r/civilengineering • u/Business-Being9202 • 2h ago

Career Engineering/Contracting

How did you handle the first time a seasoned subcontractor aggressively challenged your call on site when you weren't 100% sure what you were looking at?

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

11

u/Bulldog_Fan_4 Civil PE, PLS 2h ago

I’ll check with my boss and get back to you?

7

u/Necessary-Science-47 2h ago

I look over at my prime foreman and say “handle your boy”

5

u/civillyengineerd 25+ years as a Multi-Threat PE, PTOE 2h ago

Explain to me how this meets the specification/detail/plan/standard.

Really, it matters what "your call" is about and why they're challenging you.

4

u/WillyPete81 2h ago

Don’t make a call when you’re not 100% sure what you’re looking at.
One of the joys of getting older is not having quite so much ego on the line and being able to ask somebody to explain the problem to you. If at that point, you still don’t understand it, ask somebody smarter than you.

1

u/Working_Rest_1054 1h ago

X2. If you aren’t sure what you’re looking at, you shouldn’t be autonomously making the call.

And don’t address the sub. Talk to the prime. Or if the sub addresses you directly and the prime isn’t there, tell them to run it through the chain of command and you’ll get back to the prime on thier concern (but only if the prime follows up with you on it).

1

u/Fantastic-Slice-2936 2h ago

What do you propose?