Warning: was using the wrong hand signals on tower cranes for 2 years

I was on a job in Austin last month and the oiler just stared at me when I gave the 'boom up' signal. He said 'you mean this?' and did a completely different hand motion. Turns out I learned from an old guy who used some weird local variation. Nobody ever corrected me because I guess they figured it out from context. Has anyone else found out they were using outdated or wrong signals without knowing it?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse_craig2612d ago

Man that "you mean this?" moment is brutal, I felt that one. I had something similar happen with my excavator hand signals, I was doing the "move right" thing totally backwards for like a year until a spotter finally laughed and showed me the real one. It's scary how long you can go without anyone saying anything, they just figure it out from what you're trying to do. The old timers all have their own little regional ways of doing things and nobody ever writes them down. Glad you caught it before something bad happened though.

wright.taylor12d ago

That "they just figure it out from what you're trying to do" line hit home. I've been in that spot where everyone around you just adapts to your wrong move instead of calling it out, probably because they don't want to embarrass you or slow things down. It's wild how much time you can waste doing something inefficiently before someone finally says something. Did it take you a while to unlearn the wrong signal or did it click pretty quick after that?