The Great Uncertain

Things are getting interesting around work at the moment. We’ve started to talk to people about their futures. The joy of construction work is that when the project is done, the big question on everyone’s lips is, “What’s next.”

We’re in an odd position in that the company moved away from construction some time back but are now making more of a concerted effort to get back into it. One of the things that we lack from that initial move away from the business is the people that are used to moving from project to project on a regular basis. So we have a team of people that are in some cases, going through the process for the first time. If there was another big project looming on the horizon it would be a lot easier, but the big challenge at the moment is that there isn’t such a beast in the offing.

It means that when you sit down to have a conversation with people about where they want to go and what they want to do, the part where we tell them what we have to offer them is sadly lacking. It’s funny how vague promises and commitments don’t seem to fill people with lots of warm and fuzzy feelings. Suddenly morale around the office plummets as people are forced to start thinking about their futures (not that they weren’t already doing so).

On top of all this, as I try to maintain some level of positive morale and keep the productivity up, I of course am going through exactly the same thing. It can be hard to tell people to hang in there, that they will be looked after, that something will come up when at the same time you’re wondering how true that might be.

I’ve been with the company nearly 12 years now. Is it time for a change? What direction do I take? Will I even have a choice in the matter?

It’s the big uncertain.

Repatriation ...

I was about to step out onto the soccer pitch to referee last night (worthy of a post all of its own) when my phone rang. I checked the number and was surprised to see that the number started with 613 … that meant Australia.

Apparently the company is bidding some work and that in turn meant that there was a potential opportunity for me as our time over here starts to come to a close and we look for repatriation opportunities.

That certainly threw the mind into turmoil. After all, it would have put us back on Aussie terra firma, but it wasn’t going to be as close to home (Adelaide) as we would have liked. Added to that the requirement to provide an answer as to whether I was interested in the opportunity within 24 hours (hey, at least it wasn’t immediate!). Our ultimate aim is of course, to return to hour home soil in Adelaide, which to some extent means it was easy to say no, but was complicated by the fact that we really haven’t begun to explore our repatriation opportunities. It meant that there was no source of comparison … was this a good opportunity? It may well have been. Will there be something better closer to the time that we are actually coming home? Maybe, but we can’t be certain. It was enough to keep my mind burning until 3am.

If nothing else, it is certainly nice to know that we haven’t been forgotten on the other side of the world.

Thinking of Texas

When I first started writing this blog way back in 2001 I really had no audience nor awareness of what the intended audience for my blog would be. Since then, I’ve found that on a number of occasions, I’ve had to stop and think before I let the tirade forth. Perhaps it means that things aren’t as honest as I would really like them to be, but in a world where people have lost jobs for what they’ve put in a public sphere, one has to be a little circumspect. This was, to some extent one of those times. Perhaps I haven’t let it all out, but when it comes down to it, at this point in time, this is about letting friends and family know what’s going on in our lives. I try to inject a little humour at the appropriate times and every now and then I might even pull out something obscure, but I find when it comes to talking about what’s going on with work I have to limit it to a more factual rather than emotional accounting of what’s going on. Having said all that …

I’ve been a little distracted over the last couple of weeks. As a result of a number of things, I recently decided that I’d kind of had enough of what I am currently doing work wise and that it was time to pursue a change.

A discussion or two later about how this could be achieved and what the options were and suddenly it was looking like things could possibly happen even quicker than I had imagined. Apparently one of our US companies has won a couple of contracts (or hoping to in the very near future) and that may have opened up a chance to get back into contract management. It would also have meant a slight change in scenery.

I’d made some phone calls and due to the vagaries of catching senior management across international time zones, hadn’t actually heard anything for a week or two. Then just when you think, “Either this isn’t happening or I need to make another call,” you get some information. Another call or two later and just as you’re about to pack the kids in the car and bugger off camping for the weekend, you get a phone call from the States that leaves you thinking of Texas.

Apparently one of the opportunities that’s about to open up is located down South in the Lone Star State and with winter fast approaching us here in the soon-frozen North, dreams of a big house with a swimming pool and a nice cheap Porsche or BMW in the driveway began to infiltrate my mind.

So this morning, it was time to dust off the CV and broadcast it South to see what might eventuate.

And of course, whenever you do that, the fun really begins. Shortly after sending it I caught up with my boss up here (as promised) to let him know how things were going. I was quickly told that his conversations with our current client about potentially releasing me indicated that they should be able to make me available about July. July 2010. Yep, 9 months from now.

