start time?

[treeman82]

Regarding early starting times. I had started a tree job out in Bedford a couple of years ago. I was working on one property doing a removal and some brush clearing, and had 2 guys doing some lawn renovation stuff at the house next door. I had been working at both houses for over 3 years at the time. The woman whose house I was doing the lawn work opened the window and WASN'T happy because I had those 2 guys start up the machines at 8:00 AM on a saturday. A couple of months later I was back at the place where I had done the removals grinding stumps. It was starting to get dark, because I was trying to grind out (2) 36+" diameter sugar maple stumps, along with 3 or 4 GOOD sized arborvitae stumps with a 252. That same woman comes out PISSED with me. Says to turn off the machine or she will call the cops. So, off went the machine, because that woman is 1) a well known lawyer in town, and 2) on the town's zoning board

I used to know a guy who was out of his yard with his trucks by 6:30 each day. They wouldn't return back to the yard until 7:00 PM. At bare minimum they would work 12 hrs a day, 7 days a week. 84 hr work week, right? To me, that is asking for an accident, not to mention all the overtime and comp he must be paying

 

[jamie]

times

we start at 8.30 and finish at 4.30 each day, except friday which is 3.30

if we have to go out to the yard its a 7.30 start.....but the boss normally meets us at the job, all the kit lives in the lorry and one of our guys takes the unimog and chipper home....like a company car.

sat / sunday we normally start at 9 and work till the job is done...no breaks but noone cares if we pop off for 5 mins to get something to eat / drink / sit down for a bit

jamie

 

[jmchristopher]

Here at my new job, its luxurious - we don't report til 0700. The crew is supposed to roll by 0715 to beat some of the traffic and some of the heat in the summer. At my last post it was 0555 , crew rolling by 0615. Ten years of that misery (I got used to it after 3 or 4 years.) We figure a full day is 8 hrs plus a half for lunch, but overtime's the rule from mid-April thru the summer.
My wife's a Brit and thinks Americans work themselves sick, and only get a couple weeks vacation, which I, for one, never managed to use up.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Originally posted by rumination

JPS, I'm with you on that nap under the tree after lunch on summer days. There is nothing quite so idyllic. I even have fond memories of particularly satifying naps!

Can i come out and work with you this winter????

 

[BigJohn]

We start our day off at 7 and leave the yard by 715. We get a 15 minute snack in the morning at my disgretion and then a half hour lunch. Sometimes lunch can run over if we are too far ahead of the game. We used to get some ???? about prunig too fast. We like to get back around 4. I never try to come in too early. No sense in busting your ass so your afternoon is relaxed just to get sent out to do another a job. It usually turns out to be a ???? job that has been gettting put off.

 

[TheSurgeon]

Oh the hours....................

Meet up around 0800, talk for about 10, lunch when its convenient (between 11 and 1), then call it a day around 1530.................

 

[Acer]

At the moment, I'm pretty busy, so I'm leaving home around 6:30 - 7 am. The job's some distance away, so we'll get to site about 8:30, work to 4:30 - 5, get home around 6:30 - 7. Weekends, I start a little later, leaving around 7:30, and I'm probably back by 6pm.

I draw the line at 12 hours door to door. Legally, I think you're supposed to have a clear 12 hour period between shifts - you're entitled to that as an employee anyway. I remember working for a company felling trees alongside railway lines. They suddenly decided that they wanted us to do a nightshift that night, so they had to send us home at 11am so we could report back at 11pm with a 12 hour break in hand. We got paid for the full day, plus time and a half for the night shift, and the following day off to recover.

 

[blue]

done a few 12-14hour door to door days before.trouble was they were at the beginning of the week,buy thursday i was nearly fallin' asleep drivin' home.never been so tired!

 

[topnotchtree]

My longest work hours was when a tornado went thru detroit in 97. The pull out was a 1 hour drive for me at the time.I would get up at 6, leave by 6:30, at the pullout by 7:30. We would get a break for lunch, then quit around 9 to go find a resteraunt to eat dinner. Head back to pullout, and head for home around 11:00. Get home around midnight, sh*t,shower,shave,chat with the wife and be asleep by 1 am. This lasted for about 3 weeks straight! The paychecks were awesome, but it was hard work.