Watching People At Work

As the title indicates, I not only watch people working but that’s what I’m doing now.

The City is putting in a speed bump / ramp in front of the house so naturally, since I’m sitting on the porch, I get a front row seat in the watching people at work game.

By the size of the crew, one would think they were going to build a high rise or a bridge but nope, just a single speed bump.
The basic crew consists of 10 laborers, 1 flag man, 1 man on the paving machine, 1 guy driving the dump truck, 1 on a bobcat, one on the small compactor, 1 on a bigger roller and 3 very overweight supervisors.

The supervisors are very busy supervising their coffee and energy drinks and since the paving material is already on spot and the big roller is running, 8 of the laborers have obviously moved up to a supervisory position and are watching the other 2 rake around the edges.

Meanwhile, the flag guy is sitting on his slow-down sign on the curb and having a much needed break whilst possibly contemplating the meaning of life.
……………
The big roller is finished rolling and the compactor ran for about 5 minutes so now the 2 laborers who were raking have backed up to let the other 8 shovel up the scraps and throw them on the bobcat loader.

Ah, the laborers are all leaning on their shovels and rakes, the dump truck went down the street and 2 of the supervisors have finished their energy drink and coffee whilst the other is busy texting so the job must be near completion.

Yes, it is wonderful to watch people work and when they do a great job it is even better.
Now that everyone has admired their work and congratulated each other on yet another job well done, they’re moving on down the road to do another speed ramp where someone else can watch them work.

Near as I can figure, that speed ramp in front of our house probably cost the taxpayers about 20K but if the mayor believes it’s money well spent then it is what it is.
As I see it, there is a great benefit to having ramps instead of bumps because instead of having a straight drag strip on the road, we can have the Dukes of Hazzard wanna be’s catching air on the speed ramps.

Note: We often have cops hitting some good speeds on this road so it’s gonna be fun to see who get the most air; the cops or the bad guys.

 

Fun thread Bobby.

You can see from my new profile photo that in my old age I still know how to take a supervisory stance.

Years ago when a main water line broke in front of my house and the water was spewing up about three feet in my yard, the old ex-mayor that lived across the street came running over, yelling as he crossed the street about how he told me I should have bought that warranty plan that covers all expenses in case the line from the meter to my house broke.

We are talking sixty feet of line that was replaced a few years before I bought the place and was scheduled 80 PVC and nothing short of an earthquake is going to damage it. Anyway, I assured him that I had shut off the valve at the meter so it was evident that it wasn't my line. He rambled on about how I would be out hundreds if not thousands of dollars for all the water flooding the street and going several blocks down.

I assured him that the break wasn't my responsibility and I had already called the city.

The supervisor arrived on the scene and waded around in the water and then called another guy to come and shut off the main line that was under a manhole cover out in the main street.

About four workers arrived and one guy puts up those orange cones to shut off the lane where the manhole was. Another guy makes a corral around the manhole with orange flags on it.

Then a couple of guys show up to be flaggers. The cops arrive and one car sits a block on either side of the manhole with flashing lights.

Finally, one guy drops into the manhole and shuts off the valve. This poop show is about an hour in at this point.

All this was about 7 in the morning and I was still in my sweaty workout outfit. So I went over to Zeks to shower since I didn't have water and he was the next street over that did. After a shower and more appropriate clothes, I returned to see them all standing around drinking coffee from their thermoses.

"What is the delay, " I asked.

"We are waiting for the backhoe and operator, " said the top super that had just arrived.

So the backhoe came and they started digging in my yard even though I told them the mainline was out in the street. The "engineer" arrived with maps and showed me that the line was in my yard. He got angry when I called BS because I had watched where the snow melted first and it was about three feet in the road from the curb. He denied the science that running water warmed the ground.

He assured me his map wasn't wrong and they would repair my yard. After they went about 8' deep in my yard, I waved my arms and gave them the shut it off sign. I could see at 5' deep that the water was coming from the street and digging deeper was a display of ignorance.

Mr. Mancho's boss man orders them to reset the hoe in the street acting like he was the one to discover their mistake. I suggested they pump out the full hole in my yard and then get a couple of guys on shovels to fill it. They finally came with a pump and pumped it out as they dug down in the street and found the mainline exactly where I told them it was.

Zek brought over a couple of beers as it was about 11 AM by then and also a couple of neighborhood mom-and-pop-made burgers and a big box of fries. Those little bags of ketchup weren't cutting the mustard, so I brought out a big bottle of ketchup for the fries and more beer and we enjoyed the show. What was interesting at high noon they all broke for lunch, including the backhoe operator that was slow and jerky.

So about 2 PM the inefficient hoe guy finally got down to the line. The boss man explained to Zek that he was slow because he didn't want to damage the line. Of course, my ability to remain silent was weak so I said, "The damn thing is already damaged so this is the stupidest thing I have heard."

I was ignored and then the backhoe backed out and two guys with shovels ascended into the hole and carefully dug around the pipe. It was discovered it had pulled apart due to a slow leak that had washed out around it for some time and finally gave enough room that it could push apart sideways. Their plan was to shove it back together with a new O ring and fill around it.

I suggested they dig out more and cut it off and use a flex pipe to make a better fix. I was told I didn't know what I was talking about and to go back to my porch.

