Time for a rant...

Frustrations mount, anger rises like the morning sun, the filter between my mouth and my brain isn't working so well and like Mount Vesuvius, I'm about to smoke the place up. You'd think as the days go by I could devise a way to relieve some of my irritants. A quick background of this week...

The transmission in the Dodge is out. Estimating $3500 or so to replace or rebuild. The Toyota has a rod knocking and the timing belt tensioner has exploded. The Suburban won't shift past third, it's slipping so bad it won't pull itself under it's own power. I have worked 14 days straight. 26 hours overtime last week, 46 hours overtime this week. No time left for responsibilities at home. the overtime will take care of the transmission in the dodge but I sure wanted to spend it on the house and buy a few goodies for the Harley. Oh well.

I work in an industrial construction field. There are several positions I fill based on demand. At this moment I am a quality assurance inspector. Some days I'm an Engineering technician, not an engineer but offer a bunch of experience with design and calculations for pressure vessels, heat exchangers and other refinery equipment. Other days I head up the preliminary procurement group the oil and gas division. Believe it or not I really like my job. Maybe I like the challenges it offers more than the actual job. I originally took this job for the 4-10 work week, three day weekends are absolutely fantastic but that's gone for now.

Here is my rant...
The projects we are constructing are behind schedule. Not a hair but a huge number of weeks behind.  We are basically a construction management company. We hire sub-contractors to do the actual work and we supervise and coordinate their efforts. You would think the main goal would be to provide the best product we can provide while doing it in a safe manner and meeting all the requirements of various regulations at a reasonable cost. It's just not so anymore. It seems the venues for retarding the schedule are so numerous I could write about them for a year and not cover them all. I will just cover some from the last couple of days. "The humidity in Tulsa is so low right now the three part pain system you specified will not cure correctly." Okay.... no solution? The contractor has no idea how to solve this. First, can the paint shop be humidified? Second, have you contacted the paint manufacturer for solutions to this problem? Third, have you exhausted your resources looking for an alternative paint program equal to the specified procedure and submitted the programs you would prefer to incorporate? Items 1, 2, and 3 are the solutions we had to pull our contractor to, like a tug boat trying to bring the ship in. "According to code requirements we can't hydro test the vessels until the metal temperature is sixty degrees F or higher". Was a solution offered...NO! Tug boat time, put some steam heaters in the vessels, bring them up to temperature then fill with warm water... "We have to remove the scaffolds from the interior before we can hydro test." No, no, no, leave them in the vessel you will need them after you finish the testing and the schedule cannot afford any more delays. Again tug boat time."We need the unit cleared of the other contractors so we can get our job done!"
This is a construction project!!! Are you kidding me??? We call it coordination. Let's all work together to a good end. Can't we all just get along and do our jobs? Guess not. Can I bring you fresh doughnuts and hot coffee? Are you comfortable yet? ????? WE'RE BEHIND SCHEDULE OR HAVEN'T YOU NOTICED!!! "That's not in our scope or contract!" Have a seat and we'll have reading hour. Haven't you read the scope or the contract? YOU PUT A LINE ITEM BID IN YOUR QUOTE TO COVER THIS AND IT WAS ACCEPTED IN THE CONTRACT!!! ISN'T THAT YOUR SIGNATURE??? The plant is going to shut down this product pipe line for twelve hours for us to tie in our piping. I need every piece from all the studs and gaskets, to each pipe spool, valves and anything else needed to finish the job as fast as we can. All the paperwork must be complete and in my hands the day before we start. So.... I show up to do the dimensional check for all the parts and count the pieces... wrong size nuts and studs, missing two gaskets, 16" valve missing, 6" valve missing, 16" spectacle blind missing (they had not even seen this piece on the drawing so it hadn't been ordered yet!). None of the pieces had been bolted together to limit the number of pieces left to install in our window of time. Tug boat time but this was like one tug bringing in the entire fleet. I wasn't a very nice guy for the rest of the day and evening. With all the pieces and parts laying there it was going to be a 15-18 hour job. If the pieces were assembled in sequence for the installation we cut that time down to 5-6 hours. AAARRGGHHHH!!!!
Here is my summation of the attitude of today's laborer. I want my check and my breaks. If I work 1 minute over 8 hours you are going to pay me the big bucks. That job is above my pay grade so you'll have to get somebody else. Go ahead, throw your arms up and walk off. That'll help the schedule...  These guys make big bucks to do this but they aren't doing much How do you fix it....
Tug boat.... at this point it's simply a matter of pulling, pushing or whatever it takes to get them across the finish line.
I can understand stress and all the attempts to relieve it. These are the days I don't like. The rest of them I enjoy. The days I don't like seem to be banding together in an attempt to drown me. They won't win.
It would be nice.... if you want to say it can't be done, bring me a solution. If you see a way to work smarter capitalize on that opportunity. It won't hurt you one bit to miss a break or take the extra fifteen minutes after the horn sounds to finish. Think about the person coming behind you to do their job, have you hindered or helped? Have an idea that would improve the schedule or make the job safer or improve the design? If you see something that is destined to not fit or work speak up before it complicates the schedule or causes a bunch of rework. Check your work and once you pass it off as good have someone else check it. Don't forget the rules and codes they're in place to safeguard you and your work. There is a chain of command and events that must be followed or the apple cart tips over, please respect and follow that order.
All of these events happened in the last three days. I have the weekend off. Monday has already been lined out to pick up where today left off. That's too bad. 
My solution to this would be for managers and supervisors and foremen to get out of their chairs and get involved with the work happening in the field. If you won't sign your name to it, it probably isn't any good.
I'm tired, I'll get over it. Just do your job the best you can do it and if you aren't sure or don't know ask somebody until you get the right answer.
Later.