snow plow parts went through the chipper

[murphy4trees]

That's right:
I had a myers plow mount that bolts to the frame of an old dodge pick up go through the chipper last week.
This is a big nasty piece of steel.... probably weighed 10-12 lbs...

A friend and co-worker brought his little brother to work with the crew after their mother died... He kept messing up.. no accountability...

I asked the crew to figure out amonst themselves who was going to pay for the damage. He freaked out, saying "it could have happenned to anybody", when from my perspective there is no excuse... total negligence... That was it for him... Might have saved someone from getting hurt down the road too.

I got lucky with the repairs... New bolts, blades, and the mobile mechanic had the chipper back up in a few hours for $300... it could have been $3k and 3 weeks. We still did around $1700 in work that day. I never raised my voice.

 

[fmueller]

What good would raising your voice do anyway, just raises your blood pressure. The kid was still obviously distraught from the loss of his mother. It was a good thing they did'nt get hurt themselves. I'd say you got off lucky even though it woulda been a big bummer to hear bolts going through your chipper. You da man!

 

[treeman82]

Yeah, getting angry never helped anybody. Just curious though, HOW THE HECK did a plow mount manage to get even anywhere near the chipper in a way that it could be pulled through?

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Don't know about PA, but in most states you can't make an employee pay for damages, even damage caused by gross negligence. You CAN fire him, of course, but you can't dock his pay.

 

[JonnyHart]

That must have made a horrible noise. While you would have had every right in the world to freak out and scream your head off, I think it says alot for you that you kept your cool. The guy knows he messed up, no sense beating a dead horse. I know how rough it is to lose a mother (hardest part of my life ever), and while a part of me wants to remain sensitive to the guy, the fact is that if his mind isn't on his work when it should be, people can get hurt or killed. If the kid can't work safely, I would tell him to consider taking some time off. Maybe speaking with a grief counselor or something.

 

[Lumberjack]

If his excuse for it is his mother send his ass home for a week to grieve or whatnot. Treework is no place for the absent minded and I will be ????ed if I let myself be hurt by his negligence.

Send him home for a week polietly.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

A friend and co-worker brought his little brother to work with the crew after their mother died... He kept messing up.. no accountability...

I asked the crew to figure out amonst themselves who was going to pay for the damage.

Read what you wrote, then think about it.
What exactly do you have going on with your business? Who's going to pay for it? How about who's going to kick you in the a$$ for letting this kind of crap go on?
How often do you have safety meetings? Have you ever talked about letting untrained personnel anywhere near a running chipper?
It sounds like you have totally lost control over the day to day operations and somebody is going to get hurt or killed.
A few hundred dollars damage is the very least of your worries!
I won't even get into you trying to push the blame on to somebody else and your total lack of compassion.

 

[Newfie]

What exactly do you have going on with your business?

He's busy admiring his open-face notches. :umpkin:

 

[rbtree]

Amazing, this just happened to us Friday. We were using a small 3 lb pickaxe to strip ivy off some firs that we were falling. I left it in a bad place, then went to file some saws, as I had to leave to another job to meet a self loader, The tenant, an ex logger, offered to chip in and help drag brush, which was more ivy than brush. One large armload that he handed to Travis, unfortunately had the tool caught up in it. I was walking back, about ready to leave, and heard to awful noise and saw sparks fly. Three of the knives were torn off, and one went through the shroud, ripping a 1 by 8 inch nasty gash, and just missed the hydraulic filter, fittings and line. It landed on the pavement nearby. Dents were made in the access door higher up. Had it gone through there, it would have hit the house just 2 feet away. An awful incident, certainly avoidable, but it could have happened even if the tenant wasn't helping. I'm just thankful no one was hurt or killed and no property damage occurred. It took 5 hours to weld up the damage, and put in new knives and turn the anvil. Some damage occurred to the knife pockets which is minor. I'm sure the resale value of the chipper dropped, as it does look rather sloppy.

My policy with workers, since I pay on a percentage of job basis, is to sometimes reduce the amount of the job by the repair costs, and share it with the crew or maybe just the guilty party. Only do this if it is something really careless. Or make the guy put in some shop time, or do the repairs himself.

