On Being Harsh
“I’m honestly offended whenever someone says I’m being harsh.” — Maxwell Jacob Friedman
My firm and I were hired to help a company to develop a clean room facility that had never had one before and had no idea how to do one.
The site was an older building and the proposed clean room was to be on the second floor.
In order to move materials to it, an elevator would be needed. We developed the plans, including the elevator and once approved by the client, we contracted to have the elevator purchased and installed.
Once that was done, we started the work to layout the floor. In addition to the clean room, there would be other workspaces and some offices. Initial construction started on the various spaces and we got a separate quote to do the clean room, including the all important air filtration system which is needed to purify the air in the clean room.
For those not familiar with a clean room (like the client), it is sealed so that tiny particulates that we can’t see with our naked eyes are not allowed into the room.
That means making sure that everything is pretty much air tight. The entryway is usually a double entry so there is not a direct entry from the outside and many particulates are caught in the initial entry.
Then, the special filtration system is installed to filter the air and catch any particulates that do find their way into the room. There are varying degrees of filtration as various operations require more or less filtration. The highest one is usually in making microchips which require almost zero particulates (Nothing is ever 100%).
We had the quotes to do the work. It isn’t cheap for sure. Then I get a call from the client. He said that he decided to use his standard contractor who did other construction work for him at cheap rates. And he decided that for filtration he would use air conditioning units for filtration in order to save money.
I was stunned.
He made this decision without our consultation. My first reaction was disbelief that he was doing this. My second was to ask him how he made such a decision to do this without consultation. And my third was to tell him that if he did such he would have an airconditioned room, but not a clean room. Any client he tried to get would tell him so and not give him any clean room work.
Anyone who works with me knows that I tell the truth and will not hold back. Better to tell the client the truth than to play along and get burned later on.
His reaction was to call me “Harsh”.
I was pointing out the facts and that was the best he could come up with. My comeback was that he was not the expert, I was. If he decided to go that route our contract was over. I would not have mine or my company’s name associated with something that was not right. Otherwise, he could then blame us for allowing him to do this and for not having a proper clean room.
In all of my years working I have been called many things. Harsh is not one of them. The dictionary definition of harsh is unpleasantly rough or jarring to the senses, cruel or severe.
What I told the client was the truth. If it was any of the things listed above, it was of his making, not mine. Just because I told him what he needed to hear and not what he wanted to, does not make me cruel or severe. And if he was jarred by what I told him, then apparently people have done him a disservice before in not telling him the truth.
“ Having a thick skin doesn’t mean that you’re hard or harsh. I was lucky because I was born with a thick skin. That doesn’t mean that things don’t bother me, but you have to keep it in perspective.” — Shelley Moore Capito
The contract ended.
We did some cleanup work, but did not complete the cleanroom portion of the work. I have no idea what he did or didn’t do from there. It didn’t matter. There is no dealing with unreasonable people like him.
I have had other disagreements with clients. Some listen and take the advice given. Others do what they want to do. The former have been quite successful. The latter continue to have problems. But to date no one else has called me harsh.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter H. Christian was a founding partner and president of espi, a business consulting firm in Northeastern PA. Previously he was an Executive at Crayola Corporation. He has worked with 300+ clients in business development, profit improvement, operations, IS selection and implementation, and Project Management. He has 40+ years of experience in strategic and facility planning, CI, lean, and supply chain. He has helped companies to realize millions of dollars in cost reductions and profit improvements adding and retaining thousands of jobs. He has authored the Amazon bestselling business books, “What About the Vermin Problem?” and “Influences and Influencers” (4 out of 4 star review on Online Bookclub) and is published in a variety of professional magazines. He is most appreciative of Dr. Rodney Ridley and Donald Schalk of the O’Pake Institute, Alvernia University for their support in allowing him to teach this important course
