Pace and shoddy work

The job order: drop in at that restaurant that is being refurbished and fit ceiling outlets for the ventilation in the toilets. Last time, three days ago, everything was in the state of “our refurbishment is in full swing.” Half-laid tiles, sawdust on the floor, the furniture still in the form of chipboard sheets, and so on. Today, when we arrived, there were already napkins on the tables and glasses set out, various people were tightening and connecting the last bits here and there, and everywhere was clean and tidy. By the time we had screwed the ventilation into place, the first pizza was going into the conveyor oven. By the time all the workmen in the dining room had finished, the first customers came in. There was still work to do — in the kitchen, on the entrance doors, in the office. But the restaurant was already open.

In addition to the ventilation, it turned out we needed to deal with two more refrigerators. One had a burnt condenser motor. The other had a door that wouldn’t close properly. We figured it out. Just as we were leaving, the ceiling in the bathroom collapsed… Damn. Some hacks had attached the suspended ceiling to the walls with double-sided tape and didn’t even think to secure it with screws. Naturally, the ceiling fell under the weight of itself, the light fixture, and our air ducts.

They put the ceiling back. We checked the other areas — same story. Reported it to Houston. They cleaned up after themselves. So the achievement “cleaned public restrooms” is unlocked. Although they were completely new — just after the renovation.

We spent almost the whole day struggling, instead of the expected “oh, is that all…”