Talk about an instant stop on all those warm weather fantasies. Its straight back to planning for -40C again. I think New Year’s skiing, Disneyworld and a Carribean cruise might have to be in the works this time round. Anyone care to tag along?

Turn left at the fork in your career

My first attempt at writing this entry was quite successful, but as it happens, I did so on the lap top that is currently with Caroline. And given that I am now not going to see her for about three weeks, I decided that I should probably start again!

The first time that I wrote it I was flying between Edmonton and Vancouver. The flight was so full that I wasn't even sitting with the rest of the family. Something about the way that the flights were booked, with everyone else flying Fort Mac – Edmonton – Vancouver – Sydney – Adelaide and me returning after the Vancouver leg.

Anyway, that's not quite what I sat down to write about. I hinted in my last blog entry about some news and thought that now that it has been made public, I should end the suspense somewhat. There's been a lot going on at work and I won't be going into the details of it here (ask me in person some time and I'll share with you what's gone down). What has happened however, is that I have been presented with a new opportunity. Something a little skewed from centre when you consider my back ground.

As of last Friday, I am now the General Manager, Human Resources and Labour Relations. Both areas of which I have a working knowledge and no formal training! Should be a fun time. Don't get me wrong though, I am excited by the opportunity that this presents to me and looking forward to getting my teeth into it.

Given that there's a shutdown coming up that requires something in the order of 3000 tradesmen and they're short about 150 or so staff at the moment, along with the small fact that we have our existing maintenance contract to keep people working on and a small matter of millions of dollars worth of projects soon to come on board as well, there should be a bit to keep me occupied. Don't even worry about the labour market that we're dealing in, that's just another small challenge to be overcome.

Hang on tight!

Work - Day 1

Ok, so its a week after I wrote this, but I thought that I'd update it a little and share it with you anyway.

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With great anticipation this morning I waited to be picked up and brought into work. I really had no idea what I was in for, particularly as this is part of the whole hurry up and wait process before we move down to Sarnia.

It didn’t take long for more confusion to be added into the mix as on the way to work I was informed that the go-live for the Sarnia site had been put back to January, now 6 months out. What that means in terms of preparation etc I am yet to discover as I haven’t had the right opportunity to have the fully detailed discussion. I think I was still a little shell-shocked on the ride in and hadn’t had much of a chance to think about the implications.

My immediate thoughts were that it would mean putting the kids into school here in Fort Mac until Christmas and then move them down to Sarnia over the break to start in a new school then. But further information through the day has seeded some further clouds into the mix and I am in no better position than I was at the point when I walked out of the door this morning.

When the chief complaint that I’ve heard around here thus far is how hard it is to get some time with the boss, it doesn’t bode well for my ability to tie him down and get definitive answers, especially considering the fact that he probably doesn’t have a whole lot of them himself.

But there’s things in the air that will take a week or so to settle and so it might be a case of patience with a side of patience. I just hope that there’ll be something meaningful for me to sink my teeth into in the time it takes for all of that to settle out.

Day 1 is always a bit of a bugger and this one has proven to be true to that form.

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And here I am a week later. Not much has changed, though I do now have some focus as to where I’ll be working over the next couple of months, helping to get the Firebag site up and running. What does that mean? Not entirely sure at this point other than a 2 hour commute each way!

Nailing down information on likely timing for Sarnia and the like is a task that I am yet to find a way to complete. I don’t think anyone quite knows enough at this point to be able to provide me with the answer that I desperately crave.

Blood Sucking Vermin

One of the things that I inherited when I moved to the new contract was a contract employee whom we had engaged to provide services to our client. He hadn’t started and so I was left with the task of taking him on when he arrived at the contract

I’d had nothing to do with the interview process and I’d had nothing to do with the preparation of the actual contract either. That was all completed prior to my own arrival on site.

He was on a fly-in fly-out arrangement and from day one he started to give the impression that he was there to make money off us.

One of the first discussions that I had with him was that whilst we had him in a hotel where his meals were covered, I would like to move him to self-contained accommodation, figuring that he’d get sick of the restaurant food pretty quick. But no, he wanted to stay in the hotel.

Things really took a turn for the worse when he submitted his first invoice. He was working excessive hours, without having been through relevant approvals and had also booked the time that he spent flying back and forth and claimed all his taxis. Now the contract was silent on this matter but he claimed that it had all been verbally arranged with my predecessor.

Lucky for me, I’m on good terms with my predecessor and called him to confirm. He denied that this was in fact the case. Strike 1.

