Dealing with crap at work -- literally

[user 185711]

Where do you draw the line with animal poop? I am a ground guy. We get to the jobsite and there is a really nice tree we will be working on, but there is dog poop everywhere. A few weeks worth at least. All I could smell the entire morning was dog poop. It got on my gloves a few times.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, the homeowners had someone come blow out their sprinklers while we are working. To say I was angry about all of this would be an understatement.

I considered walking off the job.

I will sweat. I will bleed. I will work so hard I have salt deposits on my shirt. I will work until I get a headache and then keep working (I solved this problem with salt tabs).

I feel like professionals should not have to deal with this. I have cuts on my arms from dragging brush. What if dog poop gets in them? Am I being a snowflake? Is this actually a perk of the job?

What do you think? Has there ever been a time you refused to start a job until the jobsite was cleaned up? Have you cancelled a job because of this?

 

[The Shooters Apprentice]

Dog poop doesn't bother me but I did walk off a job once when I was younger because the guy wanted me to climb down into a outhouse with a shovel and a bucket and clean it out.

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

Many times , a job quote would be adjusted to compensate for BS or rather DS un this case.

 

[capetrees]

Where do you draw the line with animal poop? I am a ground guy. We get to the jobsite and there is a really nice tree we will be working on, but there is dog poop everywhere. A few weeks worth at least. All I could smell the entire morning was dog poop. It got on my gloves a few times.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, the homeowners had someone come blow out their sprinklers while we are working. To say I was angry about all of this would be an understatement.

I considered walking off the job.

I will sweat. I will bleed. I will work so hard I have salt deposits on my shirt. I will work until I get a headache and then keep working (I solved this problem with salt tabs).

I feel like professionals should not have to deal with this. I have cuts on my arms from dragging brush. What if dog poop gets in them? Am I being a snowflake? Is this actually a perk of the job?

What do you think? Has there ever been a time you refused to start a job until the jobsite was cleaned up? Have you cancelled a job because of this?

Ya, that's a big no no. Dragging brush through sh*t is nasty and then it gets into your chipper and on your chipper, your gloves, your boots, your pants, your ropes etc. NOT cool. And then the sprinkler? I do a job, the entire yard is my work site. Nobody else allowed and no dog crap.

 

[user 185711]

Thanks for the replies y'all. I am glad to hear I am not the only one who is upset by this sort of thing. I like my job and the people I work with are great, so that's why I stayed. Luckily this is very rare as most people know to have their yard cleaned up.

 

[Husky Man]

I’m not in the Arborist business, but many years ago when I was younger, I did furniture/household moving.

On my very first job as a crew leader, we showed up to a section 8 move ( government subsidized housing)

They evidently didn’t believe in letting their animals out of the house. There were piles of poop all over the house, the carpets were soaked with animal urine, condoms, new and open scattered around

There wasn’t anything worth moving in that house, even if it hadn’t been a Health Hazard, but the government was paying for the move

I found a pay phone, and called the office, described, the situation, and that it was Unsanitary and a Health Issue, and that I wouldn’t subject my crew to those conditions

The company backed me up, refused the job, and sent us all home with 8 hours pay


Doug

 

[ATH]

I'd blame that, at least in part, on whoever bid and/or scheduled the job. When I see lots of dog poop, I'll let the client know that we expect that out of there when we are working (it is in our contract...). If there are just a couple of piles, we'll put a cone over them.

If we schedule a job on short notice, the owner may not have time to clean it up. I'll scoop enough away so we can work around it. I don't like cleaning up somebody else's dogs poop, but that is better than getting it all over.

Sprinklers...anytime another landscape contractor comes to work, I'll offer options to work around them. For example "how about you mow over there first and we'll get this stuff out of your way then you can mow here". Or "we are working in this section and aren't in a good place to stop...can you test all the other sprinklers first and check these in about 30 minutes". I haven't had a problem yet, but if they are unwilling to work around our accommodations, I'd ask them to come back another day or bring the owner into the discussion if needed. We are all there to get our respective job done. I don't want them to shut me down and I don't expect they want me to shut them down either.

 

[Captain Bruce]

Where do you draw the line with animal poop? I am a ground guy. We get to the jobsite and there is a really nice tree we will be working on, but there is dog poop everywhere. A few weeks worth at least. All I could smell the entire morning was dog poop. It got on my gloves a few times.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, the homeowners had someone come blow out their sprinklers while we are working. To say I was angry about all of this would be an understatement.

