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Just realized my old hand signals were completely different from the new crew's system
Worked a site over in Gary last week, first time with a new team. I'm up in the cab doing my usual hand signals for boom up and swing left, and the oiler on the ground just stares at me for a solid 10 seconds. Turns out this crew uses the NCCCO hand signals, not the old school ones I learned back in 2002. My left hand pointing up with a fist means boom up to me, but to them that meant extend? Total confusion. Had to climb down and sort it out before we even moved a beam. I guess I gotta update my signal book. Any of you guys switch signal systems recently? How long did it take to stick?
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jessicajohnson7d ago
Bet you felt like a real boom operator there for a minute, huh?
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casey3936d ago
That's a real pain when you think you're on the same page and nobody's even reading the same book. @jessicajohnson nailed it - we've all been that boom operator at some point, just in different ways. It makes me think about how many unspoken rules we all carry around from our past lives, whether it's hand signals or something as simple as how you load a dishwasher. People learn things one way and then ten years later the whole world decides to change the system without telling you (like how the new crew apparently did). You gotta wonder how many arguments start because two people are seeing the same thing through totally different training manuals. At least you caught it before something heavy came swinging the wrong direction, right?
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