working alone?

[treeman82]

What is the general concensus to working alone? I am not saying in jobs where you ABSOLUTELY need that other person (aerial work involved) more along the lines of working at your garage doing maintenance, pruning shrubs, splitting wood, grinding stumps, etc. I prefer to have another person with me just for the two simple reasons that 1) I get really lonely working all by myself and 2) it makes the load on my shoulders that much less.

 

[Stumper]

I routinely work alone. Perhaps it expresses a deepseated antisocial tendency? I like to fish alone or with others. I like to sit around and laugh and joke but when I go to work it is usually just us (me, myself and I)

 

[Kevin]

I generally work alone every day.
I never take chances and will always take the time necessary to do the work in a manner that I feel is safe.
I work in semi remote locations with a 3hr. check in by phone.
I worked with another guy about a month ago after a storm, I was up a stick working on gaffs and he has traffic stopped and my handline tied off to a wire to be raised without letting me know what he was even doing.
Some people are brain dead at times.
I`ll work alone, thanks.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Stumper, if me gets hurt, then myself can run to call for help, and I can perform an areial rescue.

 

[FBerkel]

Stumper,

I'm antisocial, too!

When I worked for other companies, I developed a great desire to work alone, and did for about ten years when I went into my own business. I thought up every kind of rationalization imagineable, (forces one to be more careful, eliminates someone else's human error, pleasant not to have undesirables around you day after day, etc.). But I don't think I'll go back to that. I just imagine what it'd be like to be hung up, alone, and that's the brutal bottom line. If you're at peace with that...

Turns out hiring help was a great move. If I need to get away by myself, I still can go off stump grinding or shrub trimming. But if you can find even moderately good help, pay them and treat them well, provide incentives, they may surprise you down the line.

 

[TREETX]

this work is hard enough. When I get out of a tree, it is nice to have most of the brush already drug away.

We are all in the business of selling man hours. I am fine if they are not my man hours. I still charge $50 a man hour for the guy who is getting $10 an hour.

 

[treeclimber165]

Mike touched on it. I personally think it is insane to climb and run a saw in a tree by yourself. I will gladly do groundwork alone, but if I'm going up a tree with a chainsaw you better believe that I have someone on the ground who knows that secret telephone code for 911.

I've witnessed several freak accidents, virtually all came 'out of the blue'. Only by looking back can I see where misjudgements were made and how to make the next job a little bit safer. I cannot sit here and say that I know every safety precaution there is. I haven't known EVERYTHING since I was 18 and just starting out in treework! But I do know that I could be in serious trouble if I got hurt in a tree and couldn't get down. Minutes count, and I may not have 2-3 hours for someone to find me before any rescue operation were to even start.

I've never needed to be rescued out of a tree, and have never performed an aerial rescue. Hopefully I never will. But I'm not willing to work in a tree alone, too many stories in the news on a weekly basis of guys getting hurt in trees. To think I am immune would be total arrogance and stupidity.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The injury part is obviouse, I want someone too;

Get me the handsaw I dropped
refill my water
send up the polesaw/chainsaw I need for 1 or 2 cuts
get the client if I have a question
get my rope out of that darned branch I just tossed down
Pull that hanger out with a pole, so I don't have to downclimb to get it
.
.
.
.
On the jobs that Matt was talking about, I like to have someone raking up after me and pulling the tarp as I'm pick pruning. Raking the shrubs if i could not talk them into a shear.

weather or not they are good conversation, I can always go into a Plant Phys 101 monolog:angel:

 

[Rob Murphy]

The problem is JPS that you get so used too someone following you around at work cleaning up after you,coming when you call,passing you things when you yell out loudly(too be heard over the chipper)..it becomes part of the daily routine.....that when I slip and try it at home my wife just says I am a pig.

 

[treeman82]

I am not talking safety as much as sanity here. I like to have others around because they push me to work faster which is a good thing as long as it's safe. I also like it because I have somebody to talk to (other than me, myself, and I.) I find that if I am working by myself I don't have anybody to bounce ideas off of, or just talk about what's going on in the news on an otherwise boring job.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Rob, no wonder my room has not been picked up for so long! I was wondering about that

 

[treeclimber165]

Originally posted by treeman82
...............or just talk about what's going on in the news on an otherwise boring job.

Talk about the NEWS???? BORING JOB?????????

What the heck are you doing climbing trees, then?????

