Manager asking to do treework (with chainsaw)

Any thoughts on this? He 's in construction and wouldn’t really be climbing, and we have worker’s comp. Would be a huge cost savings.

He’s also self employed and has his own insurance…

I had a similar situation with my park manager and it was fine. If he had to climb anything I definitely wasn’t going to do it, but he was able to trim some trees from the ground. That being said, the liability for something like this is kind of terrifying and I’m not sure I’d do it again.

If the tree is large and/or near houses I’d say no and that we should leave it to an expert who does it day in and day out.

If the tree isn’t at risk of flattening a home or hurting someone else, given that he’s insured and handy I’d be inclined to say yes if he had been on the job for a while and I trusted his judgment.

As long as he and you are fully insured no reason not to use him.

My rule of thumb for onsite staff trimming trees: Only if you can reach the limb/branch while you are standing on the ground. No ladders.

Check your worker’s comp policy. They usually have a 6 foot ladder limit. So if they climb up a 15 foot ladder to do the trimming you may not be covered.

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The other part that is glaring to me is that the person trimming the tree should have a helper. Not by themself just in case it needs a string to guide the branches down if they are over anything.

Careful is as careful does.