You break/cut you buy?

treevet said:
Damn, you guys need to have some fun on the job. At least a smile or two. Very infectious. This work is fun...don't let anybody ruin that.
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You're absolutely right, the work itself is awesome and I wouldn't want to do anything else. Around here work pretty much comes to a halt following the holidays for a couple months. Easy to let those negative thoughts creep in. Think I'll bundle up and go climb some of the massive cottonwoods behind my house. How's the weather in Cincinnati anyway? :rolleyes:
 
John Uselding said:
You're absolutely right, the work itself is awesome and I wouldn't want to do anything else. Around here work pretty much comes to a halt following the holidays for a couple months. Easy to let those negative thoughts creep in. Think I'll bundle up and go climb some of the massive cottonwoods behind my house. How's the weather in Cincinnati anyway? :rolleyes:
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It is probably gonna average below 20F this weeks with lows around 5 but I will be up there atleast 3 or 4 days. I am gonna go see a buddy in Vancouver (Gibsons) at the end of Feb and I need to store some nuts John.

Where are you located? Wish they put it under the Avitar like they used to.
 
No, I really meant balmy. I've been dealing with a lot of days lately where the high is 0. I rejoice when it gets into the single digits and throw on a t-shirt when it gets into double digits.
 
Yeah, it was a couple hours away. It was so cold the water from the hoses was freezing almost immediately. They had it way more brutal than we did though, we were only around -10 that night, Dubois was -23.
I love Wyoming but it's not even fun to ski at these temps. So far it's milder than last winter though. I just need to get my garage wall finished before cabin fever gets the best of me.
 
the old advice of George Carlin to the Indians to the effect "go where the food is!" applies to the treeman..."go where the tree work (and the money) is". It sure ain't in minus 23 degree weather.

I lived in Buffalo NY and Peterborough Ont. as a kid. Be real difficult to make a living there if you relied just on tree work for all the snow and cold.
 
I know when I lived in Colorado that 20 degrees was a walk in the park compared to 20 degrees in New Jersey. That moisture in the air changes everything.
 
Agreed, I felt the same when I lived in Tennessee. Here in Wyoming the windchill is what gets you. Today it was 5 but with windchill -9. One town in Wyoming hit -63 (with windchill) earlier this week.
 
John Uselding said:
... The problem I see is primarily due to what would be classified as the "do as I say, not as I do" attitude of my employer.
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Been there, done that. I've tried explaining (calmly, off the job site when the mood is light) to these kinda guys that "the fish stinks from the head down." Yeah it sucks that the employees are doing X. But that's because they see you doing X. This is the work environment that you've bred. You have to change first. "But when I did X it was because of (specific reason so and so), not to be done all the time..." I know that, and you know that. But these guys aren't smart enough to be business owners, or foremen, or climbers. That's why they're minimum wage brush draggers. And as such, they're going to copy you.
 
I've worked in both models. pay for damages, don't pay. I hate when mistakes happen and things are damaged. I take the responsibility for that and will make corrections to my work performance. As Evo said, mistakes still get made but not usually the same ones or at least not as big. Making an employee pay is a shortcut for managing. Someone mentioned adults. Right, so punishing them like they were children is treating them as adults? Hmmmmm…..

Too often it's a one way street: I pay for damages done to your stuff but you don't when it's damages to mine? One employer I worked for, I brought saws, ropes, porti-wraps, blocks, etc… to the job only to have someone else damage it. Well that was a shame but no offer of replacement. My current employer, doesn't make anyone pay for anything damaged, that has worked as a motivator far better than being made to pay for accidents, foreseeable or otherwise. The underlying theme though is mutual respect. If things are being broken we assess what's going on and especially where someone's head is at. No judgement just help in better managing what's going on. Sometimes it's as simple as reinforcing with someone that it's time to set aside preoccupations and get focused on the work at hand, nothing they can do about worries at home until the work day is done. Treating them as adults who, just like us, have plenty of pressures they are juggling.

