A Tragedy of Errors
23-03-2010
I'm a person who prefers to see the best in people - one who believes that our species' evolution stretches ahead into the future, peppered with the brilliance of human invention. It also means that, when things don't go according to plan, I assume that its down to someone's capacity for deceit, rather than simple incompetence. In other words, I prefer to think that things go wrong as a consequence of conspiracy, rather than cock-up. Things do not go to plan as a result of someone being deliberately awkward - obfuscatory - downright bolshie, or serving some black-hearted purpose of which we know not what. But at least they are showing some imagination.
For example, when the electrician doesn't turn up on site as promised its down to one of the following:
an insufficiency of labour, and therefore spreading an inadequate workforce around too many projects;
the opening gambit in an attempt to squeeze more funds out of the project than originally quoted;
the business is going bust and the client will never see anything for the money paid up-front for the light fixtures
the site electrician is moonlighting and is juggling too many sites
There you are, you see: all good worthy intellectual pursuits by the contractor, trying to gain more reward for their too-meagre efforts. The bastards.
How sad, then, that ,after a little forensic examination of the circumstances, we find the electricians weren't there because ...... they forgot! Nothing to do with dodgy dealings by the management or the kind of unscrupuous behaviour by the guy on site that would serve as a decent pitch for a TV sitcom - it all comes down to the relevant piece of information being filed in the wrong place - and how tedious is that?
