JLC sat down with Rick Mills, Jeremy Kassel, and Mike Whalen in this first of a series of articles exploring the roles and responsibilities of project managers. Each of these individuals works under a slightly different business model that together nicely span the range of businesses of many JLC readers: Rick is senior project manager for Jackson Andrews Building + Design, a custom builder based in Virginia Beach, Va.; Jeremy operates as a “bags on” general contractor and assumes the role of project manager on renovation projects in and around Albany, N.Y.; and Mike Whalen is a lead carpenter at DBS Remodel, a design-build residential remodeling company based in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
This first article springs from a presentation Jeremy did at the 2023 JLC Live conference on “Jobsite Etiquette”—a topic that Rick and Mike had each talked with JLC about previously as a possible subject for an article. “Etiquette” seems a fancy word to describe the necessary decorum that project managers must adopt to be effective communicators with clients, trade partners, and co-workers, but it is appropriate to the skillful maneuvering with people that is necessary in the service roles project managers assume. In his JLC Live presentation, Jeremy organized the discussion around the different parties that project managers interact with—clients, employees, subcontractors, and vendors. We started from this premise, focusing on the client-project manager relationship first. —Clayton DeKorne
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