Ep. 7 part 1 - Andrew Varvoutis

Episode 7 July 25, 2025 00:39:56
Ep. 7 part 1 - Andrew Varvoutis
On the Fringe
Ep. 7 part 1 - Andrew Varvoutis

Jul 25 2025 | 00:39:56

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Show Notes

In this two-part episode, Anne sits down with Andrew Varvoutis, Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Chapter NECA. From managing six locals across three states to navigating everything from contract transitions to apprenticeship reform, Andrew brings a wide-angle view of what it takes to keep a chapter running smoothly.

In Part 1, we talk about what Andrew’s day-to-day looks like, what it means to lead through change, and why relationships and a good sense of humor matter more than ever.

Have feedback or guest ideas? Email us at [email protected]
Learn more at www.eprlive.com

Host: Anne Larson
Produced & Edited By: John Shaw
Music by: Kellan Green

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to on the Fringe, the podcast where we explore the systems, technology and people shaping the future of our work. I'm Ann Larson, CEO of Corellian Software and EPR Live. Today we're kicking off a two part conversation with Andrew Varvutis, executive director of NECA's Gulf coast chapter. From managing six locals across three states, to navigating everything from contract transitions to apprenticeship reform, Andrew brings a wide angle view of what it takes to keep a chapter running smoothly. In part one, we talk about what Andrew's day to day looks like, what it means to lead through change, and why relationships and a good sense of humor matter more than ever. So let's dive in. [00:00:48] Speaker B: My name's Andrew Barvutis. I serve as the Executive Director for the Gulf coast chapter of neeco. [00:00:55] Speaker A: Awesome. And what is it like to be the Executive Director? So what is it like to be the Executive Director of the Gulf coast chapter? Nika? [00:01:06] Speaker B: Well, a lot of times I feel like it requires a lot of different hats. There are a lot of different responsibilities that any chapter executive has in the roles that we play in different organizations. Between all of our three letter abbreviations at my intention to be a go to person for answers for all my contractors, all my partners with the ibew, all our training partners with the training alliance. So it means being flexible a lot of times to be able to, to change directions quickly and kind of multitask and to be able to stay on track after disruptions of various kinds come about throughout the day. [00:01:52] Speaker A: What is the most typical thing that a contractor calls you about? Or a partner? [00:01:57] Speaker B: I wish there was a better answer to that because if I had, if I had kind of a frequently asked question sort of thing, I could maybe put something on the website and say, did you check the website? So I'm training a new person. It's actually somebody who's going to be handling all of our EPR stuff. So we're in the office and Monday was our first day. About an hour in, he's sitting across from the desk and we went through 47 minutes of consecutive phone calls from four different people with four different questions about four different things, none related to the other. And so we essentially lost an hour of productivity and then kind of try to reset, like, okay, what were we, what were, where were we at? It was a great first day example for him to see how quickly things change and come up. There were a couple of questions related to some of our EPR and processing issues that he needed to hear. And other things were relative to contract dates and insurance changes and some of those kinds of things. [00:03:03] Speaker A: Your office manager, Cherry, has been with you a long time, right? [00:03:08] Speaker B: 17 years. [00:03:10] Speaker A: How is that transition training a new. [00:03:12] Speaker B: Person three days in? It's great, but there's a lot to be seen. Part of what is difficult for us in planning a transition period is that there are so many things that might not happen but once a year. So on a monthly standpoint, when you're talking about, hey, first 15 days of the month, people are sending money in, second 15 days of the month we're sending money out. As a just a big kind of general rule, then, then those things can be routine. You can set a pattern and a standard. But I just negotiated a three year agreement. The insurance changes are six months away from the agreement date. So every six months we've got to have new reports set up. We're transitioning from a five year program to a four year program. So my apprentice numbers in some ways goes from six periods to technically as much as 12 different periods because their insurance is different on the four year plan than the five year plan. I had to go to a contractor this morning and spend a couple of hours going through all of the different scenarios of what could happen if an apprentice has to repeat a year. For some reason we've got six periods, but we did have five years and now we have four years. And there's no easily divisible way to put that into six periods. So when does the new plan go from fifth period to a sixth period in a four year plan versus a five year plan? And how do we then have a good system inside EPR that aligns with their payroll system which is going to vary from contractor to contractor to make sure that the input that we get at the end of the month is accurate from what they've been doing the month prior that was actually paid. [00:05:09] Speaker A: Are you going to have to handle both the five year and the four year until the five year apprentices are all graduated? [00:05:18] Speaker B: Essentially, yes. It will be fairly smooth unless an apprentice is required to repeat a classroom year. If they fail to advance, then we're going to start to have some potential overlaps where there could be two fourth periods that have different pay rates and different insurance rates because of someone having to repeat a class