No Practical Experience: The Obstacles Facing a New Construction Manager
After 17 years of working as a carpenter—a job I’d always considered my calling—I abruptly left that career and switched to residential construction management. Perhaps because I was a “former craftsman” with hands-on experience, I was given a tremendous workload from my very first day on the job.
For the first week, I spent most of my time visiting job sites, touring the company’s buildings, and greeting the craftsmen. The following week, as part of my construction management duties, I was drilled one after another in just three weeks on a sheer volume of tasks—from staking out the site, preparing the site before construction begins, conducting ground level (GL) surveys, checking rebar placement, structural inspections, interior and exterior cleaning, and creating construction schedules, to placing orders and scheduling interim inspections and third-party inspections—along with countless other tasks I can’t even remember now.
It’s true that I had some on-site experience, but I had virtually no know-how when it came to construction management. “Wait a minute. There’s no way I can possibly absorb all of this in such a short time (laughs).” That was my honest opinion.
Three weeks have passed, and as for what instructions my boss gave me after that...
"From now on, take the initiative and act on your own!"
Whaaaaaat?! What do you mean, "from now on..."?
巣立っていけという意味なのだろうか。もはや入社週間で言われる言葉では無い。その後はいわゆる放置プレイの始まりだ（笑）。自ら仕事を探さなければ毎日途方に暮れてしまいそうだ。
After that, I started spending my days wandering aimlessly onto other people’s job sites, checking for any hazardous areas, cleaning up around the site, and chatting with the workers at 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Since I had little experience in construction management and there wasn’t much I could do, as expected, those days didn’t last long.
"I cleaned this spot yesterday, didn't I?" "There aren't any dangerous spots, are there?"
As a former craftsman who had always thought about labor costs when it came to getting paid, this was a situation I simply couldn’t fathom, so I was at a loss, driven by a sense of urgency to find something to do.
A World Revealed Through Attention to Detail
It was a time when my days felt like a repetitive cycle of the same routine, and I felt like what I was doing was pointless, but,
"Since I'm going to do it anyway, I might as well clean thoroughly, paying close attention to every detail."
On a sudden whim, I decided to clean even those spots that would probably make people laugh—thinking, “No one’s looking here, right?”—sometimes crawling on the floor, sometimes using various cleaning tools, and cleaning with the utmost care and attention to detail.
As I began to pay close attention to every detail, I found that I could easily spot everything from odd joints and scratches in buildings to missed nails, adhesive residue, and cracks in plastered walls. I realized that dangers and potential sources of customer complaints were often lurking in places I had previously taken for granted and never questioned.
Looking back, when I first started as a carpenter, I spent most of my time sharpening chisels, and I sometimes felt resentful, wondering if I was just my foreman’s errand boy. But by sticking with it, the sound of sharpening, the subtle sensations and the precise control of pressure, and the ability to maintain concentration even while performing the same motion over a long period—all of these experiences felt somehow connected to the practical skills I needed when actually building structures.
What’s required for on-site management is the ability to detect abnormalities at an early stage, and to do that, you need a solid foundation. I believe that foundation is built through keeping the worksite clean and organized.
I learned from this experience that by cleaning thoroughly—which sharpens my senses and improves my attention and concentration—I can spot something out of place even in places I thought were exactly the same as always.
A capable man leads by example
While some argue that a construction manager doesn’t need to be on-site all the time, once you do visit the site, you should focus on cleaning and organizing even more diligently than the workers themselves. If you just go to check on progress with your hands clean and your arms crossed, that isn’t site management in the first place.
Even while trusting the craftsmen and leaving the work to them, you must also faithfully follow the basics yourself—keeping things organized and clean—so that you can double-check their work. Only then will you be able to properly notice the details that must not be overlooked. This may sound like my personal theory, but I believe that the ideal construction manager is made up of half office worker and half craftsman.
As for the kind of boss who bluntly declared, “From now on, you’re on your own!”—his uniform, which looked pristine at the morning meeting, is caked in mud and dust by the time he returns from the job site, yet he shows no sign of fatigue, as if nothing had happened, and always greets everyone with a cheerful “Good work today!” He’s the very picture of a craftsman.
What’s more, he handles administrative tasks quickly, accurately assesses the situation on-site even from the office, and efficiently moves forward with the production process and ordering arrangements one after another—almost always finishing his work on time and heading home. His boss’s hands-off approach is a classic craftsman’s way of teaching—“Watch my back and learn!”—but I can’t help but admire the way he works.
One day, after the morning meeting, I asked, “What kind of work do you do on the job site?”
My senior colleague simply replied with a smile, “It’s time to clean up,” and as he headed toward the worksite as usual, his back looked incredibly imposing. Seeing my boss—who’s been in this line of work for decades—still faithfully sticking to the basics, I realized in that moment that he was the very embodiment of a true site supervisor.