The next little bit of carry on was the chair. He claimed that due to having had an accident some time ago, he had a bad back and therefore needed a high-backed chair with arm rests for OH&S reasons. I wasn’t about to just go out and buy him a chair, especially when our client is moving premises soon and not taking any of the existing furniture with them. I suggested that I’d talk to someone about swapping chairs with him to avoid this.

The next day I came in to discover that after the person in question had gone home, he’d decided to help himself to the chair, before I’d even had a chance to talk to them about it. Needless to say the chance of a chair swap after that had plummeted in the probability stakes to chances equally those of one Mr Buckley.

It wasn’t long after that that we started to get complaints from the people that were working around him about thelow productivity and the amount of time that he was spending on the internet and making personal calls.

It was starting to piss off a lot of people that someone that had been brought in as a contractor, at expensive rates seemed to be getting away with all this crap whist they just sat down, heads down, bums up and got on with the work at hand
Then came the bit where he spoke to me about the food. He was sick of the restaurant food, was he allowed to eat anywhere else. I told him that if he kept receipts and presented them and stuck within the company’s guidelines, he’d be reimbursed (what a generous fool I was).

Having he outlined the dollar amount in line with the policy it was a matter of only 20 minutes or so before he came back and asked whether he could just get the money from petty-cash! Now generous fool I may be, but I do recognise a rort when I see one. I knew what would happen … take the money from petty cash, buy a $2.50 pie or something and pocket the rest. Not on my watch.

Of course, when he submitted his invoice the money worked out to just about exactly what it needed to to maximise the return to him each night. And to top it off, every receipt was from the same Indian Restaurant. And though there was an ABN on the receipt, it wasn’t clear where the restaurant was, so I had to hold off on investigations as to whether he was doing what I suspected (which was that he’d come to an arrangement to get a receipt from them to maximise his return regardless of whether or what he ate).

It was enough to tip things over the edge, so I arranged a review of his contract and cut off any food reimbursements. I changed him from the expensive hotel to a self contained apartment.

Then of course he had an issue with the fact that he’d been “far away” from work. So far as North Adelaide in fact. After telling me about the fact that he was going to have to swap the car that he had in Adelaide with the one that his wife had in his home state, he asked how he was going to get to work?

I told him that there was a very efficient bus service that ran into the city from there and that I’d even pay for his ticket. But he doesn’t catch buses, he doesn’t like them. So I mentioned that he’d just told me that he had a car in Adelaide ….

“Oh you must be forgetting that I said that …” he started. But I got him out of my office.

Then, following further reports that his performance was inadequate, we pulled him in and gave him a dressing down, telling him that unless things improved, we would have no choice but to terminate his contract.

I waited to se whether he would actually manage to do this. But the next little step was the one where I got an email from HR where he was asking about the out clause in his contract. The writing was certainly on the wall.

But drama being drama, it would have been too good to have just ended at that point. I received a complaint from the client for whom he was working. One of the other guys in his area reported that this contractor had offered to pay him to complete the work for which the contractor had been engaged!

No more straw on the camel please, this ones f&%^ed!!

So this morning we went down the path of terminating his contract. He claimed it was no surprise, denied that he’d offered to pay someone else to complete the work and accused us of failing to meet up to conditions that had been verbally agreed prior to taking on his contract (despite me telling him to his face that the person that he said had made the agreement with had no knowledge of it!)

There’s going to be a couple of legal issues to resolve around what he expects to be paid and what we’re prepared to pay that I have yet to resolve due to the fact that he was never going to agree with our position and that I wanted him out of the building.

I escorted him down to the ground floor and left him at the lift well. I thought that that would be the last I’d hear of him until he was back in Sydney and chasing the extra 7 days payment that he was saying we would have to cover to terminate him.

I myself had to get to the airport to board the plane that I am currently sitting on to get to Brisbane.

As I wandered down to the gate to await my plane to take off, my phone rang. It was one of the girls in the office.

Apparently this blood sucking, oxygen wasting, not fit for the sole of my boot vermin had fallen down some stairs and was in an ambulance on his way to hospital!

Now where I left him, there were two steps down to street level. I had the girls check whether there had been any report at the reception desk or via security as to whether someone had fallen. There were none, but it was indeed those steps that he claims he managed to fall down.

Last report that I had just before boarding was that he’d gone back to the accommodation and that an ambulance had taken him from there, but that he had a suspected broken rib and wouldn’t be able to fly out on the plane that we’d booked him on this afternoon.

