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July 14, 2008
Immigration: Both Sides Have to Work At It
Hispanic immigrant.
That phrase alone makes some contractors' blood boil.
But whether you like it or hate, it immigration is here. There's no wall big enough -- literal or metaphorical -- that, in my view, will stop it. And, immigration didn't start yesterday (legal or illegal, I'm not making a distinction). Which leaves us with this fact: As more and more children of immigrants -- now 1st generation Americans -- inexorably enter the trades as labor and contractors, "they" become "we."
Makita -- an immigrant itself, one might say, from Japan with US headquarters in Southern, sunny CA -- has positioned its marketing to Hispanic contractors for 5 years. MakitaUSA www.MakitaTools.com states that their marketing paid off. Sponsorship of Major League Soccer www.mlsnet.com and its sub-charity www.NothingButNets.Net results in double-digit sales increases.
Unless you're a Mohawk or Navaho, I don't think you can argue that everyone you see are immigrants, if you reach back far enough. Blood boiling yet?
Now, solving the larger issue of national immigration -- and there are massive issues not to be ignored -- is not something I can do from my kitchen table where I'm writing. But I do think there is a lesson in Makita's approach. One I think might work on site combined with a lesson from a friend of mine.
1 -- The reality is that Hispanics are here and in the trades en masse and can add value to companies. It paid off and I give them credit.
2 -- My friend won't hack through Spanglish with subs. Unless there's an English-speaker ON SITE ALL DAY, he doesn't use the sub.
My point: assimilation works best for both worlds -- but only works at all if both worlds work at it. That's nothing new.
But I'm writing this from my kitchen table. Concepts are cute, but your boots are in the mud on your jobsites. What's your take?
Posted by Mark Clement at 4:07 PM
July 13, 2008
The Riot Act
I don't suffer fools gladly.
Part of the problem is that our industry is crawling with them. And one of them was working for me.
Let's face it, the barrier to entry is painfully low. And because of that, anybody who feels like they can "do" construction work can. Sort of.
But while the barrier is low, the ceiling for quality work is almost unreachably high.
But back to the fool to whom I quite publicly read the riot act. He showed up (late) with a "here's why I'm late" sob story. I was having one of those days, which he made worse.
I made that clear to him in carpenter-speak (aka ... #$%^&!). He got the message and lost his job.
What further infuriates me is that while I can do the work I had laid out for him, I don't want to. I've got bigger fish to fry.
Of course, customers want their salmon cooked at a fish and chips price, and I find myself in search of decent help I can afford. (Digression: did you know that salmon is supposed to taste delectable cooked on a hunk of water-soaked Western Red Cedar?)
Where do you find people? The work line at Home Depot? Temporary labor places? Union guys doing side jobs? Cops and firefighters doing side-work? Or, are you like me and have given up?
I swear I get more work because I can operate a telephone and a calendar than because I can build anything. Was it Woody Allen who said (when he was funny, not married to his step-daughter) that 98% of life is just showing up? What a simple advantage. It's been like this for years. What's it like where you build?
Posted by Mark Clement at 4:05 PM | Comments (2)
July 7, 2008
Rebuilding in Flood Zones: Really?
Is watching disaster one of your hobbies too?
I'm watching Des Moines flood lately. As the Mississippi rose, so did one guy's sand-bag bunker surrounding his house. The dude even fished off his porch on CNN.
This raises a question about the houses built in flood zones: Really?
On North Carolina and New Jersey's hurricane/storm-surge prone beaches, new homes are built on pilings (pressure treated telephone poles rammed into the sand) that appear to be at least 8 feet high. The Southern Yellow Pine Council has a 48-page guide at http://www.raisedfloorliving.com/ for raised floor houses that look more, not less economical to build than slabs or foundations.
When I went to New Orleans after Katrina -- a city largely below the water the level of the same river now flooding Des Moines -- I saw slab after slab (no houses, mind you, just slabs) across acres so flat it appeared the closest was in New Hampshire. And I saw new houses going up on the same slabs.
Again: Really?
As every American's tax dollars pour into FEMA and out to houses "built to be built again" I'm... uh... angry. What about you? Why not build the houses higher off the #$%^& ground? Am I missing something obvious?
In the Netherlands -- a country basically in the water -- the latest trend is to build floating houses. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/08/20/floating.houses/ They're complicated, custom systems, but at their heart seem simple because they don't try to control the uncontrollable. They try to work with it.
Got water? Float it out.
Posted by Mark Clement at 3:30 PM | Comments (13)
July 1, 2008
Hey! I live here!!!!
If my life were a television network, it would be HGTV. In other words, I'm living the "all home improvement all the time channel."
When I'm not building for customers I'm writing about it and when I'm not writing about it I'm working on my own house. And by "working on my own house" I mean I'm building a new house inside a 100 year old shell.
Despite doing nearly everything myself I still have subs and laborers in here (when they show up; that's a story for another day).
When I work in someone else's home, I can tell they live there. There's evidence. A car in the driveway, food in the fridge, TVs and computers... and them. However, several seemingly upstanding people I've hired treat a home like a punching bag.
They plow through doors, drop stuff, and make legendary messes inside and outside the home. Then they leave.
I'll never forget when -- let's call him Knuckle-Dragger A -- was making a mess of intergalactic proportions while we worked in my house. "Hey!" I said. "I $%^&* live here!"
It was in hearing those words that a tumbler clicked in the lock of the guy's brick-thick dome. I'm not sure whether he became aware of my increasing fury or the actual implications of his mess. Whatever it was, he suddenly got careful.
What's your deal? Do you work on your own home while building for others? How does that affect your interaction with customers... and with the crew? Is a jobsite a lifeless place for you -- a hurdle between you and dollars -- or is it an intimate place, someone's home?
Posted by Mark Clement at 12:23 PM | Comments (4)