year. [00:05:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you just like shunt them into the other one or. No, it's not that easy. Just make them a four year. [00:05:54] Speaker B: Well, we simultaneously changed insurance plans. The difficulty would be that the individual who has to repeat a year is going to be on a more expensive insurance plan. I would like to publicly shame them and shun them to prevent that from happening. But the reality is some apprentice is going to have a situation that requires them to repeat a year. We understand that all of us need a second chance. We're big on second chances. We're not as big on third chances, but really big on second chances. [00:06:26] Speaker A: How often do apprentices have to repeat a year? Is that frequent? [00:06:31] Speaker B: It is so or generally, I would say across the six programs that I have, half the people who come into the program are not completing the program. But when you have someone who you've invested a lot of time and energy into, specifically the ones who are great on the job and are just struggling in a classroom setting, for their sake and our sake, we're all better off if we can let them repeat a year. Help them understand that regardless of how much I tell them all the time, I said, look, you may study twice as long as anybody else in your class, but the reality is you've got to do more. We've got to find a way to be successful. We have to change some habit, some protocol. We've got to seek extra help and do some tutoring. Gotta find a way so that we can cut it in the classroom. Generally, the people who don't complete our program have either a lack of work ethic. We just find that between the on the job aspect and the classroom setting, they're just not willing to dedicate and sacrifice what it takes to be successful. The other group is people who just don't realize what it is that we actually do. And they've gotten themselves off into something that's just not a good fit. People think becoming an electrician means you're in a air conditioned building working on receptacles. And it is not what we do. We're there when the power's not there. So you're in the elements. Across my jurisdiction, Alabama, we have a lot of really hot days, we've got a few cold days, we've got some wet days, and it doesn't make for the best working conditions. There are people who would rather find themselves in a different setting. [00:08:31] Speaker A: Yeah, that's why my son doesn't want to do it. I keep pushing them because I think we've talked about a little bit. Knowing the Nika world is such a gift. Like knowing that it exists is a gift not that many people know. And it is such a great industry which we can segue into. How you got into Nika? So how did you get into this job? How did you find this World. [00:08:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So in some ways it may be similar to other stories. The big and easy answer to the question is to just say it was a God thing. More specifically, I knew a field rep, Roy Pendergraaff. I had known his family since I was a kid, but as an adult after college, I was going to the same church as him. He asked me one day for a resume and I gave it to him and had forgotten about it. I was working in construction sales at the time and enjoyed what I did. One day my wife and I were considering different locations where we would like to go. We both grew up in South Louisiana and Covington, Louisiana and we were looking to get out of that area. Our families were still there, but we had kind of looked at Birmingham, which is close to where I went to college at the University of Alabama. We looked at Nashville. There were a couple of job options available and we were building the pros and cons of a couple of different opportunities. One night I was praying and just said, you know, lord, open the door big enough that I can see it because I can be a little bit hard headed. And the next day I got a call from B. David Roberts, who had had my resume for months. I said, wow, I was just praying about this last night. And he said, well, I guess it's a God thing because I looked over and saw it sitting on top of a stack of paper this morning. Decided to call you. The situation they had was the chapter representative in Birmingham was set to retire in about two years. Gene Journey was going to retire and so they were looking to bring somebody on and introduce them to neeca. I spent a little over two years in the Southern region office on national staff. Allowed me opportunity to travel around with the field reps and learn some of what they do. Had opportunity to visit a lot of different local chapters and get involved in some of what they do. When Gene retired, took that position, which would have been April 1st of 2008 in Birmingham and been there ever since. [00:10:58] Speaker A: So when you guys started with EPR Live, it was you and Tracy, right? And that was. So Birmingham is like part of Gulf Coast, I guess. I don't know the history of the chapter now and I'm realizing I don't know. So Birmingham was its own NECA chapter. [00:11:17] Speaker B: So there's a much longer history than you realized. When I started, the Gulf coast chapter represented the same six local unions that we represent now, which is Gulfport, Mississippi, 903505 in Mobile, 676 Pensacola, Florida, 443 Montgomery, Alabama 136 Birmingham and 558 in Sheffield. So the setup was that one person was based in Birmingham and covered the three northern locals. Tracy, who was my boss, was based in Mobile and covered the three southern locals. That was the setup. It's been close to 30 years now. There was a time when Birmingham did have their own chapter. There was a time when North Alabama was not included. Over the years there have been changes for a variety of reasons that have led us to this point now. [00:12:17] Speaker A: Okay, you have all six. You're still in Birmingham. [00:12:21] Speaker B: Correct. [00:12:22] Speaker A: And then you just. There's nobody in Mobile now. [00:12:25] Speaker B: Well, that's another big transition for