Sri Lanka It's Happening

May 26, 2008

We originally planned to move into the new house by January 1 of this year. Nearly six months have since passed and we still haven't moved. Why? work has been progressing at a snails space. It isn't due to a lack of funding. It hasn't been easy but I have settled all bills promptly and even given advance payments when it was asked for.

So what is the reason for the delay? A large part of it was due to a lack of co-ordination. But now we are at a stage where a high level of coordination really isnt' needed but work is still crawling. It's probably lack of motivation or downright laziness.

The unskilled workers don't make a lot of money but that's not something with in my control. I pay the construction firm on a per item basis. They pay the contractors on a similar basis it's upto them how they pay their people.

Take the case of the guy who polishes the wood work. He very well paid. Rate is very high. He does the wok that requires the most skill himself and delegates the other work to the juniors. So you would think he is motivated to work hard and finish the job as quickly as possible yet he spends a lot of his time just idling.

Every single worker who has worked on our site appear keen to take an afternoon siesta. I don't really mind that. The kind of work that they do calls for a heavy lunch and a lot of rice naturally induces drowsiness and it's nearly impossible to work in the midday heat. So I have no objection to an afternoon siesta but what do you do when the siesta extends till tea time?

That's right. Most people start their lunch at about 12:30 and drag it on till well past one o-clock. Then it's siesta time and they sleep till nearly 3:00 in the afternoon. That's their usual tea time and they usually finish work by about 5:30 so between 12:30 to 5:30 you can barely get 1.5 hours of productivity out of them.

I don't pay any of them direct so there is not much I can do. It's the same in every construction site. Doesn't it ever occur to these people that if you work hard you can make more moneyh?

Posted by raditha at May 26, 2008 1:13 PM