I’ll have to get an update when I arrive in Brisvegas...

And the kids that I’ve been so so very very fortunate as to sit next to on this bloody flight are a matter for an entirely different post!

Yukon ho!

Following the announcement that was the subject of my last post, the rush was on to see what information I could possibly garner to further our understanding of what it all meant. Especially since there was a note from the guy likely to be my new boss saying call me.

Now the timing of the announcement left a little to be desired as I first heard whilst driving to Whyalla. Of course, I stopped at our Pt Augusta office on the way but couldn't access the story from there. And it wasn't until late in the afternoon that I managed to access it from Whyalla. It was the following day (Wednesday) that I received the email that said 'call me but I was sans mobile and without access to a phone that I could use for an international call.

So I departed Whyalla early and headed for Pt Augusta where I attempted to make the call. I tried his office number first and got something that sounded like a couple of foreign young teenage girls giggling (no, I didn't keep the number) and then tried the mobile only to get 'This phone is not connected.' Crap.

That left me waiting until Thursday with the time difference meaning that if I didn't call before about 11 it was after business hours. Thursday I managed to leave a couple of messages, but made no contact.

So Friday was the day that I finally managed to speak to the guy in Canada. It didn't leave me flush with information, but the pieces that were most useful were firstly, that yes it was going to happen and secondly that the likely timing was August – September this year. Oh and we will be moving to Sarnia. That was the other important piece of course. So if you google Sarnia, or use google earth, you'll know just how far we are going!

And so the mind starts ticking ... and ticking ... and ticking ... which at least distracts one from thoughts about the man that's going to slice and dice his boys this Friday ... only 5 sleeps from now!

P.S. I knew that there was something that I wanted to add to this when I posted it. As has been kindly pointed out with a comment to this post, Sarnia is indeed a long way from Yukon. But having been a fan of Calvin and Hobbes for many many year's when titling the post, about a move to Canada where it snows, I couldn't get it from my mind. So I titled it thus with the intent of ensuring that I put something in to show that I am not quite that ignorant. Oh well, better late that never.

Waiting for the Great Leap Forward

And so the day has come! I can scarce wrap my head around it. This morning as I drove to Whyalla, my phone rang. It was someone from within the company who has been in a similar position to that I’ve been in with regard to the potential move to Canada. Though he’s only been in the loop for a month, not for the 15 months that we’ve been enduring it.

He called to tell me that there had been an announcement on the stock exchange and that we’d been named preferred tenderers for the work in Canada!

Holy crap. Of course, if there’s one place you don’t’ want to be when such news is flying about, its in a car without access to the internet or any of your email. I had to wait until after lunch time to finally be able to get my hands on the information that I was so desperately craving.

Here’s a little extract:

“…has today been selected as the preferred tenderer for an asset management services deal worth more than $1 billion Canadian dollars over five years with leading Canadian oil and gas producer …

…Taking our hydrocarbons industry expertise to the burgeoning North American market is significant to our international growth strategy and this opportunity with Suncor underpins our ability to compete at the highest level in the international asset management arena.

…a team of more than 1000 people across Suncor’s major production facilities at Fort McMurray, Firebag and Sarnia in Canada.

…I know that everyone will continue to support the team in Calgary as they continue to work through the tendering process and deliver a seamless transition.”

And when I was finally able to access my emails, I saw this:

Dave,

Now I can email back clearly. You would have seen the announcement by now so we can start to talk in more detail.

1. – Yes!
2. The time frame is 3rd quarter and Joseph has apparently had this discussion with you in relation to Santos etc. If everything does come good by the end of month of Feb when we hope to sign the contract, then we are talking full Sarnia operations.

Give me a call when you get this to talk.

The fact that the time I got this was 10pm in Canada did nothing for me because it means I am in no position to find out more information until tomorrow. I sense a very restless night’s sleep ahead.

What does it all mean? It means that we’re waiting for the great leap forward. It means that assuming the contract negotiations are completed (and they usually are) we could well be moving to Canada before the end of the year. But that is all tied up in the information that I don’t yet have.

Watch this space.

Waiting is the Hardest Part

Around rolls the New Year and the waiting for news continues. The worst part of it is that I don’t even have a definite date by which things will be resolved. I have been under the impression that the company that we’ve tendered to work for is going to make an announcement on the 15th of January, but a conversation that I had with someone the other day left me in some doubt as to the likelihood of that.

Its not unusual for these decisions and announcements to be put back a couple of times, but usually my whole future isn’t riding on the announcement.

