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listening to coworker explain things on a site to multiple people instead of documenting it correctly.
lol… just joke’n.
Our biggest time waster eliminated in the last two years… when we switched to leica robots we never had to measure the rods and adjust the anymore to make sure the were the right height. The quick disconnect on the rod is the correct height as long as you change the rod tip when it gets a little worn. ????
yea jokes never seem to work here, I blame the audience not the joke teller.
Yea you have to have a fixed pole for GPS, I have seen a few very costly mistakes that way. One company and this was 12 plus years ago before fixed poles were popular, the crew went to a benchmark, shot it low adjust the rod to match the elevation. Well they never did a check shot after adjusting the pole, just assumed they went the right way with the rod. They go to set a benchmark for a new slab being poured. Finished construction they were called back out to do a final elevation, opps they realized what happen a commercial building was built low in a flood zone. 1 the company should of used a fixed pole, 2 the crew chief was to confident or lazy to do a check shot. 3 they should have checked into the benchmark at the end of the day.
Same with doing topo we have rods that match the instrument, but we like to either use the rod all the way down or all the way up. helps to catch a missed rod height change, or easier to fix the rod height change miss.
@flga-pls-2-2
I’m with you; as soon as the computer on the other end wants me to talk to it I start laying on the “0”. I’m not talking to a damned machine.
Thanks y’all. You made me realize how fortunate I am in not dealing with the public or, God forbid, any public agency. ????
- Posted by: @scott-ellis
Yea you have to have a fixed pole for GPS, I have seen a few very costly mistakes that way. One company and this was 12 plus years ago before fixed poles were popular, the crew went to a benchmark, shot it low adjust the rod to match the elevation.
Yeah, I’ve seen monkey business like this already in my short career. Same with forgetting a tape and getting the HI of a gun by backsighting a rod height set to zero. Recipes for disaster, imo.
Another example of how our time gets wasted popped up this morning. We did a job in 2008 for the fellow whose phone call woke me from my slumber. We whittled off two tracts from a much larger one. Now he is selling the one small tract he kept in 2008. A loonytoon county official was harassing him and refusing to let the sale happen without a 2018 survey to replace the one we did in 2008. There was absolutely no need for this to happen. I intervened on the former client’s behalf and made the loonytoon understand the error in his thinking. Sure, I could have fleeced the former client, but I would not have had a clear conscience. Being a nice guy doesn’t pay too well but that’s OK.
I got an email sent past 5:30PM. I was only able to read it after dinner before going to bed. Client stated that they need a topography, bathymetry, boundary, soil testing and other works located on a certain part of an island. Her email then went on to say that work delay would result 1/10th of 1% for every day of delay. Everything is still OK until I read the part that I need to submit the quote by tomorrow. No other details as to what the terrain, vegetation cover, slope, etc of the site is like to help us make a duration estimate much less the exact location of the project site.
I hate re-doing work for previous clients. I would rather do something once, submit it and get it over with. I find it a bit tedious to look for project folders & efiles from past work. Not to mention trying to remember any problems encountered in past work. Needless to say I have very very few repeat clients but that is the way I like it.
Here’s my time-waster:
Took July 3 off to begin the holiday early. Visited dying friend in the morning, and got day-drunk with his brother afterwards. Zombied out on the bed in my boxers, watching TV after supper. SWMBO wakes me from a pleasant dream to announce that there’s a Larry So-and-So in the dining room with a bunch of maps and papers. At 8:30 PM. Stumbled downstairs, in my boxers, snarling, and explained that it was a bad time. A very bad time. Go away.
Now, anyone else, I might have cut a little slack, but this guy – not so much. He’s been negotiating to buy a piece of a farm from an acquaintance of mine for over a year. They cannot come to an agreement as to the new lines. 4 times, he’s called and wants to come by – “it’ll only take 15 minutes..” Always at least an hour’s worth of what-ifs ensues. I’ve invested several pointless hours in this jakov with nothing to show for it.
SS
Oh Man! this whole thread is my life everyday, every week, Its always something.
My main gripe is folks that want to suck the life out of you on the phone. Like everyone has described above; they’re a hodge-podge of cheap-skate shoppers and old clients I’d probably not care to work for again. It’s probably of my own doing because I hate phone message tag and always attempt to answer the phone.
A few years back I started keeping a log by the phone. If it’s someone that is price shopping (or anybody else that wants my time for free) I always tell them I’m busy and will gladly call them back after 4:00 PM. And I always do after I’ve finished up my day. I rarely spend an hour chatting with all of them when I call them back.
And some don’t answer, and one or two tell me they’ve already found another surveyor….I always remark, “Hey, that one was easy!”
And yes, there are a few I conveniently forget to call back… 😉
Well today it was windows update on my data collector. Fortunately it was close enough to lunch time to not really eat up to much time, but it took an hour to finish the stupid update.
I know how to change…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nLmM9kcBKs
I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will!
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