We continue sharing how our team’s days look like during the lockdown. Today, Contract Supervisor Ben Worth talks about his “day in the life”.
Ben, run us through what a normal day looks like for you…
On a normal day you’ll find me scheduling work for crews, quoting work where needed, liaising with council arborists, overseeing fleet needs and repairs, town centre inspections or scoping out block work and addressing anything else that arises throughout the day.
How has your “normal” day changed with lockdown?
In addition to the above I have also been dealing with day-to-day operations and issues around critical requests from our commercial customers, complaints and crew issues e.g. machinery breakdowns and crew allocation for jobs, always in their new “crew bubbles”.
I have been creating and updating rosters for the members of our team that are still working on essential services, and supporting our contract supervisors with external needs such as traffic control.
What do you love about your job?
The different challenges that arise – strangely, the worse it is, the more I enjoy it!
I love being able to support the people around me and help mitigate issues as they arise. I also enjoy the friendships and support my crews and workmates give me – I feel that they are always willing to go the extra mile when I ask something of them which makes my job a lot more enjoyable, for sure.
How did you get into this job or industry?
I started when I was 14 with washing trucks and cleaning maintaining saws at Franklin Tree Services every weekend, then they got me onto crews in the holidays after I turned 15 and it just stuck.
What meal/restaurant are you missing right now?
Wildfire in the city (Auckland)
After lockdown, it looks like domestic travel will be our only option for a while – what’s your favourite place in NZ to visit and why?
It would have to be Nelson. We visited there a year or so back but didn’t really get any time to look around and enjoy it.
I’d love to get down there next summer for a week or two if I can afford it.
