letter, a list of the information that I needed to go further.
> First on the list was that we meet at the site and have lunch together in
> order for us to decide if we really want to work together. I'm really at a
> point with customers that if they are not human enough to want to sit down
> and have a meal with me then why should I bother about their problems? Eating
> together is an important aspect of building up positive attitudes toward
> working together as a project team. I find it best if everything but the
> particular project be talked about during lunch. Let us not be in such a
> hurry to not know each other, tell me about your children, tell me your life
> story. I love stories, I am easy to entertain. My three page list went into
> other particulars, like getting access to the roofs of the building in order
> to determine scaffolding, figuring out where the water would go to (in NYC it
> is against the environmental law to allow water run out of a hose onto a
> building, for the purposes of cleaning, to flow into the street storm drain
> and the water needs to be diverted into the internal drainage system of the
> building, regardless of if you are using cleaning chemicals, or not, and
> regardless if the water all ends up flowing into the same world environment
> -- and regardless of the fact that cleaning water is run into the streets all
> over NYC daily, you can still get caught and given a violation and fine), and
> ending with a request to know the name of the individual, not of the design
> company, but of the individual who wrote the cleaning specification... as to
> WHO it is decides what "clean" is conditions my willingness to bid the work,
> and conditions my price. There are design professionals that I refuse to get
> involved with ever again. Will I say their names in public? No.
>
> Seriously, picky contractors. I refuse to work on a project that will not
> supply a bathroom and/or will not allow us to supply a portable toilet to the
> site. We have had customers refuse to supply a bathroom, with the expectation
> that the workers would use other unspecified facilities ("That's your problem
> if you want the job.), such as the restaurant down the street, and there
> being no room on the site to stage a toilet. Usually such a deal ends up with
> a management headache for the contractor to explain the odiferous stains in
> secluded corners of the roof -- but this is not an opening conversation a
> contractor really likes to have when introducing themselves to a potential
> new customer.
>
> My friend, our fellow BP'r, I think most reasonably operates on a basis of
> only working on projects that he can reach in an hour in his Suburban, a
> splendid vehicle that is comparible to an office away from home. A pleasant
> morning can be spent with him while he drives around, and around, and around
> the West Village looking for a parking space. The meetings offer attractive
> surroundings, fresh air, lots of stops and starts, jerking sideways in the
> seat, discussions of literature and philosophy, various levels of vehicular
> blasphemy, and an ever changing panorama of scenery.
>
> ][<en