This is a fictional story. All names, places, and viruses are used fictitiously. Resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, past or present, are intentional.
***
Due Date: 125 days away
The next morning, I went into work two hours early. I had a lot to do, as usual, but I also didn’t know what all would happen over the weekend with schools closing. I wanted to be caught up on everything.
Our technicians were all talking about the virus, and toilet paper. It was interesting to see the divide between the office and the techs. Sure, most of us in the office stayed in one place. I only ventured out maybe once a week to walk a project or bring some equipment to our guys. And the techs were out in the field all day. The service guys even more, since they visited multiple places each day. Still, they seemed more worried than they should’ve been.
Tom asked me if we had a contingency plan for work. “In case this gets bad,” he said.
“Not that I know of. Right now, we’re more likely to get the flu than this virus.”
I didn’t mean to be dismissive. I just hadn’t heard anything on it yet. And, I didn’t think we really had any plan. Like what kind of contingency did he mean?
As it turned out, we got a call from a customer about running some conduit. They were doing a giant remodel. It was like this old castle they were turning into an apartment complex. We’d ran our wires through the framing back in the summer. It took them months to get to the point where they had drywall up. The general contractor emailed me that morning, wanting us back on site ASAP.
GC’s always said ASAP.
I got on a call with him and Jerry, with Chris conferenced in from Vegas.
The GC jumped right in. “I’m worried—and I have a bad feeling about this—that some of your wires may have been cut.”
I didn’t get a chance to warn Jerry and Chris that he was always pretty over the top.
“We’re more than happy to be back on site,” Chris said. “But none of our stuff will work without power and network in place. And we can’t install anything on the doors without the doors installed.”
“The doors are installed.” Then he back peddled. “At least I think they are.”
“What about power and the network? When do you anticipate that being in for us?”
“Oh, son, we’re a ways out on that. AT&T’s killing me. And the electricians are dragging their feet. But we need you back. At least check continuity in your wires. My electricians can get power wherever you need it, if you can point it out to them. But if you have to pull any new wires for your stuff, if we have to cut into any of our drywall, that’s a problem for me.”
“Let me see what we can do. What time is it there? Ben, would you be able to go on site today?”
I looked over at Jerry. No one ever had time to go on site last minute, especially on a Friday.
“I should be able to do that,” I said.
“I can be there in half an hour,” the GC said.
“Could we do 10:45?” I asked.
“Yes. That will give me a chance to look everything over before you arrive. Get the shock out of my system, you know?”
After the GC dropped off the line, Chris gave me further instructions.
“Ben, we need to be very intentional with telling them where we need power. If they can’t get it for us by Monday, we need to tell them we will need to pull off of this project. You need to tell them that. And follow up with an email.”
“No problem. I kind of already told him that when we spoke on Wednesday. But I’ll get more specific with the power locations on site and then circulate an email.”
“Thank you,” he said. “Jerry, are you able to keep everything tight there at the office?”
“Yes, sir. We’ll… we’ll hold down the fort.”
On site, nothing had changed since our technicians walked it two weeks earlier. In the ASAP email, the GC said they had the doors installed. He wanted to say it on the conference call too. They clearly didn’t. They still had plywood doors with those chicken coop locks securing everything. When I’d walked the project months before with the him and our techs, I’d pointed out where we needed power. Nothing was in place for that either, not even any boxes in the drywall. They’d totally left us hanging. From what I could tell, the only thing that had changed since I’d walked it months before was that they had drywall up, the layout changed slightly where they’d closed in some areas, they hung some light fixtures, and they wired up power outlets in all the rooms except the ones where we needed them.
They still had a ways to go for us still.
We physically marked the drywall where we needed outlets. We were doing their security, access control, intercoms, and camera system. There was a lot going on. We even cut a hole in one section of the drywall in a bathroom to confirm what wires we’d ran to that section for one of the doors.
When we finished, the GC showed me the system he had at his home.
“Wireless technology has come a long way in the past couple of years,” he said. “Give me a second and look at this…”
He whipped out his phone and opened the app for his cameras, a DIY deal he’d installed himself.
He always started out rough, but each time I met him in person, I was able to get on his good side.
“When do you think you guys’ll be back?” he asked as I was leaving.
“If you can get power in place for us on Monday, I can have my techs back on Monday too.”
“Done. I’ll have power for you and those doors installed on Monday.”
“Sounds good. That’ll work.”
He thanked me and shook my hand.
I was glad I went. We changed our install schedule for the following week. We’d planned for Travis and Brandon to go out of town, but we pulled them off that so they could go back to the castle project instead.
I was glad I went, but I knew I’d be behind the rest of the day. Good thing I went in to work early. It never hurt but rarely got me ahead. Something else always came up.
Back at the office, I had an “owner of the company” email in my inbox from Chris. Subject line: “The Virus.”
Everyone who had a work email address was cc’d.
