The Contractor's Compass - September 2022

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Sara

DB Controller

EDITORIAL PURPOSE

The Contractor’s Compass is the monthly educational journal of the Foundation of the American Subcontractors Association, Inc. (FASA) and part of FASA’s Contractors’ Knowledge Network. FASA was established in 1987 as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity to support research, education and public awareness.

Through its Contractors’ Knowledge Network, FASA is committed to forging and exploring the critical issues shaping subcontractors and specialty trade contractors in the construction industry. The journal is designed to equip construction subcontractors with the ideas, tools and tactics they need to thrive.

The views expressed by contributors to The Contractor’s Compass do not necessarily represent the opinions of FASA or the American Subcontractors Association, Inc. (ASA).

MISSION

To educate and equip subcontractors and suppliers with the education and resources they need to thrive in the construction industry. Additionally, FASA raises awareness about issues critical to and about construction in the United States.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

The Contractor’s Compass is a free monthly publication for ASA members and nonmembers. For questions about subscribing, please contact communications@asa-hq. com.

ADVERTISING

Interested in advertising? Contact Richard Bright at (703) 684-3450 or rbright@ASA-hq.com or advertising@ASA-hq.com

EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS

Contributing authors are encouraged to submit a brief abstract of their article idea before providing a full-length feature article. Feature articles should be no longer than 1,500 words and comply with The Associated Press style guidelines. Article submissions become the property of ASA and FASA. The editor reserves the right to edit all accepted editorial submissions for length, style, clarity, spelling and punctuation. Send abstracts and submissions for The Contractor’s Compass to communications@ASA-hq.com.

ABOUT ASA

ASA is a nonprofit trade association of union and non-union subcontractors and suppliers. Through a nationwide network of local and state ASA associations, members receive information and education on relevant business issues and work together to protect their rights as an integral part of the construction team. For more information about becoming an ASA member, contact ASA at 1004 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314-3588, (703) 684-3450, membership@ASA-hq.com, or visit the ASA Web site, www. asaonline.com.

LAYOUT Angela M Roe angelamroe@gmail.com

© 2022 Foundation of the American Subcontractors Association, Inc.

FEATURES

Digital Transformation and the Changes in Training Delivery 14 by Dale Carnegie Staff

Be the MVYP: The Most Valuable Young Professional on the Team 16 by Leah Gradt, Kent Companies

The Boulder in the Throat of the Hourglass 17 When the problem is identified, and it is you by Gregg Schoppman, FMI

Becoming a Talent Magnet: Seven Strategies to Attract and Retain Employees by Wesley J. Palmisano, Impetus

Make Time to Save Time: Software Training Tips for Construction Businesses 22 by Patrick Hogan, Handle.com

The Jobs Where Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Never Stopped............................................................................ 24 byCaroline Preston, Hechinger Report

BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WITH CONFIDENCE

PRESIDENT'S LETTER

Dear ASA Members —

Some leaves have twinges of yellow, brown, and red; the kids are back to school; yet it’s still hot as Hades. Guess it must be September. Just a few things to note:

1. September is Suicide Prevention Month, which is especially important in the construction industry. A person working in construction is 3.5 times as likely of committing suicide than the national average. Not something to brag about, but something to recognize and address. In addition, the construction industry was ranked the 7th worst mental health score among 22 industries. Underlying risk factors such as crippling stress, anxiety, and undiagnosed mental illness like depression, play huge roles as co-morbidities with suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts - call 988, text "HELLO" to 741741. Check out some of the information in this month's Contractor's Compass.

2. We just had our think tank meeting last week. We have these twice a year to really delve into how we can make this association better for you. Luckily you’re not a shy crowd, and you’ve got lots to say. Still…if you’ve got an idea that could benefit the whole, we’ll gladly take it under consideration and bounce it around a bit. So keep that feedback coming. This year we had a round-table discussion on the economic outlook around the country, including price escalations and supply chain issues. We also had a lengthy discussion about hiring/labor immigration, and ways to reach out to younger people to encourage learning skilled technologies. You’ll be seeing more about these topics in the coming months.

3. A shout-out to the Subcontractor’s Legal Defense Fund (SLDF), helping ALL subcontractors in the nation. The American Subcontractors Association is moving forward with a friend-of-the-court brief in Texas, seeking an appeal on a decision that held that an entity could not be sued for prompt payment violations because it had not waived sovereign immunity. More information is in the Contractor Community section. Plus...SLDF's annual fundraiser is coming up in New Orleans on October 29 Hope you can join us!

4. eSUB returns as a sponsor. They provide construction project management software built specifically for trade contractors. There are a lot of good companies trying to improve the construction industry and make our lives a little bit easier. Honest. I have to keep telling myself that, since sometimes I’m certain that’s why I’m prematurely gray. Luckily there are people smarter than me that take to technology like fish to water, and prove to me how valuable and time-saving these applications are. Would I go back to a manual typewriter? Nope. Technology works.

This month we’re taking a look at workforce development. How do you motivate, inspire and get the best out of the talented folks you have at your workplace? We’ve got “how-to” articles from those who have done it, from employees that tell what works for them, and the struggles that are still ongoing. Thanks for reading this letter. ASA is striving to make your lives a little easier, your businesses more successful, and our entire industry stronger. If you have ideas that could benefit us, get involved in your chapter or contact us directly. Thank you!

Sincerely, Rusty Plowman

ASA President - 2022/23

CONTRACTOR COMMUNITY

Your Legal Defense Fund at Work: ASA Fights for Subcontractors in Prompt Pay Case in Texas

The American Subcontractors Association is moving forward with a friend-of-the-court brief in Texas, seeking an appeal on a decision that held that an entity could not be sued for prompt payment violations because it had not waived sovereign immunity.

The case, Texas Southern University v. Pepper Lawson Horizon International Group, LLC,is currently on appeal to the Texas Supreme Court.

At issue is the construction of a new student house at Texas Southern University. In February 2014, the University and Pepper Lawson Horizon (“Contractor”) International Group entered into a contract for the work.

Shortly after beginning work, while drilling piers for the foundation, the Contractor discovered that a previous

building at the worksite had not been fully demolished and remnants of that building were buried beneath the worksite and obstructed progress on the Project. Though the University agreed to a cost increase to pay the Contractor to remove the obstructions, it denied the Contractor’s request for additional time. The Contractor’s progress was further slowed as it encountered other problems and delays, including weather delays, power delays and problems arising out of defective plans, but the University denied all requests for additional time. At completion, the Contractor invoiced the University for claimed balance due, but the University refused to pay. The Contractor sued, asserting that the University had breached the parties' contract by failing to pay and by denying its requests for equitable time extensions.

The University denied the Contractor’s allegations, arguing that “sovereign immunity has not been waived for [the Contractor’s] claims." It also stated that the Contractor had failed to point to a specific contractual provision that it had breached and that the Prompt Pay Act does not expressly waive sovereign immunity. The trial court denied the University’s jurisdictional defenses and set the matter for trial. On appeal, however, the

Court of Appeals of Texas, First District, Houston, reversed. The appeals court rendered judgment dismissing the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The Contractor is appealing, seeking review from the Texas Supreme Court.

The Subcontractor Legal Defense Fund determined in its evaluation that, though the statute is Texas specific, the principle of the necessity of a waiver of sovereign immunity as a prerequisite to public owner liability is widespread across the 50 states. An unfavorable result could have the potential to have a ripple effect into other states.

Brian Carroll, Sanderford & Carroll, P.C., San Antonio, TX, will prepare the brief for ASA. ASA’s Subcontractors Legal Defense Fund financed the brief. ASA’s Subcontractors Legal Defense Fund supports ASA’s critical legal activities in precedent-setting cases to protect the interests of all subcontractors. ASA taps the SLDF to fund amicus curiae, or “friend-of-thecourt,” briefs in appellate-level cases that would have a significant impact on subcontractor rights. Contributions to the SLDF may be made online.

Founded in 1966, ASA promotes the rights and interests of subcontractors, specialty contractors and suppliers by building strength in the community through education, advocacy,

networking and professional growth. ASA adheres to and promotes quality construction, ethical and equitable business practices, safety in the work environment, and best industry practices. For more information about ASA, visit www.asaonline.com, and for more information about the SLDF, visit www.sldf.net.

skilled labor shortage caused by the retirement of baby boomers, fewer people entering the trades, as well as the pandemic-driven "great resignation."

The Biden Administration to Create 460 New Registered Apprenticeship Programs

Management and Budget since June, the last step before the regulation is published and goes into effect.

Skilled Labor Staffing Company Tradesmen

International® Celebrates 30 Years with New Brand Look and Market Expansion

Tradesmen International®, an industry leader in skilled trades staffing and labor-cost containment solutions, announced today the launch of a new brand look featuring a rejuvenated corporate logo and individualized market sector logos. In its 30th anniversary year, the fresh look is an affirmation of the company's longevity, renewed commitment to their clients, craftworker and office employees, and a celebration of the company's cultural focus on achieving unprecedented levels of craft worker safety, productivity, and craftsmanship.

The modernized corporate logo is now in red, white, and blue in homage to the company's long history of putting America's skilled workers to work. Specialized vertical market logos were created for each of the company's specialized service groups: Construction Staffing Solutions (representing commercial, residential, and heavy industrial construction), Industrial and Manufacturing Staffing Solutions, Marine Staffing Solutions, Renewable Energy Staffing Solutions, and Institutional Staffing Solutions.