us. For the past three and a half years, while I've served as executive director, Sherry has been the solo representative down in Mobile and we've maintained an office here. And Sherry has been manning that solo. She's going to retire at the end of July and we're going to look at transitioning the office to Birmingham at that time. [00:12:47] Speaker A: Okay. And then there's a bit of consolidation with Central Mississippi. So you guys are going to oversee those two locals, but they'll still be an office in Mississippi for there, right? [00:13:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So Jackson, Mississippi, the Central Mississippi chapter has been based there for a long time. In fact, there was a time that North Alabama 558 and 136 were part of the Central Mississippi Chapter. But due to a series of events here recently, the Gulf coast chapter has partnered with Central Mississippi and I'll be representing those two locals and we'll see where that relationship goes in the future. [00:13:25] Speaker A: Gotcha. So we do talk a lot about those relationships. Just back to how you got into Nika and having those relationships. Relationships are so important in the industry with everybody, you know, all the different entities. And within Nika itself, I'm curious about whether, how you feel. Do you think it's a double edged sword sometimes, the dependence on those relationships? What are the benefits of having those relationships versus bringing in new people or relying more on data? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. [00:14:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So there's definitely a lot of nuance in trying to manage a variety of relationships. And I think that over the course of time, people have tried different ways to manage the relationship between contractors and our partners at the ibw. There was a time where Birmingham didn't have a full time representative and they were using labor attorneys. They would hire an attorney and the attorney would come in and what you saw there was a lack of relationship. So they had facts, they had data, they had laws they knew what were standard process or what was part of collective bargaining and what was a matter subject to bargain. They had the technical side, the legal aspect of things, probably in a much better way than I do, but they lacked a relationship. Ultimately, it's important that we're able to work together because we're partners. Right. And so what is a partnership? It's a relationship having the opportunity to deal with the complexities of individual situations that may arise in terms of potential grievances or disputes over the agreement to the labor relations part of negotiating long term contracts. We found that being able to manage those relationships is a critical component to the success of the partnership collectively. [00:15:37] Speaker A: And how do you do that? You specifically like. Do you have certain things that you've developed over time that help you maintain and establish those relationships? [00:15:51] Speaker B: Definitely. Some of that varies. Every relationship you have with every individual is different. And so our relationships with business managers or training directors or contractors are different. I've even found that within our six divisions, every division has a little bit of its own culture. Even if a contractor may work in a different jurisdiction, they don't participate in local meetings, local negotiations and some of those discussions. So I think some of that comes to some of your character, your moral beliefs, how you conduct yourself. That's a critical component of a baseline of honesty. Honesty for me is critical. Right. I'm not going to compromise my integrity or be dishonest with someone. So that's big picture rule then some of it. I think with the more experience and time I've had, the more I have tried to understand growing in empathy. And so in that an understanding of the position of the person I'm dealing with. Right. Business managers are elected. I've got a three year election cycle and I've got a handful of guys that within the next week are going to learn if they continue to have their job or not. One thing about Nika is there's a lot of stability in the career and dealing with someone who might want to agree with me, but has to deal with a very vocal minority of his constituents that are going to vote on whether he gets to keep his job or not really has a weight in what we're doing. And so if you don't realize how the scales are tipping based off that, it's going to have a negative impact. And generally I know that guys are going to do the right thing when there's a relationship. I've had people say I need to file agreements on this issue. I know probably not something we can win, but this guy's a real problem and he's saying there's a failure to represent on his behalf and wants to press charges with that. So I've got to go through this and will you dance with me here? We've got an agreement that outlines that process and so sure, we'll go through the process and we'll get a determination and allow you to kind of have some cover on our end. He can speak his mind in front of us and you can defend your guy and ultimately it'll settle out. So having the opportunity to work through some of those things is helpful. [00:18:35] Speaker A: You mentioned honesty. I know one of the things that you mentioned to us, I don't know some at some Nika show in the past was that you had negotiation after you use DPR Live. Do you want to tell the story? [00:18:50] Speaker B: So it was negotiating in the local union and we were going through their list of items and our list of items. One of the things they wanted was a significant increase in form and general form and pay. The area we were in had a moderate hard dollar number on what that premium pay was for those positions and they wanted to look at moving it to a percentage and it would have been a decent increase in the percentage. So I asked the so do you know how many people are paid