There is a saying that the road to hell is littered with good intentions. How often do we have good intentions when we tell a worker to perform a task and then end up regretting it? Following are some mistakes to avoid:

1. Beware of giving a new hire (or inexperienced workers) a tool that can be destructive or dangerous to themselves or the contract. One incident that comes to mind is when a supervisor gave a new worker a pumice stone to "clean" the rest rooms that had just been remodeled. He scratched and scraped studiously to the tune of around $20,000 plus to replace damaged sinks and faucets. First of all, he should never have been given the tool in the first place, Secondly, he should have been trained on its proper use (in a porcelain toilet or urinal only) and third, he should have been supervised. None of that occurred and the results certainly cut into the profit margin for that account.

2. Beware of allowing damaged equipment to be used by an inexperienced worker, a burnishing machine punched holes every ten inches in the wall and doors along a 100 foot hallway. The front wheel had been damaged and caused the unit to swerve/bump/swerve/bump along the wall. The worker did all he could to keep the machine from hitting the walls but he was determined to buff the floor. He never thought about stopping and asking for help or replacing the machine. In fact, he never considered the damage as being an issue since he had reported the unit was not tracking well and was told to "do the best you can until I can get to it."

Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean...

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678-314-2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net.


posted on 4/30/2015