Leveraging an employee database of more than 1.2 million skilled craft professionals screened and vetted by more than 250 full-time recruiters nationally, the company is wellpositioned to answer the nationwide

On September 1, 2022, the Biden Administration announced the creation of 460 new registered apprenticeship programs with more than 10,000 of those trained workers hired over the next year. The initiative is entitled, “the Apprenticeship Ambassador Initiative, a national network of more than 200 employers and industry organizations, labor organizations, educators, workforce intermediaries, and community-based organizations, who are committed to strengthening and diversifying Registered Apprenticeship. The Apprenticeship Ambassadors have existing Registered Apprenticeship programs in over 40 in-demand industries and have committed to expand and diversify these programs over the next year by collectively: developing 460 new Registered Apprenticeship programs across their 40 industries, hiring over 10,000 new apprentices, and holding 5,000 outreach, promotional, and training events to help other business, labor, and education leaders launch similar programs. Ambassadors will also use their expertise to scale innovative practices and increase access to Registered Apprenticeship for underserved populations, including women, youth, people of color, rural communities, people with arrest or conviction records, and people with disabilities.” The North American Building Trades Union said it plans to train 250,000 new apprentices over the next five years, and IBM Corp. will contribute $250 million on registered apprenticeship programs and other training by 2025.

Additionally, the Department of Labor is in the process of rescinding the Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program (IRAP), finalized by the Trump administration in 2020. A final rule to officially end the program has been under review at the Office of

Finally, per the Biden Administration, their efforts to “expand the registered apprenticeship model have created over 4,000 new registered programs and resulted in more than 1 million apprentices being hired. In FY 2021, there were around 600,000 workers participating in apprenticeship programs across the country. Of those, 96,000 apprentices completed their program in FY 2021.

SLDF New Orleans Fundraiser

See the ad on the next page. Sponsorship opportunities are still available, and includes recognition on event materials and promotions with ASA membership. All proceeds benefit ASA’s Subcontractor Legal Defense Fund. Contact Shannon Oscar at soscar@asa-hq.com.

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TM

This month’s highlight of awesomeness is going to be a little different. We know the dedication and pride you have in your career. You work no matter the weather, no matter the time. This month’s “Always Something Awesome” is dedicated to you—the construction professional.

There are approximately three jobsite fatalities in construction every day and an estimated 10 to 12 suicides among construction workers. In the construction industry, mental health awareness and suicide prevention are just as important as job safety issues.

In 2020, the CDC found that those working in construction have one of the highest suicide rates compared to other industries. Their suicide rate is about four times higher than the general population. The CDC continues its research to understand why this is happening. OSHA formed a task force of industry partners, unions and educators to raise awareness of the types of stress that can push construction workers into depression resulting in suicide. The task force also encourages employers to share and discuss available resources with their employees.

A video on suicide prevention was recently shared with task force members by Assistant Secretary Frederick. The suicide prevention page also includes links to resources and other information. Review the OSHA mental health crisis resources here.

Thanks to Gia Espinoza, Courtney Little, and others for sharing their information.

The Contractor’s Compass is recognizing excellence in ASA’s ranks. Every month we are highlighting the activities, achievements, and actions of ASA members that might inspire others. Do you have something you want to share? Send us an email at communications@asa-hq. com.

SUICIDE PREVENTION MONTH IDEAS FOR ACTION

1. LEARN ABOUT EFFECTIVE SUICIDE PREVENTION

by watching and sharing a brief video overview of SPRC’s Effective Suicide Prevention Model: http://www.sprc.org/micro-learning/effective-suicide-prevention

2. ENGAGE

people with lived experience in your prevention efforts using these resources:

A brief video explaining lived experience https://www.sprc.org/micro-learning/leah-harris-lived-experiencewhat-it-how-include-it

A toolkit to involve people with lived experience in prevention efforts http://www.sprc.org/livedexperiencetoolkit/about

A lived experience story about what makes a difference

https://www.sprc.org/micro-learning/lived-experience-story-aboutwhat-makes-difference-0

3. CREATE SAFE AND EFFECTIVE MESSAGES

for the public that promote hope, recovery, and resilience using the Framework for Successful Messaging: http://suicidepreventionmessaging.org

4.INFORM THE MEDIA that they play an important role in suicide prevention by sharing the Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide and 988 Media Toolkit: http://reportingonsuicide.org http://ow.ly/7kHj50JWTlJ

5. JOIN

the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention’s (Action Alliance) collective #BeThere messaging effort:

Use #BeThere and #SPM22 on Twitter to educate the public about the many ways to support those who are struggling

https://twitter.com/search?vertical=default&q=%23BeThere

Visit the Action Alliance’s #BeThere webpage to learn more https://theactionalliance.org/bethere

Sign up to receive updates from the Action Alliance https://theactionalliance.org/join-our-mailing-list?email=

6. EMPOWER states, tribes, territories, and communities to prevent suicide by promoting:

Resources for implementing the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline https://sprc.org/988

Tools for establishing a strong state suicide prevention infrastructure https://sprc.org/state-infrastructure

7. ENCOURAGE HELP-SEEKING by spreading the word about these crisis services:

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provides free, confidential, 24/7 support by phone [call or text 988 from anywhere in the U.S.] and online chat https://988lifeline.org

Crisis Text Line provides free, confidential, 24/7 support by text [text HOME to 741741 from anywhere in the U.S.] https://www.crisistextline.org

8. SUPPORT

the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s (Lifeline) #BeThe1To movement by learning the five steps that can save a life and sharing them with others: (1)ask (2)keep them safe (3)be there (4)help them connect (5)follow up http://www.bethe1to.com/join

9.ON SEPTEMBER 10, GET INVOLVED IN

World Suicide Prevention Day using ideas from the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP): https://www.iasp.info/wspd

National American Indian/Alaska Native Hope for Life Day using the Action Alliance toolkit: https://theactionalliance.org/communities/ american-indian-alaska-native/hope-life-day

10. PARTICIPATE

in an Out of the Darkness Community Walk hosted by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP): https://afsp.org

11. PROMOTE

Suicide Prevention Awareness Month using materials from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), such as crisis and information resources and social media content: http://www.nami.org/Get-Involved/AwarenessEvents/Suicide-Prevention-Awareness-Month

12. EXPLORE WAYS to #REACH out to a veteran or service member—whether you have one minute, one hour, or more—with resources from the Veterans Crisis Line: https://www.va.gov/REACH

13.SHARE RESOURCES that promote healing:

A Journey toward Health and Hope: Your Handbook for Recovery after a Suicide Attempt https://store.samhsa.gov/product/A-Journey-Toward-HealthAnd-Hope-Your-Handbook-For-Recovery-After-a-Suicide-Attempt/ SMA15-4419

Resources related to survivors of suicide loss http://www.sprc.org/populations/suicide-loss https://suicidology.org/resources/suicide-loss-survivors https://afsp.org/ive-lost-someone

14.TAKE FIVE MINUTES to complete five action items developed by the National Council for Suicide Prevention (NCSP) for their Take 5 to Save Lives campaign: (1)learn the signs (2)do your part (3)practice self-care (4)reach out (5)spread the word https://www.take5tosavelives.org/take-5-steps

Suicide Prevention Resource Center www.sprc.org

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 1000 N.E. 13th Street, Nicholson Tower, Suite 5900 Oklahoma City, OK 73104

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), under Grant No. 1H79SM083028-01.  The views, opinions, and content expressed in this product do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of CMHS, SAMHSA, or HHS.

LEGALLY SPEAKING

Virginia Is Latest State to Ban “Pay if Paid” Clauses as Efforts to Protect Subcontractors Grow Nationwide

by Kate Lawrence, Lawrence Law, LLC

In the construction industry, “pay-ifpaid” clauses in subcontract agreements are as common as steel-toed boots. These clauses state the general contractor on a project does not need to pay the subcontractor unless and until it has been paid by the project owner for the subcontractor’s work, including any retention the owner withholds until the job is complete.

These agreements were designed to protect the general contractor, ensuring they aren’t responsible for money owed to subcontractors if the money for a project doesn’t come through – while subcontractors assume the risk of not getting paid for work they completed, regardless of how well they performed. Pay-if-paid clauses also commonly appear in agreements between first tier and lowertier subcontractors, meaning the further down the company is in the project chain, the more risk they have of not getting paid.

While controversial, pay-if-paid clauses are enforceable in many states, and excuse general contractors from their payment obligations to subcontractors if the project owner goes out of business, or refuses to pay because they aren’t satisfied with the work of one or more of the contractors. Subcontractors impacted by these clauses must temporarily finance the job and cover up-front material and labor costs until the money trickles down. Considering all the other risks subcontractors take daily, pay-if-paid can be a significant barrier to profits.

My home state of Maryland is currently one of seven states that have ruled pay-ifpaid clauses are valid, along with Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, and Michigan. To shift the risk of owner nonpayment to the subcontractor in Maryland, the subcontract must have an express unambiguous provision shifting that risk (Gilbane Bldg. Co. v. Brisk Waterproofing Co., 585 A.2d 248 (Md. 1991)).

Support is growing nationwide to put an end to pay-if-paid clauses and six states –including California, Delaware, New

York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wisconsin – have enacted laws declaring these contractual provisions void and against public policy. Virginia will be the next to join this list effective January 1, 2023.

