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‘Sorry, love. That’s the best I can do for you. Now, are you going to send through those specs or not?’
As I end the call, I let out a bellow of frustration, just as Noah comes back in.
‘What’s up?’ he asks.
‘I’ve just been onto the supplier about the trusses. Some smug bastard called Ross just ran rings around me, and every time I pushed him, he found a reason to make the delay longer. He’s now telling me I have to resubmit all the specs and it will be a minimum of three weeks before we get them.’
‘Yeah, that sounds like them.’ Noah seems unperturbed.
‘He also refused to take the original ones back, even though the mistake has to be at their end, because we accepted delivery. What kind of logic is that?’
‘Don’t take it personally,’ Noah begins. ‘This is standard practice for them. They won’t just let you return stuff, particularly things that are made to order. I’m sure you can work something out with that software of yours so we’re not held up completely.’
‘I can, but that’s not the point. I’m going to call Deborah. Maybe she can exert some influence.’
Noah laughs, but there’s no humour in it. ‘I think I’ll leave you to it. Good luck.’
‘Ella, you’re not filling me with confidence here,’ Deborah tells me when I manage to get hold of her around half an hour later. ‘This is only your first day, and already you’re telling me you’ve delayed the project by three weeks?’ She doesn’t sound pleased at all.
‘Ihaven’t delayed it. The building supplier has delayed it by delivering the wrong materials and then being obstructive when I rang up to ask them to rectify it. From what I’ve heard from the guys down here, this happens a lot. Isn’t there anything you can do?’
I can hear her sigh. ‘Fine. I’ll call them and see if I can smooth this out. But you need to get on top of this stuff, Ella. I can’t be bailing you out every five minutes, do you understand?’
‘Thank you,’ I manage, even though I don’t feel remotely grateful. Why is she having a go at me when all I’m trying to do is fix something that wasn’t even my mistake in the first place?
While I’m waiting for Deborah to call me back, I go back into my plan to see what can be moved around to minimise the delay. The process is strangely soothing, and my frustration levels start to fall as I jiggle the tasks around. By the time the phone rings, I reckon I can bring the overall delay down to one week if I need to.
‘Right,’ she informs me. ‘I’ve spoken to Williamsons, and they’re going to do their best to get the new trusses out to you early next week. I’ve also apologised on your behalf to Ross, the person you spoke to. He said you were very aggressive and confrontational. Ella, if you’re going to succeed in this industry, you need to learn how to treat people with respect. I’m very disappointed in you, do you understand?’
I’m having to bite the inside of my cheek. How dare Ross say that, and how dare she take his side without even asking me?
‘Do you understand, Ella?’ she repeats.
‘Yes. Thank you,’ I mumble.
‘Good. I’ve also arranged that they’ll collect the old trusses when they bring the next delivery, although I have no idea what we’re going to do with them. Are there any other messes you’ve made in your few hours of employment so far that I need to clean up, or is that it for now?’
‘Nothing else,’ I tell her. I need to get off this call before I say something to her that will end my role here before it’s even properly started.
‘Right. I trust you’ve learned a valuable lesson here.’
You have no idea, I think to myself as we disconnect the call.
19
‘How was the Bitch Queen?’ Noah asks me when he pops into the site office at the end of the day.
‘Don’t,’ I reply. ‘I certainly saw the other side of her today.’
‘I did warn you.’
‘You did. Anyway, we’re going to have a new rule going forwards.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, gets unloaded from a lorry before it’s been checked against both the order and the delivery note. If it’s not right, it stays on the truck and goes back.’
‘The drivers won’t like that,’ he advises me. ‘They’re on a pretty tight schedule.’
