Has H&S gone miles too far

[Goaty]

True, maybe I shouldn't have said anything. Certainly wasn't intending to advertise the fact that it's ok, but it's something I did. I certainly wasn't at the top of a 25 to 30 ft tree - probably only 15ft up and wedged in a really tight connie. Just took the top out from there and dropped it. In my defence, trying to get into where I had to be using a rope could have resulted in strangulation, and without rope, in this particular case, I couldn't have fallen more than a couple of feet if I tried - that connie was so dense.

 

Excellent real world risk assement me thinks. Slow motion is the only way to fall out of a conifer in my experience, did it lots as a kid, delibrately.

[likeitorlumpit]

So I have a question

Is there more money in kindling than electrical work

I always tell youngsters to go down the electrician route if they want megga wonga

Am I wrong to do this.

I mean you've obviously earned enough to go semi retired at 44 so the money must have been good:001_smile:

[gensetsteve]

So I have a question

Is there more money in kindling than electrical work

I always tell youngsters to go down the electrician route if they want megga wonga

Am I wrong to do this.

I mean you've obviously earned enough to go semi retired at 44 so the money must have been good:001_smile:

 

There is alot more money in electrical work. There is alot more hassle in electrical work than its now worth. I earned more in the year 2000 than I probably have since. I put that money into property.

 

I do the log, kindling thing because I love it more of a paying hobby. I was hoping to tick along with logs and kindling but after last winter looks unlikely. I was going to install the odd 100k genset but not too often.

 

The simple answer would be if a youngster had a real interest in an electrical career and could handle the paper trails legislation and constant need to up date qualifications I would say go for it. You will have a good trade to fall back on if your money making venture falls through. But if you love the simple things in life like being out side playing in the woods hate maths and working inside give it a miss.

[WorcsWuss]

Ahhh... H&S, something I know ALL about.

One of my roles in our company is 'the health & safety man'... because no one else wants to do it.

 

This means producing construction phase plans, O&M files, risk & method, monitoring our policy, making sure our systems work plus various other odds and ends, I've just got us SafeContractor and CHAS is being assessed as we speak [neither of them worth the paper they're printed on incidentally], having railed against them for years.

 

The primary function of 'Health & Safety' as we know it in this day and age, is [to give it it's correct name] 'Discharging of Responsibility'.

 

I do what I do do ensure that if Dave the Dipstick falls off a scaffold, in no way can we be held responsible. People still have accidents, there are still people who will cut corners with little regard for their own or others' well being. These people are still morons.

The problem now [and this comes back to my dim view of the Labour government's insistence that university was a right of EVERYONE, and as a result we have infinite lawyers who need a job] is that there's always a blame and there's always a No Win No Fee satanist out there to help some cretin sue someone who HASN'T DONE THEIR PAPERWORK CORRECTLY.

 

As I tell my guys on site, 'paperwork doesn't prevent accidents. Being careful prevents accidents. What the paperwork does is keep ME at home with my family if you chose to go for a Darwin award'.

 

We all do 'health & safety' when we double check our hitch or make sure the groundy is out the LZ. But 'Health & Safety' has nothing at all to do with that. It's about bureacracy, paper trails and shifting responsibility back DOWN the line.

[arbogrunt]

I can understand why people hate LOLER. The most important bit is check your climbing kit before you climb...I do that anyway. Who sits at home each weekend and makes out a written record?....anyone?. We've been pidgeon-holed into some EU crane regs...thats the way it is for now, so we have to live with it.

As for all the other HSE stuff...yes I agree we need regulation, otherwise unscrupulous employers would have their blokes in a bowline on the bight instead of a harness!.

I would estimate about 70% of tree companies in my area totally ignore ALL of it. How they end up pulling in contract work is a total mystery to me!