A foreman told me to stop 'flying blind' and start using a load chart properly

Working a tower crane on a site in downtown Nashville last spring. I had been doing this for maybe 5 years at that point, figured I knew my limits just from feel. This older foreman named Rick watched me lift a 4-yard concrete bucket and just walked over. He said 'you're gonna kill somebody guessing like that.' Pulled out the load chart from the cab, made me read off the radius and the boom angle. Turns out I was over the limit by almost 1,200 pounds at that reach. Humiliating in the moment but I check that chart every lift now. Has anyone else had a wake up call like that from someone who just called you out directly?

3 comments

3 Comments

norab2112d ago

I get what you're saying about not dwelling on it, but that "you mess up, you fix it, you forget about it" part is a bit risky when it comes to crane work... sometimes forgetting it is what gets you or someone else hurt.

jenkins.reese28d ago

Man, that's rough but I had a welder call me out on a bad weld once and it stuck with me too.

blair59727d ago

Ha, see I kinda disagree with that take actually. Getting called out on a weld isn't the end of the world, sometimes you just gotta shrug it off and move on. I mean yeah it sticks with you but I think people make way too big of a deal about "learning from mistakes" and all that. You mess up, you fix it, you forget about it the next day. Don't really see the point in dwelling on it for years or acting like it made you some kind of better welder.