Signed into law by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin in April, SB550 shifts the risk of owner nonpayment back to the contractor. Pay-if-paid language is expressly prohibited under the new law, and public contracts must include a payment clause that makes the contractor “liable for the entire amount owed to any subcontractor with which it contracts.” General contractors are still entitled to withhold payments, presumably where there is a good faith dispute over the subcontractor’s compliance with the contract. To take advantage of this exception, private owners and both public and private contractors must notify lowertier subcontractors in writing of their intent to withhold payment and their reasoning. The law also requires private contractors of any tier to pay subcontractors by 60 days of satisfactory completion of the work, or seven days after receipt of payment from the owner or contractor – whichever comes first. If the owner or higher-tier contractor fails to pay within 60 days, the contractor is still responsible for the payment.

Looking ahead, it certainly seems likely more states will pursue their own efforts to ban pay-if-paid language. Subcontractors represent the greater majority who benefit from these laws, and support in numbers is critical to getting the attention of legislators. If you are interested in campaigning for a new law in your state, here are a few suggestions, based on what was successful in Virginia:

• Garner support from as many people as possible, including trade groups and companies that pay taxes in districts across your state. The more people you have who are willing to sign letters and call and email their delegates, the better.

• Collect as many real-world examples as possible of instances when subcontractors were harmed by pay-ifpaid clauses.

• Be sure that small businesses, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses are represented among your supporters.

• Find a sponsor for your bill who is passionate about the cause.

• Prepare for a strong opposition from general contractors and their supporters. If necessary, be prepared to make some concessions. In Virginia, supporters for the new law agreed to an exception to the ban if a project owner declares bankruptcy. In this instance, a pay-if-paid agreement can still be enforced.

• Pursue bills in both sides of your state legislature – the House and the Senate –to increase your odds of success.

• Highlight the issue with change orders in your arguments. As long as pay-if-paid clauses are the industry standard, change orders will continue to put subcontractors at greater risk of not being fully paid for their work. Legislation banning these clauses would give general contractors more motivation to ensure change orders are approved by the project owner, and full payment is received for the additional work.

In my practice, I’ve seen many subcontractors denied payments they have rightfully earned, and with pay-if-paid clauses in place, pursuing compensation in court is an uphill battle. States that have successfully enacted laws to ban this contract language have taken a significant step to protect these business owners, and hopefully we’ll see more states follow suit.

Kate Lawrence is a construction attorney and founding partner at Lawrence Law, LLC. Contact her at kate@lawrencelawllc.com

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FEATURE

Digital Transformation and the Changes in Training Delivery

by Dale Carnegie Staff

2020 completely flipped nearly every industry on its side. It required professional training companies to step back and assess how they would be able to continue to best serve their customers under the new circumstances and help lead the new remote and hybrid workplace culture. It challenged them to be resourceful, resilient and agile, to

update business products and delivery worldwide quickly.

The pandemic fueled a digital transformation for many companies and changed their business model, as Dale Carnegie did. As a training company specializing in leadership, presentation, sales and organizational development training, they prepared to help guide

their clients along with their own companies’ digital transformation from 2021 into 2022.

Here are some ways leaders can be more successful in implementing digital transformation in their organization, as well as some examples of the changes instituted in the Dale Carnegie course delivery model.

Streamline Your Communications

As we move from work from home (WFH) to work from anywhere (WFA) or to a hybrid model, if the job permits it, some employees might be working from various locations, while others may even be working on the go-between in-person meeting or other tasks. With more hope on the horizon provided by the vaccine distribution, more companies will begin to consider hybrid work schedules as well.

Whatever the case might be, it’s critical to select the right communication and collaboration technologies to bridge the physical gap between employees and teams and facilitate cross-department collaboration.

With many competing platforms such as Slack, Teams, Zoom, Skype, etc., an important step in the digital transformation process, at least when it comes to communication, is to unify your business communications through a centralized platform. This not only eliminates redundancies and confusion, but it saves costs and helps to promote efficiencies.

Lead with Empathy and Create Trust in Leadership

Organizational changes, such as the implementation of new technology, can understandably create stress and worry for employees. It’s important for leadership teams to recognize that and be aware of how a digital shift may potentially impact team morale.

Empathize with how these changes may be perceived by your employees and proactively address potential concerns. Helping employees feel confident that they can develop the skills needed to continue to succeed in the digital era is critical to the success of your digital transformation.

Good communication from leadership can help minimize apprehension. With a strong trust in a company, a commitment to transparency and dedication to building confidence in employees’ ability to transition, companies will go a long way toward turning their employees into technology advocates and empower them to feel positive about the changes that are happening.

Involve Employees from the Start

Involve teams, specifically at the management level, from the very beginning. By including team members in the process and asking for their input, it becomes easier to earn their trust in the value of the technology and process changes as it will be a collective and collaborative decision. The employees who have a hand in conceiving the redefinition of the process will be instant advocates and as a result, will influence further buy-in from their colleagues and individual departments and teams.

At the onset of the pandemic, Dale Carnegie formed an agile global task force to help all locations across the world transition course delivery to online platforms, which required both the technology and the delivery skills needed to teach our content effectively in a virtual setting.

While organizational change is never easy, prioritizing employee morale and effective communication will yield a more successful digital transformation. As we propel digital changes forward in 2023, business leaders must remain invested in the preservation of company culture and employee engagement above all else.

Accelerate Momentum with Newfound Agility

As we continue to persevere from the post-pandemic and the experiences we’ve been through, it’s important to not lose sight of the growth and progress made.

Over the past several months, we’ve remained focused on network recovery and bringing our vision of the future Dale Carnegie to reality. Now more than ever, we are positioned to thrive because of our ability to digitally transform the entire global organization so quickly.

As our new reality evolves, we continue to be innovative and have found ways to kickstart our digital transformation. We’ve scaled our offerings to provide flexible, blended solutions tailored to meet our clients’ needs. The combination of in-person and live online course options has enabled us to deliver our courses to customers how and where they want.

We’ve debuted Learn from Anywhere, our flexible session-to-session option that allows participants to choose where they are most comfortable taking their training. This new offering aims to alleviate customer hesitation about signing up for an in-person course, as the “room” remains flexible throughout the course, regardless of circumstances.

Our blueprint moving forward also introduces Dale Carnegie eVolve, our new digital collaboration and learning platform. The Dale Carnegie Learn from Anywhere + eVolve platform connects our customers, trainers, and their peers on a single platform regardless of training modality. All course materials, discussions, practice and additional on-demand content will live in one convenient location.

Many organizations have been more agile than they ever imagined possible in their responses to the pandemic. As leaders, the next question we must ask ourselves is: How can we continue being this agile into the future and build resilient teams?

About the Editor:

Robert Graves, MBA, is a Dale Carnegie Certified Trainer for Dale Carnegie Tampa Bay. His focus is Relationship Selling. He is the author of “Making More Money with Technology.” He often speaks on the evolution of Marketing, Sales, and Service. Robert can be reached at robert.graves@ dalecarnegie.com or call/text 813-966-3058.

About Dale Carnegie:

Dale Carnegie is a global training and development organization specializing in leadership, communication, human relations, and sales training solutions. More than 9 million people around the world have graduated from Dale Carnegie training since it was founded in 1912. Dale Carnegie Training can help an organization build effective interpersonal skills that generate the positive emotions essential to a productive work environment and that lead to increased employee engagement.

FEATURE

Be the MVYP: The Most Valuable Young Professional on the Team

A tried-and-true strategy for young professionals in specialty subcontracting

by Leah Gradl, Kent Companies

I’ll never forget the way I felt when the board room door shut.

I was on the outside, and the entire management team was in a closeddoor strategic planning session. I knew I deserved a seat at the table. So, when that door shut, I made the decision to change the way I worked to be more visible – and become the most valuable player on the team.

As a young professional, your path to promotion isn’t a guarantee; you need to carve it out yourself. Your success depends on how you build value on your team every single day. Here are five go-to strategies that you can start today.

Manage the Details

When you join a new team, it’s tempting to chase the grand slam – a big, gamechanging idea or program right out of the gate. You probably spot a new software or app the team needs. But grand slams don’t win games…singles and doubles do.

Innovation is important, but buy-in to new ideas only comes with trust. As a young professional, you build that trust by managing the smallest project details with absolute precision every day.

Company leaders can always spot the team players who are meticulous and consistent. If you can manage the small details, you’re proving you can manage the bigger initiatives when they come.

Manage Up

Do you know your manager’s communication style and planning preferences?

When I was in a marketing manager role, the CEO often asked me if I had anything for his list when he traveled to meet with regional company executives. “The list” was the clue I needed. He wanted short bullet points so that he

could make the most of his limited time in meetings with other leaders.

I changed the way I managed my own weekly time with the CEO by providing a hit list in advance. The hit list kept him informed of my key priorities, big wins and stucks. We spent less time on routine updates and more time on problemsolving and collaboration. It was a win on both sides.

Take some time to observe how your manager organizes their week, and how they run key meetings. Then, manage up. Be proactive and present updates in their mode of communication.

Make Connections

Steve Jobs famously shared, “Great things in business are never done by one person; they are done by a team of people.” When new, high-profile initiatives emerge they need the coordination of multiple departments. Can you spot those opportunities at the start?

At Kent Companies, our conversion from traditional hard hats to modern climbing-style helmets needed coordination between field operations, safety, human resources and marketing. I spotted an opportunity to connect those departments with a collaborative, consolidated plan. The plan kept the subject matter experts in operations and safety at the forefront…and maintained a timeline for policy changes and communications.