I considered walking off the job.

I will sweat. I will bleed. I will work so hard I have salt deposits on my shirt. I will work until I get a headache and then keep working (I solved this problem with salt tabs).

I feel like professionals should not have to deal with this. I have cuts on my arms from dragging brush. What if dog poop gets in them? Am I being a snowflake? Is this actually a perk of the job?

What do you think? Has there ever been a time you refused to start a job until the jobsite was cleaned up? Have you cancelled a job because of this?

Your employer should have asked the customer to quickly, and immediately clean up the work area to make it safe. Any other service that arrives should have been told to come back tomorrow; professionals doing dangerous work here today.

 

[blades]

1970's service call low income area (or what ever you like to refer ti it as ) plumbing, people open door, knocked my socks off. no way was i going in that place. Quit that company right then and there. Found out later that plumbing hadn't been functional for some time and the bath tub was completely filled with human refuse. ( That is as polite as I can state this)

 

[benjo75]

Homeowners wouldn't want dog crap all around their desk at their job. I ask them during the estimate if they want to remove it or pay us to. They always say they will then when we show up it's never done. It's written on the estimate if it's not removed when we pull up it's $100 extra.

 

[056kid]

Where do you draw the line with animal poop? I am a ground guy. We get to the jobsite and there is a really nice tree we will be working on, but there is dog poop everywhere. A few weeks worth at least. All I could smell the entire morning was dog poop. It got on my gloves a few times.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, the homeowners had someone come blow out their sprinklers while we are working. To say I was angry about all of this would be an understatement.

I considered walking off the job.

I will sweat. I will bleed. I will work so hard I have salt deposits on my shirt. I will work until I get a headache and then keep working (I solved this problem with salt tabs).

I feel like professionals should not have to deal with this. I have cuts on my arms from dragging brush. What if dog poop gets in them? Am I being a snowflake? Is this actually a perk of the job?

What do you think? Has there ever been a time you refused to start a job until the jobsite was cleaned up? Have you cancelled a job because of this?

In my youth as a child slave, I probably ate 50lbs of cow **** over the roundups...

I'm fine..

 

[capetrees]

In my youth as a child slave, I probably ate 50lbs of cow **** over the roundups...

I'm fine..

I remember cleaning the cow stalls as a kid and had the water trough that needed cleaning after being inside all winter, lower than the cows back ends and often found them crapping in it. Figured the best way to drain it down was to syphon it out. So I sucked on the hose to get the syphon going ..........

 

[GenXer]

I remember cleaning the cow stalls as a kid and had the water trough that needed cleaning after being inside all winter, lower than the cows back ends and often found them crapping in it. Figured the best way to drain it down was to syphon it out. So I sucked on the hose to get the syphon going ..........

That explains alot.

 

[sean donato]

Don't like stepping in my dogs dung, sure as heck wouldn't be stepping or working in someone else's dogs dung. Would have flat out refused to work till its cleaned up.

 

[056kid]

I remember cleaning the cow stalls as a kid and had the water trough that needed cleaning after being inside all winter, lower than the cows back ends and often found them crapping in it. Figured the best way to drain it down was to syphon it out. So I sucked on the hose to get the syphon going ..........

Protine & immunostimulators!

 

[cookies]

I would have contacted the owner and left if they refused to clean it up, dog feces can have parasites and other biological nasties in it that will get you very sick. If your smelling it your breathing it in!

 

[capetrees]

That explains alot.

whatever came out of that trough was a lot more valuable than anything you've posted in this site over the years.

 

[GenXer]

whatever came out of that trough was a lot more valuable than anything you've posted in this site over the years.

Do you actually think I care what you say.....

News flash, I don't.

 

[Husky Man]

Do you actually think I care what you say.....

News flash, I don't.

You cared enough to post that reply


Doug

 

[EchoRomeoCharlie]

If I see a dog, or dog feces while quoting a job, I note to the owner that the yard needs to be clean when we show up for the job. We will not do the job with dog feces in the yard. One or two around that they missed but mostly clean, we will take note and work around it or clean it up ourselves. But a bunch of piles all over the yard, nope, we're going elsewhere.

We charge a $100 fee if we show up and the yard has feces left in it. I'm not dragging my ropes through dog crap, period. I don't expect my crew to get dog **** all over their equipment/themselves. They don't want to pay the fee, we don't do the job. End of story. There's plenty of work out, no need to get dog crap all over yourself to remove a tree.