The begining of the end for NWIC.
It all began in November of 2005.
I had not made an estimate in about a month, which was understandable as the holidays were just around the corner. You know how people get tight with their cash around Christmas and all. I was pretty much winding up my last job for the year.
On the way to the house I was working on, I stopped at my usual place to grab a cup of coffee and a doughnut when a painter walked in.
He asked me how good a painter I was, and I asked him how much money he had. He told me he was the Executive Field Officer for New World Industrial Coatings and said he had the contract to paint a 4 story Library at the Santa Rosa Junior College, and he needed a couple of decent journeyman painters.
He also mentioned that it was a prevailing wage job. I did not know at the time that the prevailing wage on this job was $43.38/hour. Anyway, I told him I was interested, and I'd give him a call on Monday. He asked me to make sure I did, we shook hands and went our own ways.
I don't know how many of you work in construction, but it's very common to land jobs and contracts in coffee places and what not. It's always easy to spot a painter as our 'uniform" clearly defines our occupation.
So I did get back to the guy, Dan on Friday, and he set a prescribed time for me to meet him onsite the following Monday, and to bring my credentials.
On Monday I showed up, hardhat and credentials in hand, and met with Dan. He introduced me to the Superintendent of the project, I got my authorization to be onsite, showed me what was up and off to work I went.
During the next several months, I worked side by side with Dan, and the other lead painter. We three spent many boozing hours after work discussing plans for the future. New world was a blooming company with over $1.7 million in work lined up over the next 18 months of so, and Dan had big plans for the company and me as well.
I loved it; this guy was one of the sharpest painters I have ever seen, and a master at organizing and running many jobs at once. I was just having a ball working under this guy, and he was training me to run this kind of BIG work.
After a few months, Dan promoted me to a junior foreman position. That doesn’t seem like much, but it really was. It put me in the position to learn a lot of the paperwork involved in state jobs, and to run the current project I was working on for short periods. Things were progressing very nicely.
Unfortunately, the President of New World, Dave Gardner became more and more involved in the contract negotiations. This caused Dan many ugly moments with the contractor, and eventually caused Dan to give up all together. Dave degraded our companies relationship with the contractor to the point that they gave up as well and brought in another painting company to finish the job.
Dave was always happy with my work, and expressed a BIG enthusiasm when I mentioned that I would be moving out to the Sacramento area to continue working for him. In fact, he was so enthusiastic, Mr. Gardner wrote me the best recommendation I have ever seen in order to help me find an apartment in the Sac area.
So I made it to Citrus Heights and started back up with New World once again.
During the first month I was back, I learned very quickly how much of an ass Dave really was. IMHO, this guy lies, cheats, and steals from every person he comes in contact with. He is one of the most unskilled business owners I have ever seen as well.
Dave decided to take the reigns of his company out of the hands of the people he trusted, and started "winging it". Dan lost all faith in New World and now works mostly as a painter, and has given up his administrative duties.
I worked on 4 jobs or so since moving to Citrus Heights, and none of those jobs have been finished properly under Dave’s direction.
Dave one day decided to fire me.
Look forward to part 2.
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