Guess i'm a hard azz......

[TheTreeSpyder]

A guy walked to day, because i asked him during cleanup, why instaed of taking the log cart load down hill in a straight line to delivery point he wandered all the way around to the next property then down, then back. He said it was just a small load so didn't matter and left>

So, i paced off 20 steps N(for me) down the grade to delivery point; vs. 40 steps W, 20N, 40 E (a giant 'U') to the same point (around plants, and head of tree)! We were talking about it and i had to confess to the guys; that if such things were okay i wouldn't seek to maximize strategy when quoting, toss and turn with it at night, re-access when we go to do it, then get up in tree and re-figure it!

i think that asking him Monday right before lunch; what he thought i meant the first 6 times that day that i asked him to send both lines up at once (connected) rather than seperately, he was sick Tue., rain out Wed., quit Ths. lunch. He kinda is nice and quiet; but also could be voted most likely to be lost! Last week i sent him for my belt, then had to remind him were he put it out front, he stumbled off to get it (with customer shaking his head), then wandered back without it after a bit! i rocketted right by him (they call it the KC shuffle here); with him saying "I'll git it duuuude, take it easy!".

i try to set things up as easy on guys as possible, a lot of times making it harder on me in the air; really gets bad whenst they get outta gear, and keep me hanging longer in the heat instead of maximizing my efforts in return.

On the flipside; i guess it is hard having an adrenalized boss 40' up in a guard tower; getting the big picture on the rhythm and beat of the orchestration of effort below.

O well!

 

[trees4life]

Your expectations and reaction sound logical to me. I likely would have reacted the same as you did. But I don't know if I would be as nice about it

 

[mikey]

I disagree about you being a hard azz,A true hard azz would have fired him.I also believe your better off,now maybe you can find a good worker who wants to learn and earn money.Although with the temp as high as it is now I find my self going a little slower and drinking a lot more water.Good luck on finding his replacement.

 

[Jumper]

Workers......and climbers

Some people are at home, but the lights are not on. Having said that, it is sometimes difficult to synchronize one's gound pounding rythems with those of someone 60 feet up a large tree, but this guy just sounded slow-or else he was new to the type of work? I have been fortunate in that I worked in concert with both climbers the first place I was at(learning a lot in the process) but the second I lasted five weeks; I just could not stand the constant ?????ing from above for no reason at all, other than the fact the climber (and boss) was miserable in general for some reason. Five weeks of constantly getting no positive reinforcement at all wears on one after a while. And to be frank, I think I do a reasonable job as a ground guy, certainly not deserving of the BS I got there. So I did take a hike, right in the middle of a job, which was fortunately close enough to walk home from. The final nail in the coffin involved temporarily moving the chipper truck ahead fifteen feet so the neighbour's client could get out of their drive, and I got a blast for that. Good luck finding someone that you harmonize with! You sound like a resonable sort of a guy.

 

[Jumper]

?????ing = B. I. T. C. H. ing. What a politically correct forum.

 

[treeclimber165]

I'm also guilty of the same thing. I allow myself to get totally bent out of shape when a groundie is intentionally working slowly or inefficiently. It's obvious that their only intention is to do as little as possible for the day, and collect their paycheck. Most work harder at goofing off than if they just did the job at hand.

I'm working on changing the one part that I can, that is my reaction. Ideally, I'd pull the limp d!ck aside and kindly explain to him the importance of working efficiently so we ALL can get out of the heat earlier. Then just work around him and continue as if he weren't there untill we got back to the yard and let him go. If I allow him to get my mind all bent out of shape, then everyone on the job suffers and accidents can happen.
I am truly fortunate to have 2 very hard working groundmen on my crew right now. Neither have any tree experience, but both try hard and think about how to work efficiently. They watch and listen when I show them new methods, knots, etc. and then they practice them. Both are getting good with saws and roping.

Thanks, KC, for reminding me how fortunate I am today. I've been getting b!tchy lately and need to quit it.

 

[kf_tree]

groundy's will be groundys. the other day i had to give a ground guy a saw for a small clean up. so i said take one of the 036's. of couse he grabbed the newer one. so i asked him why he chose that one? he said well its the new one. so i told him to look at the chains and take the one with the better chain on it(he can not sharpen a chain well). one other time i was unloading gear from my pick up into the bucket truck. i asked to put some saws on one side then handed him some ropes to put in the same box. he put the saw's on the bottom and put the ropes on top of the saw's. i flipped on him, yelling what do you think the rope hooks are for? some guys just don't care. i hate when guys lay a rope on saw's. i always keep them seperate from the gas and oil, so it does not degrade the rope. if the guy walked off over such a little thing, you didn't need him any way.