If you see a new initiative on the horizon, find a way to be a part of the team. Take responsibility to make the connections needed to ensure the roll-out is great.

Create a Vacuum

As a young professional, it’s tempting to get distracted by what your peers are

doing. Maybe you wonder how some colleagues are tapped for high profile assignments. This is when it’s critical to focus on your own lane and to execute your work at the highest level possible.

Create your own vacuum. In other words, build the best practice and gold standard on your own turf – even if it's a routine process. If you build the gold standard, it becomes clear to company leadership very quickly. Your work begs the question: Why isn’t everyone else doing it this way?

When you approach every assignment –even the routine ones – with the highest level of care, you create a vacuum for others to follow.

The Most Important Thing

The only constant in the construction industry is change. Last minute change. Change orders. Weather changes. Site changes. Supply chain changes. In an industry where change happens every day…be the most steadfast, consistent player on the team.

When your team and company leaders know your work habits and cadence, you become a keystone player. Confidence surges because your work is trusted when it is needed most.

Consistency is your greatest advantage as you carve the path to being the most valuable player on the team.

About the Author:

Leah Gradl is the Chief Business Officer for Kent Companies, a top-10 concrete place and finish contractor. She created first-ever roles for herself at each stage of her 10+ year career in concrete construction.

FEATURE

The Boulder in the Throat of the Hourglass

When the problem is identified, and it is you

by Gregg Schoppman, FMI

Organizations can often be characterized by the “Goldilocks Principle.” Sometimes there is too much management, creating a smothering effect or micromanagement feel. In some cases, there is complete autonomy leading to hyper-dysfunction and a complete lack of control. Leaders wrestle with an ever-changing swing of the pendulum to find the happy median. Even when that “nirvana” is found, there is still something that is amiss. No one is hovering over the team and

there appears to be a modicum level of structure. How can something so right still feel so wrong? The issue is the throat in the communication hourglass. Better yet, it is the boulder clogging up that throat, choking the flow of communication. Put another way, the problem is you.

Now that we have your attention, organizations need to understand the fundamental definition of empowerment. Empowerment is defined as the “authority or power given to someone to do something.”

Notice that this definition is about creating action. The definition does not say, “authority to do something but first it has to go through senior management.” Firms wrestle with this daily. In some cases, the team may lack the ability to make knowledgeable decisions as a result of inexperience or lack of training. It is not uncommon to delegate a task and then have some check and balance in the process to ensure accuracy. However, there is a fine line when everything requires a sign-off or authorization. Consider

these statements – “We are just waiting for John/Mary/Steve/Joan to sign off on that” or “We can’t have the meeting without John/Mary/Steve/ Joan” or “Nothing happens without John/Mary/Steve/Joan!” In fairness to John/Mary/Steve/Joan, I am sure they have the best intentions and it isn’t like they are sitting in a recliner eating Doritos. However, if you have ever muttered these statements, you might have a boulder problem.

Process Breakdown

There are most certainly decisions that should require some level of authority. For instance, it is probably prudent to vet large capital expenditures or limit the decision making to specific personnel. It might be a little awkward to have every equipment operator deciding when to buy a new front-end loader or every project manager signing off on new software. However, there is no shortage of decisions that create this bottleneck. For instance, consider the following areas where bottlenecks appear to occur:

Planning Meetings—In many cases, there is a feeling that a meeting cannot occur without a complete quorum or more importantly the Operations Manager or President in attendance. While this sounds excellent in theory, how many meetings are delayed because the Operations Manager and President are busy. Instead, the meetings are punted, leading to larger issues in the long run.

Minutia Approval—There is a difference between keeping someone in the loop and requiring their approval. For instance, how many small details on projects require someone to “sign-off”? Does this level of minutia smell like the right level of management or does it reek of “cover your butt?”

Levels of Approval—As stated previously, we probably want to limit the big dollar decisions to the right decision makers. On the other hand, does the firm have appropriate levels of authority when it comes to change orders, proposals, purchase orders, etc.? Some organizations will have field leaders limits on their purchase orders yet ask them to be responsible/ accountable for multi-million projects? This is like sending a young man/ woman away to college but requiring them to call home every night to make sure they aren’t doing anything bad.

One mechanism that will help identify these boulders is the examination of the internal processes within the firm. or instance, if all of the processes were illustrated in a story board, how many of the “nodes” or decisions, fall on the same individual? This is not to say it is wrong, but the subsequent question should be this –Is this working and are we asking one person to singularly be responsible for everything? Similarly, as these processes are mapped, what is the overall timeline that is created? Do the steps in the process require 2-3 more touches creating 20-30% more effort for no added value?

Decision Rights or Outcomes?

As stated earlier, some organizations are hesitant to assign decision rights because of inexperience. For years there are steps in the process that were implemented because at the time of origination it provides some level of security or comfort to leadership that wrong decisions would not be made. This seems plausible in the short term as an excellent stop gap measure to prevent disaster. However, upon deeper examination would the firm be better served by addressing the pivotal issue which is “talent development” through a more concerted training and educational solution rather than

inserting gates that create levels of dependency instead of accountability? Put another way, a firm can use “training wheels” on its processes but at some point it needs to either really teach the team to ride the bike for real.

Additionally, there is a perception that these “approval gates” serve as checks and balances to ensure no one is going rogue. Once again, this is a reasonable measure to implement in the short term, possibly as a measure for newer associates learning a firm’s systems. However, would it not be more effective for the firm to measure the outcomes of a process rather than approvals? If a firm has a set process and managers are held accountable to follow these processes, the outcome should be the most important item. As an example, think about a quality control procedure for something like concrete or asphalt. Testing is done on select samples of a mix or batch that is created in accordance with a recipe or mix design. It would be impractical and hardly cost effective if every ton or cubic yard was tested before placement. The same can be said for managers and supervisors that must gain approval for every action.

Successful organizations have found there is the right balance between accountability, responsibility, and empowerment. For firms to grow profitably, the leaders know they must implement a capable team that is predicated on decentralized decision making and boulder removal.

About the Author

FMI is the largest provider of management consulting, investment banking, and research to the engineering and construction industry. FMI works in all segments of the industry providing clients with valueadded business solutions. For more information visit www.fminet.com or contact gschoppman@fminet.com.

FEATURE

Becoming a Talent Magnet: Seven Strategies to Attract and Retain Employees

by Wesley J. Palmisano, Impetus

As construction businesses face an intensifying war for talent, they’re challenged to expand their approach to recruiting and developing team members. Despite ongoing whispers of a U.S. recession, an economic slowdown isn’t likely to alleviate the ongoing shortage of skilled, available construction workers.

Reactive, passive hiring and talentdevelopment strategies are no longer sufficient to attract and retain the individuals you need to serve clients, deliver projects, and grow.

Competitive pay and benefits are table stakes. Today’s in-demand construction workers also want to work for a company with visionary leaders, an engaging culture, and advancement opportunities. They expect to be valued, given access to the tools and resources necessary for success, and treated as if they are long-term partners.

Here are seven actions that construction businesses can take to strengthen their ability to attract and retain top talent. Most of these strategies don’t require large budgets or additional staff. What they do require is an ongoing commitment to making your firm a great place to work.

1.Streamline the online application and tracking process.

Make it as simple as possible for potential employees to find, learn about, and pursue jobs at your company.

Strive for short, compelling job descriptions that clearly articulate the job requirements and enable candidates to quickly explore an opportunity and decide whether they’d like to pursue it.

Be strategic about where and how you look for candidates. Seek out platforms and online communities where target employees are likely to hang out. Also,

encourage your current employees to share job openings within their own networks, and offer them healthy internal “headhunter” incentives to align interests.

It’s also important to streamline your applicant tracking process so that your internal team can efficiently evaluate candidates and respond to them in a timely manner.

2.Strengthen the onboarding experience.

While a person’s first day on the job sets the stage for their entire tenure, we also firmly believe that successful onboarding is a robust six-month process.

The initial onboarding experience should encompass more than just sharing company policies and signing necessary paperwork. It’s an ideal time for new hires to learn about the company’s history, culture, and values, including your commitment to safety and other important priorities.

Onboarding is also an opportunity to get to know employees on a personal level, including details about their background, family, hobbies, and interests.

Small gestures such as welcome signage, company swag, and a personal visit from the owner/president can go a long way toward making people feel valued and appreciated.

3.Communicate openly and consistently.

Because employees at most construction firms are dispersed across numerous jobsites and office environments, open communication is key to keeping everyone informed, connected to their colleagues, and aligned with overall business goals.

Communications should start at the top with consistent engagement from company leaders—whether that’s through face-to-face meetings, virtual Q&A sessions, video updates, or simple e-mail notes. A commitment to open communications should also be embraced by department heads, project leaders, and team leaders.

Commit to creating a work environment where everyone feels comfortable asking questions, requesting help, and expressing concerns without fear of negative consequences.

4.Invest in your people.

Investing in your employees will increase their overall value to the company while also helping to develop the next generation of firm leaders.

Training and development initiatives can range from structured skills training programs and professional development sessions to informal coaching and mentoring.

If your company doesn’t have a formal training program in place, you can start small by hosting a few lunchtime sessions led by internal subject matter experts. You can easily expand this effort by accessing the training and development resources available in your community. At Impetus, we trained 143 employees last year with the help of a grant program offered by the Louisiana Department of Labor, and we plan to train over 180 more people over the next 12 months.

