Job I will never forget

[Dirtman2007]

After reading a few other people's comments on probelms they had at work I was compelled to tell this one. I was working on this about a years ago. It was a good and easy job to do until all the neighbors/ onlookers got involved. We were to dredge out about 2000 yards of silt that had filled in the head section of a pond. This pond just happened to be completely surrounded by town homes on 3 side, Just what I need 500 people to watch me work. To start things off the work area was very limited. I had to clear about an 1/10 of an acre of tall trees to creat an area where we could put all the mud onsite. Oh boy that got the tree huggers out fast! I was taking down one big pine tree, As it was falling I just happened to spot this old lady standing right beside the machine. After the I picked my heart up off the floor of the machine and put it back in, thinking I just killed someone, I open the door to find her standing about 20 feet from the machine wanting to ask a stupid question. REMEMBER this area is silt fenced off and has caution DO NOT ENTER signs posted over the entrance. She asked me Why was I taking down the trees and how she did not want to see here neighbors across the street blah, blah,blah, and so. I thought Why in the hell would you live in a townhome complex if you did not want to see your neighbors?. Well she left and I continued on working.

By the end of the day I felt like I needed a secretary to answer all their stupid question. Then the same old lady would come out every day compaining about something and I would have to listen for 10 minutes. Atleast I could get some rest from the questions while I was working in the pond, too muddy for the city slicker to come over. One day it rained a little so the pond had to be dained down some more. Then here comes this lady who we named " turtle lady" form here constant question about are the turtles going to be okay? That day I had enough when she asked "are you going to remove the turtles first", by saying they will not fill a thing once the bucket of the excavator hits them- that did not go over easy with her! She revolted by saying I will Stand in the middle of the pond to stop work until you remove them, then my smart a$$ comment of " go ahead, but I won't help when you become trapped knee deep in the mud, I can work around you. So she stomped way and I carried on. On the last day we were piling up the mud in holes we dug to hold it. One hole just happened to be about 10 feet away from the sidewalk were the ool lady that complained everyday always walked here dog. I could not resist myself that day when she was walking by, I scooped up a huge pile of mud and right when she walked by and gave me that " go to hell look" I dumped to mud from about a height of 10 or 12 feet sending massive amounts of mud flying in all dirrections, completely splattering her. I swung the machine back around where she could not see me as I died from laughing so hard I cried and continued working. When I completed the job that day I immediatly left so there was not confrontation with her and have never seen her again. I have never been on a job where that many people complained about things. good to see that one behind me
Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets these lucky jobs!
Sorry to be so long winded

 

[BKrois]

I understand your strain from constant nagging customers, but sometimes its better to bite your tongue than throw some comments at them that could come back to haunt you. It seems as though a lot of peoples work comes from word of mouth, all that lady would have to do it tell some of her friends that "abc excavating co" told her some rude things and then covered her in mud, word travels fast sometimes.

IMO- i would have enforced the "do not enter" signs, tell her she can't cross the line its private property, etc. makeup something to keep her off the property, and if she has any questions she can mail them to your office.

 

[thejdman04]

enjoyed thes tory

 

[JDMGrading]

Sounds almost like you were working in charlotte.

 

[Dirtman2007]

I understand your strain from constant nagging customers, but sometimes its better to bite your tongue than throw some comments at them that could come back to haunt you. It seems as though a lot of peoples work comes from word of mouth, all that lady would have to do it tell some of her friends that "abc excavating co" told her some rude things and then covered her in mud, word travels fast sometimes.

IMO- i would have enforced the "do not enter" signs, tell her she can't cross the line its private property, etc. makeup something to keep her off the property, and if she has any questions she can mail them to your office.

I do agree with you that most work comes from word of mouth. I bite my tongue 99% of the time, but on this job I could not take it any longer. I can't stand people who have nothing to do with what is going on to complain about things. Now I just try to agree and carry on. It's like the old saying: do a good job and a person will tell 5 people, do a bad job and they will tell 20.

 

[Wolf]

Great story dirtman Chris. Good move! I laughed so hard. You got her good that time.

 

[mikef87]

It sucks dealing with tree huggers. I would put up Construction worker only signs. No Tresspassing etc. Next time it happens I'd call the cops and have them hauled off. That'll straighten them out.

 

[cat320]

well I was on this job yesterday grading a yard and then spreading 50 yards of top soil . we started at about 6:45 in the moring and by 8:30-9 I finished getting the yard ready and started to spread the top soil got one area done and the lady from the house next door comes over and starts talking to my friend who's job it was to landscape this yard and askes him if he could take out this rock or really out cropping of ledge after we spread the soil and raked it out all around. well glad i stayed in the mchine and continued to work .she probably would not of liked me laughing right in here face.

 

[Wolf]

Tree Huggers

So, dirtman, how many of those cute little turtles did you put out of their misery with the bucket of your hoe. How did turtlewoman react to that?

It sure does suck having to deal with the tree huggers all the time. Anyone else have encounters with them, good or bad? What happened, and how did you handle it?

