Wisdom

[Linerider]

A guy who worked for me taught me something nifty about how to be a really good locator. He said that in addition to proper information (geospatial data, survey plans etc) he relied on 3 things before he could walk away.
1) He'd rub his head and say "does it seem right in my head?".
2) He'd rub his chest and say "did I put my full effort (his heart) into the job?".
3) He'd rub his belly and ask himself "do my gut instincts tell me everything's good?".

If he could answer those three questions affirmative, he could go home and play with his kid and sleep like a baby.

Any thoughts?

Any pearls of wisdom you guys care to share?

[Mke]

The Nuggets of wisdom that I remember are:

1) Paint it like a 5yr old can understand it.

2) There are no standards in locating, so don't expect any. (refering to depth of utilities, or general common sense stuff.... They wouldn't cross this road with 11 seperate drops, in 11 different locations, they would cross it with a 25pr..... yeah not so much)

Unfortunately, I never leave a site being 100% with the locate. I always question if there is something else i could of tried to check to see if there is any other odd balls. I think thats why i'm always on edge.

mke

[yahoo]

Trust in the LORD alone! if i thought that i was truly a good locater on my own wisdom then consider me a liar!

[Goldenboy]

I like this. If your gut feeling says it wasn't a great tone you probably should go to the other end and verify the line. I hate that feeling. It cuts in on productivity.

[Locates with a cape!]

I never leave a job site if I have a question. I know a lot of you contract guys out their don't have the time/production to be 100% sure all of the time, especially on the smaller stuff depending on who you work for....but I am on the private side, and I have gone back to jobs at night or in the early morning before other appointments to "double check" something I should have to begin with.....so over time I finally managed to hard wire that good old work ethic into myself....I simply don't leave the job as a private guy unless I have done everything I can....Always remember if you cant locate it, you shouldn't fake it, like a lot of rookies tend to do. My mentality is as follows: "I will do everything possible to locate what is requested by the client, and I will be damn ashamed in myself if someone else can come in behind me with the same equipment and do something I couldn't." I never want this to happen. Our job is to provide accurate information, even if that information means "This water pipe is not locatable..."