Your goal should be to build a learning culture where people are constantly exploring and growing while receiving ongoing feedback from their managers rather than having to wait for their annual performance reviews.

5.Celebrate success.

Everyone wants to be part of a winning team and to be acknowledged for their hard work. Our incentive compensation programs align company interests and goals with those of each individual. While compensation is part of the equation, it doesn’t stop there. The impact of personal touches like handwritten notes from leadership to recognize individual contributions is immeasurable.

Take time to celebrate project milestones, awards, and team successes throughout the company. At Impetus, we host gatherings to celebrate successes together as a company multiple times each month. Everyone is invited and encouraged to participate in these events to honor fellow teammates for their collective achievements.

6.Establish roadmaps of accountability.

Working in construction often involves a high degree of independence and ingenuity. Employees have to make daily

decisions in the field that may impact safety, quality, and profitability.

Establish some simple road maps of accountability so that everyone understands the importance of consulting with project leaders before making impromptu decisions in the field.

These guardrails aren’t intended to micromanage people, but rather, to establish clarity which in turn provides a tremendous opportunity for individuals to operate autonomously within those guardrails.

7.Blur the lines between the field and the office.

Bridging the divide that separates field employees from office employees is key to building a cohesive team. Construction companies must recognize that the magic happens out in the field and there is an obligation to do everything possible to support those field teams and keep them highly engaged.

Leverage technology and face-to-face interactions to help connect everyone

and remind them they’re on the same team and working toward the same goals.

By implementing these strategies, not only will you position your company for future success, but you will also help ensure that the best and brightest minds continue working within the construction industry.

About the Author Wesley J. Palmisano founded Impetus in 2013 with the vision to create a new kind of construction company — one designed to foster the next generation of leaders. Based in New Orleans, the rapidly-scaling boutique construction service provider has continued to expand into new market sectors and geographic regions, including Nashville and Salt Lake City. Wesley also founded The Palmisano Foundation, a 501c3 focused on supporting education initiatives for the world’s next generation of great thinkers and doers.

FEATURE

Make Time to Save Time: Software Training Tips for Construction Businesses

In construction, time is money. Be it on the job site or in the back offices, and whenever there’s a delay, it can affect entire project timelines and create conflicts that cost the company money. This is why software providers catering to the construction industry primarily emphasize the time-saving benefits of their solutions.

The industry has come a long way in embracing new technology to optimize various construction processes and automate many repetitive tasks. However, there’s still a long way to go in ensuring that solutions companies like contractors and material suppliers invest in are maximized and used to their full potential. If staff are not adequately trained and knowledgeable on the software bought to improve their performance, companies will not fully realize the return on their investment.

Construction companies must see the value of setting aside time and resources to solidly familiarize their staff with new software. In this article, we’ll cover some software adoption tips, emphasizing the importance of training.

Software adoption tips for construction companies

Enlist the help of the software provider: Software vendors are more than happy to assist their clients when training staff on using new software. Depending on the type of solution, the buying and selling process for more elaborate systems like ERPs and comprehensive project management systems might involve a proof-of-concept period where the software is rolled out and tested on daily tasks and staff processes. During this period, the provider can pinpoint possible issues and address them while working closely with the team that’ll use the software. For example, a comprehensive trial run for lien management software can allow you to work closely with the provider and identify workflows that address your current issues with the complicated process of notice management.

Beyond this process, there’s usually a dedicated person assigned to a client whom you can contact for any assistance with further training after the initial onboarding with the staff.

Refresher sessions: Requesting refresher training sessions must also be part of your software training arsenal. Don’t hesitate to let the point person know that you intend to make this a regular thing, not only when there are new hires. Ensuring that you’re maximizing the usage of their solution is not only helpful for you as a client, but they have an interest in ensuring that you get the most out of their software, especially in this day and age where most software is sold on a subscription basis.

Identify quick adopters and internal software champions: It’s safe to assume that adoption won’t be even across the staff. There could be some who are more comfortable with technology in general or have used similar or the same software in the past. These people usually are quicker to adopt new software and its application to existing processes. They embrace change readily and see the value of automation and digitizing existing workflows. It’s important to pinpoint these people and empower them to assist their coworkers in the software adoption process. Of course, ensure that this added responsibility doesn’t impede their primary tasks. But, there’s a high likelihood that having their coworkers embrace the software they use faster also makes their jobs easier. Everyone on the team must understand this comprehensive view of tools and how it affects their daily workflow.

Document usage and create a central repository for training resources

It’s essential to address friction or problems as they arise. While you can rely on staff reporting, it’s best to encourage reporting by design by establishing a documentation process, especially in the first few months of using new software. Creating a repository or even a dedicated quick standup meeting where experiences and software usage are discussed can go a long way in arresting issues immediately and avoiding delays in getting the most benefit from new software.

One issue in conjunction with uneven adoption is some resistance to new technology. Especially in construction where, for a long time, staff relied on typewritten

or even handwritten notes and documents, there can be some resistance to digitization in general. It’s important to pinpoint these issues and gently address them by emphasizing how technology doesn’t only make work more accurate and trackable, it also makes daily tasks more straightforward for the staff. Repeat work is avoided, and synchronization between personnel and departments is better ensured.

Create a repository for all softwarerelated content: An easily accessible central repository for all software manuals and other training materials, including staff input, supports your teams’ journey in adopting new software. Having a highly visible location where anyone can pull resources from helps your teams gain more confidence in troubleshooting issues and brings independence to their self-training.

Path to efficient work with digital tools: Being intentional in training your team in using new software is a must for any modern construction business. There is an army of software solutions sold in the market, but if those who will use it lack the full understanding of the solution’s features and use cases applicable to your workflows, usage can fall off, or you could be paying for a solution that’s not properly and fully utilized.

Digitization in construction has been an uphill climb for the industry because of its traditional nature, but returning to the essence of technology–that it must make work easier and not the opposite–must drive your thrust to ensure full adoption of whatever tools you invest in.

About the Author:

Patrick Hogan is the CEO of Handle. com, where they build software that helps contractors and material suppliers with lien management and payment compliance. The biggest names in construction use Handle on a daily basis to save time and money while improving efficiency.

The Jobs Where Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Never Stopped

by Caroline Preston, Hechinger Report

Apprenticeships are spreading as a debt-free path to the middle class. But in these training programs, sexual harassment and discrimination are endemic. Now women are pushing for change.

The job on the light rail platform was to be one of her last as an apprentice sheet metal worker, and Vanessa Carman was relieved. She was one year shy of achieving journeywoman status and the higher pay and better treatment it typically afforded — at least to men, who account for virtually all her coworkers.

Carman, who is a muscular 5’8’’ with raven hair, had endured a litany of injustices since entering construction. On her first job as an apprentice, in 2008, men called her “the pookie princess” after the sealant she used to close ducts that snaked along the ceilings of the tract homes where she worked south of Seattle. Sometimes, her foreman had her stand for hours next to his ladder, handing him screws. On the next job, a 30-story condo tower in nearby Bellevue, her male coworkers sliced off the padlocks and vandalized the site’s women-only port-apotty. Men hit on her, yelled at her, groped her and pushed their groins against her while ascending in aerial platforms known as scissor lifts. She white-knuckled her way through the work, hoping that, as a journeywoman, things would get easier.

Then came the job on the light rail platform at the University of Washington. It was 2012, and construction work had yet to rebound from the recession. Carman had been unemployed for months. The project was to install decorative panels on the new rail platform. The panels, designed in an architect’s shop, featured blue squiggles inspired by the diverse geology of the area. The men were in charge of the installation, though; Carman was assigned the low-skill task of sanding panels that would cover the sides of the escalator.

Vanessa Carman is one of a small number of foremen in the trades who are female. Women are often denied training that helps them advance their careers. Credit: Vanessa Carman

On the job, Carman struck up a friendship with a male coworker. They chatted about the safe topics she stuck to at work: children, cooking, pets. She bought the coworker a birthday present, a gift card to a coffee shop, and gave him the bike carrier her sons’ bicycles had outgrown. Most afternoons when the work day ended, they rode together on the shuttle back from the job site to the parking lot and caught up about their work days. But one afternoon, Carman missed the shuttle, so she walked the mile or so instead, past the tall steel-and-glass buildings on the University of Washington campus. Midway there, she heard a bicycle screech to a stop, and felt someone grab her buttocks from behind. It was the coworker she’d thought of as a friend. He peddled away just as she realized what had happened.

one of the company's owners showed up on the job site, she said, ordering Carman and her colleague to huddle together. “I don’t want to have to fire either of you,” she recalls him saying. “Sort it out.” Carman dropped her head and closed her eyes as they started to fill with tears. “Suddenly you’re threatening me with being fired?” she thought, but she was too intimidated to speak.

The next day, a Friday, much of the crew was home after working a four-day week; the journeyman who’d groped her was the acting foreman. Carman showed up for work in pelting rain. As she waited for the elevator to carry her underground — man lifts, the elevators are called — her coworker approached. “There’s no work for you,” she recalls him saying. “Go home.” It was barely 7 a.m., and rain was seeping into her insulated overalls below her jacket. She drove home and called the company headquarters in another city. The owner apologized, she recalls, and promised to pay her for that day and take action. But on Monday, her coworker was still there.

