Author: Gerry Keating

Construction Professional

US Crane Safety

Having worked on projects with bamboo scaffolding and ones where instead of a concrete pump we used 100 local labourers as a chain with buckets balanced on their heads,  I have seen the full spectrum of safety.

I have been a Project Manager on one job in the US and that was ten years ago in Kansas.  A 15,000m2 processing plant, with 30,000m2 concrete hardstand for trucks. Slab on ground,  Steel frame, insulated walls, Colorbond roof – a big shed. Plus all the mechanical services to turn milk product into cheese.  What amazed me was how far the States was behind Australia when it comes to safety even then.  I was chasing work method statements, risk assessments etc and my local site manager thought I was from a different planet.  Anyway, enough of the reminiscences, I will keep that for the next book. The subject that caught my eye recently was crane safety.

The link below contains a video: “Employer Goes Beyond OSHA” by Tudor Van Hampton and is well worth viewing.

Any experienced Australian contractor will watch in amazement as the US industry tries to implement what we have been doing for years.  But I am not putting them down, at least they are trying.  And having worked there “trying” is sometimes the right word.

Click to view:
Enforcing the New Crane Safety Rule | ENR: Engineering News Record | McGraw-Hill Construction.

Electronic Democracy

The Team at Our Say have joined up with Q and A to allow electronic voting for questions to be aired on the show. This is not an absolutely unique approach to interaction between viewer and the networks but this easy to use method must be the way of the future in many areas. It is free so it wont be attractive to game shows and infomercials etc, but that is a good thing. The day cannot be far away when we can vote electronically in elections and the more of the electorate that gets involved with issues cannot be a bad thing.

Music to Die For

Listening to the radio, whilst driving through Brisbane this morning, I heard a discussion on music to be played at funerals. Sounds like a depressing subject but I persevered, at least that station has no adverts played in unison as the other other commercial stations do. The presenter explained how the most requested song “in the world” is Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’. There are a few people I wish were there already but lets not go all Victor Meldrew just yet. He then went on about how the Catholic church were “tightening up procedures” and not allowing some music. I suppose as usual their guilt gets the better of them. Perhaps we should go bake to credo in unnum deo et in principio etc and pater noster qui in ceilo est etc. As you can see my mis-spent youth was proceeded as a Irish Liverpool Catholic altar boy. There is a whole book in that last sentence but this blog is too brief, perhaps I will blog a few tasters of the book in days to come. But with that heritage plus an only child, ceaserian section, blue baby syndrome, not breast fed, taught by Christian (supposedly) brothers, a Liverpool Supporter, there is more than one book lurking.

So I started thinking about my own selection for that fateful day. Faubet’s Requiem came to mind, but we would not have six hours from reception at the crematorium to dispatch, so brevity is required. Sixties pop songs lasted on average 2 minutes and 10 seconds, however, I really would not be comfortable with She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah. Perhaps a guitar riff from Stairway to Heaven? Mozart would be soothing to the small gathering or a touch of Vivaldi, not the bloody four seasons rather Gloria or Bach‘s glorious Maginficat.

But no the selection is:

Lazarus Lives!!!

Job Interview Feedback

One of my pet beefs is the lack of feedback from “Employment Consultants”. I recently was approached, yes that is the word, by one of these consultants to apply for a job that I had not seen advertised. “You are ideal for the role” purred the consultant “$300K plus bonus, plus stock options etc etc”. So immediately he had broken my own number one golden rule: don’t mention money first up.

Well of course I was interested, and within 24 hours I am sat with three suits in a CBD high rise, listening to how wonderful the company was, and how the future was bright and the reasons they had “hunted me down”. When I told them after forty minutes I was curious but not convinced, they were taken aback. The thought had not occurred to the CEO, the CFO and the other suit, that I may turn them down. Which at the end of the meeting I did there and then. Why did I refuse – simple – I did not trust them and everything was too good to be true. They wanted me to run one of their many businesses which they had acquired. They were not true asset strippers but shaking hands with the CEO was akin to shaking hands with a dead fish. There was no chemistry between us, there was no spark.

Usually feedback from employment consultants is extracted if it is bad news, or immediate if it is a job offer. This was a highly unusual scenario for the consultant. He called and immediately started talking money, shares and had no idea that there was more to my decision than the perks and lurks. I explained to him that I came to Australia on a 747 not a banana boat and he was still mystified. Also, the thought of loosing his fee (12.5% on $300k plus) was influencing his excitement. When he realized that I could not be persuaded his tone changed and he wanted to tell me how I should appreciate everything he had done for me. At this point the boy from Liverpool emerged from within and I explained the facts of life to him in words of four letters and one syllable. He will probably be so angry he will un-friend me on Facebook, oh dear.

So my debate rages is it boots or suits for my future? Boots are looking more honest at the moment.

Am I in the Talent Bank?