forming wages in our area? And they said no, I didn't have the number. So I said, well, let me look. And so logged in, pulled the data, showed them due to how contractors can sometimes incentivize with foreman pay, their top level people, we had about 50% of the wiremen referred out of that local union were receiving foreman pay. And I thought, well that's just, you know, it's just look at the numbers, let's just figure it out. And what happened in that situation was the business manager felt blindsided. He had access to that data. He could have pulled it out himself. But he felt like I showed him up in front of some of his committee and and perhaps some of my contractors and sort of made him look silly and that wasn't my intention at all. Let's get to the numbers and figure this out. What would it look like if we did that? What impact would it have on the pay scale? What impact would it have on local pension and the healthcare and some of these other things that can be based off of the wages and kind of set us back a few meetings. We had to have some private discussions in a way doing an autopsy on that meeting as to why things died. I looked back and said, you know what I should have done? Was when I saw that item listed, I should have reached out to the business manager after the meeting. And that hey, the EPR data that you can access that I have will give us exactly what that number is and we can look at that together. And if I had done it in a private setting, I think it would have had a much better impact on the negotiations. We ended up dropping the item and nothing was changed. So it wasn't a loss in a win lose, negotiation approach kind of thing, but it was a harming of relationship and that can be more important. I definitely don't look at negotiations in the win lose kind of scenario. Think that my job in negotiations is to keep wages as low as possible. Don't want to be seen as an adversary. So if I had handled that better, I think we could have gotten further along. And I think in general I would like for our partners in the apprenticeship programs and at the local union to use the data a little more and to be able to dig in and have some understanding. I think the biggest issue for them comes from a time management standpoint. Disgruntled members will call the business manager and complain. But the numbers don't call and complain. There's not an alert sent out saying look over here at me and maybe you can get some insight into trends or patterns or concerns or even just being able to see some of the guys that are retiring versus how many people are coming in. We've been getting more and more of that information from some of our national partners to realize like hey, are the number of employees that we have who are at or will in five years be at retirement age limit us significantly in our ability to maintain the man hours we work plus to reach the growth goals we have collectively set. [00:23:00] Speaker A: I assume that is what's driving the apprenticeship change. The five year to four year is it. [00:23:08] Speaker B: It's interesting to think through how the four year versus the five year plan directly impacts numbers. From a local standpoint you're going to push out one class faster so you're going to get one group, however many that is. I've got programs where that's 15, I've got programs where it's 60. So you're going to get that one time bump but after that you're still turning out one class a year. So yeah, really driving necessarily from that one year a significant number. What I think you're doing is and we've made some other changes along with the four year program to try and get better qualified people in and get them to reach their goals and objectives sooner. So anytime that you can shorten that window and compress when you reach a goal, you're going to be more successful long term. It's even built into the algorithms of games on your phone that you play. Right. There's a reward system that incentivizes you continuing to play Candy Crush on your phone. Right. Because they want you to be successful. And so there's an element to that that I do think is going to help us when people are considering. So one way that we get apprentices into a program is directly from high school. When you're telling them it's a four year path versus a five year path, you just become a more attractive option. College is generally assumed to be a four year plan, although the data doesn't necessarily show that people are graduating consistently in four years. And that's a whole, whole nother topic. But we want to be more attractive to the people that we can get so that we can capture the best. That is how we'll have long term success through the switch to the four year program. [00:25:13] Speaker A: I would agree with that just based on my own life and seeing my kids now. My son is 17 and four years feels like an eternity to him and five years is like unthinkable. You know, you can't even, can't even go there. So yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. This brought up a couple questions. You had, I think interesting experience with a mega project back some years ago with the nuclear power plant. [00:25:43] Speaker B: Right. So current experience. We've got a mega project in our area. We've got a couple that are in and around our jurisdictions. One of the situations we talked about actually preceded my time. The, the lingering effects of it remain. One of my jurisdictions had a power plant built years ago. The workers left the local contractors that they were working for and they went to build the nuke. The nuke was paying a lot of money and it was a great opportunity for, for people to go to work. But that left the local contractors without available manpower. So every signatory contractor that was in the area went non union. And that probably happened at least in the 70s, I mean 50 years ago. And to this day I do not have a domiciled signatory contractor in that jurisdiction. Some of it is the exact same companies who went non union are now being run