Footprints In Epoxy.

I knew better. It wasn’t the first time this had happened.

We were finishing some touch-up epoxy spots at a client’s facility and our work was looking great. We had gotten on site, did our work, and cleaned up. After just a few hours of hard, focused work, we were ready to finish up and leave. Our epoxy coatings had been free and clear of people during the day because our presence and the variety of tools and equipment around us had kept people at bay. Now, we were done and heading out. The epoxy would stay ‘wet or tacky’ during the curing process the next couple of hours and, by the following day, the facility would be back in full production.

We were loaded up and ready to go. The site was clean and we were ready to head. There was just one more step before we could leave — to hang caution tape around our space. It’s standard practice, just as important as the work itself. Through countless times of people walking on a curing floor, we know that it’s our duty and part of our mission to deliver the BEST WORK, and we have a duty to protect it and keep it in this state. Either in a moment of weakness or laziness, while closing out with our contact, I asked, “Do you want us to put caution tape up?” In which he replied, “No, I think we will be good, there are only a few of us here.”

It wasn’t his fault though — It was mine. 100% me.

I shouldn’t have even asked. It was not his job to make that decision. To do my job to the best of my ability, I should have put up the tape. It would have taken only 2 minutes. Regardless of time though, I should have done what it takes to do the BEST WORK. Whether it takes two minutes or two hours, I need to do it.

When I received the call from the client saying that we failed to mark off the area and someone had walked through our epoxy, there was no way I was going to blame the guy who said not to do it. It wasn’t his call. It was mine. I had to take ownership of my own mistake. Now, we have to go back and do another touchup. It was a waste of product and resources; it was not good FLOW. As a business, we want our clients to be able to expect the BEST WORK; error-free, on-time, every time. This time, I failed.

I learned from this mistake. I will share this with my team and, in the future, we will do better work. We take this extra step and both the clients as well as our business are better for it.