Back in the latter 70's the State of PA passed a law which required all nursing homes to be sprinklered. We had an ongoing relationship with a sprinkler company and did all their outside work. For ones with public water available, the time on site was a matter of days to extend the service into the building. Many, however, were on wells, in which case we had to construct a building with a large pressure tank and booster pumps. The largest required stand pipes or water towers. The net result of that was that we would be onsite for those projects for extended periods and we got to know both the managers and some of the clients. They seemed to fit into two groups, either very nice and client centered or absolute jerks who at times would actively deprive the clients from any enjoyment.
One example of each:
There was an old gentleman that would pull himself (in his wheel chair) up to the window to watch us---and we got to know him and would often talk to him through the open window. One morning a worker of unknown status came in, saw what was going on, closed the blinds and walked out. The old man was unable to open the blind on his own. I took out my pocket knife, cut a hole in the screen and opened the blind to a grand smile on the old fellows face! That same place had an odor when you walked through the door. The lobby was a big open rotunda and they would wheel patients out there in their wheel chairs---tied in place with sheets and leave them for hours, many half falling out of their chairs.
The other---I developed a good rapport with the head nurse. She would come out on Monday mornings and ask me what we would be dong that week---and of course I answered as best I could. This installation was one that required a full pressurized system to be added. Where we used large pressure tanks they would have to be installed prior to the roof going on--and commonly before we took the walls up. The day we poured the tank supports and saddles, which we were pumping, the staff began wheeling out patient after patient---all dressed for the chill in the air. I found out they had asked if anyone wanted to go out and watch the pour and this was our "audience"---we all thought it was great. About two weeks latter we set the tank, with two cranes---and our audience was back out cheering us on I need to add that nursing home had no foul odor.
All that to say---like everything else there are good and not so good---but sadly I have to say in my somewhat limited experience more were of the not so good kind.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis