What Happens Today
It’s punch list week on an interior fit-out job. All the pieces are just about in place and site superintendent Gino DiFazio is looking at a job almost done and done well, the goal he is shooting for every day. Getting a job to that “done and done well” place takes a lot more than nuts, bolts, nails, wood, and steel. It takes people…..lots of people: clients, architects, trade apprentices, master carpenters, even the guy that cleans out the port-a-potty every week (yes, that’s part of the General Contractor’s job too). They all have to pull together like a well-oiled machine and that doesn’t happen by accident. Each one brings their history, their experience, their priorities, and these don’t always mesh. But that’s the orchestra conductor’s job right? To make harmony out of individual chaos.
After almost 40 years in construction, Gino’s seen it all: from his youth where the trades were taught to the next generation by old-timers full of experience, to today’s youth who surf their phones to the answers to their questions about an installation problem. He has ridden the changes in design, building codes, materials, and tools. He has seen the trades change from on-the-job learning to more academic approaches. But what doesn’t change is the need to bring everyone together to drive a project forward. And that takes a clear eye for the kind of work Optimum does, the way that Optimum expects people to treat each other, and ultimately, a lot of context, wisdom, and relational skill to put it all together.
It all starts with the Optimum Monday meeting where the whole team gets together to talk through the week. Here, every week, Ryan and Kendrick lay out their vision for quality, hard work, and real teamwork. Gino says he wouldn’t work with anyone but these guys if had a choice. You can talk with them about anything, you don’t have to hide your thoughts and feelings. Nobody freaks out about problems and mistakes, we work them through together. Sure, you’re allowed to be emotional about something, this is a safe space to blow off steam, but the team that’s around you isn’t there to get their feelings hurt, they are there to jump to helping out. It’s also a time to laugh, as well, construction has a way of “making stories” and this is a time to share a chuckle. Call it camaraderie.
From there, the supers like Gino pick up the baton and take it to the jobsite where they set the tone for the week with their project managers and subcontractors. The conductor, tapping his baton and getting everyone’s attention on the music at-hand. As the company has grown lately that has meant some extra work bringing new subs in line with the “Optimum Way” (keeping the main thing front and center: relationships). But Gino says that they are picking it up and rapport grows quickly on the worksite. That’s the unmentioned power of having culture meet construction, when people work together, they tend to bond.
Being the hub of the wheel on the project can be an uncomfortable place to be when the spokes don’t quite align as they need to. How does he do it? That is the million-dollar question. But he knows that the way to get there is by pulling everyone together, treating people right, with humor, with a bit of tough love, with a polite request to a sub to go a bit beyond the agreed-upon scope, and a lot of gratitude for the work the guys are doing.
Everybody on a jobsite has their own quirks and bugbears and Gino has been around long enough to know them all. The electricians don’t like to clean up after themselves. The young kids are itching to get away right at 3 pm. The rough carpenters think a good cut is within a 1/4th of an inch and the finish/trim guys see things in 1/16” or 1/32” gaps. Some guys like to play heavy metal music on the site (Gino thinks they might just be trying to make him angry and doesn’t have much time for that). Architects are known to draw sewer pipes that run through I-beams on their drawings (you can’t do that apparently). Each one brings their skills and their screw ups. We’re all people after all. But weaving together everyone’s needs and skills is the crux of his job. It may mean he is interrupted every two minutes by someone new with a problem to work through, but the interruptions are the thing.
Working through these “things” from Gino’s perspective starts with knowing his own mind and his own standards, but also knowing his role. Having seen both sides of most coins in his life, he knows what he has control of and what he has to let go of. Every client has a different eye for detail, some want more, so he pushes the team further because “durabeauty” is an Optimum core value: Build straight lines and square corners that reflect our company’s integrity for years to come. What the engineer or building inspector says may rub everyone wrong, but you gotta go with what they say. Some subcontractors think good enough means perfect, some are inclined to think “looks good from my house” is good enough. When that happens it’s a chance for Gino to show them how Optimum does it with a gentle graciousness and patience, (and sometimes, perhaps a caring kick in the pants). And if he has to jump in and fix it himself, he loves the opportunity to do that.
It’s 3:30 and the work site is empty, everybody has split except Gino DiFazio. He looks it over and takes a last walkthrough, registering the 1/8th inch gaps that need to be tightened up, the piles of snipped wires here and there that will need to be swept up (sometimes you just have to laugh!), locks up the doors, and jumps into his truck. A good day’s work. “We made it through that part of the music!” Now his mind starts to turn to the next project on the radar, the next stanzas and movements.