Another PCI project that I worked on was the training of the estimators at a company we had acquired in Georgia. The company, North Brothers, had offices all over the South and we had to bring them into the 'PCI family'. North Bros. had been a non-union company and we were going to change that as well. PCI had always been a union contractor and would remain so, even in the non-union culture in the South. First, I went to meet some of the people at the Atlanta office. I thought NB was a somewhat class act and I was wrong. Their office was located in a very poor section of Atlanta, "Turn right at Go Daddy's Used Hub Caps". At the meeting it was determined that only one of the offices in Georgia would be doing drywall and fireproofing work and that office was in Rome, Georgia. I met their chief estimator, a genuine 'Good ole boy'. He was quite nice but computer illiterate; as were all the estimators with North Bros. Then I was told about the other offices, Memphis TN and Knoxville TN. I could only picture these offices as new places to fly to...not very exciting at all. NB had other offices of course, but they were going to remain Insulation contractors. The Atlanta office would remain as PCI headquarters in the South and do some insulation work as well. The Rome office would estimate and run any drywall work in the Atlanta area.
Slightly off the subject; I flew to this first meeting using Delta Airlines. I had never been to Atlanta Hartsfield airport before and when I got off of the plane I headed downstairs with all of the rest of the passengers. Once there, I saw that that there was a crowd getting on to an electric 'train' and they appeared to be going to Baggage Claim. I don't like crowds so I elected to walk. Bad decision. I had no idea as to the size of this airport and after walking for 15 minutes and seemingly getting nowhere, I decided to get on the next 'train'. It was a 5 minute train ride on a fast train so I knew I could have spent another 30 minutes getting there by foot.
On all of my subsequent trips to this airport (and there were far too many of them) I used United Airlines. It so happened that United had only two gates at this airport. After all, this was Delta Airlines headquarters and biggest hub and so they commanded all of the gate space. But... United's gate was just a few hundred feet away from the check-in counter; almost hidden No train and very little walking. Plus, it was very quiet back in the United Airlines corner.
Friday, July 24, 2015
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Did I mention Seattle?
...if I did, you will just have to suffer through another story about this office. But first, perhaps I will take a quick look back in this blog just to be sure...Nope! No stories about Seattle. To clarify, the Seattle office was in Woodinville, a long ways way from Seattle proper. The office was in a office complex on the west side of the Samammish River and overlooking the river, the park and the fields beyond. Very idyllic. The estimators offices were on the second floor and the view was spectacular. I'm still working on finding a decent screen capture program and the one I used is not even close. I'll give it another try...okay, not bad, though I wish I had a street view.
This was a friendly office with a great branch manager and contract secretary. I knew the branch manager from his time with the San Francisco branch. He got lucky and was appointed the manager of the branch in his home area; Seattle. There was only one snag and that was an estimator that refused, but not outright, to use a computer for anything. I tried for 2 years as that was my boss's instruction; 'make him use it'! Finally it was decided to just ignore him as he was a successful estimator and they didn't want to lose him to a rival company.
Woodinville was a small agriculture based town and motels were few and not very good, so I always stayed at the Silver Cloud on the other side of the hill and near the freeway. Later I began using a nicer hotel in Bothell.
I have nothing but nice memories of this office. They were all grateful for any knowledge I brought them and always said 'Thank you' and that was something I rarely heard at the more focused branches.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
San Francisco
Back in 2013 I promised to write about some of the branches I used to visit. I think I got around to writing about 3 of them; not really enough.
I didn't spend a lot of time at this branch office. It was located in an industrial park in South San Francisco and 90% of their business was in Acoustical Ceiling systems. This was also a very profitable office and they weren't interested in learning anything new unless the time they spent on learning would translate to $$$$. Since I couldn't guarantee that, I had few takers when it came to signing them up for a class on a new estimating system.
This branch did have two satellite offices; one in The City itself and one in San Jose at the new Intel fab. I enjoyed visiting the two estimators at the City office as it was located in the Market District. That's always a great place to visit and to eat...but the parking is ridiculous! There isn't any. So I would have to rent a room at a close by hotel that would park my car and then spend the afternoon with the two estimators. Then a fine meal and a nice night in the hotel. I would spend a few more hours with them the next day and then back to the hotel to checkout and leave the City before the traffic became horrendous. (no later than 1 PM!)
The office in San Jose was located on the job site at the new Intel plant. It was a trailer. Okay, it was nice trailer and was located amongst a dozen other trailers that were linked by raised wooden walkways. All the contractors involved in the building of this mid sized 'Fab' or cleanroom were based in the trailers. This was another busy office that rarely had time for me and so I didn't spend much time there.
Then things changed...someone forgot to renew the lease on the S. San Francisco office and they were told to leave...and do it in 30 days. The race began to find a place and to build it out with walls for offices and all the other things you need; such as telephones and comm lines and move the computers and paint the wall and lay the carpet, etc, etc. They found a place but it was no longer in San Francisco. It was very close to San Jose. I did spend some time here as the branch manager was receptive to training for all.
Note; whenever I was visiting a branch office I would try and find an empty or unused office space to call my own while I was there. Hopefully, it would have a a telephone and a 'net' connection. At this new office I had half a dozen to choose from as they had built it out for any future expansion.
Then the Intel plant was almost complete and it was decided amongst the higher ups to create a new branch office for the area and an office was secured and built out, about a mile away from the Intel plant. I spent some time here; more than I wanted to. But, it was my job. The hotels overcharged and so did the restaurants. Hotel 6 charged $135 a night and I wouldn't stay in a Hotel 6.
I didn't spend a lot of time at this branch office. It was located in an industrial park in South San Francisco and 90% of their business was in Acoustical Ceiling systems. This was also a very profitable office and they weren't interested in learning anything new unless the time they spent on learning would translate to $$$$. Since I couldn't guarantee that, I had few takers when it came to signing them up for a class on a new estimating system.
This branch did have two satellite offices; one in The City itself and one in San Jose at the new Intel fab. I enjoyed visiting the two estimators at the City office as it was located in the Market District. That's always a great place to visit and to eat...but the parking is ridiculous! There isn't any. So I would have to rent a room at a close by hotel that would park my car and then spend the afternoon with the two estimators. Then a fine meal and a nice night in the hotel. I would spend a few more hours with them the next day and then back to the hotel to checkout and leave the City before the traffic became horrendous. (no later than 1 PM!)
The office in San Jose was located on the job site at the new Intel plant. It was a trailer. Okay, it was nice trailer and was located amongst a dozen other trailers that were linked by raised wooden walkways. All the contractors involved in the building of this mid sized 'Fab' or cleanroom were based in the trailers. This was another busy office that rarely had time for me and so I didn't spend much time there.
Then things changed...someone forgot to renew the lease on the S. San Francisco office and they were told to leave...and do it in 30 days. The race began to find a place and to build it out with walls for offices and all the other things you need; such as telephones and comm lines and move the computers and paint the wall and lay the carpet, etc, etc. They found a place but it was no longer in San Francisco. It was very close to San Jose. I did spend some time here as the branch manager was receptive to training for all.
Note; whenever I was visiting a branch office I would try and find an empty or unused office space to call my own while I was there. Hopefully, it would have a a telephone and a 'net' connection. At this new office I had half a dozen to choose from as they had built it out for any future expansion.
Then the Intel plant was almost complete and it was decided amongst the higher ups to create a new branch office for the area and an office was secured and built out, about a mile away from the Intel plant. I spent some time here; more than I wanted to. But, it was my job. The hotels overcharged and so did the restaurants. Hotel 6 charged $135 a night and I wouldn't stay in a Hotel 6.
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