 

[CascadeScaper]

I've had some of those jobs. I laugh at people. I was working next door to a house that the owners rented as a weekly summer vacation rental, house was right on the lake and was $2000 a week easy. Can't remember what I was doing exactly, think I was just getting out of the machine to grab the water hose to get some moisture in the pit run when this lady comes up to me and asks when we were going to be done working. I told her I had about 4 days left on the job, she said that I had to leave until they were gone. I laughed at her and told her if she wanted to pay my crew the days we wouldn't be working, I'd glady not be around. She didn't find it that funny and stormed off. Later that day the whole gang decided to talk a walk down to the store and as they were walking by I cranked up the country music and bumped the throttle up to 100%.

 

[Squizzy246B]

Here is a few more memorable moments

https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=259

 

[rino1494]

You talk about the lady standing next to you machine. I was cutting out dirt to subgrade for a shale sub-base for a road for a development. I was using the excavator and turning 180 degrees and loading our artic. I was scratching doing some clean up to get a full bucket when out of the corner of my eye, I see someone. Here, some old guy was walking his dog right past my machine. He was only about 20 ft from me. If I would have swung, I prolly would have knocked his head clean off.

 

[Electra_Glide]

I understand your strain from constant nagging customers, but sometimes its better to bite your tongue than throw some comments at them that could come back to haunt you. It seems as though a lot of peoples work comes from word of mouth, all that lady would have to do it tell some of her friends that "abc excavating co" told her some rude things and then covered her in mud, word travels fast sometimes.

Very good advice...

Just read a story last week on another forum from an O/O OTR driver leased on to one of the national moving companies. Got in a minor fender bender with a car where the other driver was clearly at fault. He gave the other driver a piece of his mind, and a few days later he got a call from his agent, and his contract was terminated due to the complaint that was filed by the other driver.

In today's society, the "risk" is probaly higher than the "reward". Sad, but true...:Banghead

Joe

 

[Turbo21835]

I was working on a scraper crew in Ohio a few years back. We had 4 Cat 627E, Cat D8R, Cat D6M, 2 Cat 815, and an International tractor with drag box. One day we had some guy wander onto the site. A guy on an 815, on the D6, one 627 operator, tractor, and the foreman all stopped and told the guy he cant be there. Guy being foreign just smiled and nodded. He became a visitor for the next two days, again the same people stopped and told him he cant be there. Finally the foreman had enough. Next time the guy was spotted on site, the foreman came over the radio and told us to "highball this guy off my site." Being in the cut with one of the other 627s we both grabbed a bowl full of dust and headed for the haul road. We went side by side, 50ft away from each other with the guy between us. While in 8th gear, bowls 4inches off the ground, we let all the powder go. Anyone whos been on a dry site with clay knows how dusty things get. You also know how that powdery dry material spreads out for miles. That guy couldnt get out of there fast enough. We never did see the guy come on site after that.

Josh

 

[EZ TRBO]

Being we are all telling stories, figured I would share one of many. Last year I was digging out some soft spots in a road. Had spent a day sawcutting the asphalt and had the 312 CAT there and started taking up blacktop. There was only two sets of trucks that needed the road and each could get out at the other end so we just shut the road down. Road Closed signs must have a hidden message in them to non construction people that says, YOU MUST DRIVE DOWN AND SEE WHAT IS GOING ON DOWN HERE, YOU WILL NOT BE A HINDER OR DANGER, GO ON GO SEE WHATS DOWN THERE. I am sitting on the other side of the road, on the blacktop, digging out the asphalt and loading it on to a dump truck. This guy with a cattle trailer comes down the road, stops right at my machine and when I get done loading the truck he motions to be to move. I idle down the 312 and get out and ask what he needs. "Move that machine so I can get through here." I told him I wasn't moving it any more than I needed as it would risk tearing up the ashphalt I was sitting on. I then looked up the road, could see the sign was still up, and asked did you not see the ROAD CLOSED SIGN? "Well I can still get through. I said thats not the point, and no you can't get through cause I am not going to move. The truck was back by now and went and got in my machine and loaded him. The cattle guy finally backed up about a 1/4 mile, turned around and went the other way.
Trbo
If I can get the pics from my dad I tell ya bout the guy(nother cattle dude), that went past the flagman and slid about 400 feet on oil and into the highway depts new chip spreader.

 

[CascadeScaper]

Oh that reminds me of a good one that my dad witnessed. We were doing some landscaping work for a house in a beach front community. They never plan those communities out very well, the roads are so narrow that you can't really get 2 cars wide and the corners are super sharp, no way to drive the truck and trailer down to the site. So we walked our mini down to the site, which was probably a 4-5 minute walk back to where we unloaded. There are two entraces off the highway and one of them, before it made the "Y" to head down to the houses and such, was a perfect place to load up, there was no shoulder up on the main highway. So we blocked one of the entrances for a few minutes to load the mini, you can easily see from the highway that there is zero passage through that entrance, drive another 200 feet and take the second entrance. This one older lady decided she was going to get out and yell at my dad and I. She asked why I was blocking the road, I told her we were loading the machine and we'd be just a minute and reminded her of the other entrance. She said she didn't want to take that one, I said fine, you can wait. Then she told me that she was going to have her husband come fix our wagon and I asked her if he was gonna kick my @$$. They sat there for 10 minutes while we loaded up, I took my sweet time. People are so ignorant. Here I am, beat tired after a day of work, grease all over myself and she wants to hassle me because she's too lazy to put the car in reverse and make it easy on everyone.