 

[Jumper]

Originally posted by spike_it
groundy's will be groundys. .

The above makes me smile. Reminds me of my time in-"You ain't Airborne, you ain't s*t" or "Once a leg, always a leg"

Actually the traits exhibited by most climbers I have met remind me of a lot of jumpers I have know, both in the Army and within the sports parachuting community. Type A's all of them.

Agree with mixing ropes with saws and POL-NOT! Especially if the guy has been shown where they belong ie. on a hook, in a book, or in the case with the last place I was at, in the truck cab.

 

[rahtreelimbs]

I'm curious if this guy has ever climbed. I do the same thing. When your body is sore or things aren't going good, lashing out is easy to do. But on the flip side I get miffed if the guy doesn't work as hard as I do. Rich.

 

[The Big Hurt]

Dan the Man!

My groundy Dan has only beenworking with me for a month now(he replaced my old groundy who left for particular reasons bt on good terms). Thank God for Dan. He is TOO intelligent for this line of work. I have ask him why he sint doing something else that pays better and is in the A/C. He tells me its because working with me is a zero stress job(guess I am cool like that ). I pay him 8 dollars an hour under the table and he is happy with it. Because he does such a good job I try to reward him as much as possible. My business is far better off with him. I am glad he decides to stay and work because he is one hell of a worker....overqualified to be a groundy in my opinion....great guy and always diligent.

 

[murphy4trees]

My first boss in construction used to get mad at us young guys for working too hard and not smart. He showed me the "proper" way to use a shovel. To him the easiest way was the only proper way.
He'd be proud of me now. I'll move the truck if it'll save a few steps. A few steps x 50+ trips is plenty. Work is a constant creative process... what is the easiest most efficient way to do this job? I enjoy that challenge.
God Bless All,
Daniel

 

[MidwestTree]

At least some of you guys have something to pick from, here in small town USA I have a lot of guys that want to work but never are "free" when I can put them to work. Most think that "picking up sticks aint hard" until they work a day or two in the heat. I even pay beter than almost any manual labor job in the area. To give an idea of the type of guys I have in the area, there are three brothers in town that junk (drive around loading up scrape metal to sell to junk yards, for those that are not from the midwest). They told me that their best day ever they drove a total of about sixty miles making six stops to load three tons of steel on a ton truck and got $65. That is 65 between them less a carton of smokes that they smoked. They said "ya can't make that workin fur the man". The young guys are worse. They won't work at all, they just want a paycheck. I guess they have cloned sheep and pigs why don't we clone ourselves. I am sure you would agree, if I was to have a couple of myselves I would be making good money.

TreeSpyder, I don't think you were to hard. People can't suck it up and work anymore. They just walk.

 

[kf_tree]

the american work ethic just sucks. every one talks about the job where they get paid to do nothing. why did "take this job and shove it" top the charts. a while back i was working in maine diving for sea urchins in 29 degree water. full dry suits and face masks were needed to stay warm. i was working with a russian crew and these guys were animals. local divers would do 3-4 tanks a day, we were doing 6-8 tanks a day. one day our tenders skiff caught a bad wave and sunk. i rescued the tender, me and the other diver brought the boat back up and slapped another out board on it . the tender warmed up changed his clothes, and we all went back to work. i could just imagine if it was an 18 year old kid from new york. he would have been crying to go home after an experiance like that. today at work we had a ton of small removals to do. the clean up was the worse part of the job. me and the other climber very rarely ever stop for lunch and when we do we eat while driving to the next job. the ground crew all stoped to eat lunch, then went to dump the trucks. some of these ground men get 125.00 a day. but because of there lack luster efforts they get home real late. yesterday i worked for one tree service and finished their work by 1:00 so i ran out to queens to catch up with another company i mainly work for to help them finish a big pruning job. i left that job at 5:00 and was home by 6:00. the clean up crew didn't get back til 9:30. they were all side walk tree's so there was no brush dragging just back the chipper up and chip away. they were too busy running to the store and sitting in the trucks with the ac on. then they ????? about long hours. i yelled at one of them today. just looking at the brush doesn't get it in the truck, i've tried that before and it doesn't work.

