Is it me or do people have weird views of what they think PMs do vs what we actually do. PM for a large mechanical contractor here, and not at all is our primary job the "well being" of our workers, yeah its a small part sure but our job is to push the project forward, enable our foreman, journeymen and apprentices to work with little to no hindrence.
That is exactly what I mean by a PM's primary job is the "well being" of the workers. Mainly a good Project Manager's job boils down to getting upper management off the back of the guys in the trenches, so that they can get the shit that needs to be done, up and running. Shielding them from the micromanaging bullshit coming from a dingle berry that has a hard time just dressing himself in the morning, let alone actually knowing what shit needs to be done, and how to get it done right, eg... Croberts.
Would you agree with that?
To take problems that come up and provide fast work arounds and coordinate with other PMs on how to best meet benchmarks. Also we are 100% responsible for financials, we have a bid, then we are trying to make 10% on what we bid as profit, we don't crunch every number but where stuff is getting charged and the overall financials are on us, accounting just writes the checks, if the project doesn't make money it's on us period no one else. Also if the owner (backers in sc case) ask for something extra, we coordinate with the actual workers then price it up for the owner and then do the additional work, we don't just accept that something is added when it isn't in our scope/contract, we acknowledge it, price it, receive the go ahead and do it. There is no guesswork when you are dealing with millions of dollars, if something is late/not on time, you need to figure out why, backcharge that motherfucker for the time they are holding up your men, which can be thousands.
Agreed, but would you post a vid on youtube throwing this all back on your foreman, journeymen and apprentices? As CIG/Erin just did with
Star Citizen: Around the Verse - Choice & Consequences, the Mission System?
We are also intimately familiar with every single aspect, we know who is behind, who is ahead, who is pushing what and we should be because one contractor can hold everyone on the job up, costing thousands sometimes millions if its bad enough. Claiming that a PM in any sense of the word can be void of the basic knowledge needed to run the job is ludicrous, because then you aren't the PM at all.
I stand by what I stated, no one person can hold every aspect of a large project in their mind at one time. A good PM will certainly be intimately familiar with all the team's progress, on a larger scale.
Now my question to you as a PM for a large mechanical contractor is? Can you tell me the exact torque that was applied to every fastener that your team installed in the last week? Not what the specified torque was by the prints, but what every single one of your men applied to that hex nut, hex bolt, pan-head, fillister head, socket cap, button head, ect... What was the grade, diameter, and thread pitch of all of those fasteners, and was every single one within tolerance?
If you can't come up with that exact information,
RIGHT NOW, then you certainly aren't intimately familiar with "every single aspect" of the project. That's absolute bullshit and you know it.
I just installed a servo motor on a machine as part of a R/D retrofitting project for my job, with another lead tech, to be rolled out company wide upon completion. When I explained what we had done to my supervisor, he got a glazed look in his eyes, while nodding in agreement.
I know full well that he doesn't have any "intimate knowledge" of what we did, and the hacks that we used to make it work. We hacked it to make it work, because that machine has to be running, due to scheduling, and we really didn't want to hear about it from him. All the while I have to work around him, by directly communicating to the R/D Project Manager at Corporate, because I can't count on him to do his job, eg... be a buffer, because he has no clue.
How do you think a situation like this affects me? He's been in the company for 22 years, but hasn't kept up with the times, and has literally no clue when it comes to the more modern equipment on the floor.
IMO CR more represent an owner, while at the same time he has no PM except himself, so when he makes a change or demands something there is no actual person there to check him and say ok it's this much, it's this much time. He also plays owner in rounding blame down without probably fully understanding which parts aren't rolling correctly, and if the project fails financially it's not on anyone but him, he's playing both the supplier of cash and the handler which makes no goddamn sense.
What he needs to do is listen to and enable his leads to do their fucking jobs, do I know anything near as much as a 20 year foreman, fuck no, but I know the big picture, and if that guy gives me an estimate or tells me what he needs to get the job done on time and how we want to i accommodate him because he is there, on the ground doing the work with more intimate knowledge. I am over the top coordinating 50 or more things across many contractors including the GC so you learn to trust your leads, you're not there to do the work you are there to enable it to be done and coordinate everything together while meeting every benchmark.
I'll reiterate again,
"Command structure is implemented for a reason. It creates levels of buffering. No single person, at this level of development, can keep the entirety of the project in focus, all the time."
And again, are the "benchmarks" you're trying to meet, are they really that important? Do those "benchmarks" really portray the effectiveness of your team?
PM isn't just checking your dudes making sure they feel hunky dory, if that's what people actually think it explains why so many people claim PM experience on resumes and have no goddamn clue how to actually run something. Just because you've seen someone do it and it looks easy, doesn't mean it was done correctly or it wasn't just the fact that the labor was some on point mofos who made you look good.
Your statement, right here, just shows why you need to reevaluate; how, and why, you're doing what you do.
The whole point of your job is all about getting those "on point mofos" to make you look good. That should be the perfected end result as a PM. You keep those "mofos" doing what they need to be doing, and happy as a lark doing it, and you as a PM have done your job.
This is precisely why I added that summation to my post about the organic farmer. He's not focusing on the cow, and chickens. All he's really caring about is growing the grass that they all eat. When he grows right grass, then he's done his main job. The cows and chickens will take care of themselves when he's provided the right environment for them to excel.
Upper management will give you mad bonuses for achieving that kind of end result.
Trust me coordinating millions of dollars worth of work is not easy, specially if it's a hospital, the QC QA that goes into it is mind boggling and you lean heavily on those more intimate with working details,
Thank you for reinforcing my point on proper command structure. In a team centric environment you need to be able to lean on your coworkers, and know that they have your back.
but I know how quick it is to burn through money on labor, and CIG has 350+ employees. I mean 90% of a job is labor, and thats on multi million dollar hospitals with expensive ass equipment, no way in hell I can see 160 mill going this long with that many people working for him. It is though, so they are getting money from somewhere else
We won't know what the true state of the books is until the end. I would tend to agree with you here that CIG has well surpassed the $250 million+ mark at this point, and has literally dumped that money down a hole.
In summation, here's a couple things you might want to read. In no way am I saying that you're a bad PM. Far from it considering what you've said in your post, I would be happy to be on your team. You do "get it" in many ways.
I just like to look at it, that when you stop learning, you're dead. There is always room for everyone to improve. If you come at a problem, or life, with a state of mind that you know it all, you'll never succeed...
The Cost of Bad Project ManagementA Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)–Fifth EditionThe No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't 
