I work as permit tech for a third party provider.
My day to day consists of processing paperwork and coordinating with contractors.
Contractors are notorious for being one of two ways:
1. Easiest people to work with and no complaints and gets things done when asked.
2. A grown person throwing a tantrum whenever things don't work in their favor.
Sometimes it's both.
I've processed hundreds of permits for a big construction company that does alteration work.
The project coordinator is a bit of a hot head and will verbally assault me with insults and accusations when something doesn't go his way.
I've spoken to my management team about their behavior four times. FOUR TIMES.
Today I sent this to my management team:
“Good morning,
J was requesting an update on a permit that last month I had notified him that was a hand carry and we wouldn't be able to submit virtually. This project is on the other coast and we have had specific instructions from J in the past that we are not able to coordinate with that office and all coordination would be filtered through J to M.
In my initial email I had notified J that all the docs/plans that we were able to complete are on their server and that it was in their hands because we were unable to submit virtually.
I had assumed that J would take a look into the folder when prompted because this is a pending project that he had stated was important. He confirmed that he had received the email and asked us to get the docs into the server. As previously mentioned, it was already on his server.
In response I had attached my initial email regarding the project and asked for him to review and also get the permit application taken care of.
I was unaware that the permit application did not have signatures coordinated. We had originally sent this to him in July to have it taken care of and now, in December, still doesn't have a signature from both contractor and owner.
J responded asking if the permit had been submitted.
I was unaware if this has been submitted because we are unable to communicate with the other coast. I assured him again that all the docs/plans had been uploaded to his server and organized in a folder for the other coast to print.
I got a call about ten minutes after responding.
J initially started off stating he was having a bad day.
I asked him how we could help him and he stated the following:
“I do not appreciate you throwing that email in my face. That's not how I conduct business and you should never do that again.” I tried to assure him that was not my intention but he wouldn't listen. He continued to say, “What I need from my permitting company is to coordinate and execute. You hadn't told us to get the permit application signed. So now I have to get an application that we've had since July signed by the owners which is going to take forever. This is bad and you need to fix the way you conduct your business.”
I'll dissect this with my explanation:
- Again it wasn't my intention to throw the email into J's face. It was merely to reassure that we have had the conversation in the past and the ball was in their court.
- Personally, I have executed hundreds of permits for this company. I was under the assumption that once I had sent the initial email that the company would take care of the permit moving forward as they have done in the past with permits that are hand delivery only.
- We initially asked J for the signatures in July when we had sent over the application that we had processed on our end.
After the phone call, I was visibly shaking and had to remove myself from the office for a few moments to collect myself.
I have had multiple conversations with both of you regarding J's general attitude towards me and how he has flown off the handle and talked down to me in the past. I believe this is the fourth time I have reported this (see attached emails).
I cannot continue to work with J under these conditions. The amount of stress that he adds to projects with this behavior is not acceptable and I can no longer tolerate it. I will happily work with anyone else in the company but this issue needs to be addressed.”
I got an email back from my office manager that we will discuss this at a later time.
Good. Great. Grand. Wonderful.
My managers see the bottom line that they are a big client and bring in revenue. I have had this discussion with them in the past and they had stated “Oh, J was really cordial with us when we spoke to him. He should be better now.”
He isn't. He hasn't been. How can I report this four times and you still tell me he's better now?
My manager preaches that their duties are to make this place a comfortable environment to work in and that they want us to not dread working here. Yet it has happened not only to me but to my associates that a contractor will throw tantrums at us if they don't get their way.
Am I expecting too much from the company that we process permits for and am I expecting too much from management to fix this?