Men stood around doing nothing

[Canadianpancake]

The road outside my house is being surfaced today, involving several wagons and other large vehicles, and lots of men who for the most part are stood around watching other men do their bit of the job. There's two men in particular who don't seem to have done anything at all yet today, despite it being nearly lunchtime. Aibu to wish i could get paid for standing around doing nothing for half the day?

I'm also pissed off at the flipping beeping noise all the vehicles are making, because apparently it's compulsory to constantly have them all in reverse all the time.

@RhodaCamel you hate me. A complete stranger who's had the audacity to start a light-hearted thread because she's feeling bored and a bit sorry for herself.

That's nice dear.

@DobbyLovesSocks I wouldn't swap with the rakey guy but I'd swap with the little digger man.

they each have their own roles and are trained/qualified in various jobs, there are various certificates they need to use certain tools and machinery and some can not by law work these if they do not have the certification.

I understand that, when it comes to vehicles and specialist machinery - but are you really suggesting that a skilled road worker who is qualified and experienced enough to manoeuvre a crane through thousands of precise movements somehow wouldn't be capable of putting out cones or signs in preparation for the job, long before his own specialist part can being? Why does that require another bloke to be employed to do that, and then somebody else to supervise him doing it?

My ds has a job where some days he just sits around in an uncomfortable set of equipment. If he ends up having to do something, it means that one of his colleagues is at imminent risk of death and he will risk his life in the hope of saving theirs.

Boring as hell but they all pray for boredom when its their turn in that role.

Ah yes but rake man has his raking certificate, so he has to do the raking you see. Digger man has his digger (digging?) certificate but not his raking certificate so he can't help with the raking. Rake man is hoping to get his digger certificate soon if they'll let him have some time off from raking. But then they'd need someone else with a raking certificate cover him. Its all very complicated OP.

@AngelicInnocent In those circumstances I would also take the boredom without complaint.

I will never understand why they have to cone off 30 miles of motorway or fast road for months on end and reduce it all to 50mph, when they're obviously going to take forever to cover it all. Why wouldn't you just cone off one or two miles at a time, do the job there and then move on to the next bit? It's so galling when motorway speeds are reduced to less than that of a windy A-road in order to protect the workers who are just never, ever there.

We had similar on the motorway near us. It was reduced to a single lane for over 6 months and literally nothing was done over that time. There were so many complaints, the Highways Agency eventually explained why. Apparently, it was because they were waiting for a gantry/sign to be made and moved to the site. They put up the supports on each side of the road, but didn't actually order the gantry until the supports were in situ, and there was a several month design/production process. Apparently, the couldn't order it until they could measure how far apart the supports were. Clearly didn't occur to them to order the gantry and then just be accurate with where they put in the supports.

It all seems to be - do one bit, have a look, order what's needed for the next bit, have a look, order what's needed for the next bit, etc. Rather than ordering everything to arrive "just in time" to be ready for continuity. We seem to be very good at being very inefficient.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Yes, you do actually need to be trained to put out cones, signs and lights. It’s a City & Guilds qualification, in fact.

When you have a colleague who has died because members of the public can’t be fucking trusted to pay attention and don’t see the point in all these “silly” little rules and cones; then you won’t find it so pointless...

And do you honestly think it’s “just” putting a bolt in a pipe? What kind of pipe? Gas? Water? Who’s made sure the supply is off and won’t come back on? Who’s made sure they’re not going to come across any electric wires? Maybe it’s that guy sat in the car doing “fuck all” but is actually looking at CCTV or other sensor readings?

@Dyrne maybe this isn't the thread for you.

This is what happens when you dont have someone stood around “doing fuck all” (AKA watching for hazards):

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-wales-49892460

In this day and age of saving money and cutting corners, do you really think that contractors would employ any more than the bare legal minimum to do the job safely? That they are going to employ people who don’t really have a specific job to do? The reason there are the amount of people doing a job is because people will have literally died doing it with less, it’s how the regulations get made.

