Idiot Groundman

[NCTREE]

I just have to get this off my chest. Today I was trimming trees on a used car lot just small stuff like elevating and clearing secondary lines. I have this jacky working for me now for 6 months. He is 38 and has 15 years experience on the ground, so he says. He has two uncles and his dad who have small swack and go tree businesses in the area. Red flag number 1: he's worked for all them but no more. He also has a CDL which I thought would come in handy considering I have a CDL truck.

I was busy trimming when he ask me if he should back the truck and chipper up to the brush pile. I said yes figuring he could handle it. I kept trimming only to turn around at the exact moment to see him jack knifing my chipper. The chute hit the truck hard and busted it all up bad. I will need some major welding on it now. I dropped what I was doing and ran over and started yelling at him. You mother f-er, you f-in idiot, what the hell is wrong with you. I thought you had a CDL.

Now this isn't't the first time he's done really stupid s@#t. He screwed up one of my husky 351s. I let him borrow it for a side job and told him not to cut large trunk wood up with it. What does he do? he cuts up a 24 inch trunk of a norway maple with it. Plus the saw was dull. Now the compression is bad and it bogs out easy. STUPID f@#k.

Don't really know where I'm going with this, I just don't feel like training someone right now. What the hell is wrong with some people, it's just common sense. I am ready to punch this guy in the face.

 

[KodiakKen]

you answered your own question

it's just common sense..well brother look around..common sense ain't that common anymore

 

[NCTREE]

I answer alot of my own questions thats common sence.

 

[pdqdl]

Does he work HARD, or is he just convenient? If there are no saving graces to this fellow, replace him. Sometimes a really hard working reliable man is worth overlooking a little stupidity.

I just tried something new, and got great responses. Hired what I hope is the perfect man for my position, and I had lots of qualified applicants to choose from: Craigs list!

Place an ad for free, and get your new man hired before you cut loose the old groundman.

I had an otherwise hard working groundman; it took me better than 5 years of training before he could keep the chainsaw out of the dirt. Currently my best man for some work, but he still needs watching for a lot of other things.

 

[NCTREE]

Does he work HARD, or is he just convenient? If there are no saving graces to this fellow, replace him. Sometimes a really hard working reliable man is worth overlooking a little stupidity.

I just tried something new, and got great responses. Hired what I hope is the perfect man for my position, and I had lots of qualified applicants to choose from: Craigs list!

Place an ad for free, and get your new man hired before you cut loose the old groundman.

I had an otherwise hard working groundman; it took me better than 5 years of training before he could keep the chainsaw out of the dirt. Currently my best man for some work, but he still needs watching for a lot of other things.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I would say he is a 6 as of working hard. He is pretty reliable except for the occasional call off and wanting to leave the job early. He has pretty good chainsaw and rope skills. Still has trouble with knots which really p's me off and doesn't pay attention to what im doing in the tree. I would think after being in the field for 15 yrs plus he would know better.
I am currently training a new guy that came from texas oil rigs. I found him on craigslist too. He has some knowledge of knots and rigging. He is hard working and really pays attention to everything. He doesn't give any lip either. I really like this about him. I plan on replacing the idiot with him eventually but he needs more training with saws and the chipper.

 

[KD57]

That red flag tells it all, if he can't even work for his own family, somethings wrong.

 

[treevet]

you have just been inducted into the group of "people that don't lend the tools they make a living with to anyone".

 

[TDunk]

That red flag tells it all, if he can't even work for his own family, somethings wrong.

Not necessarily. I've quit working for my old man a couple times. It's a pain in the :censored: sometimes working for family.

 

[groundsmgr]

I just have to get this off my chest. Today I was trimming trees on a used car lot just small stuff like elevating and clearing secondary lines. I have this jacky working for me now for 6 months. He is 38 and has 15 years experience on the ground, so he says. He has two uncles and his dad who have small swack and go tree businesses in the area. Red flag number 1: he's worked for all them but no more. He also has a CDL which I thought would come in handy considering I have a CDL truck.

I was busy trimming when he ask me if he should back the truck and chipper up to the brush pile. I said yes figuring he could handle it. I kept trimming only to turn around at the exact moment to see him jack knifing my chipper. The chute hit the truck hard and busted it all up bad. I will need some major welding on it now. I dropped what I was doing and ran over and started yelling at him. You mother f-er, you f-in idiot, what the hell is wrong with you. I thought you had a CDL.

Now this isn't't the first time he's done really stupid s@#t. He screwed up one of my husky 351s. I let him borrow it for a side job and told him not to cut large trunk wood up with it. What does he do? he cuts up a 24 inch trunk of a norway maple with it. Plus the saw was dull. Now the compression is bad and it bogs out easy. STUPID f@#k.

Don't really know where I'm going with this, I just don't feel like training someone right now. What the hell is wrong with some people, it's just common sense. I am ready to punch this guy in the face.

Just because you have a cdl does not mean you can back up..
Sorry for the work you need to do now

 

[Raymond]

Could of been worse, I thought I was gonna read he backed into a car on the car lot.

Sounds like my CDL driver. He is for the most part a good driver and groundman. Taking it easy and not trying to pop wheelies with the chipper truck. My last one got the walking papers for blowing out 3 U-joints, in a couple months.

Thing of it is he can't back the chipper up to save his life, not even 10 feet.

After many failed attempts he knows to not try. I have to park my truck and then his if backing up is involved.

 

[treevet]

backing a truck and chipper into a real tight drive with a fence on one side and a decorative landscape with an exterior light etc. is a high skill level job IMO. Esp if you got 20 cars waiting for you in both directions and they are late for work and hair appointments and such.

 

[Raymond]

I like the guys who try and help me back up a chipper.
They give me these stupid circular motions, somehow trying to tell me how to turn the steering wheel.

Just tell me where you want the chipper, I got the steering wheel. Better yet get the hell out of the way and go gas up the saws. I know what I'm doing.

 

[treemandan]

I like the guys who try and help me back up a chipper.
They give me these stupid circular motions, somehow trying to tell me how to turn the steering wheel.

Just tell me where you want the chipper, I got the steering wheel. Better yet get the hell out of the way and go gas up the saws. I know what I'm doing.

Good, cause I can't drive for chit. Its sad really. foreward is one thing and I am a slow poke but it don't get funny till I go in reverse.
Oh I guess I am not that bad, I take my time and don't break nothing but a big truck driver I am not... so I tell people... so they know... not to let me drive.:greenchainsaw:

 

[treemandan]

backing a truck and chipper into a real tight drive with a fence on one side and a decorative landscape with an exterior light etc. is a high skill level job IMO. Esp if you got 20 cars waiting for you in both directions and they are late for work and hair appointments and such.

:agree2:

 

[treemandan]

I think the job on the ground takes the same amount of skill, diligence, patience and die hard attitiude of a top rate climber. Guys like G-man 1 have earned a lot of my respect and I hate to see that department lacking.
I would actually like to do some groundwork more often. Sure, you can get away with just a warm body for a awhile and you will find you need a list of warm bodies to choose from.
A groundy has to just as acurate as anybody else.

 

[treevet]

I like the guys who try and help me back up a chipper.
They give me these stupid circular motions, somehow trying to tell me how to turn the steering wheel.

Just tell me where you want the chipper, I got the steering wheel. Better yet get the hell out of the way and go gas up the saws. I know what I'm doing.

lmao......I have always felt you can tell if a dude has a good personality when he backs you up. The funny ones think they are on television and start acting and clowning it up when they get in your mirror. The real dumb ones will look at their finger to see which way it is pointing lol.

 

[treevet]

I think the job on the ground takes the same amount of skill, diligence, patience and die hard attitiude of a top rate climber. Guys like G-man 1 have earned a lot of my respect and I hate to see that department lacking.
I would actually like to do some groundwork more often. Sure, you can get away with just a warm body for a awhile and you will find you need a list of warm bodies to choose from.
A groundy has to just as acurate as anybody else.

That is so true, but I have had a lot of gm s that talk a big game, then....You really have to talk to their climber to find out the truth of the matter.

Amongst many other things, a top level gm can run the ground safely and efficiently during a high risk crane job, he is ok imo.

Think it stopped raining finally, may have to go out and knock something down. Cheers.

 

[pdqdl]

That red flag tells it all, if he can't even work for his own family, somethings wrong.

Not necessarily. Some families are not worth working for. It could be they were ALL idiots, and he couldn't stand to work with them.

I get that a lot in my neighborhood. Biggest pack of inbred thugs I have ever seen. It seems I can't hire anybody from anywhere close to my shop without them being related to each other.

 

[Rftreeman]

CDL doesn't mean they know how to back a chipper or drive for that much, when I was a GF for the big green and yellow I hired a guy that had a CDL class A and put him in the truck and he says "oh, I can't drive a stick" to which I replied "you're kidding right" I told him he had till 5:30 (quiting time) to learn and he did so the next day he's backing a chipper and jacks it so bad it busted the radiator and broke the chute off, by the end of they week he was let go after these two things and backing in to a car.

 

[silk]

The Boss here only keeps the ground guys that want to be here. If your #####ing about the hard work from day 1 your toast for sure.

All of us on the team were all once ground guys, and still are. But every last one of us also are climbers to.

After a few years in the tree, we are then sent off for UA certification.

This works well because any member of the team can do any part of the job. This is huge on large jobs so the guys can switch it up from the ground to the tree to keep everyone fresh.

I am trying to warm the boss up to the idea of weekend rescue training but for now we are to busy and working regular jobs on the weekends. At least when you go in for the UA cert they make you perform rescues every morning before class.