The week I pulled 4 straight 14 hour days wiring a bank job in Cleveland

Back in 2018, I got a rush job to rewire a whole First Federal branch near Public Square after they had a flood. We ran 600 feet of 18/4 through drop ceilings that were still damp, and the branch manager kept asking if we could be done by Friday because they had a board meeting. By Thursday my knees were shot from crawling through that wet insulation, but we finished at 7pm and the client bought us pizza. Anyone else have a job that just seemed to go on forever?

3 comments

3 Comments

samthompson2mo ago

Is it just me or do the worst jobs always have some weird emotional hook like a board meeting or a deadline that doesn't matter? That's the thing about construction and trade work, you're never just fixing a building, you're fixing someone's chaos. Those 14 hour days hit different when you realize the rush is always about some person's self-imposed panic, not the actual work.

coran6312d ago

Hold on, is this really that deep though? I mean yeah, people put stuff off, that's just how humans are. But calling it "chaos" and saying you're fixing someone's emotional baggage sounds a little dramatic to me. They're just busy, not having a meltdown. Everybody's got their own stuff going on, the deadline stress is on them not you. Just do the work, cash the check, and go home.

benlewis2mo ago

Hear that loud and clear, @samthompson. The self-imposed panic is the killer, right? Why does everyone wait until something is a "crisis" to treat it like it matters? I wonder how much of the actual construction backlog is just people putting off basic maintenance until their floors cave in or their pipes burst. Have you ever had a client admit they knew about a leak for months but just didn't call because of "other priorities"? It's like they think tradespeople are some kind of emergency button they can push whenever their own planning fails. Makes you wonder if the whole industry is just a support system for other people's bad habits, doesn't it?