Remember, you're going to always feel like you pay them too much, but they're always going to think they don't get paid enough.
What if I tell the boss they don't charge enough?
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One little nugget of advice I would pass on to younger surveyors is never be in such a great of a rush that you lose your situational awareness of the larger picture. In my younger years I was always running around full throttle trying to either set the pace or keep up. This is usually when those subtle clues of impending disaster reveal themselves to those paying attention. Blow by them at your own peril. That goes for taking a shortcut thinking it will save time and ends up costing ten times as much, rushing a green light at an intersection, ignoring the lowest guy on the totem pole when he tells you something is not right. Slow down, pay attention and listen to your intuition when it tells you to have your head up. Only fools rush in.?ÿ
Carry on.
Outstanding words of wisdom, should be mandatory reading for all new hires!!!
If it hasn't been said already, don't drop into any manholes!!!!
Stuff you see on TV, of people in the sewers, that doesn't work very well.?ÿ
Don't have to worry about me, I already think it's silly that manhole dips are a land survey thing in the first place. I'm sure the guys at the city water departments are perfectly capable of running a rod...
Don't forget your lunch and don't pack something that will stink up the rig.
Wash your gear/clothes from time to time, no one wants your odor lingering. If you step in a dog pile don't step into the rig.?ÿ
Learn to get along with critters. Don't fear them, respect them.?ÿ
Don't smoke cigar, or cigarette butts, that you find on the job. It reflects poorly on your boss-- like as though he does not pay you enough!
Har har har
In the great PNW...
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- when you get out of the truck at the end of they day, if your outerwear is wet, get it somewhere warm and dry. Leaving it in your duffle bag or in a pile in the truck is NOT a good idea. One day you will open the door and the smell will cause you to gag. Then you will have to put those items on, and it will make you gag again. Then you will get used to it as you work all day...then you will take it off and your wife will gag when she sees you after work. You do not want to smell like a duck's behind.
- Hang them up. Dry them out completely after each use. Have multiples of each item.?ÿ
- Once they get smelly, they will always stink again when they get wet...no matter how much bleach you use
- putting on a wet and smelly survey vest in the morning is a horrible way to start your day
- find somewhere dry to put your rain gear on, if you can, it makes your day better
- if you are new...buy rain pants, you need them
Nobody wants to hear excuses; they want solutions.
Everyone makes mistakes; when you make one; don't think about your excuse; think about how you're going to fix it and how to implement that.
putting on a wet and smelly survey vest in the morning is a horrible way to start your day
Wow so much truth in this!
So true. As I get older, I find ways to get to a point with less effort. It is sometimes hard to explain to the younger guys that walking an extra quarter mile is much less effort than getting the rig buried. And no one wants to make that call to the office...
Couple more:
- When you get to the job site, get out and start working hard...NOW. Sitting in the truck thinking about it doesn't actually help much.
- Get the stuff done that you can right now. You will see the hard stuff and your brain will start working on it.?ÿ
- The most valuable moments are the first ones at the site. You can never get those back through the day. You will always be chasing them, or they will be a good investment, your choice.
- On a big, nasty topo survey, do the easy stuff first. This goes against conventional wisdom, but trust me.
- The client might bail after the first 100 acres, the economy might drop, whatever.?ÿ
- Sometimes the hard stuff gets more obvious after some time working the project.?ÿ
- Getting shots now rather than scratching your head is valuable!
- Same applies when you have a bunch of stakes to get in the ground
- Talk to the foreman, keep them happy (it pays off)
- When you get a bunch of wood in the ground to start, it helps with your outlook and it makes you look good.
- Take care when you write up stakes and tie on flagging and paint your stakes (construction staking).
- The "customer" has zero clue as to the amount of work that you do to get that stake in that position
- The stake is the only thing that they see from your product.
- Write clearly.
- Write large enough that they don't have to get off the machine,
- Be flexible, write it the way they are used to seeing it
- Tie the flagging correctly
- Use enough paint that they stand out across the site. This isn't the time to be subtle.
- When the grizzled old guy in the machine questions your work...be humble.
- He was doing this when you were in diapers.
- You are on the same side
- He LOVES to find mistakes by surveyors...this is a GOOD THING! (Not good to make mistakes, but good that someone cares to check.)
- Build trust on a job site. Trust is the difference between profit and loss.
The other thing is when a vest gets old, it doesn't stink too much when dry. Then it starts to rain and I try to figure out where that horrible smell is coming from...and the sinking realization that it is me...time to buy a new vest!
Just checked and it's -18 where I'm working at today. I think I'm going to spend a good few minutes sitting in the truck before hitting the ground. ????
