Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This relatively new yet very ambitious general construction project manager (PM)
was given an assignment for a repeat industrial client. The project was bid lump sum at
$50 million by a staff estimator. It was the largest lump sum project ever undertaken by
the GC at that time. There was a $1,000,000 bid error. The officer in charge (OIC)
directed the PM to get every change order possible. The PM was not to worry about the
possibility of future work with the client. During the one year of construction, the PM
lost his project engineer and was not allowed to replace him with any experienced help.
He had to hire from outside. He also did not receive any home office supervisory help.
The OIC would meet him for lunch once a month at a remote site.
The PM worked seven days a week – sacrificing health and family time to bring
the project back into the black. The project was ultimately brought in with a clear fee
of $600,000, but relations had been damaged; the GC did not get to work with the
client again. Later in the PM’s career with other contractors, he was not welcomed