A foreman called out my hand signals on a 50-ton Grove job last Tuesday

He told me I was being way too sloppy with my load path signals, so I switched to using a raised fist for stop instead of that half-hearted wave. Has anyone else had a senior guy fix something small in your signaling that made a big difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantf7326d ago

Has it always bugged you how people get sloppy with the little things and dont even realize it? I swear, the older I get the more I notice that the pros who have been doing this for thirty years all have these tiny sharp habits that make everything run smooth. Its like when you watch someone good back a trailer, they do these tiny little steering corrections you dont even see until you try it yourself. The raised fist thing is definitely a good fix, I had a guy once tell me I was mixing up my "swing left" and "boom up" because I was pointing with my elbow instead of my hand, and once I fixed it the crane operator actually knew what I was saying. Its wild how one little change can save you from a whole day of frustration.

riley_miller2526d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, a buddy of mine nearly dropped a beam cause his hand signals were off by an inch.

joel_butler26d ago

That bit about mixing up swing left and boom up because of the elbow really hit home. I had the same problem years ago and an old hand told me to lock my wrist and use my whole arm flat like a board, and it fixed the confusion almost overnight. Little things like that really do make all the difference when you're trying to keep the load moving smooth.