I have heard that my bribery cookies are missed-- Such an easy way to get good results in the woods.
Chat over Beer w/ Loggers, Crescent City, CA - Amusing
- Thread starter M.D. Vaden
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Our Foresters never brought us cookies. We didn't expect any. We were just happy if the Foresters had good news for us. Usually they didn't. That's probably one of the disadvantages to working private ground.
The Foresters got paid by the same people we did and cookie bribes were definitely not on their list.
They used to run parts for us occasionally or give somebody a ride out and they always complained bitterly about it. Running errands for the woods crew probably cut into their nap time or their trout fishing. We were always properly sympathetic and let them know how much we appreciated their help. They'd bring us flagging and paint and sometimes the latest mill specs. But cookies? Never happened.
I can't say I've ever had the people skills to anticipate the proper moment for bribery cookies, but I try really hard to make sure everybody has up-to-date maps. That's not at all easy.
Bribery and reward. If it is a decent crew to begin with, you can make a statement like--"Hmmmm. Is the crew having a bad day? I noticed more trees than usual getting skinned up." Then, when things improve as they usually do in a big way, cookies are delivered. That seemed to keep the good work going except for tweaker crews. Tweakers just want to get paid. Tweakers don't care about damage. Tweakers suck.
Also, be careful who cookies are given to. One gypo logger never shared them with his crew. He kept them for himself.
Cookie Scrooges? Say it ain't so!
Hey now, there has to be some reward for being the boss.
treeslayer2003
Addicted to ArboristSite
naw Bob, the boss [i hate that title] is just a mean ol sob.........you know that lol.
i never thought of dad that way, just that he had alot to think about...........today i'm just mean.........ah well, i guess i shouldn't say a word if they are hard on leave trees or the equipment.
i never thought of dad that way, just that he had alot to think about...........today i'm just mean.........ah well, i guess i shouldn't say a word if they are hard on leave trees or the equipment.
I never liked the title either and sometimes I didn't like the job very much. See how many of these you can relate to.
The boss is the one guy that wants to stay when everyone else is crying to go home on a bad weather day. His pickup is usually the dirtiest. The boss is the guy that gets there early and leaves late. Sometimes, if the machinery needs attention, he doesn't leave at all. The boss is the one that lays awake at night figuring costs, plotting skid roads and landings, planning how many trucks to order, thinking of new ways to sweet talk the banker, and trying to make sure that nothing gets forgotten. If he figured his net income against the hours he puts in the boss would be the guy that's making less money than the loader operator. The boss is the person who everybody with a problem comes to, even if he can't do anything about it. If he could just find a way to be in six places at once, have a few more hours of daylight, a bigger line of credit, a few more weeks of good weather, and the ability to talk on two phones and the company radio all at the same time life would be a little easier. A little.
The mill blames the boss for mis-measured logs. The Forester blames the boss for being out of compliance with the THP even though some of the requirements are ambiguous or just downright contradictory. The Fish and Game people blame the boss for stream siltation The truck drivers blame the boss if the haul road is rough. The truck owners blame the boss if the rate is too low. The loader operator wants a new shovel, the skidding crew thinks tires are indestructible, the fuel truck driver is lost again and the fallers want more money. The boss listens, councils, suggests alternatives, explains things and then tries his best to find the fuel truck driver who, since he doesn't know quite where he is, is having trouble finding out where he's supposed to be. The rest of the problems can wait. The conversation on the company radio with the wandering fuel truck driver would make a good comedy routine...if the boss had any sense of humor left.
The boss is the guy who makes it a rule not to hire anybody he doesn't know or who doesn't have a decent recommendation from somebody he knows and trusts. The boss is the guy that gets a bad employee occasionally despite his care. You know the kind...they show up late almost every day and usually not all on the Monday after payday. By Thursday they're hinting that they need an advance on next week's wages and get sulky when you point out that they're still behind from the last advance they got and there won't be any more advances until things balance out. They're the kind that run the skidder out of fuel, again, and blame it on the gauge. They move slowly when they move at all and have no problem leaving work for the other guys to do. The boss notices these things. If the crew thinks the boss doesn't notice they'll make sure to tell him. Repeatedly. The boss is the guy that almost always decides to give the new guy a decent chance to make it and almost always lives to regret it. This leads to a conversation between the boss and the side rod about whether to keep the guy...and hope he gets better before the rest of the crew mutinies or beats him senseless
...or to send him to town and work short handed until a replacement can be found. The boss has to tell the guy that he's all done. Sometimes this goes well. Other times it doesn't.
