When not required to be on site for critical construction activities, Bob “Gotcha” Jones, a local inspector is working from home. While this keeps him from being exposed to more people and reduces the risk that he gets COVID-19, he is going stir crazy not being on site and inspecting work.
To fill this void, he has started to require his family submit daily work plans for his review and approval. They are due the night before but he rarely sees them by then. Even when he does, the plans start off wrong from the start. His kids are up too early even though there isn’t any school anywhere right now. Looking beyond the often bad starts to the day, the work plans are all but thrown out the window or at him. Scheduled start and stop times for online school are missed, lunch is strung out by a distracted toddler, a 2nd afternoon snack is added because someone didn’t eat enough lunch and bath time is at best controlled chaos. Schedule issues are minor compared to quality concerns. As an inspector Bob is keenly aware of quality on his jobs and at his house. Dishes are rarely cleaned as noted in the work plan. Rooms are destroyed, creating poor housekeeping, potential hazards and distractions while online school is attempted by the older kids. Bob is a hardliner so he calls “Gotcha!” as soon as he sees issues because he knows that just like if he gives construction crews and inch, they’ll take a mile – his family will do the same thing.
Never ones to be worried about a little discipline, his kids continue to spend more time drawing smiley faces and coloring on their daily work plans than making and working their plans. Bob’s wife knows he’s well intentioned and is in tears from laughing and watching him try to issue stop work notices to kids who didn’t deliver per their work plans. When interviewed for this article, she rambled off the same old line contractors say about not needing inspectors around all the time – “What does he think we do when he’s not around? Somehow we’ve managed to get this far safely without him second guessing us and breathing down our necks. I’m pretty sure he’s just adding time and headache to my already busy day.”
Just like on many jobsites, the inspector (Bob) and the people doing the actual work (his family) are butting heads. The difference now is that it is all day and doesn’t just stay on site or in the trailer when everyone leaves for the day. When asked for her opinion on how to solve things, Bob’s wife said, “This is all just bananas. I wish this Corona crap would end already so my husband can get back on site full time and focus on driving contractors nuts, er uh, I mean helping build a better world by verifying everything is built to the right contract and quality requirements.”
***This was another Fake Construction News article. If you liked it, stay tuned for more. If you did not like it, you need more jobsite experience and/or a better sense of humor (joking again, maybe or maybe not).***
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