Motivation
Unfortunately I don’t have a picture or video to depict this but it’s great nonetheless. Lately on the land I’ve been working with two groups of people; a company building my neighbors cement driveway (thankfully they are done) and a couple of young guys working with me on our foundation work. I’m sorry to say this, and it’s not necessarily 100% across the board, but in general, workers in Mongolian are not very motivated. That’s a nice way of saying it and it’s REALLY frustrating when you’re trying to get work done. Any time the Russian directors of the road company are gone their workers are just laying in the grass, waiting until that fateful moment when they see the dust cloud in the distance that means the director is on his way and the need to get up and start working again. While slightly better, but quite similar, my workers work hard when I am with them but the moment I turn my back or leave to do something else start working like they’re swimming in molasses. A wheelbarrow of gravel that takes 1 min to fill suddenly takes 5 and after three shovel-fulls of dirt are so tired they must take a water break. Not much can break this… but I’ve witnessed things that can.
1) An angry Russian. The road workers had to put in a drainage ditch / pipe for my driveway off of my neighbors driveway the other day. They were NOT happy about this. They wanted to do the neighbors road and that’s it. Minimum possible. When their director saw the obvious that me driving on and off the neighbors driveway into the ditch and up to my land would end up cracking the edge of the road they decided to put in a pipe / cement cap. The director left this up to the road workers who first laid in the grass and told me to dig the pipe ditch and put it in since it was for my driveway. After a good tongue lashing (I think they were surprised I could argue so well in Mongolian) they got up and dug it themselves (since they were being paid after all). In their hurry to get back to their soft grass bed they dug the trench too shallow, hefted the several hundred pound pipe into it and covered it with a 1-2in layer of dirt. Part of the pipe was even showing up through the dirt. Finally! Back to the soft grass. A couple hours later I hear angry yelling in Russian and see the director has returned and discovered their shoddy work. They have to dig everything back out again in double time under the watchful eye of their director and then get read to cement over the pipe. By the time the cement comes the director has left again… oh and you should see these cement trucks. It’s not a cement mixer, just a dump truck filled with the ingredients for cement which is then poured onto the ground and “mixed” by hand. Confused on where to dump the cement because the truck could not turn to back into where the pipe was they simply dumped an entire truck of unmixed cement onto my neighbors brand new driveway, loosing the majority of their water and wet cement down the drainage ditch they had just dug. They capped the pipe with the rest and of course there is still some beautiful iron pipe peeking up through the top of the cap since they didn’t dig their trench deep enough. Lesson of the story. Even if you hire one of the best construction company in Mongolia you cannot leave the workers unattended. Just cause they work for a good company doesn’t mean they can be trusted to do quality work. This story doesn’t include the additional facts about the neighbors driveway that was poured without rebar in the cement and is sitting on about 1 inch of gravel. Hope it has a warranty…
2) A young Mongolian girl. I hired some great young guys to help with the house. They’re all in their young twenties, are respectful, need work, and work hard… when I’m there… I noticed something amazing yesterday when they were stuck in one of their molasses traps shoveling gravel. Seemed like an eternity between each shovel-full. Then, out of nowhere, the neighbors daughter of similar age took her dog on a walk down the driveway. Suddenly backs straightened, eyes grew wide and gravel flew like I’ve never seen before. I think they filled 4 wheelbarrows in under a minute. The guy pushing the wheelbarrow was running. I am seriously considering hiring this girl to sit next to the building site and read her book or something, I’m pretty sure I’ll make back double or triple what I pay her through faster working time. ;-)
3) Prizes. When my dad was here the workers were stuck in a big molasses trap. He suggested I tell them I’ll pay them an additional half hour of salary (about $0.37) if they finished a certain job on time. Again, dirt flew like never before…
Lessons learned. It’s hard to find motivated workers here, it’s hard to be a building foreman cause I need to be coming and going from the building site all the time but the moment I leave everything grinds to a standstill. At this point there’s really just not much of a solution other than being present or giving little prizes to motivate them.
![U N B E L I E V A B L E . Someone make this a t-shirt now.
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