The Trailer (or Office) Mom

As highlighted by women in construction week, our industry has a large concentration of men working on and leading projects. Women do hold management and leadership positions but are still often found in trailer or office support roles. When skilled, they act as a hub for a project or region and keep things running smoothly and well. They keep the rest of the team on track and following company rules.

In my career, I've been able to work with quite a few women. Two in particular stand out. One was the trailer admin on site for a $50,000,000 project. Everything that went on at the site went by or through her. She had a really good pulse of what was going on. She provided consistency by managing payroll, pointing people in the right direction when they showed up on site and all but wrote contracts. She was also a bit of a pitbull. There wasn't a person on site that didn't have a healthy fear of her and the respect required to work around her. She had high standards for everyone, including, herself.

Construction pros like to avoid housekeeping in the trailer but a strong Office Mom will set them straight.

Another woman I worked with was more of the Mom or Grandma type. She kept things moving and organized so payrolls were made, invoices were logged and the office kept running with the right supplies. She was great at keeping the office clean and organized. This seems simple but when you have people shuffling in and out between jobs, lots of stuff gets stashed and forgotten, supplies get "reorganized" and people are constantly in need of help getting various office equipment and tools to work. She'd crack the whip when needed and get us to organize and cleanup (throw away long stashed junk). She also was a bit of a Mom and a Grandma. She'd listen to people as they came through for work assignments, to pick up payroll and more and then office support and advice. For me, she pulled the ultimate Mom move more than once to when Lunch and Learn leftovers were taking up the fridge at the end of the week - she packed me up to take food home because she knew my kids would love it and because "it will all be bad after the weekend anyway."

So, as women in construction week closes, I'd like to appreciate all women in construction, especially, the women that work in less appreciated roles but somehow without them, we probably wouldn't get through a week of work.