 

[fmueller]

The grim reaper must have been busy elsewhere that day.

 

[murphy4trees]

Once again I find myself in a defensive position, needing to explain things to the naysaters here. I really have better things to do with my time, which is why i don't posted much on AS anymore.
But here goes....
I wasn't on the job....
there was a pick up with some rakings, wood , and a little brush in it. My instructions were to chip the brush, load the wood in the back of the truck, and dump the rakings in the woods. There were brand new chipper blades... days old. The metal got mixed in with the rakings, which should hsve never been chipped in the first place... No excuse for that.
AS far as lack of compassion Mike... you've got balls saying that bro... The mother has been dead for 6 months and I paid for half her funeral expenses without thought or expectation of repayment...
The kid needs to grow up and I told him so... He will not work here again. End of story!

 

[chicken89]

Don't know about PA, but in most states you can't make an employee pay for damages, even damage caused by gross negligence. You CAN fire him, of course, but you can't dock his pay.

is there a place that i can get this in writing? preferable in reference to Ohio.
i have heard of this, but i had never seen it in writing to present to my employer. i know that employers can deduct pay for uniforms and such as long as it does not put the employee under min wage.

 

[Dadatwins]

is there a place that i can get this in writing? preferable in reference to Ohio.
i have heard of this, but i had never seen it in writing to present to my employer. i know that employers can deduct pay for uniforms and such as long as it does not put the employee under min wage.

Actually employers can take nothing but taxes, social security and health insurance out of an employees check. Employers can't garnish wages without a court order in most states. Contact your state labor board, or search the net for FLSA laws.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

I knew one window cleaning company owner that made his employees pay for anything they broke. Not sure if it was legal - but they did agree to it in writing.

It may be legal if it's salary and there is a work contract declaring the salary is reduced by damage caused by that specific employee.

I usually paid for the minimal damage I had, unless the worker did something they were told not to do and broke something - in other words, insubordination with damage resulting. I tell my workers that they are off the clock if they are diregarding my instructions intentionally. When they fall under supervision and the company guidelines; they are on the clock. Because if they are not working for me; they are not working for me.

 

[jamie]

breakages, i got back from a trip on the monday morning at 5.30am went to work on monday and was fine all day on 1.5hours sleep, on the tuesday coming home i dozed off and crashed the tractor, smashing both headlights, no other damage and no injury to me. after the boss ranted stupid blah blah blah costs XXX amount blah blah blah nothing else was said. a few weeks later he brought it up saying that he prefers to give guys pay rises but cock-ups delay payrises....lesson learnt. the new guy of 3 weeks however never moved a 254 and never stopped the boss as he drove over it......not a happy boss.....

$h!t happens from time to time

jamie

 

[Davidsinatree]

Murphy4trees,
It sound like mikes cheerios were stale and his milk was sour for breakfast.
It totally cracks me up when people talk of kicking someones a$$ through internet talk.
Very childish.....and unproductive.

 

[tophopper]

Murph- didnt you have a saddle go thru your chipper too sometime back?

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Murphy4trees,
It sound like mikes cheerios were stale and his milk was sour for breakfast.
It totally cracks me up when people talk of kicking someones a$$ through internet talk.
Very childish.....and unproductive.

I didn't say I was going to kick his a$$, that implies beating him up. I said, "kick you in the a$$", it means call your attention to a problem. Big difference.
Tree work is dangerous. When small companies start treating tree work like a homeowner weekend project, and let untrained people run professional equipment and take on jobs that require specialized training, years of experience, constant educational updating and safety reminders, such as weekly safety meetings and employee coaching, that's when we see the kind of posts we see day after day on the fatalities forum.
If the accident was really just a case of the tools going through because they were unseen, then Murphy has no reason to blame anyone. If it was because the kid was untrained and didn't care, what is he doing running a chipper?
Murphy has always been come here and given his far out ideas, and that's great, but he's gotta expect to get some critical feedback when he does. Heck, I make plenty of posts, I'm not going to cry foul if somebody rips me a new one. That's a good way to learn a thing or two.

 

[kf_tree]

Murph- didnt you have a saddle go thru your chipper too sometime back?

i heard something about a missing girlfriend too..............