{"id":100642,"date":"2020-06-05T07:59:28","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T11:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/?p=100642"},"modified":"2024-03-30T03:51:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-30T07:51:50","slug":"better-the-devil-you-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Better the Devil You Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Executive summary.\u00a0<\/strong>Many folks make changes based on temporary pains. More often than not,\u00a0better the devil you know that the devil you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border-radius: 12px;\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/6webLoIAdnTEm3JEpRzKK9?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The problem.<\/strong>\u00a0It happens with a girlfriend, a new service provider, or a material supplier. You\u2019ve been in this\u00a0relationship\u00a0for some time and the performance has been less than desired, recently. So, your decision is to dump them. Does this help you and your company? Does starting over in a new relationship make things better?<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s going right.<\/strong>\u00a0Perhaps the salesman doesn\u2019t get back to you in a timely fashion and that irks you \u2013 it could be a thousand things. But, perhaps you should start by looking at what\u2019s going right, and how this is affecting the overall team.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-101737 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/demon-161049_1280-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Maybe from your vendor the product is good, the billings are accurate, the reputation is solid, the location is optimal, or even the yearly fishing trip is fun. Who knows, but I\u2019ve got one guarantee for you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The next guy is probably not that different.<\/strong>\u00a0These minor, or maybe even major, pains exist in most companies. At least if you know where the weaknesses are in your current vendor you plan around them. You can find a new salesman or maybe go out of your way to call a day or two earlier knowing that this guy is not going to call you back right away.<\/p>\n<p><strong>My story.\u00a0<\/strong>Earlier in my career as a project engineer, I spent hours at the end of many days sorting through invoices from our pipe supplier. Quantities were wrong, unit prices were incorrect, and then on top of it all the billings were untimely. Then I\u2019d get yelled at by the Accounts Payable department for not approving invoices quick enough. But they were one of the biggest suppliers in town, had everything we needed, and they would deliver materials to us at 2:00 am if we needed it.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>I was working for a new employer at the time and went to the owner of the construction company and complained of these awful billings from the supplier. The owner, what did he say? Basically, he said, \u201cget over it\u201d. It was a case of \u201cScott, they\u2019re all this way. The next guy is no better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When I became a company owner, my position was the same. You learn to pick your battles and learning to lower your expectations is just a fact of life. Try it, your business life and your personal life will get much better!<\/p>\n<p>Work safe!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-button-center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020.06.05-Better-the-devil-you-know.pdf\" class=\"su-button su-button-style-flat\" style=\"color:#FFFFFF;background-color:#293a57;border-color:#212f46;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color:#FFFFFF;padding:0px 30px;font-size:22px;line-height:44px;border-color:#6a768a;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;text-shadow:none;-moz-text-shadow:none;-webkit-text-shadow:none\"> Download The PDF<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Executive summary.\u00a0Many folks make changes based on temporary pains. More often than not,\u00a0better the devil you know that the devil you don\u2019t. The problem.\u00a0It happens with a girlfriend, a new service provider, or a material supplier. You\u2019ve been in this\u00a0relationship\u00a0for some time and the performance has been less than desired, recently. So, your decision is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":104646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,596,187,38],"tags":[619,620,621,622,623,624,625,626],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Better the Devil You Know<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many folks make changes based on temporary pains. More often than not,\u00a0better the devil you know that the devil you don\u2019t.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Better the Devil You Know\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many folks make changes based on temporary pains. More often than not,\u00a0better the devil you know that the devil you don\u2019t.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SJ Construction Consulting, LLC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-05T11:59:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-30T07:51:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/engineer-4925140_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"854\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gaurav Mehrotra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gaurav Mehrotra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/\",\"name\":\"Better the Devil You Know\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/engineer-4925140_1280.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-05T11:59:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-30T07:51:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4ed4100aeab94898a812ce73ed139b13\"},\"description\":\"Many folks make changes based on temporary pains. More often than not,\u00a0better the devil you know that the devil you don\u2019t.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/engineer-4925140_1280.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/engineer-4925140_1280.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":854},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Better the Devil You Know\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/\",\"name\":\"SJ Construction Consulting, LLC\",\"description\":\"Helping the Construction Industry!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4ed4100aeab94898a812ce73ed139b13\",\"name\":\"Gaurav Mehrotra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bfb4580db7a75744d486b06a2bfce6aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bfb4580db7a75744d486b06a2bfce6aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gaurav Mehrotra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/author\/gmehrotra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Better the Devil You Know","description":"Many folks make changes based on temporary pains. More often than not,\u00a0better the devil you know that the devil you don\u2019t.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Better the Devil You Know","og_description":"Many folks make changes based on temporary pains. More often than not,\u00a0better the devil you know that the devil you don\u2019t.","og_url":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/","og_site_name":"SJ Construction Consulting, LLC","article_published_time":"2020-06-05T11:59:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-03-30T07:51:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":854,"url":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/engineer-4925140_1280.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gaurav Mehrotra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gaurav Mehrotra","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/","url":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/","name":"Better the Devil You Know","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/engineer-4925140_1280.jpg","datePublished":"2020-06-05T11:59:28+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-30T07:51:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4ed4100aeab94898a812ce73ed139b13"},"description":"Many folks make changes based on temporary pains. More often than not,\u00a0better the devil you know that the devil you don\u2019t.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/engineer-4925140_1280.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/engineer-4925140_1280.jpg","width":1280,"height":854},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/better-the-devil-you-know\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Better the Devil You Know"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/","name":"SJ Construction Consulting, LLC","description":"Helping the Construction Industry!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4ed4100aeab94898a812ce73ed139b13","name":"Gaurav Mehrotra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bfb4580db7a75744d486b06a2bfce6aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bfb4580db7a75744d486b06a2bfce6aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gaurav Mehrotra"},"url":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/author\/gmehrotra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100642"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100642"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101739,"href":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100642\/revisions\/101739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}