The Journey That Is Getting Further and Further Away (XV)

On the eve of the National Day holiday, Meng's sister called her, saying that one of the waitresses at their shop had to quit and wanted Meng to come back and help out for a month or two until the new waitress was up to speed.
Meng discussed this with me, and what could I say?

After Meng left, I was busy at the company during the day and spent my evenings in this temporary home watching TV and playing games. I went home once a month. If my wife wanted to have sex, I would try my best to fulfill my sexual obligations; otherwise, we slept separately.
By this time, my wife was convinced I was having an affair and tried to talk to me about it several times, but I remained noncommittal. She lacked concrete evidence and didn't know what to do, so she could only maintain a lukewarm marriage, a kind of cold war.

When the New Year came, Meng still hadn't returned. She said her sister's shop was doing very well, and the new waitress was too slow to learn. Her sister wouldn't let her leave, and she felt bad about abandoning her sister. Besides, her sister paid her a fairly high salary every month, so she decided to help out a little longer.

Before the Spring Festival, the few privately contracted labor-intensive projects I had undertaken were basically completed. The guy leading the team came back and gave me the ledger. I deducted the money I usually paid him from the ledger and settled all the expenses.
That year, I took on five labor-intensive projects, with a total project cost of over one million yuan. After deducting food, lodging, transportation, workers' wages, and various other expenses, the profit was less than fifty thousand yuan.
Actually, I had done detailed budgets for these mechanical and electrical equipment installation and sewage treatment plant construction projects, and I had personally prepared the quotations. Although I only handled labor costs and did not include equipment and material procurement or civil engineering, if managed properly and personnel were arranged reasonably, the profit margin could have reached at least 25% to 30%. When I prepared the quotations, I did not overcharge or disregard costs. I carefully calculated the prices, which were slightly higher than many individual construction teams. My connections were based on their trust in my construction experience and the fact that the quality of the projects I had completed in the past was quite good, which is why they entrusted the projects to me, even if the price was slightly higher.
I was somewhat dissatisfied, but I couldn't say it directly. My friend is from Changchun. He used to be a welder, working odd jobs in the city. A few years ago, through a friend's introduction, he joined the team I led. He's smart, doesn't seem to have any ulterior motives, and is very honest.
He always called me "brother" and humbly learned about mechanical and electrical equipment installation, which he knew nothing about before, and familiarized himself with engineering processes and pipeline laying techniques. I didn't hold back in teaching him my construction experience, teaching him to read and draw, and to master and use CAD and other drafting software.
I like people who are eager to learn and am willing to share what I know. At the time, my apprentice was also learning from me. Teaching one or two is the same as teaching two.
I always felt that having a few skilled workers under me would make construction less stressful and smoother. Having more people to share the pressure and technical difficulties of construction is never a bad thing.
My younger brother worked for me for five or six years, but he was never good enough. I almost had to teach him the techniques myself, teaching him electrical work, welding, and water supply and drainage, but he just couldn't do any of them. I even gave him a welding machine, some steel pipes, some welding rods, or a few circuit breakers, contactors, and buttons, and let him tinker with them all day long, but he just couldn't get it right. I had electricians and welders take turns training him, but it still didn't work. As others would say, his mind wasn't on learning the technology at all. Besides my younger brother, there was also my brother-in-law who later left; they really gave me a headache. They weren't good at learning technical skills, but they were adept at gambling, drinking, and cheating without me having to teach them. So I often scolded them, saying, "Even pigs are smarter than you!"
That guy worked for me like that for five or six years, and after my apprentice went to my friend's company, he became one of my more trusted foremen.
After I left my previous company, the company's construction team was disbanded, firstly because most of the team members were my confidants, and secondly because I had promised the company boss that I would take on any projects, and the boss was happy not to employ construction workers, saving some costs.
After I secured projects through my old connections, I called this guy back and had him take the lead and lead the construction team.
The year went poorly, likely because it was his first time leading a team and managing a construction site alone. His management skills were still developing, leading to frequent delays and shirking of work. There were also shortcomings in personnel allocation and arrangement, resulting in minimal profit.

In January 2013, a labor-intensive project I had negotiated the previous year started. The construction site was in Hebei, a renovation project for a city's sewage treatment plant.
I sent that guy to lead the team, instructing him to pay attention to construction safety, communicate promptly with the client and contractor regarding any issues, and call me if he encountered difficulties.
I told him that Hebei was over a thousand kilometers away, and I couldn't go there frequently. I stressed the importance of properly arranging the construction personnel and schedule to avoid delays, especially since a project that should have taken two months had dragged on for over three months, like last year. I said, "In the labor-intensive business, we need to grasp the timelines and control the schedule to make a profit. How much will we need to pay each day for so many workers? If it drags on for ten days or half a month, the workers' wages won't be small. What's the point of working hard and earning a little money if it all goes to the workers?"
My friend nodded in agreement.
I told him, "Last year you lacked experience, and you had problems with management and staffing. After a year of honing your skills, you should be almost there."
My friend replied, "Don't worry, bro!"

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The Journey That Is Getting Further and Further Away (XV)

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