Construction Curiosities #76
What’s a People-First Company? | Why’s it so hard to build in America?
Hey! Happy Saturday! Matt here.
Welcome to the Construction Curiosities newsletter!
With the business of Thanksgiving, I took last week off from sending a Newsletter. My first missed week in 75 editions.
I hope you all survived.
This weekly Newsletter explores my Curiosities about the Construction Industry. It's meant to make you think, smile, and become a better, more thoughtful Construction Professional.
Summary
This week we will look at:
One Guest Article: What’s a People-First Company?
One Podcast: Why’s it so hard to build in America?
One Meme: Change Order Reaction vs. Reality
One Guest Article
This week’s guest article comes from Chris Gutkes, President of Island Elevator.
You might remember Chris as the Cranky Yankee Elevator Guy from CM Mentors # 30 - “Elevators vs. The World: Why can't we get along?”
The first time I reached out to Chris was to ask him about the Island Elevator: “A People First Company”
I wanted to know what it meant to him. To be honest, not knowing Chris at all yet, I expected some sort of corporate mumbo jumbo of “we put our people first” with no real proof of how. He went on to tell me a couple of stories and the one that had the biggest impact on me was the story of how they handled the COVID emergency.
I’ve gotten to know Chris better over the last 18 months or so and I can tell he truly believes what he says. I asked him to write an Article of what a People-First Company really means, and he did it in the best way possible. By way of story.
Take it away Chris!
What does it mean to be a People-First Company?
Well, Chris foiled my normal article meme insertion plan by sending me a PDF and formatted in a way that made it too much work to copy/ paste into the substack editor. Soooo click the link below for his article.
But here’s a sneak peak:
I’m always looking for more Guest Articles!
Want to be featured in an upcoming Newsletter and have your article Gif-ified or your face pasted onto a cartoon character? Shoot me an email at matt@constructionyeti.com. And let’s do it!
One Podcast
Why Is It So Hard (and Expensive) to Build Anything in America?
by Freakonomics Radio
Most industries have become more productive over time. But not construction! We identify the causes — and possible solutions. (Can you say ... “prefab”?)
I’ve always loved Freakonomics and they did an awesome job with this one.
One Meme
As a Project Manager, I totally understand the work that has to happen behind the scenes for any drawing change that happens so don’t come at me bro… 😂
See y’all next week!