Vanessa Carman at her home in Renton, Washington. Carman is one of a number of women who are speaking up about abuses facing female apprentices in the construction industry and pushing for change Credit: Katie Cotterill for The Hechinger Report

one year left on her apprenticeship before completing it and journeying out. She felt she had two choices: stay quiet or end her career. (An official with the company, asked to comment on Carman’s experience, said he disagreed with her description of the facts but declined to provide specifics. “We welcome and encourage women to enter the trade, and do everything we can to ensure they are treated equally and with the utmost respect,” he wrote in an email.)

“When you’re an apprentice, you don’t want to rock the boat,” Carman, 43, told me the first time we spoke. “You don’t say things when someone grabs your butt, you don’t say things when someone spits on your tools, you don’t say things.”

Meg Vasey, executive director, Tradeswomen Inc.

The journeymen had told her stories of women who complained about dirty jokes, or who flirted too much — or not enough. She worried what it would mean to be the woman her male coworkers told other females not to become. But she was livid. The next day she told a coworker what had happened. He informed a supervisor. Soon,

He was there the next day, and the next. One afternoon that week, Carman returned from lunch in the job trailer to find her tool bag covered in spit. A day or two later, she found the bag emptied and the tools tossed around the job site. She spoke with a friend in her union, who told her she could file a complaint, but that both she and her male co-worker would be represented by the union and word of what had happened would spread. By this time, she had just

Apprenticeships have been around nearly as long as work itself, but in recent years policy makers on both sides of the aisle have begun to embrace them as an alternative to four-year college. Tom Perez, when he was labor secretary under former President Barack Obama, called them “the other college — without the debt,” and the administration of former President Donald Trump pushed apprenticeships too. Labor force experts who are calling for a massive retraining of workers displaced by the coronavirus also point to apprenticeships as one solution. The programs, which are often run in partnerships between unions and contractors, give workers free classroom training and on-the-job instruction while they work for gradually increasing wages. But apprenticeships in fields that have been typically perceived as women’s work, such as early childhood education, pay very little. It’s only in maledominated fields like construction that apprenticeships have historically offered a true portal to the middle class. And for women, these training programs are often hostile, even dangerous, environments.

Men, who make up more than 97 percent of the employees in construction and nearly all of its leadership, have tended to view females entering the trades as intruders, routinely denying them equal opportunities for training and work. “Every woman has faced discrimination; if she hasn’t yet, she will,” Meg Vasey, a former electrician who now runs Tradeswomen

“I still don’t think the voices that represent women in the blue-collar trades have come.”

Inc., an Oakland, California, nonprofit, told me. Vasey entered the trades in the late 1970s, after Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed workplace sex discrimination and around the time that the Department of Labor put in place regulations banning sex discrimination in apprenticeships and requiring sponsors of those programs to recruit more women.

Today, more than 40 years later, the number of women apprentices remains roughly the same as it was then, 3 percent. Women are essentially being pushed from one of the clearest pathways to the middle class.

“It’s a sad commentary, to be honest,” said Patricia Shiu, who led the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs under Obama. “During my tenure at OFCCP, we were largely unsuccessful in ensuring that more women and people of color had jobs in the construction industry.” She added, “You can prescribe until you are blue in the face,

but unless you have the leadership and the culture and the commitment from the top to really put life into equal opportunity goals, they won’t survive.”

In my interviews with more than 40 tradeswomen, most told me they had been mistreated because of their sex. I heard stories of men grabbing and groping women with impunity, of women being told to go home and work in the kitchen, of being given the most dangerous jobs and the jobs that kept them from learning valuable skills necessary for their careers.

The uniformity of some of the stories of abuse was striking: Women who did speak up said they’d had their tools stolen or destroyed, that they'd been denied dispatches to jobs by their union, or that they’d been blackballed across their trade.

Women told stories of being tied to a chair with shrink wrap and of being left high in the air on scissor lifts. And yet, many of these women loved their jobs — not just the

pensions, health care and pay, which was enough to raise a family and take vacations and retire — but the physical labor and skill involved.

When the #MeToo movement erupted in 2017, toppling prominent men in Hollywood, journalism and academia, tradeswomen wondered if it would prompt changes within their industry. The TIME’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which was started by women in the entertainment business, devoted some of its resources to defending females from harassment in blue-collar workplaces. In California, Vasey used the momentum of #MeToo to push successfully for legislation encouraging contractors and apprenticeship programs to recruit women and establish worksite cultures to protect them. “But I don’t think there’s a voice,” she told me. “I still don’t think the voices that represent women in the blue-collar trades have come.” Many of the younger tradeswomen I spoke with

Vanessa Carman says she was the first to be laid off from a job on the light rail platform. Women are often subjected to “checkerboarding,” a practice of moving women and minorities from job to job, hiring them only to fulfill minimum participation goals that sometimes exist on public projects, but laying them off quickly when the goal is met. Credit: Katie Cotterill for The Hechinger Report

felt the movement had glanced over their industry, despite the brazenness of the abuses. “I really don’t think it’s had an impact,” Carman told me the first time we met. And yet, with few allies outside of the industry, and little attention to their cause, women within construction have started to speak out and fight for change.

Carman grew up in Bellevue, just east of Seattle, the only girl in a family of four children. Her maternal grandfather, who had migrated from Costa Rica on a tuna boat at 16, worked as a fishermen’s engineer on ships that sailed to Alaska and back. Carman’s father followed him into the trades, getting a job as a building operating engineer at the Seattle Center, the city’s downtown entertainment complex. But the women in Carman’s family tended to stay home, and it wasn’t until her 20s that she began to consider a construction career.

Carman and her three siblings were cast in roles only partially of their own making. Joe was the charismatic troublemaker, who briefly dropped out of high school to chase a girl, then ran for class president on a platform of throwing large parties and won. Mike, who was closest in age to Carman, was the peacemaker. Damien was the baby, whom the family had adopted after his biological father abandoned him. Carman was the girl. When she was young, her father insisted she wear dresses, but after school she’d pull on corduroy pants underneath to play outside with her brothers. In high school, she, Joe and Mike begged their parents for a gym

membership, and they spent most of their weekends lifting weights, running on the treadmill and playing pickleball. By her mid-teens, Carman could bench press 175 pounds.

After high school, she found work as a cashier and barista, and later, helping with the books for a wholesale florist. In that job, she spent all day in front of a computer in the basement of a brick warehouse full of flowers she never got to see. One day, her brother Mike, who’d started working in non-union positions in heating and cooling, asked his sister to help him repair the furnace in their uncle’s house in nearby Snohomish. Crouched in the basement, watching her brother bend sheet metal into a new duct for the furnace, Carman knew she’d prefer this physical work to a career behind a desk.

“You can prescribe until you are blue in the face, but unless you have the leadership and the culture and the commitment from the top to really put life into equal opportunity goals, they won’t survive.”

—Patricia Shiu, who led the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance under former President Barack Obama

Carman began applying to jobs in which she could use her hands — dozens of

positions, in plumbing, sheet metal, and one for a dog fence company. But no one called her back. It wasn’t until she changed the name on her resume from “Vanessa” to “Van” that she started receiving calls. Once business owners learned she was female, however, their interest in hiring her evaporated. They didn’t bother to hide their sexism, barking questions about whether she could lift heavy pipes and tolerate the itchiness of insulation. Around that time, Carman applied to a local union, hoping to join an apprenticeship program, but she was told there wasn’t any work for her.

For a time, she picked up non-union work, doing sheet metal in residences. Carman liked the work, helping to fix the gas piping in Seattle mansions, where she glimpsed private bowling alleys, wine cellars and panic rooms. But by this time, she was raising three sons on her own. She knew a union apprenticeship would offer free education and better health insurance. Carman visited the local sheet metal union, where she took a 20-minute math test and had a brief conversation with an apprenticeship coordinator. It was early 2008, and there was a building boom; the union was taking just about everyone, including women. “I don’t think it was necessarily that they wanted me,” Carman told me. “They wanted a human, and I was at their door.” At orientation, she squeezed into a large conference room, in a building in Kirkland, Washington, with 70s-style furniture and dusty cabinets against the walls. She was one of just six or so women in a crowd of about 100.

A few years earlier, Carman had driven to a commercial strip in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard and asked for a tattoo of an octopus on her left arm. She didn’t know exactly why she’d always loved octopuses, but it had something to do with their multiple means of thwarting attack, by escaping through tiny spaces, using their suckers to lift thousands of pounds or inking predators. The tattoo had become something of a totem, as she realized how routinely she, like the octopus, would have to protect herself. On the job, she’d started carrying notebooks to record the names of tools male coworkers asked her to fetch. Now, while waiting for man lifts and scissor lifts, she began to record what her male coworkers said and did to her. There was no one to whom she might report these things, and no one to listen if she did. But writing them down made her feel a little less powerless.

Vanessa Carman and her three sons.

Credit: Norinda Reed

Since entering construction, she had felt like everyone wanted her to quit. One supervisor had her sweep all day and pick up garbage, which kept her from learning the skills she needed to advance her career. Another laid her off the first chance he could. But most of that disrespect felt like the inevitable price of working surrounded by men. The abuse on the light rail platform by the co-worker whom she’d trusted stung more. “There are bullies everywhere,” she said. “But it was the fact that he did that and it lasted so long, and nobody did anything. There were job sites they could have moved him to.” It was always the woman, never the man, who was moved to a different job site or laid off, she observed. “That doesn’t solve anything,” she said.

