Working by the hour...

[Froggy]

When you're working by the hour as a climber. You charge X amount of dollars for each hour you climb. When they ask you to move brush down the hill do you still charge X for that also?

PS: I'm talking about being hired as a a climber by the hour, and they ask you to move brush from one of the jobs not all or maybe all. Aslo how much do you'll make an hour.? When you do it by the hour. Or do you just tell them you'll climb. They can get some one else to do the clean up. This is view type work for a contractor and one job in the same development for a home owner. All will be done through the contractor.

Thanks,BB

 

[kf_tree]

usually it's a day rate......i don't know any climbers that work by the hour.
why have a high paid climber dragging brush? put the tree on the ground and get on to the next job. once the tree's on the ground it could always be cleaned up.

 

[NickfromWI]

go for hour rate

around here, bosses see climbers as "workers who can climb." They seem to want everyone at the job until it's done. I charge my rate no matter if I am climbing or grinding stumps. You have to charge what you think you're worth. Also, if you let a boss pay you less, that increases the time you'll spend dragging brush. If he's paying you 20.00/hr to drag brush, I'm sure he'd rather have someone else drag it for 8/hr. I guess if you like draggin' brush, well, that's another story.

love
nick

 

[treeman82]

The guys who I know that get paid for being "hit men" aka climbers who come in for a day; they get paid a daily rate, whether they work 4 hrs, or 8 hrs, or 2 hrs. The guy I know who does that every day, he gets the tree down to the ground and then leaves. So if it's just 1 big tree for the day, then once it's down he leaves with a full day's pay, and sometimes will go to another company, put a tree on the ground, get another day's pay...

 

[ORclimber]

If you don't want to drag brush you could always ask for MORE$ per hour for groundwork

 

[TREETX]

Brian nailed this one.

Are you there to be a climber, to be a brush dragger, or to accomplish a goal in the fastest way possible?

A climber should tend to his duties, i.e. putting his equipment away, etc. Then he should help the rest of the crew sort out the mess so all can blaze on to the next job.

I like employees who think how the whole team can get the job done the fastest instead of focusing and whining about who does what. WE do tree work. Everyone is an itegral part of the machine.

I have had climbers with the "why are you paying me that much to drag brush when you could get an $8hr guy to do it?"

Answer is, yes you can be proud of your wage but mine is $50+ an hour. I would rather have you drag brush for 2 hours with me than for me to have to shut things down for 2 hours while I round up all of the $8/hr guys.

No princess climbers near me please. Little biotches think they are brush dragging exempt. I don't care how fast you can prune or disassemble a wicked tree, if you can't help get the entire job done, piss off. I would rather pay a slower guy $10 more an hour and actually get the job done.

An exemption would be a hired gun. But that isn't an employee now is it??

Remember, you have to touch trees. That includes the little parts on the ground.

 

[Froggy]

Reply

I know at work everyone has to do his or her part to get the job done fast an efficient(SP Check) . How hard you work is a good deal of it, but how smart you work is a bigger part. So your saying if the guy wants to pay you for dragging brush. Do it! Well I kinda sorta figured that out. I never think just because I climb I don't drag brush. You've got to do it all around here. You make a little extra money, but you still work the ground when you are there. Thank you all. BB

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I work both ways, flat rate and hourly. The hourly is with my regular clients though. I had one guy try to count every minuet I was not moving and deduct for it. Even while in the tree.

What I will do is ask if they want me to help with the ground work, if we are not going to another job. Especial if it is hourly. Many times I will just pick up a rake and keep going till i get to my minimum time and ask if they want me to keep going.

To rephrase what has been stated, your rate is what your rate is. If they want to pay you X to clean up then more power too them.

I once saw an electrician sweeping up trash, happily whistling a tune. I commented on it, maybe some "Union" joke. He said "Hey they want a "clean job" if they want to pay me $65 to sweep up, I'll do it".

Lastly, I sell myself as an arborist, not a climber. I'm there to do treework, if we want to stop "working" to discuss structure or rootplate conditions, then I'm still on the clock then.