Workforce Under Construction

Ten members of Associated Builders and Contractors’ National staff are spending the week taking part in The Zachry Craft Experience—a week-long training experience to give office professionals an idea of what it takes day in and day out to be a craft professional. The staff will be chronicling their time learning what our industry is really about. You can read a new entry here each day.

On the first day of training, ABC National staff learned that the underlying factors that lead to a successful construction project are safety and teamwork. Below are snapshots of the day from the perspective of three staff members:

“The Zachry Craft Experience is designed to work toward building a final project that ties together everything we learn over the course of the week. While it’s important that we are exposed to the various craft skills needed to tackle Project Day, I’m quickly realizing that we’re also going to need to be a team that is greater than the sum of its parts in order to complete the project successfully. One individual’s technical proficiency, physical strength or steady hands will not get the job done by itself. Knowing yourself, playing to teammates’ strengths and encouraging one another are the key to efficiently and effectively tackling obstacles.”
– Sean Thurman, Director of Legislative Affairs

 

ABC National staff member Lauren Williams with Zachry’s training manager, Dan Barrow

 

“After completing classroom work, we climbed a ladder to scaffolding and then worked our way across the scaffolding while being tied to the fall protection apparatus 100% of the time. The thing that stood out to me most throughout the day was the multiple levels of safety protection built into every task. We also got to work with the tools and after lunch we moved on to oxy-cutting, grinding and welding which were both new experiences for me. It was a lot of fun and it was awesome to see the power of the tools we were using. Cutting and welding both clearly require incredibly steady hands and a great attention to detail, probably more than I’d realized before.”
– Jeff Leieritz, Media Relations Manager

 

ABC National staff member Jeff Leieritz getting help from Zachry’s Weld Testing Manager, Bill Cherry

 

“The most important takeaway for me today was realizing the value of teamwork on any construction jobsite as it relates specifically to safety and productivity. For someone who has picked up a limited number of power tools in her life, I had to rely on my instructors to educate me and then my teammates to help complete the various tasks assigned if I forgot any details. Whether it was how to open the safety clasp on my fall protection harness, what pressure to set the gas level on the oxy-fuel cutting gauge or spraying coolant on my bit as I was drilling the iron angle – I could not have successfully completed those activities safely without the help of my team.”
– Jessica Karazsia, Senior Director of Marketing and Sponsorships