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December 23, 2015
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Vol. 46 No. 18
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As 2015 comes to a close, GBA would like to wish its members, partners and other industry professionals a safe and happy holiday season. As we reflect on the past year for the industry, we would like to provide the readers of NewsLog a look at the most accessed articles from the year. Our regular publication will resume Wednesday, January 6.
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Bplans
From Feb. 18: Just about all GBA-Member Firms are busybusybusy, and no slow-down is in sight, especially when it comes to public works. Even the stingiest federal, state, or local legislators have to admit that our infrastructure is in decay. While constituents may be displeased about paying more taxes to offset the impacts of deferred maintenance, they understand the situation and would be far more displeased were roads to get even worse, were the water to run out, and so on. Geoprofessionals are needed to help create fixes, explaining why geoprofessional-firm-personnel poaching is on the rise and will get worse. If you do not start investing in keeping your employees happy, you'll have to invest far more in finding replacements to whom you'll have to pay higher salaries (in addition to signing bonuses), provide training, and so on.
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GBA
From June 24: Why should your client pay your firm a percentage mark-up for subcontractors you retain for the client's project? You need to have effective answers, because — if you do not — you may lose that mark-up, even though it's deserved. Why?
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U.S. Department of Labor
From Aug. 5: The U.S. Department of Labor is proposing to overhaul rules governing which "white-collar" workers (executive, administrative, and professional employees) are entitled to minimum-wage and overtime-pay protections. Since 2004, the threshold for exemption has been an annual salary of $23,660. Now, the Department proposes to raise that sum to $50,440 annually. For highly compensated employees (HCEs) to be exempt, they would have to earn more than $122,148 per year. Assuming these new rules go into effect, how should you respond to them? Should you pay employees more to keep them exempt? Should you pay them less and/or reduce their hours to reduce overtime costs? Should you redesign your company's workweek? Should you implement a timekeeping system? What about your overtime policies? Should you require employees to receive permission before working overtime? (Those who work overtime without permission could be disciplined, but they'd still have to be paid.) And what about those who work through lunch and/or take on community-volunteer work on behalf of their employer? Be prepared! Change is on the way.
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Forbes
From Feb. 18: "Geotechnical Engineering: The In-Demand, High-Pay, Easy-Entry Job You've Likely Never Heard of" is the title of an article in the January 15, 2015 edition of none other than Forbes magazine. The author — James Crotty — has a friend who "works as a geotechnical engineer for a Midwest-based engineering and consulting concern." Crotty notes, "According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the average median salary for a civil engineer with a bachelor's degree is $79,340 a year… [If] you also have a one-year master's in geotechnical engineering, your salary will be at least 20% higher. With geotech salaries going up around 4% a year, plus profit-sharing, 'you are making six figures in no time.'… [If] New York-based Millennium Partners’ Millennium Hollywood two-tower development is ever going to be built — let alone withstand a 7.0 earthquake along the intermittently active Hollywood fault — a geotech is going to be intimately involved."
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United States Courts
From June 24: After Thrash Commercial Contractors, Inc. (Thrash) had to remove six feet of out-of-spec fill it had installed on a Mississippi Bureau of Buildings and Grounds project for which it was serving as the constructor-in-charge, it sued its CoMET-services provider — Terracon — for breach of contract, alleging the long-time GBA-Member Firm failed to conduct tests per contract requirements. Terracon denied the allegations, but, before testing its own and Thrash's arguments, it sought a partial summary judgment: It asked the court to uphold the contract's limitation-of-liability (LOL) and waiver-of-consequential-damages provisions, thus to keep total damages to the $50,000 LOL cap and to dismiss Thrash's claim for lost profits and loss of use, both of which — even if true — comprised consequential damages. As is typical in such cases, the plaintiff cited an array of precedents trying to demonstrate that the LOL, in particular, was void and unenforceable. And as also is typical, the LOL was upheld; the partial summary judgment was granted.
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New York Daily News
From Aug. 19: "If you see something, say something." That applies to CoMET field representatives, too, especially when it comes to construction safety. What happens when you don't say anything; when, allegedly, you just don't care? Wilmer Cueva and Alfonso Prestia are learning the answer: Both face charges of criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter, and reckless endangerment following the Manhattan construction-site death of 22-year-old Carlos Moncayo. According to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., repeated warnings about safety hazards at a Ninth Avenue construction site were issued in the months, weeks, and even minutes before a trench collapsed. Vance noted that, on the day Mr. Moncayo was crushed to death, an independent engineer working for Domani Inspection Services saw the young man and others in a 13-foot-deep, unshored trench. The inspector told Prestia and Cueva that the workers had to get out immediately. Prestia did so, about an hour later, but he spoke English; the workers only understood Spanish.