If she could, Carman would have quit the assignment. But apprentices can’t quit or transfer assignments, lest they risk being kicked out of the program. Plus, she needed the money, which had risen to roughly $30 an hour. By that point, her sons’ father had moved out of their house in Renton, Washington, leaving her to cover the mortgage and raise her three boys. Many mornings, she was up before her alarm, the worries in her head running in loops. She’d drop the boys at her parents’

house before dawn, carrying them inside if they’d fallen back to sleep, even though her oldest, Jonah, was close to 70 pounds. Then she’d go to work, where the man who’d groped her worked near her every day. One day she noticed red bumps spreading across her hands and dotting her face. A doctor she visited blamed them on stress.

her a chance to finish her apprenticeship while avoiding more harassment. Her new supervisor nominated her for training on sheet-metal installation software, putting her on the path to becoming a foreman. It was one of the first times she’d felt encouraged or supported within the industry. The next year, 2013, Carman journeyed out in front of a crowd of 50 or so at the union hall.

Finally, many months later, Carman was called into the job trailer. She tried to hide her relief when a supervisor told her the work was slowing down and she’d be the first one laid off. Driving home that day, she felt her life was rearranging itself again in the right ways, despite the injustice of her layoff. She called a sheet metal company she’d worked for previously and was given a position in the shop. Women in sheet metal often end up in the shop, sometimes out of a misguided paternalism, since there’s less exposure to workers from different trades and fewer opportunities for harassment, Carman said. She didn’t want to spend her career in the shop, but it gave

After that, the work got a little easier but the culture didn’t. A month or so later, Carman was standing twenty feet in the air on a scissor lift, repairing a duct in a Microsoft building near Seattle, when she shouted to the journeymen below to crank her up a few inches. The men were stationed there for that purpose, but they refused and insisted she descend from the lift and do it herself. A few days later, she was working inside a duct near the ceiling when the same men moved the scissor lift, stranding her in the duct. She sent frantic text messages on her cellphone to coworkers, asking for help. “I thought I was being left to fall to my death,” she told me later.

Related: Are apprenticeships the new on-ramp to good jobs?

“There are new generations coming in.”

— Vanessa Carman, tradeswoman

Kimberly Brinkman, right, says her abuse on job sites began during her first year as an apprentice, in 1999.

It was around this time that the possibility of doing something to help other women began to absorb her thoughts. More women were joining the sheet metal apprenticeship, but few finished. Without more women in the trades, she saw little possibility of the industry becoming a safe place for females to work.

Carman began to search for allies among the handful of female sheet metal workers she’d gotten to know. There was Tausha Sheff, an apprentice who sat beside Carman in a class on drafting software at the union hall. There was Liz Fong, a journeywoman she’d worked with during her last job as an apprentice, and Kara Cowles, another apprentice on that job. Before one union meeting in 2015, the four women went for drinks at a nearby sports bar and discussed what it might take for women to feel more welcome. Carman felt something as simple as giving women an opportunity to feel supported and heard might help.

From an office in the union building, she began calling every female apprentice and asking about their struggles. The women started talking. In nearly every conversation, sexual harassment topped the list of problems. Being denied training was another, along with trouble finding childcare. A month or two later, Carman invited all the women to a meeting at a public library in Tukwila, Washington, a Seattle suburb. Some of the women worried they would provoke a backlash from male coworkers if they spoke out. But Carman had found an ally in the union’s new business manager, a man named Tim Carter, who encouraged her to move forward with a formal mentorship program and a women’s committee that could come up with proposals for recruiting and retaining more women in their trade.

The timing was right: The economy was booming and the construction industry was desperate for workers. The international ironworkers union had recently won praise for becoming the first building trade to offer paid maternity leave, up to eight months.

Joseph Sellers, Jr., the international sheet metal union’s general president, began to hear from Carman and other women at conferences. “I was shocked, and maybe it’s naïve, when I heard and listened to the stories of my sisters,” Sellers told me in an interview. “I recently had a sheet metal sister tell me she was pinned down on the job. That’s not 25 years ago, that’s not 10 years ago, that’s right now, that’s happening in the moment on jobs across North America.”

I first met Carman in October 2019 at Trades Women Build Nations, an annual conference for women in the trades. The event gathered 2,800 people in a Hilton hotel in downtown Minneapolis, for sessions on #MeToo along with ones on pensions and caring for hair and skin under a hard hat. When we met, Carman was feeling encouraged. Sellers was one of two union presidents to speak at the conference.

That August, union leadership had voted to update the organization’s constitution to add gender neutral language, define harassment and discrimination, and make them chargeable offenses. The union also committed to double the number of women apprentices and add an amendment stating that no one would be denied union membership based on race and sex, among other categories. Sellers, a secondgeneration sheet metal worker who wears his white hair clipped short, outlined these changes to the crowd after being escorted to the stage by a gauntlet of female sheet metal workers. “Our history, our culture, has not been good,” he said, “but we are going to change that culture one local at a time.” Sellers told me that he credited the women’s committee with forcing him to confront the harassment and sexism within the trades. “The women’s committee has really changed me,” he said.

retaliation.

“Our unions, they are broken. Women and people of color, we don’t get treated as a brother in the brotherhood,” said Brinkman as we sat in the hotel lobby. “We are the distant cousin and nobody wants to talk about us.”

Brinkman’s mistreatment started as a first-year apprentice, in 1999. On one of her first jobs, her foreman berated her so routinely over the workplace radios, shouting insults and demanding that she run from one side of the job site to another to bring him tools, that a worker in another trade complained. Angry, the foreman lodged a false sexual harassment against Brinkman’s defender and called her into a meeting with company investigators to make it appear that she was the man’s accuser, she said. Brinkman denies she made the accusation, but she nevertheless earned a reputation as someone who complained of harassment. Her car was keyed. On another job as an apprentice, a foreman beckoned her toward him, then said, “I just wanted to see if I could make you come with one finger,” as the crew of roughly 20 men erupted in laughter.

Over the years, little changed. Brinkman said she was consistently subjected to “checkerboarding,” a practice of moving women and minorities from job to job, hiring them only to fulfill minimum participation goals that sometimes exist on public projects, but laying them off quickly when the goal is met. The union has only three journeywomen among 380 active members. But Brinkman said that in roughly two decades in the trades she has never worked a job start to finish. Sometimes she went years without work, collecting unemployment, then turning to food stamps and pulling from her retirement to get by. Brad Hopping, the union’s training director, declined to comment.

That led to changes beyond their local. Carman was invited to attend sessions at national conferences and to speak to union business managers and agents about how their practices discouraged women from continuing in the trades. She and a handful of other women across the country helped to form a women’s committee to advise the international sheet metal union.

Carman’s optimism, and her progress with her union, was relatively rare. At the tradeswomen conference, despair pervaded many of the conversations I had with the women I met. One was Kimberly Brinkman, a sprinkler fitter in her 50s who lives near Minneapolis. In late 2019, Brinkman sued her union and two contractors after what she describes as years of harassment, discrimination and

“I became a dead person walking,” said Brinkman. Her union, like others, is now — on its face — more open to women, something she and others told me was largely the result of the economic gains of the past decade fueling a demand for workers. “We are taking a lot of women in our apprenticeships, which is fabulous,” she said. “But if the culture doesn’t change, we have really just widened that revolving door.” With workers now facing permanent job losses because of the coronavirus, Brinkman and others worried that whatever progress women have made will be undermined.

“We can’t save all the trades. There are a whole bunch of people who won’t work with you and you can’t do anything about them.”

—Vanessa Carman, tradeswoman

I met women who’d spoken out against their local boilermakers’ union in northern California. In 2016, a female apprentice alleged in a lawsuit that the union had failed to dispatch her to jobs because of her sex and retaliated against her after she complained by falsely accusing her of making inappropriate sexual comments. Seven women came forward to provide supporting testimony. Genevieve Leja was one. She told me that the union apprenticeship instructor refused to look at her or train her on skills such as welding, and that male coworkers verbally harassed her on job sites. Men drew labia with chalk on metal beams on a job site and asked Leja for her opinion on the drawings’ accuracy. Another apprentice, Sheila Walton, told me she was groped while sanding a vessel. After she complained, the union did nothing, she said. Edith Pastor, one of only a handful of women in the union to make it to journey status, told me that she was refused training and had to learn the trade on her own. “Men won’t help you because they say you are taking a job from another man,” she said. Tajuana McNear told me that after she missed months of work when her son was sick with cancer, she was told she had to restart the apprenticeship if she wanted to continue. The case was settled before trial in 2019. The union declined to talk about the lawsuit but said it was making an effort to recruit female apprentices.

Public Integrity investigation. Under federal law, apprenticeship programs are required only to make “good faith efforts” to recruit women and people of color, a vague principle that is difficult to enforce. And because of the transient nature of the construction workforce, it’s difficult to prove that any one employer or union is responsible for discrimination.

Lisa Stratton, who is Brinkman’s lawyer, was particularly forthright. “It’s like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act never got to the construction industry,” she said. “This is the kind of systemic practice that class action lawyers should be all over, and the reason they are not is they’ve [the unions and contractors] been so successful at discriminating and keeping the numbers of women so low in every single union, local, there aren’t enough [for a class action].” Stratton has won cases involving undocumented workers, and women in paper mills and processing plants. But when it comes to construction, she said, “the law is not set up well to deal with these kinds of situations.” When we met at the tradeswomen conference in Minneapolis, Stratton told me that working on Brinkman’s case had darkened her view of the legal system as a remedy. “I always felt like the law had power to change things,” she said. “And with this one, I just feel so powerless.” In July, a judge dismissed Brinkman’s complaints against the union, but the discrimination lawsuits against both contractors are ongoing.

equipped with tampon dispensers. Getting a period unexpectedly at work often means having to go home without pay. Carman had come up with an idea: She would give the toolbox to a worker attending the meeting to hang in a port-a-potty at one of her company’s field sites. Eventually, she imagined assembling more of these toolboxes and distributing them to lots of women, but this was a start.

