Lessons

The Baptist project was a great learning experience for me as it refined my supervisory skills. I watched the general contractor in action and learned a lot from him. He rarely lost his temper and never yelled at his crew. Yet he was very much respected. I thought it was because he respected them as well and so I emulated him as best I could. It was a good lesson and later I was told by some of my crew that they felt the worst when they knew that they had failed to meet my expectations. I hadn’t yelled at all, never said a word, but they knew. And they tried to make certain it didn’t happen again.

And I also learned that you could get more done with less people if you could break up your crew into single units and doing solitary tasks. This was something I had actually learned for myself when I was a piece-worker. There was no reason for two people to install a 4x12 sheet of drywall unless it was over 8’ high. And at the same time this created some competition as everyone became quite aware of how fast the others were working.

After the Baptist tower was complete, I moved on to many more projects throughout the Los Angeles area. And working for many more contractors. I had gained a good reputation and was often called to run a project. For awhile I could pick and choose where I wanted to work and for how much. And my “crew” always came along with me.

If I were to go back to Los Angeles now, I could drive for hours as I showed you all of the places I worked during the 14 plus years there. Also, I used to place my name and date on the inside of walls or elevator shafts wherever I worked. A little something for posterity?

It might have been early 1973 when I took a Superintendent’s job with Pacific States Plastering. Now I was stuck in an office for an hour or so each day and learning another side of the construction business. I had been an estimator (trainee) before and that helped in this new position, but as always, I enjoyed the field work more than office work. And now I had 4 or 5 jobs that I could visit each day and enjoy myself.