 

[Toddppm]

MidWest that was a great description I could almost smell the cigs and rotten teeth of those guys. Don't want to work too hard making da man rich off my sweat, yeah I laugh now that I'm the man when I hear that. I thought da man was rich too but I didn't slack off!!

 

[Stumper]

RE: thread title.
Better that than a hazz ard.

(And, by the way, It doesn't sound like you were unreasonable at all.)

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Wellllllllll,

Today, after the guys fueled up, got drinx they came back to me finishing a post of this mourn. 30 miles later we were at the customer's house, he had taken off to be there.

Well, get out and there is gas smell, then gas dripping from the bed. Sure enough 'Wee' filled up the tall can that we don't fill up cuz it gets top heavy, then didn't think about that 1/4 sec it takes to lock it in place somehow; then just for fun-forgot to put the climbing gear in 'basket' that holds it off bed 10"; of course that meant up, over side boxes and blindly in the hole, jelly side down......... (Erma Bombeck comment about toast). With the clip open on top so everything (except the hardly used spurs on the bottom) laid on the bed................. etc.

So, because i've gotten to being the only climber, i haven't been bringing that extra saddle along. Mine was dripping in gas, rigging slings, lanyard, 3 tails, lifeline redirect. So we had to come home, cuz i wasn't trusting the chit (but such damgage i figure actually takes time?), i wasn't gonna be drunk all day on petrol fumes, and i sure wasn't werking in the sun getting the gas all over exposed flesh and grinding it into hips, crotch and belly, had enough of that with small areas from leaky/loose gas caps overitme. I preach and screach about gas/oil and the gear constantly, every infraction.

i walked down the road shaking my head, the guy that loaded the truck took exception and left! Then so did we.

i spotted the looprunners with fluorescent pink paint, to down grade for dragging, drinx, saws, tie downs etc.; i stripped the hardware, thimbles, tool accesories from the lanyards, tails and belt. Cut the butt strap , buckle off, cut the lanyard and tails; hours later the gas was so strong u could feel your eyes start to water............. esp. mine!

Took out my old saddle, dug out the backup looprunners, made more tails and a lanyard. Gonna try again tomorrow! Probably be calling ya Sean, or maybe trip into a Vermeer dealer to try some of that fancy stuff you'se guys are always talking about! i guess if i found some miracle saddle i could still end up feeling good about it! If not, guess i'll get really mad then; shame to have to wait not knowing like that.............

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Wow, were ya spuing four leter words?

Does that fall under copmprehensive coverage, Groundie poured gass over $500 worth of gear?

 

[Nickrosis]

Wow. Just...wow. I think I have bad days sometimes.....really puts it in perspective.

One comment about Type A personalities....you're absolutely right! It takes that kind of drive to climb trees, but it also has its side effects. Just really amused by this thread.

Our hardest working employee is Jesus from Mexico. The man is over 50 and works harder than anyone else. Whenever I'm working with him, I find myself moving faster and wasting less time just to keep up with him. Also, it's great practice for my Spanish since he doesn't speak any English. By the way, the next edition of our employee manual will have a Spanish edition.

Nickrosis

 

[Stumper]

Supposedly gasoline does not seriously affect nylon or polyester.-Don't blame you for chunking it though. Evn after washing the 'stench remaineth'.

 

[murphy4trees]

Every time I point a finger at someone, there are three more pointing back at me. I took a rough hit this year too. 30 gallon tupperware slid off the back of the rear truck as we were coming home on a Friday. Contained a 240' hi-vee 1/2 in. line.. 2 saddles with clips, lanyards and hardware etc.. OUCH OUCH.
I was inside talking to the customer while the truck was being loaded so how could it have been my fault....
For not organizing the truck so that there was room in the bed for everything. And I had already had the "warning", when the same container took a spill at the yard a week or so before. So I didn't blamed anyone... except myself.
I was fortunate to have enough spare gear, that I picked up on sale, to cover almost everything but the rope and a couple of lanyards. Then as always I work at turning the mishap around into something positive. Making Murphy's law happen in reverse.

To that Spidy maybe we could do a trade if you haven't 86ed the rope yet. I could use it for swing installations.. That goes for the rest of you all too who might be trashing an old line. Low stretch static is best for tall swings. And the regular 1/2 in line is fine for shorter runs.
Thanks and God Bless All,
Daniel