Red Dirt Girl

Red dirt, blue sky and concrete pump truck a' pumpin...this makes my guys happy. Everyone is smilin and in a good mood on the day of a big pour....this make me happy! I've been around construction for all of my adult life and in my teens. I'm more comfortable around all the guys and the job site than I am in any other work environment. My parents have a general contracting business, they taught me everything I know and therefor I have a complete project management understanding of the roles involved. Actually I've been up and down the ladder of positions myself. Right now, I'm definitely a lower rung than I've been on, but its actually fun for me because I'm at a point in my life where I think I needed a break from the stress and high responsibility. Currently I reside in the Office Manager position at a job site that is building a jail in a small town-country county here in Georgia. Today we have about 80 guys on site, including my 5 that I work directly with here in our trailer. They started at 3 am, I got here at 7:30am.

The guys work hard, harder than most people could or would ever work. They work in the heat, cold, wind and rain with very little 'comforts' and they don't complain. As the only woman on site, and as the office manager for the General Contractor I feel it is my duty to make our trailer the best place to be for the guys, even if they only get to come inside for a couple minutes. My trailer is a little Oasis at the job site for the following reasons:

1. We have GREAT air conditioning (we'll see about the heat this winter!)

2. Nice COLD spring water, coffee and sodas in the fridge.

3. I'm always smiling to greet everyone.

4. It's clean.

5. There are usually baked homemade goodies

6. Asshole behavior is required to stay outside. :-)

Like I said these guys work hard, and I like to be their rest stop during the day. Also there is a lot of stress on a construction site, buildings don't just go up easy. There is so much to coordinate and the design is never perfect. The schedule is always tight, and everyone has a boss that preaches about saving money, and don't forget the safety standards and the egos! Being the only woman somehow I feel it is my duty to make sure everyone at least remains civil and gets along while in front of me. They argue politely (for a job site) if I'm nearby. There are a lot of stresses, attitudes, disagreements and CHALLENGES, but we have a lot of fun too!

The office set up is all me, set up to make everyone comfortable when they come inside from their hard work outside. I like how the guys start pointing out places on my maps, and tellin stories while their waiting for someone. I've got a big wall map of Atlanta and the surrounding counties, then one with the entire East Coast. I just added a little fold up table to our tiny kitchen area to give us more room for our legendary feasts at lunch. We have a grill that our PM got for us when the job started, officially "Grill Day" is Thursdays, but we get in as many as we can. Everyone rotates on bringing stuff and cookin'. I usually set everything up and lay it out because we have so little space. Today, we had Lamb Steaks, red "new" potatas with a sour cream-cilantro cream and a green salad for our impromptu grill day. It was really good, as usual! This Thursday I'm making teriyaki kabobs and potato salad! Yumm!

We laugh a lot and play jokes on each other. Last week I had the pleasure of opening my desk drawer to find a rubber rat that looked remarkably real! The Superintendent took a short vacation after Labor Day... He came back to his door duct taped and everything in his office turned upside down! It was a good laugh! Sometimes we just get silly too!

I always say it's like a dysfunctional family, we care about and take good care of each other, make each other laugh, and often complain and can barely stand each other, but it works for each of us! We talk in a code language that only those in construction are in the know of. We meet people from so many walks of life and places that we dream about or have never heard of! All in all we get the job done, we build a building that will last for decades and feel proud that we overcame challenges and always feel like we beat the odds! I love this industry because it's not something people just fall into and stay, the people that build, love it. They love the dirt and the noise, and the team that it takes to build something that lasts! And its a lot of fun!