The Manager - Foreman

Karl, has worked in the construction field since he graduated from High School. He's very knowledgeable and experienced. He started as a laborer, then became a heavy equipment operator and now is a Foreman. He has worked on many building projects in his community from subdivisions, highways to shopping centers and other commercial buildings, etc. His greatest joy is to see the project from start to finish.

It was the start of a new week and there were deadlines to meet so the company could get paid. Karl had trucks hauling in fill, machine operators excavating, laborers laying pipes & drains, cement trucks scheduled to lay foundations later in the week and the work was on schedule except for a few minor things, when Karl was interrupted and asked to go back to the base yard and meet with the owner. When he got to the office, he was instructed to hold a meeting with the workers at the end of the week and was told to lay them all off. The company fell back on paying their taxes and lost their contractor license. The owner, a lavish spender blamed Karl for hiring extra laborers. He blamed the accountant for not making the payments. He also blamed his general manager for not working. The office manager spoke up to him questioning his spendings on why he was using the company bank card in Korean bars, to travel, and giving thousands of dollars to impress beautiful women who had no interest in him. The owner stared down the office manager and did not say a word. She stared back.

Karl, the wise man that he is saw the wives and children of his workers and started to cry inside. His simple answer; "No, we are going to finish this project." He walked out the door & went back to work not knowing what was going to happen on Friday. For the rest of the week he continued to stay on schedule with the project and in between would call the general manager on his cell phone. They both worked together trying to find ways to keep the workers working and the project. Karl and the GM was determined not to have any one take this project away from them. On Friday morning, Karl and the GM went to the tax office and tried to work out a payment plan. They were rejected. The lunch hour arrived faster than they wanted it to. Karl, exhausted, did not want to tell the workers that there was no work on Monday.

Then the GM said, "I have a friend with a contractors license. I don't know if he will want to help us." Karl, being older than the GM said encouragingly, "Our men have families to support. Please call your friend and ask him to help us." Karl went back to work. He did not call the meeting after lunch as was instructed to. He continued laboring with the workers. The harmony and momentum amongst them tortured him. It was 3:30pm and still no phone call from the GM. The workers all shook hands and waved to each other bidding them a good weekend and then to Karl. He handed out their paychecks, tipped his hard hat to each one and thanked them for their hard work and bid them a good weekend. It was a rough weekend for Karl. His wife wondered what was wrong? He was not himself at all. The GM did not respond to any of his messages.

Finally, Sunday evening at 6:00pm his cell phone rang. "Karl, we still have the project. But, in order for us to continue on this project, we all need to be working under Wayne's payroll and Karl, you are still the foreman. Wayne & I visited the project this weekend and he reviewed our work, schedules, items and will not make any changes. You will continue to see the project through until it is completed. If this project goes well and is completed as scheduled, Wayne would like us to work on the new airport project that's coming up."