Wise Up Wednesday: If Construction Was a Football Tournament!
Just imagine if construction was a football tournament what would it look like?
The Organisers
First, we have the tournament organisers the Employers if you will. There are lots of them from private developers to local authorities, hospital trusts and government departments. Their role is not really the subject of this Wise Up Wednesday because for the most part all they want is their tournament.
These tournaments require lots of teams, most teams are Specialist Contractors and usually only one Contractor. Indeed, if were not for the Specialist Contractors it wouldn’t be much of a tournament. In fact, there wouldn’t be a tournament at all, but everyone seems to ignore that fact!
Alarmingly, the Employers are happy to let the teams sort out the rules and generally turn a blind eye to how they go about delivering the tournament!
So, who decides the rules?
Well, the Contractors are very close to the Employers and have convinced them that they are the ones who should be in charge of delivering the tournament for the Employers. So, the Employers are happy to let the Contractors make the rules and here they are:
Rule #1 The Contractors make the rules and if you don’t like them then you can’t play.
Rule #2 The rules are complicated and written in a language that most Specialist Contractors don’t understand (after all the Subcontractors are really good at football, so they think that’s the most important thing).
Rule #3 The Contractor calls all Specialist Contractors “Subbies” irrespective of whether they are one-man bands or multi £million turnover companies. It makes the Contractor’s team feel superior and helps to keep the “Subbies” in their place.
Rule #4 The Contractors are in charge of the match fees paid by the Employer to all the teams (the Contractors like it that way as they have long since forgotten how to actually play football because as far as they are concerned it’s all about the money).
Rule #5 Both teams have 11 players but if any of the Subby’s players are good the Contractor can insist that the Subby has to substitute them for a less effective player.
Rule #6 The Subby isn’t allowed to have a goalkeeper who can handle the ball.
Rule #7 If any of the Contractor’s players handles the ball it isn’t a foul.
Rule #8 No matter what the Contractor does it isn’t a foul.
Rule #9 The Subbies can be offside, but the offside rule doesn’t apply to the Contractor.
Rule #10 None of the Subby’s players are allowed inside the Contractor’s penalty area.
Rule #11 If by any remote possibility the Subby is winning at full time, extra time will be played until the Contractor wins.
And that’s how the Contractors always wins the tournament and all the prize money.
What happens to the Subbies then?
Here are some recent examples:
- Award-winning steelwork firm files administration notice
- York M&E specialist JDL enters administration
- Everton stadium cladding firm files administration notice
- Fife groundworks and plant hirer goes under axing 35 jobs!
And so it goes on and on, there are lots more.
“The construction industry saw more companies go bust than any other sector last year, with a record 4,371 firms collapsing in England and Wales.”
Construction News 30 January 2024.
“Nearly 8,000 firms on the verge of insolvency as construction becomes UK’s second worst performing sector.”
Begbies Traynor Red Flag report 8 February 2024.
So, what happens when there are no Subbies left?
The Employers and the Contractors aren’t thinking about that right now as they are all far too busy talking about more important stuff such as diversity, sustainability, low carbon, and modern methods of construction.
Nobody has thought about how that will be achieved but it all sounds very important so that’s ok.
What about the government surely they must care about the destruction of all the subbies? Sorry, they’re too busy blaming the previous government to care about the UK’s biggest industry!
Besides, the Subbies don’t have any money to give to political parties so why should politicians care about them!
No one is interested in this ridiculous situation. Until they want something built that is!
Remember, we are here for you
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