When I was a contract climber, my gear was always set where it was well out of harms way. I trained the crew to put it back and how to manage ropes. I didn't leave it at that, I watched vigilantly and directed them to move the ropes out of the way to stow them back in the bag or coil them and set them on the opposite side of the tree. Initially it was me scanning the work zone and then directing the gm's what had to be moved. As part of the call and response, I'd check to be sure everything was out of the drop zone that could be damaged. After a bit the crew just made sure everything was where it needed to be. I still checked but that took less time as it was only to confirm that everything was where it should be. Training the crew to perform as you want them to not just demanding it. As has been said, it starts at the top. If a company wishes it to be seen as professional then they have to operate as such. Skirting the law? Well, don't be surprised if employees start to do the same when they perceive a given law, or rule, as inconvenient. Walk the walk, and talk the talk….
 
treehumper said:
Training the crew to perform as you want them to not just demanding it.
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Was inspecting a paving job daily last fall and spent more time watching the crew than actually inspecting their work. 8 to 10 men on the crew, all working together, and no communication at all. No yelling, no finger pointing, no waving, even though it was a complex job with lots of driveway aprons, drainage runoffs and elevation changes. Everyone just knew what to do and when to do it. Guys were regularly hopping from 1 machine to the next, switching tools and tasks as the job required. It was some of the most beautiful work ballet I've ever witnessed - absolutely mesmerizing. The paving company owner showed up with the usual look of "Oh crap, the inspector weenie is here." I put him at ease pretty quickly with my heart felt compliments about his crew and questions about how he achieved such teamwork. Not surprisingly, he was a very calm, very confident person. Didn't seem like the yelling kind, but I'm sure if he ever did, people would pay attention. He said when he hires, it's better to hire a hard working team player with no paving experience and teach them than get some hot-shot paver with year's of experience and a swollen sense of self importance.
I've heard the same said about our business: If you're hiring a salesman, hire a true salesman (someone who could sell ice to an Eskimo) and teach him the tree knowledge he needs. Don't hire a good tree guy and try teaching him to sell. Some people are born salesmen and most of the rest of us aren't.
 
The trick in hiring is assessing a person's ability to learn and how they'll work with others. Treework is truly teamwork be sure that is what the individual thrives at. Seek out the underlying aptitudes to learning the particular skills and the methods used to teach? Don't hire a book learner if you do hands-on training. How are they at rough computation? Math skills and a real understanding of physics is key to our job. The technical skills can be taught if they have the aptitude for them and mesh with your style. Be sure they have progressive experience, 10 yrs of experience could be yr 1 repeated another 9x or it could be 10 yrs of constant building on the initial foundation.

And yes, if you want someone to sell be sure they have an aptitude for it!
 
Jeff said:
Was inspecting a paving job daily last fall and spent more time watching the crew than actually inspecting their work. 8 to 10 men on the crew, all working together, and no communication at all. No yelling, no finger pointing, no waving, even though it was a complex job with lots of driveway aprons, drainage runoffs and elevation changes. Everyone just knew what to do and when to do it. Guys were regularly hopping from 1 machine to the next, switching tools and tasks as the job required. It was some of the most beautiful work ballet I've ever witnessed - absolutely mesmerizing. The paving company owner showed up with the usual look of "Oh crap, the inspector weenie is here." I put him at ease pretty quickly with my heart felt compliments about his crew and questions about how he achieved such teamwork. Not surprisingly, he was a very calm, very confident person. Didn't seem like the yelling kind, but I'm sure if he ever did, people would pay attention. He said when he hires, it's better to hire a hard working team player with no paving experience and teach them than get some hot-shot paver with year's of experience and a swollen sense of self importance.
I've heard the same said about our business: If you're hiring a salesman, hire a true salesman (someone who could sell ice to an Eskimo) and teach him the tree knowledge he needs. Don't hire a good tree guy and try teaching him to sell. Some people are born salesmen and most of the rest of us aren't.
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Thanks Jeff.
It's posts like yours that keep me coming back to TB.
I just love to watch a good team at work, even better to work along side.
 
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