A 30 year operator told me my hand signals were lazy and it lit a fire under me

Parker Grant · 2026-09-11T10:50:03.561603+00:00

I was running a 60 ton on a hospital job over in Garland last spring and an old timer named Ray pulled me aside after a pour. He said my signals to the crew were sloppy, just a quick flick of the wrist instead of full arms and clear stops. He told me if a man on the ground has to guess what you mean, you are one bad second away from somebody getting hurt. I brushed it off at first but then I watched him run his rig the next day and his hands were huge and slow and everybody knew exactly what was happening. So I changed the way I signal, big deliberate moves, hold it a beat longer, and I started pointing at the guy I am talking to before I move anything. Two things happened after that, the crew stopped yelling back at me and our picks got faster because nobody was second guessing. Ray retired in July and I never got to thank him proper. Anybody here ever have an older operator call you out and end up being dead right?

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A 30 year operator told me my hand signals were lazy and it lit a fire under me | Crane Operators - The Community Guide