Carman had taken a seat at the head of the table, which was slowly being taken over by beers and spicy wings and hummus as more women arrived. Antlers hung from the walls and and kegs ringed the room. The women had taken different paths into construction. Some, like Carman, had fathers and brothers in the trades. Others had earned college degrees before growing dissatisfied in their careers or discouraged by the low pay. One young woman had heard about construction apprenticeships while incarcerated in the juvenile justice system. But nearly all of them had had moments in which they questioned whether they belonged in the industry.

The unabashed hostility to women felt, to me, different from the predations experienced by white-collar workers, which tend to be better concealed. In the trades, women also have few options for recourse. Unions represent all their members and may be reluctant to take a stand against any one party. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency tasked under Title VII with investigating claims of workplace sex discrimination and granting workers the right to sue, is notoriously understaffed and provides remediation in just 18 percent of cases, according to a 2019 Center for

One drizzly afternoon last year, Carman arrived at a dive bar in Seattle for the monthly meeting of the women’s committee, which she has been running since 2016. She was carrying a small black toolbox that she’d filled with tampons and pads. “Did you hear about this?” Carman asked the two sheet metal workers who’d arrived before her, Tammy Meyen and Jamie Kunnap. “Tampon-gate?” said Meyen. A female apprentice had absentmindedly placed a box of tampons on a table at a job site, Carman explained. “The men lost their minds,” she said. She’d been barraged by calls, texts and emails from male coworkers who were offended by the sight of the tampons.

The men wanted Carman to take the matter up with the apprentice, as if this were a problem that needed fixing. The women saw the problem at hand very differently: Job sites are often in remote locations, far from drug stores and 7-Elevens, and port-a-potties hardly come

“It’s like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act never got to the construction industry. This is the kind of systemic practice that class action lawyers should be all over, and the reason they are not is they’ve [the unions and contractors] been so successful at discriminating and keeping the numbers of women so low in every single union, local, there aren’t enough [for a class action].”

—Lisa Stratton, lawyer

Carman rose to speak. She thanked everyone for their contributions of the past year: the career fairs they’d appeared at, the mentors they’d trained. “We’re at about 10 percent women apprentices,” Carman reported. That number was one of the highest for sheet metal locals — the national average was 3 percent. That success had prompted researchers from the University of Washington to reach out to Carman; they planned to help half of the locals nationwide to adopt the program, then study its impact on the recruitment, retention and mental health of female apprentices.

“Our unions, they are broken. Women and people of color, we don’t get treated as a brother in the brotherhood. We are the distant cousin and nobody wants to talk about us.”

—Kimberly Brinkman, tradeswoman

One of Carman’s goals for the year was to get more women in union leadership. There were elections coming up, she said, for positions like secretary, trustee and treasurer. A few years ago, Carman was appointed to serve on the apprenticeship program board. Her photograph, with her hair curled and lips polished with berry-red lipstick, hung by the entrance of the union hall and apprenticeship training facility, the big concrete building north of Seattle. “Everyone who is able should run,” she said. “We have to get in there.”

Carman spoke about the union’s changes to its constitution designed to improve conditions for women, which were only just being unveiled publicly that month. She mentioned that another journeywoman, Emily Wigre, had designed stickers women could distribute to male allies, the men

on job sites who trained females and protected them from harassment. This way apprentices would know whom to trust just by looking at men’s hard hats.

Related: Where are all the women apprentices?

S.J. Alexander entered the building trades after getting bachelor’s and master’s degrees and working in tech. Apprenticeships in the trades draw a mix of people, including those who come straight from high school and those who already have some postsecondary education. Credit: S.J. Alexander

Carman’s work on behalf of other women had turned into a second full-time job. The year before, she’d pushed the local to better accommodate apprentices who

are pregnant. Two female apprentices had been rotated to new job sites while they were visibly pregnant, putting them at high risk of being laid off. Now, that practice wasn’t allowed. Carman also worked to support the increasing number of moms in their membership. One of the apprentices, Arielle Mayer, had lost her baby when he was 8 months old, so Carman had organized a memorial at the union hall and set up a GoFundMe account to help pay for it. “If it weren’t for her doing all that, this experience would be different. I probably would still be in it but it would have been a lot harder,” Mayer recalled one afternoon last year as her then-3-year-old daughter stretched across her legs.

Another apprentice, S.J. Alexander, who came to the union from the tech industry, turned to Carman for help when a foreman

Kimberly Brinkman (third from right) rallies with other Minnesota tradeswomen. Brinkman said that in roughly two decades in the trades she has never worked a job start to finish. Credit: Kimberly Brinkman

bullied her. “One of the first things he said to me was, ‘Are you going to quit sheet metal when you get pregnant?’” recalled Alexander, who is 43 with 15- and 20-year-old daughters. He warned other apprentices not to talk to her. Whenever she asked him questions about her work duties, he would stand within an inch of her, refuse to answer, and yell nonsense at her until she walked away.

Alexander stopped interacting with him, but that meant there was no way to learn about her job duties. “It’s not like my old day job where you just send passiveaggressive IMs,” she said. “It was just an impossible situation.” She had nightmares about the foreman standing over her bed, yelling at her, and woke herself and her daughter up with her screams. Carman made some calls. A day or so later, Alexander was standing in the yard at her job site, painting a fence, when the union business agent called to tell her she’d be sent to another company. Though it meant Alexander would have to spend a few extra months as an apprentice before journeying out, she felt relieved. “Vanessa did this,” she recalls thinking to herself.

A women’s committee Vanessa Carman established at her local union has had some success recruiting and retaining females, prompting attention from University of Washington researchers and the international sheet metal union leadership. Credit: Katie Cotterill for The Hechinger Report

Carman still lives in the house she bought in 2007, in a quiet, middle-class suburb south of Seattle. I drove there one Sunday afternoon. There was a basketball hoop on the street out front, and football and soccer balls lying on a patch of grass nearby. The family’s dog, Chepe, a spaniel, stood on his hind legs by the large front window, barking. In a back room, Carman’s younger boys, Gabriel and Elijah, were learning to make balloon animals. A Rosie the Riveter doll hung from a picture frame under the television; there was an octopus print on one wall and an octopus pillow on a loveseat.

As we talked, Carman’s family members kept dropping by. First her parents and her brother Damien, then Mike and his son. They were bringing cash to repay her for

Cirque du Soleil tickets she’d purchased to celebrate their grandmother’s 100th birthday the next week. As a foreman, Carman earns $63 an hour, more than any of her brothers. Her family had always been close, but in recent years she’d become its center.

Carman’s parents told me they were proud of the time she dedicated to other tradeswomen, but that sometimes they wished she’d take on less. “She has so many irons in the fire,” her father, Stan, said. “I get worried, is she eating right, is she sleeping enough, is she taking her vitamins. It’s real noble and I admire the heck out of her but I just get concerned. She has the boys and their sports and the realities of her job and helping out people in need. But you have to think about yourself too.” Carman, meanwhile, said it had taken her years before she’d found her voice and she didn’t feel she could take a pause.

A few months earlier, in fall 2019, Carman had been offered a job as a detailer. The position, creating computerized drawings of sheet metal for installation, was coveted and recession-resistant. It would also spare her back, which had started to bother her. But for the first time in 15 years she’d be working behind a desk.

That desk is behind a gray divider with her nametag in white letters, up a flight of stairs from the shop of the sheet metal company where she’d finished her apprenticeship. One weekday we drove to the building in spitting rain. Carman spent the day sitting behind two computer monitors, fitting together a jigsaw puzzle of brightly colored shapes using the drafting software AutoCAD. Occasionally she’d ask the guy sitting next to her for help, then complain to me that she had to ask.

“Remember how I told you I got into construction because I hated office work?” she said at the end of the work day, as we lingered by her minivan before she drove to pick up Elijah and Gabriel from their grandparents’ house. “Well here I am at an office job. It’s a little bit like being an apprentice all over again.”

At a certain point, though, her work on behalf of other women had almost begun to feel like her real career. And yet, when it came down to it, despite the progress

she’d seen, she wasn’t sure how optimistic to be. “We can’t save all the trades,” she said. “There are a whole bunch of people who won’t work with you and you can’t do anything about them.”

But even when she was feeling discouraged, she could still see the industry changing, if only one person at a time. “The culture, it’s not changed of course, but they see the support our leadership gives us, and they are kind of scared to do the actions they might have done before,” she said of male coworkers. Ultimately, it might come down to a matter of waiting out the misogynists. Her sons and their friends didn’t consider gender roles or think twice about their mother working in construction. “There are new generations coming in,” she said.

This story about apprenticeships was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter. The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn't mean it's free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

About the Author

Caroline Preston is a senior editor who edits and writes stories on K-12 and higher education. She previously worked as a features editor with Al Jazeera America's digital team and a senior reporter with The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Her writing has appeared in publications including NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Wired.com, while stories she has edited or written have been honored by the Data Journalism Awards, the Education Writers Association, the Online News Association and others. Preston holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Brown University and a master’s degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. This article was originally published in January 2021.

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