Herding Cats

Seems like this should be mandatory coursework!

It takes serious skill and experience for an architect to wrangle a posse of consultants—or for a contractor to ride herd on a gaggle of subcontractors—all while keeping the owner happy and the project on time and on budget.  They have to be part diplomat, part babysitter, and part juggler...and occasionally part firefighter, therapist, and magician—all while maintaining the illusion that everything is perfectly under control.  

Not At Work Anymore

This cartoon is wrong—everyone knows all construction workers go to Heaven!

Construction work is enjoyable and rewarding...most of the time.  But some jobs can feel an awful lot like hell.  

In my younger days, I worked for my dad's small construction company.  One summer during high school, I spent several days in the blazing sun breaking up sidewalks with a sledge hammer, hauling the broken chunks of concrete in a wheelbarrow, loading them onto a pickup by hand—and then unloading them the same way.  It was exhausting, dirty, and miserable work.  Coincidentally, that's also when I started thinking seriously about a different career path.

As the old proverb goes, "Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."  Unless that job involves breaking up sidewalk in August.