From the Onsite Team
Onsite Podcast Series – This is the first article from our Onsite Podcast Series, which offers a sneak peek into the first episode entitled HR violations. If you have the stomach for it, check out the episode.
First Day on the Job
Construction sites are not for everyone. We can tell you that construction is not for the HR-sensitive, the politically correct, or anyone that thinks Full Metal Jacket is fiction. Construction sites are a no bullshit zone where masculinity trades the place of HR. Here, it’s all about getting the job done, well maybe not totally, but it is definitely a place not and I mean not to look weak, no matter what happens.
If you are asked to find the drywall stretcher or open a random bucket, don’t, and don’t do anything other than laugh. Otherwise, be prepared to fight or leave, because no one cares about your feelings.
Don’t Cry to Mom
If there is an incident on a job, your best defense is your coworkers and, and hopefully, the foreman. If things escalate from the field to the office, everyone gets spanked or worse.
There was a young guy working as a plasterer, his uncle was an estimator, which is why he had the job, so there was a lot of resentment towards him. Mostly because he was young. At some point, some older guys realized his mother made his lunch every day, and he paid no attention other than while he was eating. After lunch, they would come in and slip the raunchiest porn magazines in his lunch box. Now, since he was young and clueless, and just like they expected, his mother was intercepting these magazines. She was a sweetheart of a lady, but after several weeks of this, she finally confronted him and said, “I think the guys are having fun with you”.
Now, did he have a place to complain? No. Did anyone care? No. Did everyone get a huge laugh at his expense? Yes. Was his mother scarred? Possibly. Point is, he learned a valuable lesson and laughed it off after a couple of “What the fuck, guys?” He eventually went on to be well-liked and became one of the guys, and not because there was a policy that said so.
Don’t Become a Story on the Bathroom Wall
Be on time. I’ve seen bosses that would send you home if you weren’t at the job box 10 minutes before the work day started. He didn’t like deducting pay, instead he liked to humiliate you, which could mean he would publicly berate and yell at you, or make you carry buckets of water up and down the stairs for, no good reason. For godsakes if you are late, tell an entertaining story, guys will give you a hall pass if you got blind drunk and fell into the bartender’s bed.
Most jobsites have a limited number of bathrooms and they are never centrally located. This turns the idea of “restroom” into a more negotiable term. I’ve seen guys pee on walls, in buckets, coffee cups, name it. And it is not always just pee…so best to never open a bucket, which is a good mantra to live by. This is not just a me thing, after bringing this up with my construction cohorts over the years, I’ve heard numerous bathroom stories ranging from creative to disturbing.
The stereotype of construction workers in hardhats catcalling, is alive and well. One time I was trying to give technical directions about a product to this foreman, and he just kept talking and walking, essentially dragging me from the roof all the way to the street. I think he said he had a delivery or something. Once we made it to the street, I then realized there was no delivery, but he had spotted some woman walking around the block and wanted to head her off, and introduce himself with an “hola mommy”. She was less than impressed and I can’t say that I enjoyed the experience either, other than laughing about it later.
Cultural Diversity
Some of the most entertaining stories related to the lack of HR on construction sites are related to characters. Working in the trades is a relatively easy barrier to entry, in terms of education and rap sheet, so you get guys who range anywhere from ex-cons to religious zealots. This means I’ve seen workers chase each other with belts (seemingly for fun), instigate fights, and in one particularly grim case trying to instigate a suicide from a guy standing on the edge of the roof of a neighboring building.
Something not common in the last decade, but throughout the early 2000s drinking on breaks and lunch was still prevalent and a well practiced affair. I can remember jumping in a car speeding to a local pub and slugging down as many beers as possible in a 30ish minute time period. Now this leads to a more interesting work environment, but probably not inline with OSHA or company policies.
Rules of a Construction
So, what’s the HR policy on a construction site? It’s simple: don’t be a bitch. If you’re going to pee on a wall, make sure you can handle the consequences, if you get caught. If you find yourself being hazed, don’t blink either laugh or fight, otherwise you won’t be respected.
Construction sites are a place where art, design, and engineering come to life, but the guys doing it aren’t worried about the rules of polite society. Partially because the working conditions are not always pleasant, and partially because there are 20 plus trades working on top of each other under extreme pressure to get done because there is huge money behind the project and huge money lost if deadlines aren’t hit.
The Ending Chaos
Construction sites are a microcosm of humanity at its rawest. It’s not always pretty, it’s not polite, but it is real. In a world that has become increasingly sanitized and controlled, there’s something refreshing about peeling back the onion and seeing what it takes for a group coming together to build amazing structures. So the next time you walk past a construction site, you can wish that you were a fly on the wall, because I guarantee some crazy shit has happened or is happening.