Corridor Directives and a Broken Field Relationship
You are the GC's project manager on a $22M renovation of an occupied hospital wing. The owner's facility manager holds no delegated authority under the contract, yet three times in two weeks he has stopped your electrical foreman in the corridor with "just do it this way" instructions: relocating 14 receptacles, adding a dedicated circuit for a nurse-server, and shifting a switch bank. None is documented. Two of the items are already installed. Separately, your superintendent and the electrical PM stopped speaking after a shouting match over manpower; the electrical contractor is fielding 12 electricians against a committed 18. The OAC meeting is in four days and the owner's capital projects director will attend.
1. How do you handle the facility manager's three verbal directives?
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Treat them as potential changes, not as favours.
- Log now. Record each item with date, location, who said what, and whether it is installed. Photograph the installed work before anyone touches it.
- Notify the authorized representative. Send written notice to the capital projects director within the contract's notice period, identifying all three as constructively directed work and reserving the right to price them. Notice preserves the claim; silence forfeits it.
- Resolve the installed items. In an occupied hospital, removing work can itself require infection-control measures, permits, and outages - ask in writing whether the two installed items stay or go, and price either outcome.
- Handle the person. Do not correct him in front of crews. Meet privately, explain the contract route, and offer a standing weekly walk with a field-directive log he can initial so his operational needs still get met.
- Arm the foreman. Instruct him to neither refuse rudely nor proceed silently - route every request to you the same day.
Unlogged verbal direction that you perform without notice is the fastest way to lose both the money and the argument.
2. What do you do about the superintendent-electrical PM conflict and the manpower shortfall?
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Separate the relationship problem from the performance problem; solving one does not solve the other.
Relationship: private one-to-one with each. Establish what happened, what each needs to do their job, and a behavioural reset - no shouting in front of crews, because the trades mirror their leaders. Then a joint session on a specific agenda, not a general airing.
Performance: bring data. Show the agreed manpower loading curve against the actual 12 of 18, and the look-ahead activities the shortfall threatens. Six missing electricians on a critical trade is a schedule risk, not a personality clash.
Escalate in writing to the electrical contractor's operations manager, not to the PM in the room, stating the committed number, the actual number, the affected activities, and a required recovery curve with dates. The superintendent's job is to plan and coordinate the work; absorbing another firm's staffing failure is not in scope.
If the conflict persists, carry it to the OAC meeting framed as schedule and coordination risk, with the electrical PM present so it is resolved between firms rather than between individuals.
3. How do you structure the OAC meeting in four days?
Read the worked answer
Pre-brief the capital projects director 24 to 48 hours ahead so nothing lands as a surprise; a blindsided executive defends position rather than solves the problem.
Bring four documents:
- a one-page change log covering the three directives with estimated cost and time;
- schedule status against the approved baseline, including the electrical manpower exposure;
- a draft communication protocol stating who may direct work and in what form, for signature;
- a decision list with dates.
Run the agenda as safety and infection control, schedule, commercial and changes, staffing, decisions required. Draw the line explicitly between governance (only the authorized representative may direct or change work) and coordination (the facility manager's operational preferences, routed through you). Say it out loud in the meeting so it is minuted.
Close with dated action items and named owners, and circulate minutes within 24 hours. Unrecorded meetings are where disputes are born.