When Everybody’s an Expert, Who Do You Listen To?

You can’t let a sense of overwhelm or existential dread paralyze you when there’s a multi-million-dollar project looming. Maybe it’s my Type A personality talking, or the memory of my high school marching band director shouting, “No pain, no gain,” but adults like myself know we must power through the days when we feel a sense of emotional turmoil and complete the job in front of us. Especially when you’re in a small company, you don’t have the luxury of calling the foreman and saying, “Hey, I feel triggered by the evening news and need to eat a tub of ice cream in my sweats instead of coming in to run the paver tomorrow.”

Don’t get me wrong. We don’t want distracted or hurting workers trying to operate heavy equipment. It is better to reach out and offer kindness to those colleagues.

But we also want to toughen up. The mental health wellness of our co-workers and ourselves doesn’t have to be predicated on stock market performance or some other construct the mainstream media tells us is worth obsessing over today. Our mental health wellness could instead be influenced by touching grass for a few minutes more today than yesterday.

Our mental health wellness can also exist within a system where we give one another grace because we have cross-trained employees to handle tasks when someone needs to take a break from the stress of construction season. As Laura Ingalls Wilder taught us in her Little House books, you make hay while the sun shines. That means we have high expectations of workers to show up and contribute for long hours in demanding conditions for a set number of months per year.

When that grueling schedule bumps against a worker’s financial, family or other strains, forcing him to operate the milling machine could spell disaster in mistakes, accidents or both. Wouldn’t it be a boon to your company if you had multiple crew members trained to operate the mill skillfully?

When you cross-train members of the rolling train, it’s a relief to know the breakdown operator can take a day to help an ailing family member rather than sit atop this important and heavy piece of equipment while distracted with worry. In fact, the team at Hamm launched its Smart Compact technology, discussed in the “NDDOT Trials New Technologies on Hwy 14” article in our March/April edition, to take some of the onus off the operator, and this makes it easier to bring a new person to the machine.

Someone still has to program it, of course. It’s in everyone’s best interest that all operators know their “asphalt fundamentals” and are prepared to react to changes in their surroundings. That concept is discussed in the plant maintenance wrap-up, on page 50, included in our annual training directory.

Also mentioned in the training directory, many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) offer training schools, online webinars and in-person help to teach workers how to use and maintain their equipment. You’ll have seen on social media how asphalt contractors and laborers are quick to offer guidance and opinions—sometimes in a constructive manner—for best practices. It may feel overwhelming to pick through and find the right person to lean on for information when there are so many experts to select from.

I want to suggest it’s always a good idea to reach out to your OEM or dealer for information that’s specific to your machine. Depending on the OEM/dealer, you may also find general best practices training with them.

But don’t forget to seek sources, like AsphaltPro magazine, that offer a sampling of voices with a range of experiences to help you educate your workers. The team at AsphaltPro is made up of individuals who joined the industry in 1992, 1998 and the early 2010s. This means we know where to gather the consultants and experts to speak to you in our annual training directory, regular training department, weekly Toolbox Tips and more. We do the legwork for you and present it here.

Stay Safe,

Sandy Lender

In the August issue of AsphaltPro Magazine, we accidentally misspelled the name of the business for the producer profile department, featured on page 22. The company’s correct name is Myrl & Roy’s. We deeply regret this error.