Quote:
Originally Posted by boa07  Hi Marc, interesting points, if during repollarding of any species with great age I permitted the limbs I was working on to barber chair or tear down the bark I don't think I'd be getting a call back from that company again, and rightly so. Sounds, as you suggest that the chain was not sharp enough, nor the climber.
I am very fortunate to be in a position where the company I work for values me and my skills, but I am not silly enough to fail to recognise that others are in positions that require them to "get it done" then move onto to the next job. The pressure on climbers for speed at the cost of safety is a real problem, I've seen it like everyone else. Its one of the main reasons why I am commited to getting best practice standards established here in Queensland, without them there is no job specfic protection for tree workers at all. |
O.k it probaly sounds bad my description of the climber tearing out limbs and barber chairing, the boss was on site at this job, a particularly large job with pressure to get it done, unfortunatly although the company I work for is without doubt of the highest quality in terms of the work they do this job was very much quantity over quality, although the finished job was still to higher standards than most would do in the circumstance, but i'm not here to justify the reasoning behind the work.
The boss is all for challenging new climbers, he often like to put them in situations outside there comfort zone to see how the respond, not in a way that would risk the climber, now it was messy but I hope that he learnt valueble lessons from his mistakes, I know I did.
Tree work is a funny game out here, in my area there are 5-6 large quality firms and 60 one man banders of varying quality, most are hacks. Its a very competitive marketplace, with the small outfits undercutting the big ones, so it unfortunatly means the larger firms really have to up there productive output.
In the name of speed guys cut corners (ugly term) to be faster, I wish it was different and so do they, but a climber is rated by his commercial speed and quality combined. Me I prefer quality over quantity, now i'm lucky I can find enough work to keep to my ethics and approach to work, others prefer the glory of being the quickest, but I do respect them, most of the best have never suffered injury to themsleve or others, but they do not always work to best practice, unfortunatly as a result there commercial viablilty seems to end at 40 years old. Which to me is to young to stop climbing.
I wish things could be different, but I would'nt want to see companies like the ones I work for disappear, they are the hero's of tree work over here, but there is no way they could compete if they had climbers who always got themselves into good working positions etc etc, very sad but true.
We have a company called Treevolution and a guy called Paulo Baveresco or something i'll try to find links, who are pushing for changes in the industry, unfortunatly must firms I work for just cannot adopt there best practice and still be commercially viable.
Change will happen just very very slowly.