by children or potentially grandchildren or sold to other partners or whatever. But there remains some animosity due to the difficulty that they were put in a generation or two before through the megaproject in that area. Some of it is the remaining impacts of shutdowns that occur in that area where we can lose local manpower to the nuclear facility. I wish I could say we found a solution and we solved it. But the business managers there have always been great. We continue to work through that and we've seen progress. But it's a cautionary tale for us as we have these mega projects come into our areas. And we're experiencing that in a different jurisdiction now where there's a premium right now of about $10 an hour that's being paid above scale. People are flocking to that, and that's understandable. I go to my job because they pay me ultimately, right? And if somebody was going to pay me more to do potentially less work, I would have to consider it. So I was at a graduation ceremony last week, sitting around a table of contractors, and we were discussing how many of the people who were graduating or topping out that night were going to leave and go to the mega project. And there was a very big number of those guys and gals who were heading off to go big monies just across town at another job. While all those things are understandable, the reality is some of the contractors. I'm sitting by customers that their companies have served for in excess of 75 years. And when the mega projects are done, those customers are still going to be there. But if we don't man their work while the megaproject is working, they're going to get somebody else to do it. And when the mega project's done, they're not going to welcome us back in open arms to say, yeah, sure, come back and put those 20 guys back to work at this plant and we'll continue in that relationship. So it's great for a lot of people that these big projects are going. And I want to do everything I can to help supply the manpower and work those man hours and have them contribute into our apprenticeship plans and our retirement funds and our NECA chapter. But there are some obstacles and some concerns that we need to be aware of and the longevity locally after those projects are completed. [00:29:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it seems like some pretty serious unintended consequences there. And you do not feel like there is anything you can do at this point to really prep for that. Like, you know, the big projects are coming and you know how long about they're going to last. But beyond that, there's not a lot you can do to mitigate the downsides. [00:29:39] Speaker B: I think you have to try to mitigate the downsides. And one of the problems that we face is that we look for the singular solution. We look for the one way to solve a problem and that doesn't exist. One of the things that has been tried most often is more money. And that's a component. If you're going to play that game, you've got to be the highest scale anywhere. Because our people travel nationally, historically the south has lower wages. There are people that make twice as much an hour as we have down here. We cannot win the game of racing to the highest wage and benefit package. But what we can't do is to throw our hands up and say there's nothing we can. You can't boil the ocean. If we have a variety of approaches, if every little thing that we do helps pick up a piece here or there, then we can be better than we were. Certainly we want to try and attract any and all qualified electricians in our jurisdiction that are not working for us. That's going to serve a lot of different benefits. And it'd be the fastest way to get people immediately on the. [00:31:06] Speaker A: So that would mean non union, currently non IBEW electricians like bringing that, correct, Right? [00:31:13] Speaker B: Yeah. So going around and trying to, to recruit from non signatory employers, their people and identify the best and brightest that they've got and bring them on board and hopefully they can bring more with them. Then working through trade schools and other avenues to find semi skilled individuals who have already demonstrated interest in our trade is another avenue to address. It brings about some more difficulties because then it's maybe do we slot them into the apprenticeship program and find a place for them? Where do they fit in? They may have two years of hands on experience and be really qualified on the job, but they may have no understanding of AC and DC theory. And so we need to make sure that they're understanding the fundamental parts of what we do so that they're able to establish that and move forward with it in a way that is not going to impact their ability to grasp other concepts of what we do. There's a component working through high schools that have different trade programs to get some things established and all our partners are working to do the same thing. The computer mediated learning that the Training alliance has put together is one of those opportunities for us to be able to do that, to backfill empty slots. We talked about apprenticeships graduating about 50%. Well, if we can utilize CML to have construction wiremen taking CML classes, what we could do is when individuals fall out of our apprenticeship program, we can backfill those empty seats in our program to make sure that we could still have a 50% attrition rate, but if we're going to take in a class of 60, let's top out a class of 60. So that's a component to it. I do try to have some big, wild ideas, and I've got a few things that we can do to turn the publicity we're getting around these data centers in the local community to pump in more and more people. We've got to get everybody on board with some of these visions and get some funding together to be able to do what could be some bigger swings at the problem. But the biggest thing I've seen is people who throw their hands up because there's not one easy solution. Instead of trying to find all the different ways