My employees tried to kick my butt today.
As some of you know, I am the Chief Electrical Inspector for a rather large city here in Midwest. My job has morphed into more of an administrator than anything else. I don't think I have been out for a full day making inspections in 7-8 years. I will run out and catch the occasional "emergency" inspection maybe 4-5 times a month. Usually I am too busy attending staff meetings, computer meetings, etc. to actually get out there and do some work I enjoy. Right now, due to the construction slow down we have been getting 40-60 calls a day. Of course with sickness, disability or vacation days it's hard to have a full staff every day. Today we had 50% of the field staff on duty. That is still manageable, 12-15 calls per inspector. We don't really like to see them have more than that, but sometimes it can't be helped.
Good Lord, today we had 85 calls when I came in this morning. If it was just the four of them, they'd average 21+ each. I checked with my Field Supervisor, he was free to help. My calendar was empty, which makes for a good Friday, so I could help. That makes the average now 14+ each, we can do this. I told them to assign all the calls in one area to me and I'd help out. They all looked at me and smiled. I knew I was screwed. The comment was made "The Old Man is going out today, if you want some entertainment, just follow him around all day".
By the time they left the office, I had 18 calls. Something ain't right here but hey I can do this. By the time I left the office I had 20 calls. They had reassigned a few to me from their wireless laptops in the field. Yeah I can still do this.
It's been so long since I've seen some of these situations in the field, all I did was run back forth from the building to the truck to research the code book to make sure I did a good job. The cell phone was non stop with calls from the office, adding calls to me. By the time it was all said and done, I had accumulated 23 calls and was able to get to 22 of them. One of them had to be carried over to Monday. But they didn't answer the phone when I called before I went anyway, so no one was there to let me in. Not my fault.
So the guys did a good job of kicking the Old Man's ass. But I still did more calls than they did today. Today's average was 15. I did 22. SO in a way I kicked their ass. Now I'm gonna rest all weekend, I"m tired......
As some of you know, I am the Chief Electrical Inspector for a rather large city here in Midwest. My job has morphed into more of an administrator than anything else. I don't think I have been out for a full day making inspections in 7-8 years. I will run out and catch the occasional "emergency" inspection maybe 4-5 times a month. Usually I am too busy attending staff meetings, computer meetings, etc. to actually get out there and do some work I enjoy. Right now, due to the construction slow down we have been getting 40-60 calls a day. Of course with sickness, disability or vacation days it's hard to have a full staff every day. Today we had 50% of the field staff on duty. That is still manageable, 12-15 calls per inspector. We don't really like to see them have more than that, but sometimes it can't be helped.
Good Lord, today we had 85 calls when I came in this morning. If it was just the four of them, they'd average 21+ each. I checked with my Field Supervisor, he was free to help. My calendar was empty, which makes for a good Friday, so I could help. That makes the average now 14+ each, we can do this. I told them to assign all the calls in one area to me and I'd help out. They all looked at me and smiled. I knew I was screwed. The comment was made "The Old Man is going out today, if you want some entertainment, just follow him around all day".
By the time they left the office, I had 18 calls. Something ain't right here but hey I can do this. By the time I left the office I had 20 calls. They had reassigned a few to me from their wireless laptops in the field. Yeah I can still do this.
It's been so long since I've seen some of these situations in the field, all I did was run back forth from the building to the truck to research the code book to make sure I did a good job. The cell phone was non stop with calls from the office, adding calls to me. By the time it was all said and done, I had accumulated 23 calls and was able to get to 22 of them. One of them had to be carried over to Monday. But they didn't answer the phone when I called before I went anyway, so no one was there to let me in. Not my fault.
So the guys did a good job of kicking the Old Man's ass. But I still did more calls than they did today. Today's average was 15. I did 22. SO in a way I kicked their ass. Now I'm gonna rest all weekend, I"m tired......
