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Estimator’s Edge

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2015 March

Familiarity Breeds Contentment

If you listen close I’ll tell you why: Home is where the heart is.—Lynyrd Skynyrd Over the years, I’ve had the good fortune (or misfortune) of working in several of the great or...

2015 February

Job Burnout: An Occupational Hazard

I believe that estimators are, for the most part, a pretty sturdy bunch. We have to be; we endure a lot of mental rigors that would crush the likes of a lesser sort. Long hours,...

2014 December

A Few More of My “Favorite” Things

"When the dog bites, when the bee stings…” — Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II It’s fairly common knowledge that we exactimators, in the course of our work, must navigate a path rife with...

2014 November

A Few of My “Favorite” Things

“When the dog bites, when the bee stings …” — Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II Over the years, I have explored a number of the common trials and travails that beset our...

2014 October

It’s Just a Budget!

No good deed goes unpunished.—Mark Twain I can almost hear a collective groan go up from the readership at the mere mention of a budget proposal—a groan and a reiteration of the oft-quoted...

2014 September

Let’s Be Careful Out There!

While it occurs to me that I’ve never devoted an entire column to the subject of safety, the omission doesn’t surprise me at all. Clearly the programs and policies of a construction firm that address...

2014 August

Dirty Lowdown (Part 2)

In the previous installment, we identified a rather loathsome element in our industry: rogue subcontractors who cheat on the rules of the game in order to low-ball bids. We also looked at some of the...

2014 July

Dirty Low Down

They’re back. Activity in the commercial construction industry has been on the upswing for a couple of years now for most of us, and the reemergence of an unwelcome element in our midst was inevitable....

2014 June

Hills and Valleys

Has no one ever told you about the law of undulation?—C.S. Lewis, from The Screwtape Letters As with any creative endeavor, the performance of estimating tends, in many ways, to imitate the grander...