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Chief Learning Officer
From Sept. 16: Millennials don't stick around: If they're dissatisfied, they look for a new job. As such, if you’re planning to hire Millennials (Is there an alternative?), you need to engage them. Abandon your "tried and true" approaches; they don't work anymore. Recognize that Millennials interface more as people do on Twitter: They prefer short bursts of images and content that encourage two-way interaction. Get that by relying on reverse mentoring, where you pair "old hands" with younger employees to establish two-way developmental relationships. Young hires learn from "veterans" how to thrive at the firm; the veterans learn about the "youngsters'" completely different experiences, and get to understand more about social media and digital-workplace connections. The mentor/protégée relationships that form can connect generations, encourage collaboration and reduce division, provide perspective, spark innovation, and — no surprise — reduce Millennial turnover.
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GBA
From Sept. 16: The more conscious you become of the language you use every day, the more likely you are to get it right, in writing and when speaking. Here are a few common errors you should not be making.
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GBA
From Aug. 19: "Safety Is Priority One": That's the key message of a new employee-pocket safety card developed by the GBA Safety Committee for use by GBA-Member Firms. "Firms can print it 'as-is,' or they can easily customize it, to add their own logos or special messages," said Safety Committee Chair Randy A. Knott, P.E. (Amec Foster Wheeler). The front of the card poses a series of brief instructions and questions employees should address before moving forward with a task; e.g., "Identify what could go wrong." and "Do you have written procedures to follow to ensure safe performance?" In large bold letters the card advises, "IF YOU DON'T KNOW IF IT'S SAFE, DO NOT PROCEED." On the card's reverse, the question is, "Which of these six hazard categories apply?" The six categories are contact, exposure, fall, caught/crushed, ergonomics, and energy source, with each being subcategorized. GBA members can print the card in its GBA format, using the GBA logo. Note that GBA distributes the card in a Microsoft Word format and an InDesign format. The Word format makes it easy for firms to substitute their own logo. The InDesign version provides a higher-quality result, but special software is needed to use it. The new GBA employee-pocket safety card is available only to GBA members, without charge. Members can download it from the GBA website.
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GBA
From Nov. 25: You may know my good friend Sanford "Sandy" Clay. A physician specializing in internal medicine, Sandy began post-graduate life as a geoprofessional, and now he's the man I see once a year for a comprehensive physical. "Anything in particular you’re concerned about?" he asked last year. "You’re the professional," I said. "You know far more about these things than I do."
"If more client representatives had said that to me, I may never have left geoprofessional practice," Sandy said. We both laughed. "Now cough," he said. I stopped laughing.
Two weeks later, when Sandy started reviewing the report with me, I knew he still was true to his geoprofessional roots. "Let's see," he began. "You're a Caucasian male of European descent. You're five-foot-eleven inches tall, and you weigh 180 pounds. You've been in excellent health your whole life. You have no family history of anything much. Your mother was still going strong at 100. You're happily married. You and your wife have two kids, both out of college. You came in for your annual physical."
I looked at my watch. "Hey, Sandy. I…." He waved me off. Clearly, if I was going to learn about my health, I had to sit there and be quiet while he went through his report his way, meaningless datum by meaningless datum.
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| | 2015-2016 GBA BOARD OF DIRECTORS |
President
Gordon M. Matheson, Ph.D., P.E., P.G., D.GE
(Schnabel Engineering, Inc. / Glen Allen, VA)
804/264-3222
President-Elect
Laura R. Reinbold, P.E.
(Terracon / Nashville, TN)
615/299-7804
Secretary/Treasurer
Charles L. Head, P.E., P.G.
(Sanborn, Head & Associates, Inc. / Concord, NH)
603/229-1900
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Directors
Kenneth R. Johnston
(GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc. / Norwood, MA)
781/278-3700
Kimberly F. Morrison, P.E., R.G.
(Morrison Geotechnical Solutions, Inc. / Denver, CO)
303/989-1480
Alex Sy, Ph.D., P. Eng.
(Klohn Crippen Berger Ltd. / Vancouver, BC)
604/669-3800
Woodward L. Vogt, P.E., D.GE, F.ACI, F.ASCE, F.ASTM
(Paradigm Consultants, Inc. / Houston, TX)
713/686-6771
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7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063
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