The Truth

"Sorry I didn’t make it out today. My truck caught on fire." I called back right away only to hear the same voicemail greeting I had heard too many times already.

"Good one". Irritated, I sat staring at the pile of garbage that needed to go. The broken-down-truck excuse has been used too much to be believable anymore.

Talk is cheap when it comes to keeping a construction site on schedule. Trades and labourers knowingly make short-sighted promises.  They commit to show up at a certain time only to bail out and ignore multiple phone calls in a complete boycott of communication.

Trades and labourers are often accused of not being reliable but the deceit is also ubiquitous among contractors and construction managers.  Contractors often convince trades to show up at a job with full knowledge that the site won't be ready for them. Unashamed, they lie or withhold information to get a better deal. They manipulate the facts to get extra work done free of charge.

In some cases there is also no intention of paying trades for their work. This is one of the worst offences a general contractor can commit and yet, it occurs frequently. It's amazing that anything gets done with these industry standards.  It has at times, caused me lose faith in the entire industry.

Over time, actions of the integral eventually overshadow the overflow of empty promises and missed deadlines. A reputation is built as words are measured against actions. Trust between the owners, management and trades is established and only then is it possible for work to be completed effectively. Once a trusting relationship is forged between a contractor and a trade, it is rarely broken and the relationship can span an entire career.

My doubt was extinguished when a shiny new truck drove up a few days later to pick up the giant pile of garbage that had been irritating me. I was then shown a picture of a truck consumed by flames and an article written about the incident in the local newspaper. The truth had been told.

 

The proof that this actually does happen sometimes