By Derek G. Ross | Member
This column features ethics scenarios and issues that may affect technical communicators in the many aspects of their jobs. If you have a possible solution to a scenario, your own case, or feedback in general, please contact Derek G. Ross at dgr0003@auburn.edu.
Jackson Laramie works for Pineway Construction, a small general contracting firm in Birmingham, AL. He manages their scheduling; writes estimates, bids, and proposals; and, when needed, helps out in the field as an extra pair of arms. He has a Master’s certificate from a small technical writing program and is happy to put his skills to use in a practical way. Even though recent economic difficulties have cut into Pineway’s working capital, they still manage to maintain a profitable business, largely due to their ability to get work done in a timely fashion with a minimum of additional contract labor, smart purchasing, and pleased clients that refer more work to them from time to time.
The owner of Pineway Construction, Kent Adams, is an entrepreneurial contractor who maintains his company largely through his ability to get work done on time and under budget. He leaves most of the purchasing to Jackson and spends his time in the field working alongside two of Pineway’s other full-timers, Carlos Cantu and Harold “Hank” Bartleby. The fourth full-time employee, Jenna Vargos, is Pineway’s in-house designer and architect.
Pineway Construction has recently taken on contracts for a series of home modification projects involving putting up new drywall in several existing structures. In addition, Pineway has been contracted to build eight houses as part of the new Waterfall Trails subdivision on the outskirts of Birmingham.
Most of the purchasing for these projects is complete—one of the reasons Pineway has historically been so successful is they do their purchasing in bulk, when they can find items discounted and on sale. The last major item needed for the series of projects is drywall, and Kent found the mother of a deal. A warehouse on the outskirts of town was abandoned by the previous owners and its contents sold at auction. Although he usually leaves the purchasing to Jackson, Kent happened to be in the area, saw a deal, and took it—Kent purchased enough pallets of drywall to keep Pineway building for the next year. The purchase cost him most of the company’s remaining working capital, but it was worth it: the projects such a purchase enabled would pay off in spades.
Kent paid to have the drywall delivered to his own storage space and went back to work. Days later, Jackson went over to Pineway’s warehouse to inventory their wiring materials. He wanted to make sure everything was in order before they started their series of home modification projects—the deadlines were tight and there would be no time for looking for good deals once construction was under way. As he opened the door, the faint odor of rotten eggs wafted out. He saw the piles of newly delivered drywall and felt an immediate sense of disbelief—this was the good deal Kent had told him about? Jackson had seen local news reports about recent construction problems and a quick look at one of the top sheets confirmed his suspicions: Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin—he remembered the name from reading an article on www.todaysgreenconstruction.com. Kent had bought a warehouse full of Chinese Drywall. Jackson decided to look up information on the drywall problem online, but he already knew they were in trouble.
Chinese Drywall
From the Birmingham Business Journal he found that drywall imported into the United States from China from 2005–2008 as a result of housing booms caused by natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina is causing problems (Cooper, 2009). A 2009 article from USA Today informed him that the drywall emits gasses which corrode home electronics, such as air conditioning and refrigerator coils, computers, wiring, and copper tubing, and emits the odor of rotten eggs (Schmitt, 2009). From CNN he learned that these effects are the result of the emission of “extraordinarily high” levels of hydrogen sulfide, and, in addition to damage to sensitive electronics and home infrastructures such as electrical and plumbing systems, residents of at least 42 states have reported sinus and upper respiratory problems, headaches, and nosebleeds—symptoms which disappear when they move out of their homes (Phillips, 2011a, 2011b). He was concerned to read that, despite these reports, in early 2011 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) made the decision to not study the long-term effects of exposure to the Chinese-made drywall, as such a study would require extensive time and resources without the possibility of yielding valuable results.
Jackson read a directive from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, published 2 April 2010, calling for the removal of any drywall which could possibly be a problem, all fire safety devices (such as smoke alarms), all electrical components and wiring (which includes even outlets and circuit breakers), and all gas piping and fire suppression sprinkler systems. From experience, Jackson knew that such removal costs are understandably significant, so he wasn’t surprised to find a website called www.defective-chinese-drywall-lawsuit.com and information on the Birmingham Business Journal’s website that told him scenarios created as a result of the installation and subsequent removal of Chinese Drywall, such as health effects, damage to property, unethical building practices, and fraudulent liability agreements, have led to class-action lawsuits directed at builders, suppliers, and manufacturers of the faulty drywall.
