Underpinnings Blog

Category: Life Choices

  • In the Spotlight

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    What Exactly Do We Do? Big news!!!  We are so proud to have participated in making the new video produced by the Women in Deep Foundations Committee of the Deep Foundations Institute that addresses the question, “What in the world do those geotechnical people do?”  Please take a look, share, send it to little girls…

  • Checking Out

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    The Top of the Hill Is in Sight Don’t say this out loud, because we don’t want to jinx it, but it looks like we might be starting to, maybe, sort of, in a subtle way, approach the outer edge of the zone that’s right before the stage that leads eventually, circuitously, to the end…

  • Damaged

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Bent, Folded, and Fine During the past few months, all of my available Underpinnings time has been consumed with work on a video for the DFI Women in Deep Foundations Committee to educate women and girls about our field.  Every bit of my “Go Team!” energy has been focused on that effort, so blog posts…

  • When You Get Squashed

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Happy 2019!  Is it fabulous so far?  Don’t let the weather color your answer – it is January, after all, and January must be true to itself.  As a landscaper friend of mine once told me, “How do you expect all those beautiful things to emerge in the spring if they don’t die back in…

  • Perfection, Part II

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Are These Our Only Two Choices? No doubt you have taken part in at least one discussion, if not endless discourse, on the cultural rift we have today between our Millennial generation and the rest of the world in the working environment.  Trust me when I say I understand why this division exists, because I…

  • Perfection, Part I

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    I Just Want It To Be Perfect When I was young I used to haul around a sketch pad with me everywhere.  I spent hours and hours drawing…dresses.  I was fascinated by fabric and design and endlessly intrigued by art that one can wear.  As I grew older, I found out that my passion for…

  • No Apologies

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    #notsorry We’ve been a bit absent here at Underpinnings lately, and I was going to lead off this post by apologizing.  I’m so sorry that I am overloaded with work, that I’m in charge of various parts of three separate charity fundraisers in three months, that I’m trying to run a group of 25 community…

  • Civil Wars

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    The Casualties Are Higher When It’s Personal It didn’t take the #metoo movement for most of us to be familiar with being undervalued or disrespected or ignored at work or in school.  Even our youngest millennials who work in progressive companies with open-minded colleagues have run into ugliness at some point.  The trouble may have…

  • Do Be Do Be Do

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Was Frank Singing About Balance? Are you familiar with the 50/50 theory?  This concept might be considered part of today’s earthy crunchy “mindfulness” movement, a nebulous buzz word-y school of thought that encompasses everything from recycling to snacking.  However, the 50/50 theory seems to have some actual merit, so I’m kicking it out of the…

  • What Price Ambition?

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Hey – Your Ambition is Showing By Ann Schmelzer, Guest Contributor (Editor’s Note: Ann is a top-level manager for a major international manufacturer.  Someday we will all be working for her, and that’s not a bad thing.  Although she is not in the deep foundations industry, she spends all day every day with men, most…