Didn’t You Call Them

Didn’t You Call Them? (How General Contractors Abuse the Trades They Invited)

Most of the time in trainings, I am advocating for the trades and how they should be treated and that they are our heroes and that we should spend most of our time helping, enabling and supporting them. One of the things that comes to mind is when there’s an abusive project delivery team member, I just want to ask the question: didn’t you call them?

The Reality: We Ask Trades to Bid, Then Treat Them Like Garbage

When you go out to bid, I actually don’t know of very many, if any, situations where the trade partners are knocking on our door begging us to do the job. Most of the time, we’re looking for amazing trade partners and we go put them on the pre-qualification list and we go ask them to bid the project and participate with us.

Only, and I’m sure that you listening aren’t a part of this problem, but only to go shit on them and tell them they’re not good enough and send cure notices their way and not prepare them and set them up with a garbage environment and not keep them on rhythm, not hold the line with the level performance of other trade partners, not prepare them.

The Story: PM Dumping Bulk Materials Everywhere

I heard a story the other day. People contact me all the time on WhatsApp, which is something I love, and they’ll record their voice on voice messages on WhatsApp and we’ll go back and forth, help each other out and it’s really kind of a neat, connected thing that we do.

And somebody, a superintendent was like, “Yeah, my PM is just delivering all the bulk materials to the site and it’s just showing up everywhere and it’s in the trades’ way and the trades are like, ‘Hey, I don’t know what to do, like there’s stuff everywhere, like I can’t even work.'”

And when the superintendent talked to the PM, the PM who was a newer PM was like, “It’s my job to get it here, it’s my job to get it here, like you guys figure out what to do it from here, but I’m just going to bring it here because once it’s on the site, I’m done, I washed my hands, it’s yours.”

Now, does that sound like a collaborative enabling project manager? Does that sound like a project manager that understands his role?

What a Project Manager Should Do: Help Trades Win

A project manager should help trades win. A project manager should make sure that he knows who the hero is. A project manager should develop real relationships. A project manager should know that just dumping materials everywhere is almost worse than not having them in the first damn place. This is a person, because of a lack of training, this person is a good person, but because of a lack of training, has a myopic view of what construction is all about.

The Warning: Owners Are Starting to Bypass General Contractors

And let me actually give all of us a bit of a warning. There are some massive owners out there that are starting to bypass the general contractor and go to multi-prime and actually hire trade partners as what’s called a prime integrator. They’re just bypassing the GC.

And so, we better watch our ass. Like for general contractors that just use and abuse and turn and burn, I won’t tell you what general contractor I’m talking about, but it’s a massive one, literally just hires contractors and chucks them out there into the field to just figure it out. It’s absolutely toxic, disgusting behavior. And because they’re so big, they’re just abusing everybody.

Owners are going to get wise to that. Understand that the general contractors are just becoming paperwork brokers that don’t know what they’re doing, and they’re going to bypass you.

Learn to Be a Builder or Get Bypassed

So, this is your warning. Don’t do it. Learn how to be a builder, be a field engineer, be a field office professional, develop relationships with trades, learn Lean, learn your job, do your job. Or I predict that one day there’s going to be a time where more and more owners bypass us.

They’ll learn that there are people out there that they will learn the thing that general contractors don’t know, which is that trades are awesome. And the reason projects are failing is because of the stupid shit that general contractors do.

The Only Thing Trades Do Wrong: Ask for Too Much Space

The only thing that trades do wrong is ask for too much space. That’s the only thing they do wrong. Everything else is the general contractor’s fault. So, we better wake up and figure out how to treat people.

Didn’t you call them?

How I Would Treat Trades: Transparency, Appreciation, Respect

If I called somebody, now, if I called a trade, here’s what would happen. I would say, “Hey, would you like to bid on this? You’re awesome. We want to work with you. On the site, we’ll have perfect cleanliness, perfect organization and Lean systems. You may find that to be a pain in the butt, but let me tell you about it now. And if you’re into that, we’re going to do that. But I’m inviting you by consent to bid on this project. And I’m going to be transparent about who we are and how we work.”

But once they sign up and win that job, I’m going to be appreciative. Thank you for coming to this job. Thank you for building this on time. Thank you for doing the right thing and coming out here. Thank you for even existing so I can do what I do. Thank you. Thank you.

And I’m not going to treat them like shit because I called them.