Decisionmaking Time
Jackson thought about what he had learned and decided he had to confront Kent. On Thursday evening, he and Kent sat down to talk, and Jackson told him what he had discovered. Kent was upset. He looked troubled and thanked Jackson for bringing the problem to his attention. He said he needed to think and they both went home for the day.
A week passed, and Kent said nothing. They were due to start their first renovation project the following Monday, so Jackson asked him what he intended to do about the problem. Kent responded, “Jackson, we have an obligation to our customers to get this work done as fast and as efficiently as possible. I know we can’t use that drywall in the construction we’re doing for Waterfall Trails, but I think we’ll be fine if we use it in the renovation projects. I spent all of our available money on that board, and we can’t just return it. We’ve got to make up the cost somehow.” Jackson started to interrupt, but Kent cut him off. “Jack, we can’t afford to take the loss. I know that stuff is bad news, but if we don’t use much of it and paint it well, I doubt anyone will really notice. If they do, you’ll just have to tell them that you didn’t know what you were getting when you purchased the stuff in the first place. Legally, the company that made it’s going to have to clean up the mess, so if anything bad happens we’re off the hook. I know I’ve got my wife and kids to think about, and so do you. So do Carlos and Hank, and Jenna’s got her whole career tied up with us right now. If you say anything, we’ll lose these projects, and we just can’t afford to do that. Let’s get these renovations done, fill up the coffers, and line up more jobs. If we need to make it right, we’ll go back and fix it later. Heck, we can probably even get paid to replace the wall we installed in the first place. I don’t like it any more than you, but this is what needs to happen if we all want to keep our jobs. Now get back to work.” With that, Kent walked off.
Jackson knew that Kent was right—they couldn’t afford to track down new jobs, and besides, they were already under contract and had taken up-front payments to buy supplies. All that money was gone, and they couldn’t pay it back. He also knew that Kent had a point about the drywall—he had bought it honestly, without knowing what he was getting, and maybe the clients would never find out.
Jackson didn’t like that Kent was setting him up to be the fall guy, but he knew that as Pineway’s only writer he was the one whose name was on everything. He wrote the bids, he signed the contracts, he did (most of) the purchasing. That really rankled him—he knew he wouldn’t make a mistake like this, but now he had to find a way to solve the issue.
Is Jackson being overly solicitous if he feels that Kent’s solutions are unethical and action must be taken? Does Jackson’s background in technical communication help him out? Is it his responsibility to worry about the client’s well-being if they aren’t doing their own research on an issue that has been widely described in the news media? If he truly cares about the well-being of the other company employees, how might he address the situation so that no one employee of Pineway Construction’s team is unduly impacted by his decision? So that no clients are negatively affected?
References
Cooper, L. B. (2009). Chinese drywall controversy makes its way to Birmingham. Retrieved 23 February 2011 from www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2009/04/06/story3.html.
Phillips, R. (2011a). CDC won’t study effects of Chinese drywall exposure. Retrieved 23 February 2011 from www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/09/chinese.drywall.cdc/index.html.
Phillips, R. (2011b). Chinese company begins drywall remediation. Retrieved 23 February 2011 from http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-08/us/china.drywall_1_knauf-plasterboard-tianjin-problem-drywall-chinese-drywall?_s=PM:US.
Schmitt, J. (2009). Drywall from China blamed for problems in homes. Retrieved 23 February 2011 from www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2009-03-16-chinese-drywall-sulfur_N.htm.
Todaysgreenconstruction.com. How to identify Chinese drywall. Retrieved 23 February 2011 from www.todaysgreenconstruction.com/2009/10/identify-chinese-drywall.html.
United States Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2010). Interim remediation guidance for homes with corrosion from problem drywall. Retrieved 23 February 2011 from www.cpsc.gov/info/drywall/guidance0410.pdf.
