Site work?

dr gonzo

I've heard various things about it but generally is it intimidating or is it somewhat easy going?

I dont mean is it easy of course, i know its hard work but ive heard people say that site supervisors et al can be pretty ruthless so i just thought i'd throw the question out there.

Riamfada

It really depends on the supervisor you get. An easy going director and the dig can be alot of fun, get the antichrist and work is nasty. Generally directors I have worked with have been great. The pay they are on is as bad as the rest of us and so are the working conditions so generally they can be very relaxed.

Personally I wouldnt work for a ruthless site director, id just walk. Im no slave!

Nebit

i agree with grimes!
i have worked for a couple of excavations and taken part in numerous post excavational work, never had anyone treat me badly, as long as ur not fooling around 24/7 you'll be grand. But generally archaeologists seem to be quite laid back and up for a bit of craic.

dr gonzo

Ok yeh that was pretty much what i was expecting, human nature pretty much dictates that you'll have a bad boss at some point but im glad its not a common thing because i'd say excavating is hard enough without it being a bit of fun.

Riamfada

One tip NEVER go for lunch until the site director calls it. Even if it is 10 minutes past usual lunch time get a supervisor to go and remind the SD of the time. All of the sites I have worked on in commercial and academic archaeology, you always wait for lunch to be called. Always!

dr gonzo

Grimes wrote: »

One tip NEVER go for lunch until the site director calls it. Even if it is 10 minutes past usual lunch time get a supervisor to go and remind the SD of the time. All of the sites I have worked on in commercial and academic archaeology, you always wait for lunch to be called. Always!

That would be the exact kind of stupid thing i would do starting out.

boneless

I have never had a bad experience with a site director. I have had little jumped-up supervisors try to give me the run-around but I always knew one more trick than them. If you do your work to the best of your ability and don't make any major f***-ups you will get on with the boss. If you constantly complain or do things in a contrary way to the way you were told to do them, they will come down on you like a ton of bricks. Also, if you are the one who say's you cannot work with certain people all the time, directors will start to wonder exactly where the problem lies. I have seen this happen on occasions...

Also, if you do make a blunder, put your hand up to it as soon as it is recognised; there is nothing worse than trying to rectify a mistake when some idiot is holding out on the truth! I made many mistakes but always assisted in getting things sorted by doing just this. You will actually get more praise for this than putting your head in the sand or trying to cover up. The nature of site work is such that it will nearly always be traced back to the original cocker-upper in the long run.

Anyhow, field and site work seperates the wheat from the chaffe eventually and the bad archaeologists never stay digging for long and then walk away from site-work bad-mouthing the job rather than just saying it's not really for them.

My tuppence worth...

kowloon

There's always someone who turns up for their first dig with a gardening trowel.

Riamfada

kowloon wrote: »

There's always someone who turns up for their first dig with a gardening trowel.

or a pink one with sparkles or a bricklayers trowel

boneless

kowloon wrote: »

There's always someone who turns up for their first dig with a gardening trowel.

Or a pen knife...

dr gonzo

kowloon wrote: »

There's always someone who turns up for their first dig with a gardening trowel.

hahaha genius. How do you get to that stage without knowing right equipment?

*note to self: return gardening trowel

Site work is sounding like something i might actually click with. From what boneless was saying it seems as long as i keep the head down, do my work as best i can and only make the odd honest mistake then i should be ok which is great because i was always too nervous in old jobs to half-ass my work or rock the boat anyway.

kowloon

You're looking for a pointing trowel, but not a wafer thin one. There's a particularly good place on Capel St. (If Dublin is your area) that someone might remember the name of that sells the nice thick ones.

Riamfada

what your asking for is a 4inch WHS

Nebit

http://www.pasthorizons.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=101

Best site to get ur trowel for the fieldwork, got recommended to me by a friend last year for our dig in glendalough.
They're very good for student offers on other stuff too if anyone else interested.

dr gonzo

Cheers for that Nebit, saw that a few times but never looked actually looked at it so i bought the trowel from there which ill need in a few months anyway.

pog it

Loads and loads of hard slog until you get to Director level, even supervisors graft really hard. They do as much of the physical labour as the others. I've had a director though who did once manage a full days work on site and at cleaning up time actually gave me her wheelbarrow to steer back to the sheds. Lousy but have to say I had mostly brilliant directors apart from two.

Just make sure you keep up with your turn of bringing the wheelbarrow to the spoilheap. also, don't break your back- it's sure not worth it

Smartypantsdig

The one thing that always got me angry was people who over-filled wheelbarrows and buckets and then expected some other digger to do the emptying! I had a cure for these types when I was a supervisor and director; "Hey *insert name*, see that spoilheap? Yeah, well can you move it back 3 meters?"

They soon got the message. I directed two small digs in Dublin so I was the responsible Safety Officer as there were only 6 or 7 people on site. I took it very seriously and had a perfect safety record on sites where I was a safety Officer.