Here’s the reality of how GCs treat trades:

• Ask trades to bid, then abuse them with cure notices and garbage environment – When you go out to bid, don’t know of very many situations where trade partners knocking on our door begging us to do job. Most of time, we’re looking for amazing trade partners, put them on pre-qualification list, ask them to bid project and participate with us. Only to go shit on them and tell them they’re not good enough and send cure notices their way and not prepare them and set them up with garbage environment and not keep them on rhythm.
• PMs dump materials everywhere: “once it’s on site, I’m done, I washed my hands” – PM just delivering all bulk materials to site and it’s just showing up everywhere and it’s in trades’ way. Trades like, “Hey, I don’t know what to do, there’s stuff everywhere, I can’t even work.” When superintendent talked to PM, PM was like, “It’s my job to get it here, you guys figure out what to do from here, once it’s on site, I’m done, I washed my hands, it’s yours.” Just dumping materials everywhere is almost worse than not having them in first place.
• GCs becoming paperwork brokers: owners starting to bypass with multi-prime – Massive owners out there starting to bypass general contractor and go to multi-prime and actually hire trade partners as prime integrator. Just bypassing GC. General contractors that just use and abuse and turn and burn, massive one literally just hires contractors and chucks them out there into field to just figure it out. Absolutely toxic, disgusting behavior. Owners going to get wise. Understand general contractors just becoming paperwork brokers that don’t know what they’re doing, going to bypass you.
• The only thing trades do wrong: ask for too much space. Everything else is GC’s fault – Trades are awesome. Reason projects are failing is because of stupid shit general contractors do. Only thing trades do wrong is ask for too much space. That’s only thing they do wrong. Everything else is general contractor’s fault. Better wake up and figure out how to treat people.
• Insurance requirements, delayed payments, games PMs play: GCs are nightmare – General contractors are nightmare. Insurance requirements, bullshit, games project managers play, delayed payments. Had somebody unfriend because claimed general contractors on average would pay nine months after fact, which is true. Client 14 months and still won’t pay. We’re not bank. Have to stop treating people badly.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

A Challenge for General Contractors

Here’s what I want you to do this week. Ask yourself: didn’t you call them? When you go out to bid, trade partners aren’t knocking on your door begging to do the job. You’re looking for amazing trade partners. You put them on pre-qualification list. You ask them to bid the project and participate with you.

So, stop going to shit on them and tell them they’re not good enough. Stop sending cure notices their way. Stop not preparing them. Stop setting them up with garbage environment. Stop not keeping them on rhythm. Stop not holding the line with level performance of other trade partners.

Stop dumping materials everywhere. A project manager should help trades win. A project manager should make sure he knows who the hero is. A project manager should develop real relationships. A project manager should know that just dumping materials everywhere is almost worse than not having them in first place.

Learn how to be a builder, be a field engineer, be a field office professional, develop relationships with trades, learn Lean, learn your job, do your job. Or I predict that one day there’s going to be a time where more and more owners bypass us.

The only thing trades do wrong is ask for too much space. Everything else is the general contractor’s fault. We better wake up and figure out how to treat people. As we say at Elevate, didn’t you call them? GCs ask trades to bid then treat them badly. Dump materials everywhere, delayed payments, cure notices. You called them, act accordingly.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who asks who to bid on construction projects?

General contractors ask trades to bid. Don’t know of very many situations where trade partners knocking on our door begging us to do job. Most of time, we’re looking for amazing trade partners, put them on pre-qualification list, ask them to bid project and participate with us.

What’s the PM materials dumping problem?

PM just delivering all bulk materials to site showing up everywhere in trades’ way. Trades can’t even work. When superintendent talked to PM, PM said, “It’s my job to get it here, once it’s on site, I’m done, I washed my hands, it’s yours.” Dumping materials everywhere almost worse than not having them in first place.

Why are owners bypassing general contractors?

Because GCs just use and abuse and turn and burn. Massive ones literally just hire contractors and chuck them out there into field to just figure it out. Absolutely toxic, disgusting behavior. Owners getting wise. General contractors becoming paperwork brokers that don’t know what they’re doing.

What’s the only thing trades do wrong?

Ask for too much space. That’s only thing they do wrong. Everything else is general contractor’s fault. Trades are awesome. Reason projects are failing is because of stupid shit general contractors do.

What are GCs like to work with?

Nightmare. Insurance requirements, bullshit, games project managers play, delayed payments. General contractors on average pay nine months after fact. Some clients 14 months still won’t pay. We’re not bank. Have to stop treating people badly.