Everybody on the crew is firmly convinced that they could do a better job than the boss. Some of them probably could but they're the older and wiser hands who have been where he is and know what it takes. They're more inclined to suggest rather than just grumble and the boss knows the difference and appreciates the gesture.
The boss thinks that if it wouldn't him take a month to untangle all the mistakes it might be fun to appoint some of the critics as "boss of the week" and take off for some trout fishing with the Forester. And the fuel truck driver, too...if they ever find him. He's earned a break.
Trx250r180
Saw polisher
He gets to travel and take lots of time off though 
treeslayer2003
Addicted to ArboristSite
huh...when?He gets to travel and take lots of time off though
well Bob ya pretty much hit it on the head.......of course i have a much smaller operation........i am the lost fuel man lol.
the bad thing for me is my only employees are dad and my son.........guess wich one always shows up on time and ready for what ever he can do?
HuskStihl
Chairin'em for the sound
It could be worse. My employees are women (and not real women like Ms.P, more like drama-laden teenagers)
You got the travel part rightHe gets to travel and take lots of time off though
Wait a minute I'm always late... but I never miss work... I've been lost more this year then I care to think about, and I'm the one knocking holes in the skidder tires...
Who's my Boss?
Who's my Boss?
LOL..the story of the lost fuel truck driver was a real one. He was a good kid and tried real hard but he was a little slow on the draw.
He called me on the company radio and said "I can't find you guys and I think I'm lost. You guys must have moved the landing and I can't find it". He was right, we'd moved. We'd moved about a half mile on down the main haul road that we'd been inching our way along all summer. He couldn't remember if he was on the right haul road 'cause "everything looked different with all the trees cut down". Okay, I asked him if he knew where he was. He didn't. I asked him for road numbers. He couldn't remember any. He was aware that he was on a dirt road, though. That gave me hope. I asked him for landmarks...creeks, bridges, old buildings, new cuts, gravel dumps, painted trees, junk cars, mile markers, anything...and all he could remember was crossing a creek on a bridge with a weight limit on it. I didn't ask what the weight limit was. He asked again how to find us and I had to give him the bad news..."if I don't know where you are I can't tell you where to go". Maybe I didn't explain that right 'cause he had trouble grasping the concept. I explained it to him about five different ways and I guess it finally sunk in. I asked him if there was other traffic on the road and he said that every once in awhile an empty logging truck would go by him . Okay, that fit in with the restricted bridge. The trucks were going in one way empty and coming out another way loaded and hauling for another outfit. I didn't want him trying his luck with the restricted bridge again so I had him follow an empty to the landing, find a loaded truck, explain the situation, and follow the load out to the highway. It put him way the hell and gone away from us but I didn't want any more wandering experiments. I had a very rough idea of where he was but I still didn't know exactly.
When he hit the highway he was about 50 miles from me...in a straight line...and 100 miles by road. I'm still not real sure how he did that and what roads he traveled before the log trucks guided him out but he sure saw the country that afternoon. I know most of the goat trails in that country and I still can't figure out how he got from A to B. Magic maybe. I dunno.
I had him go back to the yard and I met him there early the next morning and had him follow me to the landing. After he unloaded I had him wait and follow one of our loaded trucks out. That was the pattern for the rest of the season.
Like I said, he was a good kid and he tried real hard. He just wasn't much for quick thought and common sense.
I heard later that he went back to college and became a Forester.
YOU are, you lucky devil. Just don't be in a hurry to fire yourself. Nothing will get done.
And remember what Finley Hayes said about being lost? "You're not really lost until you don't get there at all. Otherwise you're just geographically challenged".
Waited a long time for that punchline. You delivered, for sure!
Sometimes there isn't any punch line. Sometimes it's just everyone who knows the business, looking at each other and nodding, and saying "yup, another day in the woods".
RandyMac
Stiff Member
There are some woods east of town that need thinned.
My woods need to be thinned except it is mostly limblocked bastard growth and would be a major pain to do unless a much hated feller buncher was used.
Well...you got the saws. You got the experience. Go get it!.
