87 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
87 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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id: 2025-11-06T18:12:00-0500
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title: 2025-11-06 18:12:??
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tags:
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- original-format/digital-text
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- status/complete
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- topic/estimating
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- topic/transparency
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daily: "[[2025-11-06]]"
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---
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# 2025-11-06 18:12:??
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## "Bad Bid Practice"
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%%
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Anecdote criticizing the common adversarial model
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of subcontractor-GC relations
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(or more generally contractor-customer)
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in [[construction-contracting]].
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My position is that
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deliberately hiding information from the customer
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(lacking [[transparency]] in interactions)
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always costs the contractor
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more than they stand to gain from it.
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%%
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I might be reprimanded for the things I've said about deceptive bid practices
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were I to repeat them to the wrong person,
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but I can't, in good conscience, take them back.
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In my previous position,
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I regularly saw good opportunities lost,
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perfect jobs turned into absurd overruns,
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and historied relationships with good customers soured
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by people trying to play poker instead of just selling a service.
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Now I feel _myself_ sour when I see the same warning signs.
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> [!quote] Proverbs 21:6, New International Version
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> A fortune made by a lying tongue
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> is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare
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> [!quote] Robert Palmer, "Every Kinda People"
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> There is no profit in deceit \
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> Honest men know that \
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> Revenge does not taste sweet
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When you bill your customer to provide scope
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that they thought they already paid for,
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they don't say "Touché" and move on,
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they ask themselves what they've done for you,
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what they're doing, and if you still deserve it.
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**You are cashing out on good will.**
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> How upset would you be paying fifty dollars for an oil change,
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> just to be billed another fifty for the cost of the oil and filter?
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> Would you ever go back to that shop?
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When you take from a contractors profits,
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they _will_ make sure you don't keep all of it,
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whether intentionally or not.
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Harsh words of lost profits reach the field immediately,
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and they only get harsher on the way down.
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Your superintendent _was_ golf buddies with the contractor's.
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Now yours is buried in QA and safety paperwork
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that they used to get away with pencil-whipping.
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Estimators may account themselves clever
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when they sell toggle switches as lighting control
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or conduit as equipment grounding
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but they're only playing at law.
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It is... _inadvisable_ to get into a dispute over contract terminology
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with an organization that---necessarily---has a larger legal department than you.
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Much more so when your basis for complaint is a typo-ridden checklist
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written by estimators with degrees in anything but law,
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rarely construction management,
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or even nothing at all.
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I don't mean to disparage my well-meaning peers,
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(that last category includes myself)
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I only mean to say that we don't seem to be asking
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the first question that should come to mind
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when writing a document that could end up in court:
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"How would I look explaining this to a lawyer?"
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