I'll be quite honest with you here.
Simply because im tired of academics coming onto the job half smart and plenty dangerous. And because you did a course ,your buddies like to try and take guys like me apart. Im just a dumb construction worker ,we went to college.. Id pile drive them all in the ground if I could , every last one of them .
I really don't have the time of day to explain Newton's Law's , Load Moment , ground compaction , bearing pressure , and a litany of other stuff that has to be considered.
Spend 5yrs around a crane ,before you even attempt to answer those questions.
Ive heard it all, It boils down to "I don't know how to do your job ,but my book says your doing it wrong" .
At the risk of opening a can of worms, I feel the need to respond with a view from the "other side".
First off, I want to agree with Liebherr1160's point that many, many people from the engineering side are just as he describes. Plenty believe that because they understand structural engineering or finally figured out a load chart that they are now experts. It is human nature. They definitely cause endless amounts of tension and even dangerous situations on jobsites and insult alot of very knowledgeable operators and riggers. I've worked with them, and I've wanted to slap them too
However, one thing that never gets brought up is that this problem goes both ways. Just as much bad information and voodoo engineering floats around the job site as it does the office. I have heard many very experienced foreman, riggers, and even operators say things about engineering or cranes that were downright wrong. I have heard the same kind of arrogance from guys in the field as I have from guys in the office.
Taking a course certainly doesn't make someone an expert. At the same time, running a crane for 20 years and not laying one down (yet) also doesn't. Newbies and veterans in all fields continue to kill people on our jobs and that should humble every one of us.
What is desperately missing is a mutual respect and willingness to learn. We have far too many arrogant SOB's who think they know everything and that the "other side" is useless and wrong. Again, its human nature for knowledge to go to our heads and that means we have to be understanding even of the SOB's (we've all been that guy at one point). This means we need to be humble and be willing to work with each other. We have to be willing to continue to learn but also stand our ground on important things. Being a 20 year bridge foreman, top operator, structural engineer, or project manager doesn't come with a certificate saying "Now you know everything."
We really need to end this "two camp" mentality on our jobs sites. We also need to be gracious to the people who perpetuate it and to the people who say things that are wrong. We need to be willing to instruct others and to be instructed ourselves.