Does anybody remember when jobs were advertised in the newspaper, you applied by post and looked forwared to a reply delivered by the trusty postie. More often than not it was a dear John letter, but you usually received a reply one way or another. The next step was that you would be summoned to an interview with the perspective employer and then another wait for the postie with fingers crossed.

Nowadays the postie has gone it is email and mobiles, but the most fundamental change is the employment consultant. Before these people existed companies had a HR manager, individuals responded to adverts, hr and the line manager would go through the applications and they would be fully involved in the selection process.

There are two kinds of employment consultant, good and bad. The former has been around for some time, knows the client and the candidate, saves the client time and does not mess the canditate about. The latter basically forwards resumes from their “Talent Bank”

I have used consultants to find staff for me and to find jobs when I have completed a project. My biggest gripe with an employers hat on is the lack of screening by consultants and as a candidate the lack of communication and being put forward for totally unsuitable positions combined with a lack of knowledge of the specific industry sector.

Maybe the future lies in social networking Linkedin, Twitter et al. We shall see.

Twitter for All

I received a recent tweet from Brisbane City Council which was aimed at homeless people in Brisbane. Right away I could sense the wannabe Andrew Bolts disparagingly huffing and puffing at the very idea that “the homeless” would be able to tweet. “If they can afford a phone/pc and have time to tweet, then they can afford accommodation and should get a job”

Firstly good on BCC for getting their message across any which way they can. Secondly, how many of us are nearer to homelessness than we think. Redundancy, seperation, illness etc can be the triggers. If you want to know the real story volunteer for the Salvos at Pindari and listen to the real life stories of people who were part of society and were so easily dispossessed of their worldly goods.

Or ask someone who knows – ask me.

War and Peace – no it is their resume

I have been advertising recently for a new employee. The standard of resumes range from one page of crap to ten pages of crap. Therefore, I have been looking for the perfect resume. OK I googled “best resume” and generally the advice was the same:not too fancy; no more than three pages;etc. But I have been reviewing resumes for many years and what stands out to me is someone who in the first paragraph says why I should hire them, it is really that simple. I don’t want to know about them winning the under thirteen’s backstroke, or their views on global warming or that they spend there spare time caring for terminally ill people. I just want to know can you do the bloody job.

Some years ago I was in Beirut meeting some joker who had applied for a project director post in Morocco on a 850US$ million development. He had a masters, a phd, a list of qualifications and references, in other words a typical Harvard educated cretin. After an hour I fired up Google Earth and asked him to show me a job he had started and finished ie he was there when the cranes went up and he handed the keys to the client at the end. He could not, so I said ok show me a small project, a service station, a Maccas but he could not because he had never done it. Yet his resume was fantastic and yes it got him the interview.

The moral is, if you have not done it, don’t BS that you can.

Vodaphone V Optus

This was my first ever mobile and it was with Vodaphone …. in 1987 in the UK. I thought I was the bees knees, but nobody would call me as it was so expensive. So after shelling out £5,100 all I had was a fancy man bag. In time more people got mobiles and the rest is history. The point is Vodaphone. This device had a message service, itemised billing, caller id etc. But Vodaphone were new, exciting and great to deal with.

Through the nineties I had Telstra, Hutcinson, Optus and Vodaphone in Australia. I was in Qatar in 2008 when Vodaphone entered the monoploly market of Qtel.

So that is the history lesson, what about the present. Well I succumbed and got an iPhone about six months ago with Vodaphone. It kept dropping out, emails and texts would go missing, would not connect to the internet on 3G, and even had problems connecting to my home WiFi. So now I have an iPhone with Optus and it is perfect. Same phone diverent provider better service. Why?

The Chaser Has Been Chased

I cannot abide the Chaser, although some of the people who are part of it, I find very entertaining. I like political wit, even sarcasm, but not childish tricks. It is “Balls of Steel” for university graduates.

BUT…. if people want to watch ABC2 and enjoy what I dislike, then let them watch it. But they cannot watch it because the BBC will pull the pin on that bloody wedding broadcast to the ABC if the Chaser is allowed to air. This is censorship. What is worse it reminds us that we are a colony of mother England

Chinless Wonders

I heard these two words as a child when my dear departed father described the various royal relatives at Princess Margarete’s wedding. We were crowded around someone’s tv, one of the few around at the time in Liverpool, and I had innocently asked as to why so many of the queens male relations had beards. “Because they are bloody chinless wonders” my father explained. My mother had refused to watch the “murderous, invading Brits” as she was a daughter of Eire not Ireland but the free state.

But I have noticed that this epitaph suits others who are not royals or even males. For example our governor general. I should now declare my Australian citizenship so I feel empowered to comment but not to winge like the pom I evolved from. This person is not elected, one of her predecessors sacked an elected government and conducts herself as if you could use her shit for toothpaste. She ponces around paid for by us and behaves like royalty, which in effect she is.

Wake up Australia and ditch this nonsense!