Wednesday, February 06, 2008

When ignorance is bliss......

How or where do I begin to tell or put in words how am I feeling right now.....

I am mad, furious, frustrated, disappointed, and most of all, sad...... Sad that it has come to this......

I wrote sometime back how I was having problmes with the project manager for one of my prestigious projects I am currently doing. For a while, I thought that we could be friends and work well together, but alas, it was not meant to be. It seems that he always seems to want to make an enemy out of me, when we should actually be working as a team. He is forever looking to point out my mistakes (like as if he is an angel), or simply jump in joy whenever I fumble on my decisons.

He loves making me feel small by making decisions that would overide my earlier decisions, giving him the upper hand to humiliate me in front of the other members of the meeting, even though his decisions could actually be detrimental to the project. Ignorance is bliss. What you don't know won't hurt you. He makes decisions with such pride in his voice, like as if he is the smartest man on earth. Even when I advised him that to make such a decison could be detrimental, he says that he has made a decison, and that is that, and it is final. *sigh*

His letters and email to me are mostly littered with hostility, like as if I am always the wrong one, and he is forever right. He is forever accusing me of this and that, blaming me for any delays in the project, saying that I am taking too long to make some decisons or that I am late in responding to queries, when in actual fact, he is actually the one at fault when he failed to thoroughly go through the drawings and the contract documents to get the information required to proceed with the works.

The site office is supplied with every imaginable detail drawings to make it easy for the people on site to refer to when a certain detail is to be constructed, so that, in the event that I or my architect could not be around to verify the construction of architectural details, the drawings can be used as a guide and reference.

The specifications are written in straight forward technical terms that it would be impossible for someone of his position not to understand the language, unless, of course, he is simply duh of the process of constructing a building. But, does he refers to the drawings and the documents? No, he would rather accuse me of failing to supply him with the necessary information because it was not spoon fed to him.

If it does not come to him on a silver platter in front of him, it means that the information was never supplied to his office. He never bothers to find out first from his men as to whether the drawings or documents needed were already supplied or not earlier when the project first kicked off. If it's not in front of him in his big cosy room, than that means I have delayed in sending it to him, and therefore I am to be blamed for any delays.

He blames me for making the wrong choice of floor finishes when a VIP commented that the floor looks dull, dirty and uninteresting. In actual fact, it was his failure to insist or instruct the main contractor to protect the floor after it was laid, causing it to be scratched to the core by heavy equipment being dragged across it, or dropped on it from other contruction work still being carried out, that caused the protective layer of the tiles to wear off and dull the tiles. Too much dirt has gone deep into it that it would take a lot of scrubbing and polishing to get it back to its original lustre.

The tiles I had chosen was of the highest quality in the highest range of that particular brand. Any tiles that had to go through such abuse would not survive without a scratch, what more when cements and sand are constantly being poured on it, and mixed with water to a workable consistency for contruction. No, it was my choice of tiles that was wrong, not his lack of management of the site. *sigh*

I sacrifice my Sundays to be with my son and hubby every other week because he sets his meetings early Monday morning. I have to go there a day earlier, on Sunday, so that I can go around the site first before the meeting so that I know what is happening and how much has progressed, and so that I am aware should the contractor not do the architectural details correctly or not in accordance to the drawings (this can actually be done by the people on site [verification of construction], but they don't know what they have to do, because the boss does not give gives them any direction to follow *sigh*).

For many projects I have done before this, it is the responsibility of the site people to ensure that the contractor follows the drawings and specifications already supplied. It is only when there is a discripancy that an architect is called in resolve matters. Other than that, I would usually visit the project site only once a month.

But, for this project, I am at site every other week, starting from Sunday, and I would stay until Tuesday to resolve issues. I do not mind making the sacrifice, and I am thankful that my hubby is understanding. I am happy go to the site for the sake of the project, and I just want to see this project to completion, but it hurts and frustrates me when the project manager blames me for all his ignorance and lack of knowledge of the process of building construction. He doesn't know what he doesn't know, but acts like he knows everything. Ignorance is bliss.......

I will survive this. This is a challenge which I will have to face, and I hope that I will come out stronger.......

1 comment:

Barbara J said...

It's that idiot again huh? Could you relate all this to your superior? Get the know good empty vessel out of there!!