Nick, so are you saying this guy is very safety conscious but he also gets a lot of work done?
Thats a bit gray... There are certainly more productive foremen, but he is no slouch. Where he loses time is setting up cones, signs, rescue equipment etc; it doesnt set us back on one job so much as the days we have lots of small jobs. Now I wont for a minute discount the importance of cones, rescue equipment, road signs, flaggers, and the whole menagerie of risk mitigating process but sometimes it can be taken a bit far. i.e We need 12 cones per truck to set a proper taper in a traffic zone. Another example is chaps, Big Green policy requires them for all cutting not done in the tree or bucket, per z133, it is also illegal to chip wearing chaps, so if you are running the chipper and need a relief cut its stop>chaps on>cut>chaps off>chip>chip>chip>stop>chaps on>cut>chaps off>chip and so forth; now most guys dont wear them at all, with this guy its letter of the law.
On the other hand he is an excellent rigger and often times saves huge chunks of time by devising innovative rigging and felling plans.
Bottom line, we get all the work orders done before the trucks go back to the shop, are there faster guys? Sure. Safer? no way.
Overall, its been great working with him as I had never even worn chaps before I started at Green, and he has made me a much safer cutter both in the tree and on the ground. Its an opportunity for me to build best practices into my routine. Whether I am a letter of the law guy forever I am learning the best and safest ways as a fundamental.