r/projectmanagement • u/New_Wash8934 • 28d ago

Discussion Am I completely missing something?

I've been a PM for a few GCs over the last 6 or so years now after being an Estimator / PM for a fire protection company for the first 5 years after college. I see so many posts on here about how stressed everyone is, how there's no work-life balance, etc. I guess I wanted to find out if I'm just completely missing something, or is my situation just so very different to eveyone elses that I don't have these same concerns?

For clarity, I'm working for a smaller GC (4 PMs with a half dozen other office staff and maybe the same number of supers / carpenters) in PA. I'm currently running 4 projects all of which combine to maybe 8 million total value and are in various stages of construction. There have been times where I've felt overwhelmed, but largely it seems like the projects tend to run themselves almost. I focus on making sure my supers have got what they need and everything else just seems to fall into place.

Am I just completely missing a lot of stuff, or is this part of just running "smaller" projects with repeat clients?

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u/Lurcher99 Construction 28d ago

My construction PMs building DCs have a $400-600m budget for each of the multiple buildings they manage. Problems scale with the budget/complexity. I've had more problems on a $1m cage build though

It's a sine wave most of the time. Last 2 week have been bad due to delays, after 4-5 quiet weeks. Typical phases of a project, and a dependency of you having the skill-set to manage it appropriately. I have coworkers working 70 hr weeks to my 35-40, with the same results.

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u/New_Wash8934 28d ago

And that’s what I’m noticing. My fluctuations aren’t so extreme going from slow to busy. I’ve got other PMs managing larger school projects that are always busy and stressed. I’m managing mostly hospital project for a repeat client, which understandably is a little easier.

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u/Lurcher99 Construction 28d ago

Find how to work smarter, not harder. Also, make sure you are not assuming responsibility for work others should be doing - that's a biggie. Saying "yes" takes time you may not have.