Me, Kicked Off the Construction Site

At a certain construction site, I made a major mistake in my role as chief engineer, and after the project was completed, I was placed on administrative leave at home for several months.

After my suspension ended and I returned to work, I suddenly found myself in the spotlight; my name became known to everyone in the company, and I began to be treated like a problem employee.

My requests to be dispatched to job sites as a field engineer were flatly refused, so I had no sites to go to. Every day, I spent my time at the office preparing meeting materials, accompanying safety patrols on site, and serving as a driver for executives, and so on,I was completely cut off from the construction site.。

A few months later, I finally secured a new job.

It’s been a few months since I was laid off from the job site. I’ve finally secured a temporary assignment as a subcontractor on an airport construction project—something I’ve never done before.

Construction at the site was carried out around the clock, operating on a two-shift system: during the day, individual PPC panels were delivered and joined together in sets of three, while at night, a 550-metric-ton all-terrain crane was used to lay the PPC panels.

At first, I was in charge of daytime operations

When I was first assigned to the department, I was put in charge of daytime operations. While my main responsibility was construction management, I would help out with the work when we were short-staffed and also use a forklift to prepare materials.

We had weekends and holidays off, and we also took days off when it rained because we couldn’t work, but since it was a 24-hour construction site, the working conditions were excellent. Back then, I had plenty of free time, so I was able to study thoroughly for the Level 2 Civil Engineering Construction Management Technician exam. I passed with flying colors.

In addition, the company covered the costs for me to obtain the certifications required on-site—such as those for construction machinery, forklifts, and rollers, as well as licenses for large special vehicles and large motor vehicles, and certifications as a formwork supervisor, scaffolding supervisor, and concrete bridge erection supervisor—allowing me to make the most of my time there.

In the second half, I was in charge of night shifts

Shortly after starting work at the site, I was assigned to the night shift.

At night, the task involved using a transporter to bring in three PPC slabs that had been joined together during the day, then using a 550-metric-ton all-terrain crane to lift the existing slabs and replace them with the three joined PPC slabs.

The existing version had cracks in it, so there were many instances where it would break when lifted or couldn't be lifted at all, making for a lot of difficult work.

As I was struggling with the task, the director (chief engineer) at the time took an interest and asked, “What are you going to do about the phantom?”

"For the large pieces, we'll figure out a way to thread them through the nylon slings and lift them with the 550-metric-ton all-terrain crane. If that doesn't work, we'll break them into smaller pieces with the 0.8 cubic meter breaker and force them into the dump truck. The schedule is tight, but we'll make it work."

I replied to the director, and in the end, I loaded the material onto a 0.8 m³ dump truck, breaking it down into smaller pieces to fit 0.4 m³ into the truck, and somehow managed to make it in time for the installation.

A Remark from the Director

One day, I found myself alone with the director at the office. Then, the director turned to me and began to say the following.

"Phantom really has the makings of a craftsman."

When I asked him why, he said, “It was when I was quietly going about my work, or when I managed to overcome problems that arose on site using only my experience and knowledge. If I’d been on my own, I think I would have panicked and been unable to do anything. “Phantom isn’t depressed or anything. It’s just that at my previous job, they pushed all the responsibility onto Phantom and made me take the fall. I just wasn’t surrounded by the right people. That affected my performance evaluation, and I was simply moved away from the high-profile work. It was just bad luck,” he said.

No one had ever said anything like that to me before, so I was simply happy and felt relieved. Until the director said that, I had been convinced that it was all my fault, but his kind words made me feel a little better.

To gain recognition as an engineer

Working with others isn’t just about getting the job done; you also need to communicate with them and participate in social events like drinking parties so they can get to know you as a person. This incident made me realize once again that I need to build a relationship of trust with Phantom, the engineer, so that they’ll want to continue working with me in the future.

Also, sometimes, sucking up to your boss might be one way to promote yourself. By sucking up to your boss, you get a better evaluation, get promoted, and earn a higher salary. Once I came to see that as just the way the world works, I stopped arguing with the company or my boss, and these days I just go along with everything.

This applies not only to my superiors but also to my subordinates. By refraining from criticism or argument and instead offering recognition, my subordinates have come to enjoy their work more. Ultimately, while there are other training methods, such as strict guidance, I now feel that a training approach based on recognition (praise) is probably the best.