“Is everyone OK?” Juan cried, rushing forward. His metal fabrication plant was a hive of chaos. A tumbled stack of 20-foot-long, quarter-inch angle iron lay haphazardly across the welding platform, having slipped from the forks of an overturned forklift. Nearby, a huge and growing puddle of water expanded beneath a delivery truck that was partially crushed beneath a pile of sheet metal.
“He’d better be dead!” Richard Thompson, Juan’s boss, shouted back with a curse. He was also helping clear debris. His presence indicated the severity of the situation. Richard never came out of the office. “Because if he’s not, I’m going to kill him myself!”
Juan rushed to lift sheets of corrugated metal off the hood of the delivery truck. He regretted his lack of gloves. This steel could slice him in an instant. But there was no time to lose. He’d just have to be careful.
It took hours to restack the steel, repair the broken water pipe, and rush the hapless employee to the emergency room. The kid was going to be all right. He’d suffered a mild concussion after backing the delivery truck into a support column. It was a rookie mistake, one that would cost plenty.
Back in the office, Richard offered Juan a cup of coffee.
“Sure,” Juan accepted grudgingly. He’d missed his morning cup.
Richard poured himself a cup, then, from a drawer, produced a small metal flask. He dosed his coffee liberally and swirled it briefly before taking a sip.
“What happened?” The crisis was over, but now Juan needed some straight answers.
“New kid,” was all that Richard offered by way of explanation.
“What happened to Felipe?” Juan demanded, “Where’s our regular delivery crew? I didn’t see any of those guys.”
“I had to let them go yesterday.” Richard took another swig from his coffee cup.
“Why?” Juan’s exclamation was less a question than an accusation.
Richard glowered at him from beneath bushy gray eyebrows. He took another swig of coffee. “You know why.”
Juan did understand. Richard had been looking for ways to cut costs for months. By laying off an experienced (and expensive) delivery crew and replacing them with new hires, he’d tried to save some money.
“Ah!” It was a guttural sound of pure frustration. Juan pointed angrily out the door towards the shop floor, “How much money did you save today, Richard?” he shouted.
“Don’t you dare lecture me!” Richard pounded the table, spilling his coffee. “You know that over 60% of our operation revolves around refurbishing commercial real estate. Those buildings are sitting empty, and their owners are either going bankrupt or just cutting their losses and letting the banks take the properties back.”
Juan was an operations guy, he understood business from that perspective. He relied on Richard to pay attention to the big picture. “We still got the data center job, that’s pretty big. And we could look at new commercial construction…” he tried brainstorming solutions.
“Aren’t you listening?” Richard shouted, “There are no damn customers!” He cursed, “The commercial real estate sector has crashed. That includes the data center!”