Efficacy Versus Efficiency On The Building Sites

Efficacy verses efficiency in construction. Definition! Efficacy is about “getting the job done,” while efficiency is about “doing it without waste”.

Construction is an industry where skills are in short supply, where materials are getting harder to source and costs are constantly changing, as political ineptitude both related and unrelated to the sector, cause knock on effects that further impact our industry.

A prime example of this would be the chlidren’s hospital! A job that has totally failed to deliver anything other than maximum profit to the developer, BAM.

Our housing crisis is another issue, decades in the making and yet the same failed political outlook and failed policy remain untouched. (With the exception of what ever the new name is for the same old policy and the new minister overseeing its failure!)

Our political establishment are in bed with the industry bosses, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the industry is shaped the way it is. Profit and waste in equal amounts.

Across the board, mismanagement of constructions resources is accepted as normal. The only exception being the top! Up there the skies are blue and the situation is rosey. Secure, direct, well paid employment is the norm up there, training and PPE are paid for, transport is provided and benefits exist.

Meanwhile, on the tools things are less rewarding. Benefits you have to fight for, employment is insecure, training, PPE, and transport are your own concern and us workers are over worked and underappreciated

Its plain to see that in construction, its efficacy for the bosses and efficiency for the workforce! Our biggest issue in the sector is that its top heavy and full of blaggarts and no nothings pulling all the strings.

As the decades have passed the fat cats have become morbidly obese, to the point that they have become a driving factor in our inability to retain and attract skills.

At what point then, can we expect the same drive for efficiency aimed at those overseeing this shitshow? We have no shortage of grasping and greedy employers, inept pen pushing office dwellers and “educated” idiots, why no drive for efficiency up here?

It seems crazy but if the bottom line is profit, why piss half your money away, sending inexperienced graduates to oversee work and conditions they have fuck all experience off. What can they bring to the table that wasn’t already there?

Management? 50 year old tradespeople, taking instructions from inexperienced fresh faced lads, doesn’t build harmony, it doesn’t aid production, it hinders it. The structures for advancement in the sector aren’t aimed at tradespeople, its only aimed at the office.

The industry is more concerned with theory that practicality. Strange that, as I’ve yet to see the solutions for design fuckups rectified by the designer? That job is normally handled by an experienced tradesperson on the site!

The industry accepts waste, but only at the top! Worker’s are naturally efficient, after all who wants to work harder, rather than smarter? We know the score. We do the work.

Our industry is being run by the wrong people, on every level. If we want an efficient system of works, we need an efficient system of management and we haven’t had because the government sold their souls to the private sector, decades ago!

We need a building industry with workers in the driving seat. It’s gonna take a rebellion to get that. But without it the waste will continue and workers and society will suffer the consequences.