Who else worked on July 4th weekend?

If you are like most people, you weren’t working over the July 4th weekend.  You were enjoying the festivities that surround the holiday where we celebrate our nation’s independence.  And I’m guessing you felt no guilt about said celebrations. No doubt there were fireworks.  You might have sat out on the dock, by the river, or with the kids at the local festival in town.   Both would be great places to watch the fireworks after dark.  Sometime during the day, you may have done some fishing, sat by the beach, or had a big BBQ cookout – like 99% of all Americans.

Some of those details applied to me.  There I was, watching the fireworks, reflecting on America, our freedom, thankful for those who helped make this all a reality…and then, the guilt hit me.

Half of our RFS team was working at that very moment.  We have a very good client, that we are thankful to have, who comes to us for his most complex needs.  He had two high-profile jobs, one in Denver, the other in Minneapolis, where both of these high end steakhouses were planning on coming off line for three days and nights to complete full front of the house and back of the house renovations.  These combined jobs included replacing revolving doors, flooring, bars, dish rings, cook lines, prep areas…you name it.  We had two project managers and two crews at each site, working around the clock for approximately 85 hours.  It was amazing.  We spent months planning the work:  pre-con meetings, critical path discussions, Gantt charts, scheduling travel, logistics, you name it – it’s what we do.

Side note:  Our client is brilliant!  He planned this work over the 4th intentionally.  Who goes to a high end steakhouse over the 4th of July?  Right?  Brilliant!  Also factored in, he knows we will answer the call, never whine about it, our guys’ families get it – and most importantly, we will get the job done and turn it over to the Managing Partner in perfect condition.

So, back to my guilt (it’s all about me, right?).  There I am, with my family, watching the fireworks, much like yours, and we have all these team mates out, away from their family getting it done for our client.  I realize there are people all over our country, serving over the holiday weekend – but usually not in construction.  Hence the guilt.

I’m proud of our team at RFS.  I realize we all have jobs to do, and that’s the job that they signed up for. They could work construction in a lot of ways, but they chose this one, and for that I am thankful. I know our clients are thankful too.

Another example of how we are Remodeling the Renovation Experience at RFS.