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Hello
IFMA Austin and dare I say "Happy Fall"? Is the end to the hottest
summer in 50 years really here? In my non
expert opinion, YES! I don't know about you but it sure is nice to
see some water in the creeks and green on the trees. The Old Farmers
Way
to go!
Provide
some insight on your Employer/Company's core
function/service.
| UPCOMING EVENTS | ||
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Oct 7-9
World Workplace in Orlando
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| "COLD CALL" Matt Martin with Sparkling Clean Window Company |
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Name of your Employer. Sparkling Clean Window Company Is your company affiliated with any other companies? Surface Solutions is another chapter of our company providing building restoration services such as caulking, pressure washing, wet glazing, mineral removal, waterproofing, etc. Describe your company’s core competency We are a service oriented company. Our professionally certified window washers are highly skilled, and are trained to use rope descent systems attached to roof top safety anchors in order to clean and maintain the integrity of our client’s buildings.
Describe your primary job functions
My
position as Account Manager allows me the privilege of sitting down face to
face with our clients (Building Owners and Managers), listening to their
specific needs, and serving them to the best of my ability. At times I’m
asked to train or step in as a team lead on certain jobs. Describe an average day. An average day finds me working closely with my clients and their properties. If I’m not standing on the rooftop of one of their buildings, I’m looking over the edge of a new rooftop for a prospective client. I scope out the locations of anchors, and estimate cleaning times. Sometimes I gear up for a test drop myself to see how long it will take to get to the ground. All in a day’s work… What type of clients you work with. Sparkling Clean and Surface Solutions serve Property Managers, Engineers and Property Owners. We not only clean the windows of the highest buildings in Austin, but those of midrise commercial buildings, condos, university buildings, and state buildings. We even clean hotel pool area windows on the ground floor. Percentage of your work and clients that are local/regional/national. While both chapters of our organization have at times served properties outside of Austin, our clients are almost exclusively local. How long have you been in this field? Tell us briefly about your work career. I’ve worked for Sparkling Clean for a little more than 5 years. In that time, I became the first window cleaner certified by the IWCA, the International Window Cleaning Association. Tell us about an interesting situation you’ve encountered related to your current work End result? One of my favorite buildings to clean is a hotel downtown. After spending 20 min one morning setting up side walk signs and cones to warn innocent people walking below, we got to work. Well we get about half way down the building when we start hearing people below shout up at us to watch out! We looked down to find people pushing our signs off to the side, even knocking them over so they could get through to the restricted sidewalk area. End result- they got wet, then yelled at us to watch out for them. People will never cease to amaze me. What’s the best lesson you’ve learned from a client? To always expect the unexpected. How’s business right now? Slower than we would like, but busy enough that we can’t complain.
Identify some challenges to your industry.
As
you may suspect, high winds, rainy days, hail, snow, sleet, and of course,
tornadoes can be dangerous challenges for high-rise workers. Still, what
many may not realize is that our biggest challenge is in informing others
about the need for anchors on top of buildings, and the need for said
anchors to be inspected every year, and then tested every 10 years by an
engineer for defects or markings. These anchors are required by OSHA, the
IWCA and ANSI; they are vital to the safety of high-rise workers.
Tell us about your personal life, family, hobbies and interests outside work. I grew up in Georgetown Texas, one of 11 children-6 boys and 5 girls. There I met my lovely wife, played soccer and ran cross country/track. I’m Dad to 2 little girls, and a little boy, and have participated as a leader in the local Boy Scout Program for the last 4 years. While I love camping, hiking, fishing, cave exploring, and white water rafting (all of which I don’t get to do often enough), my favorite sport of all time is volleyball, especially at Zilker Park. “Can we quote you on that?” Your attitude is contagious; is yours worth catching? Q: If a customer or other person falls and injures himself or herself on company property, what is the extent of the company’s liability for this person’s injuries? One of the common lawsuits that property owners deal with are the so-called “slip and fall” cases, where a customer or other person falls and is injured. Many property owners assume they will be liable for any injuries suffered by a person who has a fall on their property, but this is not necessarily correct. In fact, more often than not it is difficult if not impossible for an injured party to recover any damages in a slip and fall case. To prevail in a slip and fall case, a customer (or other business invitee) must prove that he was injured by (1) an “unreasonably dangerous” condition on the property, (2) of which the property knew of should have known, and (3) the property owner did not take reasonable steps to reduce or eliminate the risk. The law defines an unreasonably dangerous condition as one where the “probability of a harmful event occurring that a reasonably prudent person would have foreseen it or some similar event as likely to happen.” Using this definition, courts have determined that ordinary mud on concrete slab outside of business, shrubs between curb and sidewalk, and sprinkler heads were not unreasonably dangerous conditions. Often whether or not a condition is unreasonably dangerous depends on the circumstances. A normal sized concrete curb in a well lit parking garage is not an unreasonably dangerous condition; a high curb in a dimly lit parking garage that is not painted bright yellow or otherwise marked might well be an unreasonably dangerous condition. Proving that a property owner knew or should have known of an unreasonably dangerous condition is also often difficult. The classic example is the grocery store customer who slips on grapes that have fallen of the floor from a display. How can he prove that the grocer knew of should have known the grapes were on the floor and presented a risk to customers? He could prove the grocery store employees knew the grapes were on the floor if at least one employee admits to this, but that rarely happens. He could prove the grapes were on the floor for a long period of time and thus the grocer should have known of the risk, but how does he do that? Maybe another customer will testify that the grapes were there 30 minutes earlier, but how does that customer know that those grapes weren’t cleaned up and the grapes on which the customer slipped were dropped a minute earlier. It’s just not very easy to come up with evidence to prove these issues. Finally, if the injured party knew of (or should have known of) the unreasonably dangerous condition, then the law does not allow him or her to recover for any injuries suffered from the condition. For example, if a section of a sidewalk is obviously cracked and dislodged, a customer cannot generally recover for his injuries if he proceeds to walk over the sidewalk anyway (unless there is no way to avoid it). So, if you have an injury on your premises that is due to some condition on the premises, don’t necessarily assume that you are automatically liable for the injury. In future segments I will talk about steps that can be taken to reduce a property owner’s risk of liability for injuries suffered on the property. "Ask Steeves" will be a regularly featured article in the newsletter, so if you have any legal questions, please direct them to Steve Dillawn.
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IFMA EDUCATION |
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www.ifma-austin.org |