Tricks of the Trades

Don’t get me wrong. I have just written about the women from the trades that I have met (mostly through Habitat, although there are others) but there are guys I genuinely respect onsite too. Some of them, like Mike and Carlos, are continuing to adopt me. I have known of them for a while, but because I was not as “dedicated” to Habitat before … as in, I hadn’t yet based my CAREER direction on it … I had no reason to connect with them. Now I have found a couple of things, one being they respect me as an apprentice, and another thing; they can discipline me for not getting something right. They know how to do that respectfully. There are lots of other guys there that I respect, and enjoy learning from. I can take being yelled at, really I can. Being told I am worthless and essentially useless, no. That shows a lack of any class. But these guys don’t do that. Mike, Carlos, MikeBlake, Roger, Brian, Will, Dave, to name a few off the top of my head, are all pretty good guys to work for, to work with, and to learn from.

Speaking of learning, it’s time I moved on to the technical achievements of my day. I noticed that I worked with Carlos EXACTLY the way an apprentice works for a foreman, and the fact that he treats me in that way is pretty cool. I recognize how he is treating me, and how he is expecting me to behave, and I understand that he doesn’t do that kind of thing for “just anyone”. He is investing teaching in me, which is something that I am very receptive to. I am here, at Habitat, more importantly than anything else, to LEARN. I need to learn like I need air. I need to be given the opportunity to learn. I need to be given the responsibility to do things, a chance to f…mess up, and then to be told that I messed up, and helped to see what I can do better next time. That is one of the reasons why I appreciate Brian’s sites, and respect him so much; because he attracts teachers, and he believes in making Habitat a learning experience. I have learned not to take that for granted, because not everyone operates that way. I am grateful for all these opportunities, and I do not want to do anything that would jeopardize them. I understand how lucky I am to be able to participate in this kind of environment, and I love it! I am like a sponge, and it’s finally paying off! I am actually understanding how to do these things, and I am now more able to Crew Lead these projects on my own, although not without still messing up.

Today, Carlos was not so happy with a mistake I made … and I sort of made it twice. I was not on my Crew to remember a very important element of installing the joists, which was to make sure the double joists were flush … and again later with the braces. That was not my project, but Michael was (apparently!) my Crew Member, so when the braces were not flush with the top of the joists, it was my responsibility. Damn. So out came three or four small joists, and the joist hangers had to come out, etc. And watching someone like Carlos just take a skillsaw to your work is kind of shocking. I was a bit confused there, like WTF is going on here?! What did I do wrong? I didn’t understand at first. but the thing is, I COMPLETELY respected the way Carlos did that, because at no point in time did he demean ME, he just chastised the mistake I made, and told me to pay more attention next time, and not mess it up, because that was a bit of work that had to be redone. The thing is, a year ago that may have had me in tears. Today, I have been toughened up by several experiences like that, I don’t take it personally anymore. That is just a construction guy whacking an apprentice over the head and saying “You dork! Now, pay attention, and get it RIGHT the next time!” So this experience was a good one, because I learned here, and I kept all my dignity intact.

However, after that happened, I was kind of shocked, and just stood there for a while. After wanting to go off in a corner and whimper, something in my brain kicked in – Probably Susan or Jenny’s voice in the back of my head! – and said, “Come on girl, you’ve got a Crew to lead, and a mess to fix up – don’t just stand there, you know what you did wrong and what you have to do to fix it, now mobilize the forces and get back to work!” And so I did. Some switch in my brain flipped, and I came to life. People were standing around just staring, almost open-mouthed, at what had just happened, and that was no good. So I gave each of them a piece of wood, and told them to take the nails out. I told Bulldog to make sure he got the double joists flush, and “Penny” and one of the other guys to start cutting the new pieces we needed. I couldn’t believe it! I refused to be upset at messing up, and I went back at it, and look at what happened because of it – I remained my team’s leader, and I gained confidence. THAT was one of the times where the little voice inside of my head, after I had picked up the pieces and fixed things, said “atta girl, good stuff, you deserve a pat on the back.” And believe me, 90% of the time I am Waaay too hard on myself, and even after I have earned a pat on the back I still will not give myself one, but after today’s personal success I really did deserve that. That is a victory, and victory is sweeeet! The last thing that happened today was one of the best things. I shook hands with most of my Crew Members, and was going to just shake Alana's hand, and she just came forward and gave me a big hug! I felt like a million bucks! I felt so good! That was another way for someone to say that I have really made a difference. What a bloody tearjerker. Amazing. Yeah, I don't get paid money to work for Habitat, but that is one of the reasons that makes coming there completely worthwhile.

So for next week, I learned that (keep previous weeks in mind too) you need to watch out for keeping things flush.
* You need to watch every member of not only your original crew, but everyone under you, or working in your area. If you see anything that is wrong, don’t be afraid to tell them to take it out and start over again. Also, I was a bit tough on the guys for the braces, (but still not as tough as Carlos!) but I could be a little softer, maybe … as in, “it’s a mistake guys, it’s okay. It’s not a bad thing. You still are doing a good job, but you have to take out the pieces, and start again.” THEN I can go on with the, “okay, don’t just sit there, take out your mistakes!” kind of stuff! Enh! They’re big boys; they can handle bein’ talked to tough!
* Keep your crew divided into smaller bits.
* Understand the things you have to be aware of in completing your project correctly BEFORE you start.
* Don’t freeze because you messed up, keep moving!

There are other things … but I will need to remember them later. I think I am just about “brained-out” in terms of writing right now!