foodforests
ArboristSite Lurker
I have been working for a guy for a couple of months and have come to wonder if I am wasting my time. I don't have much experience in this aspect of the industry so I don't know if my experience with him is typical of most tree service companies. I suspect it isn't, but am looking for some reassurance that there are professionally run tree services out there.
This guy has been doing tree work for about 20 years but has only been running his own company for the last year or so. Before now he has worked as a foreman but never above that at any kind of management level.
To me he seems pretty disorganized and rarely if ever knows what job we will be working on next. It is not for a lack of work, it is more that he is trying to take more jobs than he can actually do. So, he commits himself to customers and then takes weeks to turn up and do the job. Sometimes we leave a job half way through to start another and so on.
Worst of all, for me, I don't know if I will have work one day to the next, or what time I will be starting, as he decides moment to moment if he is going to be taking care of personal stuff or work stuff...
Yesterday, we were supposed to meet at the jobsite at 8am, he would get there at 7:30am. He didn't give me the exact location, just said to head down the deadend street and I would see his rig, I wouldn't be able to miss it. I leave home with plenty of time and go up and down the street and can't find him. Wait around 15 minutes after 8am and give up and go home. My wife says he just 15 minutes ago called to say he was running late. So, he called at 8:30 to tell me he was running late. This is 30 minutes after we are supposed to be there, so for sure 45 minutes after his last chance to catch me before I leave home for the day. I leave a message on his cellphone. An hour later he calls and tells me he is now down there, and if I want I can come and work, then by the end of the phone conversation he decides that he can take care of things and he doesn't need me.
I am his only worker. He has been through two other guys since I started with him. I know that I work really hard, and am conscious of doing things as efficiently as possible. I have always showed up when he asked and on time. I think I have picked up the basics pretty quickly, and I am able to take criticism and change the way I do things when he points stuff out.
I don't mind being flexible to a degree, but I don't like wasting my time either. If I don't have work with him, I have plenty of other things I can get on with. But if I wait around til 10 oclock to know what I am doing that day and then don't get work I have wasted half the morning.
Am I just being anal, or is this guy jerking me around big time?
Should I perservere and try and learn from him? I already know enough to know that he makes pretty regular mistakes - from accidentally making nicks in the wood of trees he isn't removing, to not reducing the wieght on limbs and causing bark to tear, to smashing landscaping, fences etc when dropping stuff out of trees. He does pretty unsafe things like use his feet to shove material into the chipper. He waits until his saws are dull before sharpening the teeth. He uses spikes to prune coconuts, which is fairly universal practise here, but still not one I really want to undertake myself. But having said all that, he has been doing this stuff for a long time and I recognise that I have a lot to learn from him too. He isn't a bad guy. He takes the time to teach me knots and how to do stuff. He pays me decently at the end of every day I work for him, and buys me a lunch if we are working in an area near a store. He also lets me take woodchips home if the customer doesn't want them, which is a pretty good bonus on an island where chips sell for anything from $25 to $50 a yard.
Please offer this grasshopper some wisdom. Should I stay or should I go?
This guy has been doing tree work for about 20 years but has only been running his own company for the last year or so. Before now he has worked as a foreman but never above that at any kind of management level.
To me he seems pretty disorganized and rarely if ever knows what job we will be working on next. It is not for a lack of work, it is more that he is trying to take more jobs than he can actually do. So, he commits himself to customers and then takes weeks to turn up and do the job. Sometimes we leave a job half way through to start another and so on.
Worst of all, for me, I don't know if I will have work one day to the next, or what time I will be starting, as he decides moment to moment if he is going to be taking care of personal stuff or work stuff...
Yesterday, we were supposed to meet at the jobsite at 8am, he would get there at 7:30am. He didn't give me the exact location, just said to head down the deadend street and I would see his rig, I wouldn't be able to miss it. I leave home with plenty of time and go up and down the street and can't find him. Wait around 15 minutes after 8am and give up and go home. My wife says he just 15 minutes ago called to say he was running late. So, he called at 8:30 to tell me he was running late. This is 30 minutes after we are supposed to be there, so for sure 45 minutes after his last chance to catch me before I leave home for the day. I leave a message on his cellphone. An hour later he calls and tells me he is now down there, and if I want I can come and work, then by the end of the phone conversation he decides that he can take care of things and he doesn't need me.
I am his only worker. He has been through two other guys since I started with him. I know that I work really hard, and am conscious of doing things as efficiently as possible. I have always showed up when he asked and on time. I think I have picked up the basics pretty quickly, and I am able to take criticism and change the way I do things when he points stuff out.
I don't mind being flexible to a degree, but I don't like wasting my time either. If I don't have work with him, I have plenty of other things I can get on with. But if I wait around til 10 oclock to know what I am doing that day and then don't get work I have wasted half the morning.
Am I just being anal, or is this guy jerking me around big time?
Should I perservere and try and learn from him? I already know enough to know that he makes pretty regular mistakes - from accidentally making nicks in the wood of trees he isn't removing, to not reducing the wieght on limbs and causing bark to tear, to smashing landscaping, fences etc when dropping stuff out of trees. He does pretty unsafe things like use his feet to shove material into the chipper. He waits until his saws are dull before sharpening the teeth. He uses spikes to prune coconuts, which is fairly universal practise here, but still not one I really want to undertake myself. But having said all that, he has been doing this stuff for a long time and I recognise that I have a lot to learn from him too. He isn't a bad guy. He takes the time to teach me knots and how to do stuff. He pays me decently at the end of every day I work for him, and buys me a lunch if we are working in an area near a store. He also lets me take woodchips home if the customer doesn't want them, which is a pretty good bonus on an island where chips sell for anything from $25 to $50 a yard.
Please offer this grasshopper some wisdom. Should I stay or should I go?
