Incompetence in the workplace?

I unfortunately have witnessed many instances of incompetence in the construction field.

Many stories come to mind on this topic. There are a ton of stories that happened on my crew during the years in business, which I will get to at another time, but I'm gonna tell a story that goes back to the time I worked with my Dad....again.....sorry Dad.  As a matter of fact there are multiple instances of incompetence that truly make me wonder how things can actually get done.
It was the summer of 73 (weird, seems like yesterday), and I was working with my Dad. He had a crew of very interesting people. One person in particular was my Uncle Paul. Uncle Paul married my Mother's sister, and he worked for my Dad for quite a few years.....be forewarned, you will hear more stories about Uncle Paul.

He was the kind of person who got himself into the craziest situations.

This one summer day we were working in New Brunswick NJ. We were working on a housing development, I think it was "Hidden Lake", although we eventually found that lake, which wasn't hidden well.
It was around 9:30 am. and we ALWAYS had our coffee break at 10 am. never fail.
This one particular morning, my Dad told me to tell Uncle Paul to go to the local diner to get coffee for the crew. He handed me a 20 dollar bill and told me to make sure that Uncle Paul give him the change. I did my job, and my dear Uncle was happy to go.

This was the exact car!

The reason he was so happy to be the coffee guy, was first, he was able to get away for a little while, and the other reason was he got to drive my Dad's brand new Fleetwood Cadillac.
The brand new Cadillac was on the job because his pickup truck was in the shop....anyway. Uncle Paul gets into the car, and heads off on his journey. But just as he drove away, I see a concerned look come on my Dad's face. I looked over my shoulder to see the car heading towards a trench that was dug across the road by a Public Service (electric company) backhoe. My Dad looked at me and said "Where's he going?"....I shrugged my shoulders in the fact that I was just as curious as he was. My Dad started to whistle.....you know, the construction whistle....LOUD!

The car was heading right for the trench, and it wasn't slowing down.

 Now keep in mind that on our side of the trench was all of the dirt that was piled along the road from the digging of the trench. There was no way that Uncle Paul didn't see this. My father started to panic....and while yelling and whistling, started to run towards his brand new car. Just then we see the brake lights go on.....the car stopped, then we see the backup lights go on....my father stopped running, and in a relieved voice said "Man, he had me going for a minute."
While the whole crew was watching, the car backed up around 15 feet, stopped......the backup lights were no longer on...and all of a sudden we see the tires smoking!! I believe we all had our mouths wide open in amazement, and disbelief!! Uncle Paul was going to try and JUMP the trench with my Dad's brand new Cadillac! At this point we could do nothing but watch what the outcome was going to be. Seriously, I thought for sure that Uncle was just messing around, and would come to a screeching halt just before the trench.....But that was just wishful thinking.

I was actually surprised at what happened next.....

I swear this is what it looked like!!

The car hit the dirt pile, flew up in the air, and took an immediate nose dive into the trench!!!! What we saw from our vantage point was the back tires....spinning, the muffler, and my Dad running towards the car with a shovel!!

Uncle Paul lived, and remained employed to give us many more stories, but he never got to live that one down. He explained that since he was headed that way, he really thought that the car would jump over the trench, and he would be regarded as "the cool guy that jumped the trench" Oh.....and we didn't get coffee that day!

TIP OF THE DAY:

Since were talking about cars today, lets repair our cracked concrete driveway..

Patch the cracks with caulk. I can highly recommend Quikrete Concrete Repair 8620-10. It’s an acrylic latex product that includes a little sand, which makes it blend in well with concrete. You can even use it to repair the cracks in your stucco or masonry. 

See you next time......from beyond.........