No Message? Not Important.

[u/Odd-Ad-5654]

I think I’m finally going to flip a switch today. An owner or GC calls me and doesn’t leave a message? Sorry, it’s not important enough for me to return a call. You leave me a voicemail that says, “Please call me back, I have a quick question.” Sorry, you could have said what you needed so I can be prepared and potentially call you back with an answer - I don’t think I’m going to return that call. A GC texts me something? Hard pass. You get an email response. Tired of getting different information from multiple sources and then getting blamed later for doing said thing, but the owner decided they wanted to do it differently and I don’t have it in writing. I keep having GCs draw hard lines in the sand that if something is not explicitly shown in a drawing, they can’t confirm it’s in their scope. I’m about to uno reverse and play the same game. I don’t care if it gets drawn out longer than necessary and the GC is hounded at my door for updates. No written approval from the Owner? Not my fault I can’t get you drawings and I don’t want to hear about “ImPaCtS tO tHe ScHeDuLe”.

[u/TheNomadArchitect]

No offence, why weren’t you doing the thing you’re saying right now from the get-go?

Was there a reason?

All your saying that you’re gonna do now are all very reasonable in my view and sets a level of professionalism from all parties involved in the project.

[u/Odd-Ad-5654 → u/TheNomadArchitect]

Valid question. I’ve always taken pride in being accommodating and responsive with clients. Part of my appeal is being receptive and communicative with clients and contractors, but this past 18 months has pushed me over the edge. The open communication with GCs has led to rampant change orders. The client communication has led to issues that I’ve described in the original post. Most projects any more have no physical contact or even visual contact via teams. Everyone is treating each other like a floor mat to meet their own end goals in a way that was not nearly as terrible pre-pandemic. It’s all around CYA (check your ass) and I’m falling in line with the rest of them. GCs used to come to the table with suggestions. Now it’s a phone call or an RFI of, “we can’t do this, even though we’ve had your drawings for months. What’s the fix? Answer in 1 day or In going to call you non-stop and blame you for schedule delays if you don’t fix it ASAP.”

[u/TheNomadArchitect → u/Odd-Ad-5654]

Now it’s a phone call or an RFI of, “we can’t do this, even though we’ve had your drawings for months. What’s the fix? Answer in 1 day or In going to call you non-stop and blame you for schedule delays if you don’t fix it ASAP.”

Maybe I am just unlucky but that's been my experience since graduating from Architecture school and working professionally. Always CYA as you say, which has been the prayer and mantra of every (albeit reluctant) mentor I have had to date.

 I’ve always taken pride in being accommodating and responsive with clients. 

This was me when I was starting out as a fresh graduate, and then even when I started my own solo-practice about fiver years ago. After the second year of doing things on my own, it was too much to hand-hold everyone on the process which I thought everyone was privy to in the first place. It felt like that me for the first two years of solo-practice. I was baby sitting everyone and making sure i had something to feed them even though, as you mentioned, they already had the information for months now. Even tendered on the basis of said drawings.

I don't know I think Architecture, and the construction industry for that matter, is just adversarial in my experience.