Water Well Journal
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/752472
I have also realized the typical money manager is not nec- essarily a private individual out to see how much he can save but can easily be a representative buyer from a large concern, someone charged with getting goods and services at the low- est cost possible. In these cases, he must always give—if not actually show—the impression to his supervisors he is "on the job" looking out for the firm. The Penny Pincher: The individual with a need or desire to save as much money for goods or services as humanly possible in order to use the saved money for other purposes. Many times the motive is real, but often misguided, needing to save as much money as possible to replace the roof or buy a new pickup. It is questionable if any of the people in the two categories truly meet my definition of "difficult people," but they are customers who place you in a position where you must nego- tiate and often lower your bid. Dealing with customers where the financial realities are generally the most important are usually the hardest to work with. In addition to those with a financial motive are those who are difficult for other reasons. The Unhappy Person: I have occasionally been accused of being this type of person—by my wife, no less. I think she sometimes confuses true and genuine unhappiness with an oc- casional bout or period of melancholy or "the blues." There have been many times during my life when I could have been considered an unhappy person, but I think most of those expe- riences were simply because of incidents or events at the time when I didn't know how best to respond. I really don't regard myself as a particularly happy or unhappy person, just one trying to roll with the punches. The Unreasonable Person or Know-It-All: Truly one of the most difficult people to work with, for every- thing they say is regarded as the unvar- nished truth—at least by them. There is often no compromise or unbending in their attitude, opinion, or decision. This category is probably closer to defining me than the unhappy category. The best advice I can offer with some- one unreasonable is keep your cool and do your best to slide your judgment or opinion into the situation so it sounds like it was their idea all along. Stick to your guns even if that means losing the job. After all, who wants a lawsuit? I have been in situations where my engineering judgment was greatly ques- tioned and an individual insisted we fol- low his directions. In these cases, you have to make a snap judgment with two possible outcomes: (1) What he wants to do is too dangerous to life or property. (2) What he wants to do may be more costly, but is not necessarily dangerous. If the direction the client wants to go will not have a detrimental impact to life or property, and they are willing to foot whatever charges may result, I usually opt to go in their direction. After all, they may have specific reasons for the modifications you are not aware of. On the other hand, if the proposed revisions are potentially harmful to life or prop- erty, I feel it is incumbent you fight to retain the original concept or an alter- nate that will not be injurious, even to the point of walking away from the job. The Argument Lover: The type of person you can never win against. The kind of person who loves to have con- flict in their life and argue just for the fun of it. Yes, there are people like that out there. ENGINEERING from page 48 waterwelljournal.com 50 December 2016 WWJ