Again, I hope no offense is taken by my post. None is meant. I have struggled with the above for years, and managed to get better at it. Hell, just the other day I confused a guy that works for me because, quite frankly, I was talking out of my ass about something I didn't fully understand myself. Self reflection on my part got the situation under control. I think that if you can identify your own faults, and see where others are coming from, you'll have an easier time.
NONE taken. I'm looking for lessons others have learned, so I can learn from them, rather than beat my head against the wall.
Yes, Stephen, VA's post is good. Sorry, don't know your name.
What I will say is that I have an solid training/ experiential education background. One past employee works for the USFS now, FT, another one went from working for me with little experience to getting directly on a HotShot crew (he was low man on the totem pole, naturally). I've trained a lot of people over the years. I can't train them to implement what has been trained and tested, or force them to follow a protocol, as nobody can force anyone to do anything.
This last was picking up training, but would not retain it in the long term. I should have seen this mismatch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
We should have started the chipper after it sat. True story. Normally, I do. I've learned that lesson before.
Gary put a transmission in his car this summer, and has never paid anyone in his 50 years to work on a rig. He put a thermostat in my chip truck. He told me this when recently the Ford dealer where he just bought a truck, was willing to install the fuel pump that went bad for free, since he had just bought the truck.
Too late, he told me that he had trouble starting it and it didn't run right. They chipped for at least half an hour, maybe and hour, hour and a half.
That whole time that I trusted the 2 guys on the crew (one was new) to operate without me, while I went with another newbie to bid a job that I figured might be 30-60 minutes of work done at that initial visit (climb and dump a small tree, then leave), I was less than 5 minutes away by truck, and confirmed they had a phone and that I had a phone, and we would both have reception, and to call if they needed anything. This easy, simple plan was ignored, and he didn't report any issue when I returned, rather told me what had been accomplished (chipped all brush, moved logs with mini, cleared footing and workzone of hazards), as is protocol.
I had it running after that, as well. I stalled it after it was part way to full operating temp and I was engaging the clutch. After screwing with it for a while, troubleshooting, he then told me that they had troubles with it starting (well it is old, so ok, but normally runs smooth and hungry, even if its a bit hard to start) a week earlier, rather than all went smoothly, as it seemed. This was not some unidentified issue. I didn't expect him to diagnose or fix it. My mechanic is 5 minutes away from that job, once the chipper is hooked to the truck. I expected him to report an issue, as he's been trained to do. I don't fix things that aren't broken/ malfunctioning. I can't guess that they didn't work right in my absence if the work is done, and progress was made. I expected a phone call, or him to tell me when I returned. The domino effect was wasted time and being without the chipper for a handful of days, as the mechanic got busy. This could have been fixed in the week we didn't need the chipper, and saved us a bunch of extra work.
One of my faults is that I expect people to learn and retain their training, and be able to perform it, or say that they need help with it or time to practice it. I encourage them to practice rope work in the paid down-time they have everyday. One or two minutes everyday will make someone a knot tying pro. You don't have to have a tree to tie a cow-hitch.
I think that a lot of people feel entitled to do things 'their' way, even when they don't see the big picture, repeatedly, or someone else has lots more knowledge and experience. If they are competent, safe, won't damage things, and productive, great, do it your way. If you can teach me something, I'm all ears. If you want to fight the tension on the lowering line that is impeding you from untying the knot everytime because you don't want to unwrap the POW, which will need to be unwrapped anyway, that's not great. If you want to fight landing a piece because you keep lowering the the piece onto the lowering line, that's not great. If you want to keep pinning the rope under a log in the mud, rather than lower it onto a spacer log, keeping the rope from being pinched and out of the mud, not great. Not rocket science.
How should I keep up on knowing their retention? Maybe I need to pop-quiz them, rather than trust them so much. I had trouble with a bowline on a bight for a while, as it is sorta like a fireman's 8 but with a curveball thrown in. What did I do to complete the knots my boss required of me? I practiced until I could do it, then kept practicing when I need to, in order to be able to do my job well. That was a my job. That was my responsibility. I didn't have to learn it on my own, I could ask for help. I was being paid to practice it, and know it.
I tell people these things very, very clearly at the interview. I tell them I'm a hard boss, as I expect to train them to be a safe professional not some run of the mill grunt which I Do Not Want, and for them to maintain their skills, on the clock, whether during the work day or another day. If they practice skills on the weekend for an hour, put an hour on their timesheet. No big deal. Spend some time with the rigging rope practicing out of the drop-zone when I tell you I'll be self-sufficient in the tree for 10 minutes, rather than standing there watching me work.
I expect that they will know the info and follow the info, with training, from the How to be an Excellent Groundman article. Is this unrealistic? It might be.
Do I expect them to ID disease by fruiting bodies, or obscure trees, or favored growing conditions for different species? No.
Back the truck up by saying "5 feet back, 6 inches to the to the Driver's side", as we train and practice every day, rather than "Come on back, to the left, more to the right, more to the left, more to the right, Whoa!! Whoa!! Go back forward."? Yes.
With an automatic pick-up and Senas, is it really that much to ask to follow a simple, low risk, unambiguous procedure that lets us move under the pintle hitch pretty much every time, and use the unambiguous word "Stop" when you want someone to stop, rather than "Okay" or "whoa" or "hold on". A ball and ball-coupler is tougher, but I guide them on to it the same way, slowly, the first time, most every time.
If I wanted to take three tries to line up the hitch pintle (which I can almost do on my own if its a straight shot back by lining up the chipper and truck with the mirrors), I'd simply do it solo by getting out of the truck and looking for myself, and let them continue doing something productive.
If I wanted to fight moving the pintle ring over the hook by manually moving a heavy trailer, often on soft ground, rather than pedals and words, I'd wouldn't both asking them for help.
Honestly, should I expect less for (what to me, compared to tree work, are) such simple, routine things? How do you guys deal with the same problem over and over?
How many times do you think its okay to have to go over a simple, effective, unambiguous non-damaging, hitching and backing-up procedure? 3, 5, 10, 20? Should I let them waste a bunch of time doing a routine thing a new or random thing everytime.
Clear communication can let us push pedals and twist the steering wheel, getting us into tighter closer spots. I'd rather spend 10 minutes moving the truck 50 feet closer, that spend and extra hour humping brush that extra 50 feet.