An old guy, that was once the city engineer, arrived because Zek called him, and explains to the young new engineer that this old line zig-zagged around due to boulders that the city decided it was easier to leave when they installed the line for my street back in the 1970s. The best fix was a flex joint and down the street, they had already installed two such joints over the years.

It was past 7 PM before they got the street hole filled and the water back on. The next morning they filled the hole in my yard and tamped the one in the street and by afternoon had it ready for asphalt and my yard ready for sod. By 5 PM they had it all done.

Zek found out the total cost to the city or the taxpayer more accurately, was $170,000.

The next year when the spot in my yard sank, I decided not to quarrel with these bozos so I tamped it and put in new sod, and leveled it off.

None of these city experts ever thanked me for my expertise that could have saved the city $150,000 if they had just listened.

 

I think those guys were in my neighborhood a couple of weeks ago, installing a totally unnecessary stop sign. I want to know who is making these stupid decisions.

 

Who asked for the stop sign to be put in? However, just because a stop sign is put in, that sure doesn't mean people will stop in front of it.

 

In Texas, people ALWAYS stop at the stop signs so they can count the number of bullet holes in them.

 

Don't know how true this is, but Bobby, you sure made it sound funny. 5-Star funny at that.

 

The thing is, depicted below are the types of speed bumps we (the good citizens) wanted and would have cost maybe 3-4 hundred a piece and taken only one or two guys to do it.
After I measured what they put in, there’s only a 2” grade a the peak of the ramp that extends 5’ on each side of the peak.

That all said, whatever they call what they put in, it’s all good and something to laugh at.

 

I have a son who once constructed the speed bumps, and he said they were surprising hard to make correctly from scratch. He said the engineer is supposed to calculate the profile based upon the speed limit on the street, but that is tricky and then making that profile multiple times in a row is even harder. The pre-made ones are more practical but, I think, less durable.

 

Maybe there lies the problem Don.
Ya see, here in Northern Alabama, it would appear that the drivers are so focused on the road that they rarely look at the speedometer unless of course, someone texts them and being Alabamians, they feel obliged to answer back even if they have to steer with their knees to do so.

And then there’s the *southern hospitality* thing whereby I think the city is only suggesting the speed limit but wouldn’t want anyone to be inconvenienced by it.

Upon examination, I do think the real speed bumps here are only put in front of store parking lots to make people slow down to a near stop so they can read the specials in the store windows.

Now, back to watching people work, I observed a crew replacing the shingles on a roof a couple of days ago and I made a mental comparison between the speed ramps and the crew doing the shingles.
Unlike the street workers, the guys (Latinos) doing the roof had no one standing around watching everyone else work or talking on their cell phones or drinking energy drinks.
On the roof, after 2 guys finished stripping a portion of it, 2 other guys started rolling felt and laying shingles whilst one man hauled bundles of shingles from the trailer, up the ladder and were distributed on the roof. When the one guy wasn’t hauling shingles, he was picking up the old shingles off the ground and putting them on a waste trailer.
All in all, we have 5 guys working steady and taking only an hour off for lunch who finished the entire job in around 10 hours.

Compared to the roofers, the 15-20 or so street construction workers (no Latinos) took 3 days to complete 3 speed ramps.
They were kind of like watching a football game. The actual play time for a player in an entire one hour game is only something like 3 minutes.
As I was watching the ramp guys, the actual work time for a majority of the crew was only about 5 minutes per hour.

 

Aren;t you already a supervisor?

 

And…..how ‘bout them cashiers at the grocery stores?

I swear, the cashier layout between an Alde’s and any other grocery or dept. store is so vastly different that it seems that a single Alde’s cashier can process more transactions than any 2 or 3 cashiers at other main line stores.

I’ve seen the Alde’s cashiers when they first come on duty and it’s a sight to behold. They walk up, throw their cash boxes in the slot, sit down on the stool and belly up to the belt then it’s off to the races. They’re always friendly but they don’t waste time on unnecessary chit-chat. One minute you’re in line and the next minute you’re walking out the door ready to retrieve your quarter from the cart stack.

Alternatively, it’s a given that the system that the now defunct K-Mart used to have was horrible but still, Krogers, Publix, Walmart etc aren’t all that hot either.
Maybe it’s because they’re on their feet all day and bag groceries too that they seem slower and sometimes look like they really hate their job but still, there’s something else that I just can’t put my finger on that makes them seem less efficient. Maybe it’s in the training. Dunno.

Note: I have witnessed some VERY good cashiers at main line stores other than Alde’s but as a general run, I’d put Alde’s system head and shoulders above most other stores.

 

I heard a story about a skulling race between an American college team and a Japanese team.
The Japanese team won the competition and when the American coach tried to find the reason for his team’s loss, the only thing he could see was one difference which, according to some Yale professors should have favored the American team.

It seems that the Japanese team had 8 guys rowing with two guys yelling row, row, row whilst the American team had 2 guys rowing whilst 8 guys yelled row, row, row.

One would think that the more supervisors there are, the more work that should get done.

 

We needed a wheelbarrow load of gravel at the end of our driveway once. I think the road scraper dug in there or something. If I had had a wheelbarrow of gravel, I could have done it in 10 minutes.

They sent three trucks and at least 6 men to do it. If I remember correctly, it took them 30/45 minutes to do it. But when they got through, it was well done!