My First " My Job "

[YoungOne]

Working for a company with 9 people ( including owners that work every day! ) We have six jobs going at one time.

Well i found out today that. Our newest job was given to ME. I'm feeling alot of pressure, and i just want to know how you guys deal with it.

I've got three pieces of equipment. And one man other than myself to work with.

Job includings moving 12000 yards of dirt, and importing 7300 yards.

Laying some concrete pipe, constructing a 7 foot tall 114 long wall. ( obviously i will get more help with the concrete part )

The boss man just got us an BRAND NEW D4LGP with 2 hours on it now. ( got it late this evening ) and from what he is saying that's going to be my machine to use. Other two machines are a ingersollrand roller, and a 320b excavator. Really need a skidsteer :Banghead

How do you guys handle the pressure of jobs like this? Getting alot done. Enough to keep the boss happy. etc etc.

Tips please

-Michael-

 

[Countryboy]

Congrats on the job YoungOne. :drinkup

 

[mikef87]

Well if the boss knows your just getting started he'll teach you the right way to do things. Just go slow and steady until you get the feel for things.

 

[Squizzy246B]

I had my nephew come back from a job yesterday where he was thrown in the deep end and was a bit worried. I say the same as I told him:

First its not rocket science, just needs common sense approach. Take your major objectives into simple tasks; 1.) move dirt = whats the simplest and most effective way of doing it and is there any reason why it can't be done now or should it be done later....answer questions, make plan and do work. thats how it should go, just focus on your major objectives and trust in your skills to deal with the the little things.

Keep your co-workers well informed...and don't be afraid to delegate sub-tasks so you can focus on the big picture

I like to have a big picture plan and then look at all the sub/minor tasks for a particular objective. The big plan rarely changes but the smaller items can get thrown awry by all number of internal and external factors....Truck drivers are good at screwing up your plans...

A good site supervisor doesn't spit the dummy when something changes, he rolls with the punches, focuses on the job (always with a smile )and gets on with it.

A sub-tasks for some of my walls might be to answer the following:

at what stage of the project should I start/build the wall (the big picture)
what earthworks should/can I do before and what after (what machines and materials shall I use)
what stage do I want materials (order)
what services, pipes, drainage, conduits etc need to go under or behind the wall before construction starts?
do I have the necassary resources and drawings
and so on...but at the end of the day is "Build the Bloody Wall"

its not rocket science.

When you do those things it starts to form a plan. The last thing is to try an identify or anticipate some of the problems that may occur or things which you cannot quantify before works start. Things can and do come up...sometimes you can have a bit of a contingency sometimes you can't....we don't have underground X-ray vision.....well at least I don't.

Good Luck.

 

[JimBruce42]

Congrats on the job, sounds like you've really found a good place to work.

 

[IH PULR]

Be early for work

Stay a little late

Take your breaks as agreed (30 min lunch not 45)

Say thank you when you get your paycheck

Take care of his equipment ,clean , grease, sweep cab , keep track of mant,schdule

If your not confident ask

Be polite to the customers

Offer to work late when your boss is stressed out about completing project

Take pride in your work

Have fun

Follow these simple rules and some im sure others will chime in with and you will be a model employee good luck with you new job and hope you have many years of gainful employment.

 

[mikef87]

Be early for work

Stay a little late

Take your breaks as agreed (30 min lunch not 45)

Say thank you when you get your paycheck

Take care of his equipment ,clean , grease, sweep cab , keep track of mant,schdule

If your not confident ask

Be polite to the customers

Offer to work late when your boss is stressed out about completing project

Take pride in your work

Have fun

Follow these simple rules and some im sure others will chime in with and you will be a model employee good luck with you new job and hope you have many years of gainful employment.

Spoken like a true construction worker. Good advice

 

[CascadeScaper]

I've been handed some interesting tasks over the last couple years. Last year, my dad and I partnered up in an excavation endeavour. He didn't really know much about anything, he provided the equipment and I was doing the jobs by myself. There were times when I couldn't ask a question, there was nobody to ask, I just had to figure it out. This isn't the preferred learning route, you can really screw up and be up crap creek real fast in some situations. But if you have a resource to counsel, you're set. Learning by doing is the best way to learn, I've learned a lot by what I taught myself, but I've also learned alot working around guys who have more experience than I.

As far as dealing with stress, welcome to the real world. LOL. There's no way around it, you just have to handle things as they come and realize the more you worry about stuff, the worse off you're going to be. Things are going to happen, deal with them as they come and keep things flowing. Remember that when you do make a mistake, trying to hide it from the boss isn't going to help. The first day out working with a buddy of mine this summer I busted a hydraulic hose on the hoepac :Banghead It was poorly routed and when reaching out the thumb caught it, I couldn't see behind the thumb to notice the thumb snagged it. Long story short, he was off site, I called him up and told him what happened. I ended up getting the machine running again by the end of the day, paid for the parts myself out of my pocket.

I've seen both sides, from an operator working for someone else and as a foreman/project manager in the business. I had access to a couple laborers when my dad and I were running our gig. Dad was always out with the landscape crew, so I handled all the operation of the excavation division. My guys were always good to work with, I rarely had to slap them back in place. Showing up on time, working late, keeping the equipment clean and greased, all that basic stuff will become second nature. When working for someone else, I would always show up early and stay late to get something finished without second thought.

 

[Wolf]

Great Advice

Great advice to you, young one. Keep these things in mind, stay calm and you will be fine.

 

[EZ TRBO]

Just use your head, take your time, have a general plan of attack(don't pile dirt where you need to cut, etc). For me, whenever dad would send me out alone, I felt confident in what I was doing and the choices I made because if he didn't feel I could do it he woudn't have sent me alone. Like Cascade said, stress is part of the job, and things happen that are not planed all the time. Deal with them, don't get fusturated and you will be fine. Good luck and am glad you found a job, one you seem to enjoy so far.
Trbo

One more thing. TAKE PICTURES, WE LOVE PICS!

 

[YoungOne]

Thanks SO much guys.

So today i constructed the sediment pond that we need before doing anything else. Did some basic cut/fill stuff. Tomorrow i am going to dig the footer. And we have decided to construct the wall 38 feet at a time. ( that's alot when you have 9 guys spread out on six jobs ) * And we're not hiring lol! )

Great winter for us work wise:usa

Stress wasn't too bad today. I'm going with the common sense approach. I guess that's best. The owners all came by today. And they told me i had did great so far. They told me " Do good here, and we'll put you in charge in other places later. "

So i told them i was confident i would do great.

So i love the new d4lgp. 9 hours on it after today

-Michael-

Thanks guys.

Pictures soon.