bigshow
Senior Member
I've been around the dirt scene since I was about 14, I've worked around some amazing ACE operators and I've worked around some HORRIBLE hands. I have always been passionate and proud of my trade, from the way I present myself to customers to my finished products. I had the luxury of one of the greatest operators I ever knew breaking me in and I am forever in his debt for passing on his knowledge and the lessons he taught me. One of his most important lessons he taught me was learned on the end of a shovel. We were backfilling a large hospital addition and he was running the hoe, I was laboring, running the jumping jack and shoveling. It was hot for these parts and I was hungover and he knew it, he also knew how much I loved to learn. So at coffee break he says I got a great lesson in store for you, I sarcastically said, oh great as I choked down some swill and we went back to work. Ol Joe started throwing buckets of gravel in the hole, set his bucket on the ground and kicked up his feet. I looked up and said W.T.F.?
Joe: Shovel that gravel around and hit it with the tamp, we ain't got all day!!
Me: Eff you, that things got a bucket!!!
Joe: Eff you, you got a shovel, I'm the boss, and I don't feel like grading it off for your lazy butt.
So I proceed to work like this the rest of the day, shovel and tamp while Joe sat in the hoe and watched, he would blatantly put it in big piles dropped from way up high so it packed it in as it landed and made shoveling harder. He would holler at me the whole time, telling me to hurry up and so on, all the while pissing me off to no end. We finished the day, I went home with my tale dragging wondering the whole time what this great lesson could be. I knew better than to come in hungover and he pretty much whipped me of that bad habit if it only happened once in a blue moon he didn't mind too much, I was a young, ambitious eager to learn kid, there wasn't too many floating around so I could kinda get away with little stuff like that. The next day rolls around, get my stuff around and head to the hole expecting to have to work my butt off again. First couple buckets come down nice and smooth, he reaches in, grades 'em off, wipes it smooth with heal leaving nothing but tamp work. Next lift, 'ol "Gomer Piles" is back, shovel shovel shovel!, next lift, Cool hand Luke, wipes her nice and smooth, back and forth all day, Gomer, Luke, Gomer, Luke. Finally I had enough, I snapped, threw my shovel and said What the Eff are you trying to teach me now? He says who would you rather labor under an operator that helps you, or an operator that hurts you?
It clicked right then and there, some day when I had a full time seat I knew that I would do everything in my power to make sure my laborers don't have to shovel. So after that long story, now you know my biggest pet PEAVE, USE THE MACHINERY TO ITS FULLEST POTENTIAL!!! DON'T MAKE A LABORER DO IT, WHEN IT IS SAFER, EASIER AND FASTER WITH MACHINERY, THAT'S WHAT IT IS FOR!!! I despise no talent, ignorant, lazy operators who would rather see a laborer shovel than to try and help them out. It's a lot easier to move a few little levers than it is to shovel. I have laborers that bring me all kinds of yummy treats nowadays because they appreciate my talents and efforts. I go out of my way to make sure my bucket is doing all the work, not their shovel. Not only is it easier for them, but at the end of the day, it's usually more productive too. Whenever an intricate, labor intensive project was to be done my superintendent sent me in, knowing the laborers wouldn't be abused and it would get done in a timely manner. They would thank me and I would just tell them to "thank Joe".
Joe: Shovel that gravel around and hit it with the tamp, we ain't got all day!!
Me: Eff you, that things got a bucket!!!
Joe: Eff you, you got a shovel, I'm the boss, and I don't feel like grading it off for your lazy butt.
So I proceed to work like this the rest of the day, shovel and tamp while Joe sat in the hoe and watched, he would blatantly put it in big piles dropped from way up high so it packed it in as it landed and made shoveling harder. He would holler at me the whole time, telling me to hurry up and so on, all the while pissing me off to no end. We finished the day, I went home with my tale dragging wondering the whole time what this great lesson could be. I knew better than to come in hungover and he pretty much whipped me of that bad habit if it only happened once in a blue moon he didn't mind too much, I was a young, ambitious eager to learn kid, there wasn't too many floating around so I could kinda get away with little stuff like that. The next day rolls around, get my stuff around and head to the hole expecting to have to work my butt off again. First couple buckets come down nice and smooth, he reaches in, grades 'em off, wipes it smooth with heal leaving nothing but tamp work. Next lift, 'ol "Gomer Piles" is back, shovel shovel shovel!, next lift, Cool hand Luke, wipes her nice and smooth, back and forth all day, Gomer, Luke, Gomer, Luke. Finally I had enough, I snapped, threw my shovel and said What the Eff are you trying to teach me now? He says who would you rather labor under an operator that helps you, or an operator that hurts you?
It clicked right then and there, some day when I had a full time seat I knew that I would do everything in my power to make sure my laborers don't have to shovel. So after that long story, now you know my biggest pet PEAVE, USE THE MACHINERY TO ITS FULLEST POTENTIAL!!! DON'T MAKE A LABORER DO IT, WHEN IT IS SAFER, EASIER AND FASTER WITH MACHINERY, THAT'S WHAT IT IS FOR!!! I despise no talent, ignorant, lazy operators who would rather see a laborer shovel than to try and help them out. It's a lot easier to move a few little levers than it is to shovel. I have laborers that bring me all kinds of yummy treats nowadays because they appreciate my talents and efforts. I go out of my way to make sure my bucket is doing all the work, not their shovel. Not only is it easier for them, but at the end of the day, it's usually more productive too. Whenever an intricate, labor intensive project was to be done my superintendent sent me in, knowing the laborers wouldn't be abused and it would get done in a timely manner. They would thank me and I would just tell them to "thank Joe".
Last edited:
