With his job behind schedule, PM Frank Bearman (pronounced beerman) setup and implemented trailer happy hours for his management staff after crews went home for the day. Mr. Bearman's plan was to encourage his staff to work a couple hours more than their already long days. His plan was somewhat successful. Mr. Bearman outlined the successes of his trailer happy hour as:
The team extend their day in the trailer by a couple of hours most days.
Increase team relationships and bonding.
Team liked working for him because they got to relax and have a bit of fun while working.
He is now the cool PM because the trailer has a sweet kegerator.
The negatives of the trailer happy hour were:
The team was only, at best, productive for 50% of the additional trailer time. Any more than an hour in or two beers deep and productivity dropped off immensely.
Hangovers and late work starts are up 90% because after the good times in the trailer ended, many of the team members continued happy hour over an actual meal.
Investing in the kegerator and keeping the tap flowing isn't cheap.
The job is still behind schedule because the team actually doesn't mind working extra and doesn't see the incentive to catch up since happy hour in the trailer is fun.
With mixed results, Frank is considering leaving the trailer happy hour in place for this project and then keeping the kegs out of the next trailer. During this project he might experiment with beer type to see how that impacts consumption and productivity. He explained his logic as, "Most of my crew are old fashioned and hard working Americans. They love the domestic beers. I might get a fancy IPA on site and see if they might drink a little less. They'd still get their beer but maybe it wouldn't go down as easy and quickly so they would stay productive for a longer period of time." Ever the wannabe innovator, Mr. Bearman may implement Silicon Valley gimmicks like a slide. Fabbed up right, a slide down from the bridge falsework could be a quick and fun descent.
***This was another Fake Construction News article. Stay tuned for more.***
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