ICC Chapter eNews
Taking Care of Your Mother
By Tracy "Skippy" Halladay, Building Official for City of Roy, Utah
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| Tracy Halladay |
Who spent all their time when you were a young guy or gal taking care of your every need? Who fed and watered you? Who told you when it was time to go to school, do your homework and play with friends? Who was there to scold you when you did something wrong? It was your dear old mother! That poor lady wasted away her youth trying to keep up with you. Her wrinkles have your name all over them.
Now that you are long gone from the security of your dear old mother, who is it that tends to you now? If you're lucky, your spouse will do a bit of that for you, but that will only go so far. At some point, your spouse will tell you to start taking care of yourself and mumble some barely audible comment about how they’re not your mother!
The person who spends most of their time tending to your needs, apart from your spouse, might just be your permit technician. Did you ever stop to think how much they do on a daily basis to keep you informed, on time, and psychologically stable by listening to your useless rants?
I know that without my permit tech, Tammy, I wouldn't have a clue whether I was coming or going. Now, if I were an egomaniac I might say that she is too controlling. If I were manly I'd make some comment about giving me some space, or allowing me to breathe or to stop cramping my style! As manly as that may sound, it would also be a lie. The truth of the matter is that without her taking my calls, scheduling inspections, sending in those stupid permit reports to the state, and 20 other things she does on a daily basis for me, I'd be one lost soul.
Take a moment and think about all the things your permit technician does for you. Done already? Maybe you should take another moment then, because you're not grasping what I'm saying. Your permit tech is a very important person! The last thing you want to do is take him or her for granted!
We had some excellent training in the last couple of weeks for our permit techs. John Saunders and Winston Sales did a bang-up job teaching this class. I've received many good comments from several people about them. Unfortunately, this article isn't about how great a class they taught. It's actually about comments that John and Winston both made to me on different occasions. The comments were:
- As a chapter we should be doing everything we can to help our permit techs get certified and bring their organization to a new level.
- We should be supplying them with more training and helping them to get certified in their respective fields. This can do several things to benefit us as inspectors. The most obvious is to show our appreciation for what they do by allowing them to break away from the daily grind once in a while to attend a class and have a plethora of goodies to eat!
- Another obvious benefit would be the knowledge of the building code they would acquire to help people at the counter with. Please realize that every question a permit tech can answer is a question that you don't need to call someone back on! This helps you as well as the person asking the question in the first place.
I think John and Winston have it right. Not only should we be ever mindful of all the great things our permit technicians do for us, but we should also be helping them further their careers by involving them in education so they can get certified. Let's bring their field up a notch just like we did when certifications were required for inspectors. Many inspectors salaries went up as a result of the licensing and certifications that we have.
After all your mother and permit technician have done for you, don't you now feel enough guilt to go kiss your mother and praise the name of your permit technician?
This article is reprinted by permission of the author.
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