 

[coydog]

if were talking stuff on the ground that can be done safely solo, yeah i love working solo. Work, especially treework, can be a great form of meditation, the last thing i want is a chatty coworker. I firmly believe in not working alone when it's not safe to do so, and this doesn't just mean aerial work, felling can be equally if not more potentially dangerous.That's not to say I haven't done it, but I don't like to. If one must work alone though a scheduled check in would be important. Kevin, I gotta wonder though , does your cell phone ever go out of range in those remote areas your working alone in ? and if so, have you ever missed a 3 hour phone check? did they come looking for you?
I'll gladly pay a groundie $10 an hour to smoke cigarettes and pick his ass on a cut and leave job if that's what it takes to have a backup.

 

[coydog]

It warrants mentioning that there are people out there that are beneficial to work with under almost any situation.

 

[Nickrosis]

Originally posted by treeclimber165
What the heck are you doing climbing trees, then?????

He can climb in his sleep, dude.

For me, I can end up working faster or slower depending on the person I'm with. A fifty-year-old Mexican co-worker of mine, Jesus, moves faster than anyone else on our crew. When I'm with him, I move faster just to keep up! I love having him around, and he's very forgiving of my Spanish.

At the same time, a fifty-year-old American co-worker of mine, John, complains more than anyone else on our crew. When I'm with him, I don't move as fast because it's depressing being around him. I by the end of the day, I'm angry and frustrated with what he was talking about and with the fact that I got less done that day.

Nickrosis

 

[Acer]

I often feel like working alone, as it can be so hard to get decent people, but I reckon it can be dangerous to work alone all the time - and I'm thinking mental health here. Someone else with you keeps things in perspective. I know one person who works alone, mainly because he's a little bit arrogant. He believes no one else can work to his standards. When I do run into him, he normally tells me how hard he's working - a 16 hour day isn't unusual for him. When he's in the woods, he'll carry on working on clear moonlit nights. I think all those hours alone are sending him round the twist!

 

[Kevin]

We have no cell phone service outside the city limits.
I use a land line phone line or radio phone from my truck.
They give you about 3 1/2 hours then start calling you or they contact your supervisor.
The girls that I contact now are really good for getting things moving but like everything else it`s not a perfect world.
Most of my work is along the highway so if something happened I would have to try and get at least that far on my own or wait for a co-worker to show up.
I can always request help when I feel a need for it.
The job I was doing last week required two guys working along the top of a 100ft. rock cut and this week I have to haul a forty ft. ladder into a spot that will require two guys to set up and remove but only one guy to do the work so I`ll make arrangements to get help with that then the other guy can leave the job, go do his own work and come back later to assist in dropping the ladder.
I had a job yesterday that was up on the side of a hill, the pole is joint use, power and telephone.
The pole is well guided but it has three or four large wood pecker holes in the base and I won`t climb it.
The power company will have to replace the pole.
The final decision to do the work is mine and if I feel there`s any potentential for an accident to happen then we do something to correct it.
I take a certain amount of risk like everyone else here but I always know what the risks are and always work within my limitations.

 

[DAN PERKALIS JR]

working alone

i agree that most tree men are anti social and most help out ther e is brain dead but you have to get over it and learn to deal with other people and come up with better ways to train your help because most accident can be avoided but when they do happen you have no clue it is gonna happen until it does and in this bussiness never say never . and if you dont need help you probably are not doing too much to begin with so you might want to consider gettig a job with another company

 

[Kevin]

The co worker I mentioned earlier that was helping himself to my handline backed his company van into a tree last month, this past week he put his ladder up against a rotten pole, got two thirds of the way up and it broke causing him and his ladder to topple to the ground.
I`d rather work alone when I can, or with someone more competent.

 

[DAN PERKALIS JR]

working alone

i can truly relate to your problems with good help .being in tree care for 18 years and operating a small bussiness for 12 i can say i had my share which would realy be a understatement but you can not lose hope that one day you will find quality help. unfortunatly our trade in most cases does not allow us to operate alone like some other trades and safety is a growing issue in our bussiness and can never be taken for granted because a great deal of the time something bad happens it usualy results in a bad injury or death and even that i do not know you or a lot of the people that get hurt it still breaks my heart to hear about these accidents. and i would like to keep chatting with you and all these other arborists for a long time so be safe and remember that nobody ever got in trouble for being too carefull.