And of course at this point, I am in a fill-in role that has also been advertised which leaves that nagging question in the back of one’s mind … what happens if they fill this position and then we don’t win the work? What am I going to be doing then? And where? But that hurts to much to think about, so I shunt it to the back of my mind (from whence it can leap out and bug the crap out of me at 4am in the morning).

In the last week I’ve dreamed about conversations with our Managing Director (accompanied by the board) and our CEO international, though notably nothing that gives up what is going to happen or otherwise useful. After that, I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the dream about someone taking me to a hippie’s house to buy a guitar and finding out that this hippie had the most awesomely designed garden ever! I like dreams, but work can bugger off out of them please.

I am endeavouring to be fully committed to this temporary role as it could prove an important link in a return to Adelaide in a few years time, but damn its hard when there’s mountains of information to get your head around that you may well be forgetting in a months time. I’m focussing on the immediate for now, trying to deliver some specifics so that I can make a difference in the time that I am here.

And so the waiting goes on. As does the endless question, “So, when do you leave for Canada?” or “Are you going?” or “Do you know ANYTHING?!” The volume of questions has increased dramatically, because everyone from my old contract knows I’ve gone, everyone on the new contract knows its temporary and of course, prior to Christmas, with the need to change jobs, we told our family and a lot of our friends. Everyone wants to know.

Of course, we still haven’t told the kids because we don’t want to do that until something definite is in the pipeline. I can’t wait for one of them to come home from school and say, “X asked me why we’re going to Canada. Are we going to Canada?”

And so the waiting goes on. Its cruel I tell you.

Yukon ho! Or turmoil and trouble in forty seven parts …

The saga continues. I think that the last thing that I wrote on the topic of a potential international relocation for the Tembys was The Boy Who Cried Wolf. I think that we need a little recap on the way that things have gone so far.

Back in October of 2005 I received a phone call whilst on holidays that resulted in my being asked if I was interested in a position overseas … Qatar, Oman, maybe Canada. We said yes and then waited for something to happen. At that time there was someone lined up to do my job. He pulled out, we got on with life.

Then, out of the blue, some time in about May I found out that discussions had continued with that person and had in fact progressed to the point that he’d signed a letter and would be starting on the 31^st of July, shunting me into a temporary position until such time as something came up for me.

About three weeks before that date, I was informed that once again, he’d decided not to follow through. Back on the merry go round we hopped.

Those who rule the realm of my work from above continued to recruit off and on in an attempt to provide sufficient resources to either release me or provide options for expansion of the business.

A couple of weeks ago (from present day) I found out that that they had narrowed the target down and were talking seriously to some one with another in reserve. Of course, the first one fell through.

Then I received a call from the CEO of our international operation. He wanted me to tell him when I could be released from my current contract and a copy of my resume that they could put before our potential client on the other side of the world.

Gears clicked and things started to get serious.

Fast forward 2 weeks (last Thursday) and I get a call from my boss telling me that the back up guy had signed up, it had been discussed with our main client and he’d signed on the dotted line. Holy crap. Suddenly it was getting very very real.

At this point, I started to try and track intelligence down on the likelihood of us actually winning the work in Canada as it is one of those kind of important things as no one has quite got around to mentioning what happens to me if we don’t win the bid and there’s someone here doing my job. Its not really something I want to consider too much.

It was also about this point in time that I found myself at a cocktail function for one of my clients. A client who at that time didn’t know that I was looking to move on. So I was what one might refer to as moderately surprised when someone that we’d done some work for a couple of years ago, but whom I hadn’t seen since came up to me and said, “Dave! You’re off to Canada!”

After a quick clarification as to who he’d heard the news from, I discovered that the person running their tongue off and putting our client relationship at risk was my bosses boss! Never mind that neither he nor my immediate boss had thought to tell this particular client and then started spouting such information at an event they were hosting, I just set about picking up the pieces and informed them myself as I departed.

There was something about having told my direct reports and a client that suddenly made this twisted and warped process actually seem like it could result in something real. Real enough that sleep became a memory and focus something that eluded me regularly.

And that’s pretty much how things are now. I’ve discovered that we’re likely to find out if we’ve won the work or not on the 13^th of December, 2 days after my new replacement starts. There’s still no word on things like money or packages or departure dates or anything that matters …but hey, how much fun would it be if it was all straight forward.

Oh and did I mention that there was a moment of insanity back in that process somewhere that had me apply for a job in India, working on the New Delhi Metro? Well not to worry, it fell through.