Spare a thought
2023 – The year hardship hit many in the demolition and construction industry.
From Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to Band Aid’s “Do they know it’s Christmas”, the festivities have long been the time when we spare a thought for those less fortunate than ourselves.
Whether it is starving Africans, embattled Ukrainians, a young mother struggling to afford to give her child the Christmas gift they really want or the homeless masses that will spend Christmas Eve huddled for warmth in shop doorways.
Christmas is a time of prescribed joy and rampant commercialism mixed with very real sadness. This year, however, that sadness feels much closer to home.
It has been a brutal year for many in the demolition and construction sector. In demolition, we lost both McCormack Demolition and Squibb Group in quick succession less than a month ago; and in construction we lost many more companies over the course of the year. As a result, there is an unusually high number of demolition and construction workers greeting Christmas not with excitement but with uncertainty. Rather than enjoying some hard-earned time off work, they will be wondering if there will be any work to go back to when 2024 arrives.
In the midst of an industry-wide mental health crisis, it is the worst-possible outcome at the worst-possible time.
In truth, however, Christmas merely brings into focus a problem that exists year-round. Construction and demolition workers have been commoditised. Despite the presence of seemingly rigorous labour and employment laws, those workers can be picked up and put down with barely a thought for the consequences. Indeed, in many instances, the modern demolition and construction worker enjoys the same level of job security and endures the same toxic work culture as Bob Cratchit.
That situation is bad enough in itself. But it is compounded by spurious claims of mental health awareness and by company mission statements that proclaim those very same workers that are teetering on a razor’s edge of employment to be their “greatest asset”.
It is little wonder that the industry struggles to attract new workers when it treats those it already employs with such little regard.
On Christmas Day this year, there will be eight people sat around the dining table at Demolition News Towers. Having lost both my parents in 2022, there will unquestionably be a toast to “absent friends” and a moment to remember those that are no longer with us.
In demolition and construction circles, there are many more that are no longer with us, even though they are still very much alive.
We should all spare a thought for them this Christmas.