Canadianpancake I appreciate you started the thread off lighthearted but when you get twattish posters thinking that the work is so simple any idiot could do it; and then you get others questioning the point of basic safety measures...

But no, never mind, let me leave all that unchallenged so you can have your giggle. Never mind that people have been killed because of some of the “hilarious” attitudes displayed here.

My thread wasn't a general bashing of road workers. I very much appreciate that saftey is paramount and that there are lots of jobs that aren't obvious but very necessary. I was refering specifically to the 15+ men in the direct vacinity of my front door, two of which were having a chat and sharing a packet of sweets whilst watching one poor bloke do the backbreaking work of raking/smoothing/whatever he was doing. It was observational light humour.

when you get twattish posters thinking that the work is so simple any idiot could do it; and then you get others questioning the point of basic safety measures

I presume you're including me in that. I never said that the work was simple; I was partly basing my comments on PPs' perceived observations. I also realise that it's very dangerous (when there is actually somebody there) and that basic safety measures are crucial. I just find it strange that all of the skills are apparently so specialised that individual workers apparently can't learn more than one of them.

Gas is obviously a highly regulated industry, but when I've had boilers replaced, it's been one man setting the boiler up, turning the water off, attaching it to the wall, drilling through for the flue, connecting it to the electric supply - even redoing brickwork. I've never know them have a team of 8 men to do every stage of it. Probably as well if each of them has to be paid a full day's wages in order to be there when it's time for their small bit.

I'm amazed that somebody has to be trained and get qualifications to know how to put cones out. I'm sure there are guidelines as to distance between cones and the angle at which a lane is gradually coned off before disappearing, but a qualification? Really? Is it like when firefighters are told they have to be trained to climb an 8-foot ladder before they can use it?

I've lived in western Europe and seen equivalent jobs being done - often at night and/or over the weekend. With my untrained eye, it always looks like a number of blokes working tobether, getting on with doing things (and I very much include carefully observing or monitoring progress and safety as 'doing things' as opposed to looking into space, scratching your arse and retuning the radio) and finishing the job quickly and efficiently. Surely they don't all have far inferior standards to us, do they? It's not even like they do a shoddy job either, as any user of the beautifully smooth Autobahn will attest.

Of course safety is crucial in a dangerous environment, and it is skilled work - but how do you explain coned-off lanes and reduced speed limits for weeks on end when you never see anybody there at all, day or night, weekday or weekend?

They've finished for today, and I've just noticed out bins haven't been emptied because the road was blocked

For the love of all that’s holy, OP, don’t start a thread about binmen!

YABVU for not standing outside sniffing all the lovely tarmac smells (I am aware I am quite weird).

Omg OP this thread has given me a chuckle, I showed your OP to my partner, it's a running in-joke with us, where we notice workies observing other workies working lol. The other day, there was one guy kneeling at an electrical box thingy, and the other two guys had their hands on the doors 'keeping it open' for him 😂 There's probably good reasons as stated by other posters as to why they seem to stand in a ring and watch one guy digging a hole, but oh my god, it's fun making backstories as to what each person's role is lol

OP, are you a teacher?
My wife is a teacher and she is an expert at pointing out how inefficiently every workman is at doing their job. She sees nothing wrong or judgemental about this.
Funny enough she doesn't feel the same way whenever Ofsted come around.😁

@Saucery workshy time wasters the lot of em!

@Childrenofthestones yes I am!

hahaha woman stood around doing nothing all day gets annoyed at men stood around doing nothing all day

@iklboo yes that's weird. Maybe all the blokes standing round weren't workmen at all, but we're just tarmac groupies that follow the tarmac team round so they can sniff their work!

@youknowitmakessensedunnit yep, pretty much.

@virginpinkmartini if I was the rakey guy is be really pissed off that the others just stood and did very important watching.

I'd be, not is be