that we can attack the problem. [00:33:40] Speaker A: When you have contractors who are losing workers to a mega project, are there things the contractor can do beyond wages, like just paying more? Are there things they can do to keep those workers? I feel like, at least in my work, when employees are happy and loyal to the cause, people stay. Are there things you talk about with your contractors, about retaining talent? [00:34:07] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And that actually reminds me of one of the other components I was thinking about to specifically answer that question. Studies throughout time show that pay is typically third in terms of why someone stays at their job. So it's important, but it's not first. First, knowing that you're a part of the team, you want to know that you're valued and what you do matters. Second, having some voice, being able to be a part of that. So I see a lot of connection between those. And so. But really, I think what you're getting to there is just culture, Having a culture inside of your company. A sign of that is when you talk to people in our world about who they work for. It's common. You could read an obituary of a union member who says he worked for 35 years for the IBEW. The reality is he never received a paycheck from the ibew. He worked for a NECA contractor, maybe one, maybe multiple. But when you hear people that say, I work for ABC Electric, then that's a sign to me that there's a culture at ABC Electric that means more than a paycheck. So having that culture piece. In fact, we do a spring outing every year. So just at the end of April this year, all our contractors got together in Charleston, had a real nice event. We had a couple of speakers come in, and the entirety of our focus for our membership meeting was on culture and how to create that culture. Ways that you can influence the culture the larger you get. It's much easier if you've got 5 than if you've got 25. And it's easier with 25 than 100, and it's easier with 100 than 200. But when you can build kind of chief repeating officers throughout your organization that understand the philosophies, the values of the company and can not only demonstrate them, but repeat them to other employees, then you can help push that culture further and further out from its center point. And that has a significant impact on the retention of workers. Another way that we're trying to do this is, is through continuing education for our contractors and focusing in anywhere from foreman to supervisor to help them find ways that we can utilize the tools that we have. So in the past, what most people came up with is the understanding that a journeyman wireman knew everything there was to do in the electrical trade, and you could tell them to do it and it would be done. An apprentice had a sliding scale of tools and abilities ranked essentially by what year in the apprenticeship he was. And so you kind of knew what the expectation was and you would put them in a place to be successful. The reality of what we're facing now is that while a journeyman has a very deep knowledge of the electrical trade, there are things that some people are better at than others. If you work for a company that doesn't do fire alarm, and you haven't seen fire alarm since your apprenticeship program, and somebody tells you to go put in a fire alarm system, I'm going to be real sharp at it, because you haven't had reps in 15 years on how to do that. So how can we identify the talent that we have? Knowing the old way of laying somebody off or firing somebody and calling the hall for replacement is not an option. So how do we look at the players we have on our team and put them in a position to be successful, Being able to assess the skill set they have and utilize that, and then through culture, be able to motivate some productivity. Obviously, on these large jobs, that's a difficult task and you're not going to bat a thousand with it. But if you can find a way that you're increasing around edges and making a little bit of progress, even using things like Electri? Electree, our research arm, has a lot of great resources out there from professionals who have researched some of this and, and I've had contractors that have had some success going to customers with a study that shows the productivity drop off when you're working 6 10s and how they can be more productive in a 4, 10, 5, 8 schedule with the same manpower. The general contractors may just think that I need more people on the job. It'll get done faster. And so to be able to give them data, show them a research paper that shows how we can have similar or increased productivity by limiting the number of hours we're working. So that's been another way that we can make a little bit of a dent into this big problem. [00:39:15] Speaker A: That's it for part one of my conversation with Andrew Varvutis. From multitasking through unpredictable days to guiding his chapter through major transitions, Andrew gave us a grounded, honest look at what real leadership in this space looks like. In part two, we'll dig into workforce challenges, megaprojects, and how data and culture can shape the future of our industry. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss it. And as always, if you have feedback or guest ideas we'd love to hear from you. Just email us at onthefringepodcast at corelliansoft. [00:39:42] Speaker B: Com. [00:39:42] Speaker A: Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time on on the Fringe.

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In our third episode, Anne sits down with Larry Horner, Head of Sales for Contractors at Zuma Payroll, to talk about how he found...

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June 11, 2025 00:28:23
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Ep. 5 - Avery LaPan

In this episode, Anne sits down with Avery LaPan, Client Success Manager at EPRLive, to talk about what it really takes to guide NECA...

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