X Rigging Rings, thoughts

I doubt they are highly motivated. I think its more an easy reason to get mad at the employer.


"I'm supposed to work off a percentage and so and so keeps sending us out with this piece of shit chipper that won't stay running. I'm getting screwed!"

That's more the attitude I've heard stems from it with a lot of workers. You can only do so much tree work on a week. A crew with a set equipment list really can't triple production out of nowhere. Bump it up? Go hard? Sure. But a crew can only do so much and with that said, if the estimators/salesmen for the company are consistent in their bids, you're most likely going to have a window of what your pay will realistically be. The sky is the limit doesn't really apply. So knowing that you pay can only go so high on average, it leaves it with one direction it can go drastically. Down. So you unintentionally send a crew to the far edges of the service area too many times in a row and window time starts eating at their cut, their going to turn on you. Truck breaks down on the way? Bosses fault. Customer has the driveway blocked in and isn't answering the door? Bosses fault. You get my point.

Yeah, I do. Thanks for giving your perspective; that of a man who lives with the reality of a life lived in the trenches.

I will say, however, that I personally have worked with several guys who just had an unquenchable fire in their bellies. One of whom would get pissed off at unavailable or broken equipment. All of these guys were getting paid by the hour; the huge amount of drive they possessed was something within themselves. The guy who was a gadfly, and pissed off about lacking equipment, was pissed off only because the lack of equipment was not allowing him to be as productive as the fire in his belly demanded that he be. The motive for his displeasure was pure drive.

I think the guys that are complaining really are a pain in the ass, and hard to want to deal with if you are the man in charge. Constantly demanding, as the guy I quoted earlier stated. On the flip side, as much of a pain in the ass as these guys are, they may in fact be pointing out things that need to be addressed. I know that kind of pressure is no fun. Maybe life is in fact better, easier to take, with guys who do not care a bit about the things that cause production delays. Especially if generally speaking, you are powerless to implement the changes that they're asking for. The image I get in my mind, however, are these crews I see that belong to big green, just parked on the side of the road, or in a parking lot somewhere, waiting for quitting time to happen. I saw them sit for three hours once, right outside my residence, not doing a lick of work, only to come back the next day to do the line clearance that they were already in position to do the day before.

Those guys, I'm sure, never harrassed their foreman, and the foreman was probably a happy dude. I guess it's all about balance. It's easy to go too far in either direction.

Thanks for putting up with me, a new guy, Chris. (It is Chris with one "s", isn't it?) Thanks again for giving your perspective on things.

Tim

Yes, I'm Chris. Look, my perspective is simply that and nothing more. Just my angle on something. I totally agree that with the right manpower, working on a percentage basis could be gold for everyone involved right down to the customer. Guys will hesitate to rut up a yard after the first time Customer Joe heckled the boss down 200 bucks on the check for the turf damage and the men felt it in their own wallet for that day. With the right manpower, you can create a tree eating machine from hell type of business after enough time.

It's finding an retaining that dream team that seems to give us all a challenge. For every good player on the team, it feels like you had to sort through 10 bad players. Then its a challenge to have several good men on board all at once. Then it becomes a real nightmare trying to keep all the perfect players in place long enough to make good money off of the situation.

Thanks, Chris, I appreciate your time. I'm loving this thread, even if it is a massive derail.

Tim

Show me one that isn't.

Derails are the best indicator of smooth flowing conversation. Imagine if we stuck to the topic and hand and bid each other farewell after we each gave our lecture. It would boring.

I'd prefer threads to stay OT.

Butch, if you are sitting in a bar, chewing the fat with some other tree guys, do you expect the conversation to stay on topic?

This is our after hours bar, and our conversations tend to drift a bit.

Personally I like it that way.

Ive just noticed it recently (derails) and to be honest its a beautiful thing imo- natural, dynamic, free flowing conversation, generally after the original topic is somewhat exhausted.

MB, why do you say that. Seems like everyone, myself too, dig on the gold of flowing tree conversation.

Tim, you hit the nail on the head with

your perspective; that of a man who lives with the reality of a life lived in the trenches.

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Chris , superb observations re crew composition and dynamics.

If threads stayed strictly on topic, conversations would not flow freely and lead to the bonds and friendships that make this place unique. The core group that exists here would fizzle off if the quality of evolving conversation was eliminated and the place became a bulletin board. Threads here can go for 50 pages with little effort. It's because the conversation was dynamic while still touching down periodically on the original topic. That's valuable. That's members staying engaged and participating heavily because they are enjoying the conversation. That's the backbone of the awesomeness here. We make time to keep talking no matter where the conversation leads us.

Yup, TH has a special vibe to it. When it's good, its realllly good.

What if C A T really spelled dog?


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C A T is the new D O G

I'll only react (usually) if the OP complains about the derailing.

It's all good.

True, when my lab died recently. I got a cat for the first time in my life. Easy, friendly, interesting pet. I guess I'm a cat person now.

What's an OP? ...Ocean Pacific? Oscar Phish? Original Poster?


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Sorry to hear about your dog, August.

August Hunicke said:

Original Poster?

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Old Person.

Quite a few of us here.

...still want some X slings , Mebbee flea market an old ISC block

Get them bro, you won't ever regret it.

And there ya go!

OP other people

You guys are messing around or no? I always thought OP was original post or poster. I am not a seasoned forum person though

Levi Rockett said:

You guys are messing around or no? I always thought OP was original post or poster. I am not a seasoned forum person though

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Glad your posting here Levi!

I thought OP was original poster as well....I could be wrong though