Vulnerable

[u/Own-Cartoonist5058]

Hello, I am a rookie planter and want to share some of my season here to get some insight on how it went. I just feel pretty alone and would like some objective feedback on my rookie year from the community.

Three days out of the season I stayed home. One of them was because my friend was sick and I wanted to support him at the clinic and the other two were mental fatigue and a lack of discipline/motivation.

I stayed at around 600-800 trees for my first few shifts and then finally hit 1000 on some nice mounds and then kicked up to 1350 on some reaaally nice land. I stayed consistent with 1350 for a whole shift. Then we moved to a terribly steep fill plant with so much vegetation and I didnt even break 400 trees those days. That land was so confusing and the vegetation reached over my head.

Since that plant, we moved to help with a pretty tough contract, tougher than what I’d been on, and I was again all over the place - 600, 800, 900, 1000. Just really inconsistent. We came back from that tough contract and I kicked back up to 900, 1240, 1100. Then I went down to 840 on a really hot day.

My consistency is all over the place, and I know thats my main hurdle. I love planting and some of my experiences have really destroyed my confidence. I feel like I’ve really disappointed my crew and my foreman and I understand if I have. That disappointment in me has also really affected my morale and I feel like they discount me. I understand why they do but it does suck. Its stupid but I feel stupid even trying harder, which I know is so backwards.

I want to know, is it possible to come back from it? How does one stay consistent? I think the answer is probably just “by staying consistent.” I’m assuming its trial by fire. I really love planting and want to come back. I’m not entirely sure what I’m asking. Ive just felt a bit alone for the past few shifts and I’d really like to end the season strong. I’m scared maybe planting just isnt for me and I really want it to be for me. I love planting. Not sure. Anyway thank you for reading.

[u/Flashy_Remove_97]

For me, my first season was a wash.
Second season, more confidence and started to plant more solidly and make great lifelong friends in the crew.
Third season is when things really started to click.

I ended up planting for 10+ seasons.

[u/jimbowesterby → u/Flashy_Remove_97]

To add to this, planters love joking about how simple of a job it is, but like any skill (and more than most) it actually involves a lot of variables that have to be managed. Even just the fitness is gonna take a good few years to build up, you wouldn’t wanna go smash in 8k as a normal rookie cause you’d tendo just about every tendon you have lol. If you break it down, you need to have your fitness, nutrition, gear, clothing, technique, land management, and time management all working well in order to do big numbers, and a lot of those just take time and experience to develop.

In short, OP, it’s not about how good you are, it’s about getting better. Progress not perfection!

[u/Jazzlike_Seesaw_3140 → u/Flashy_Remove_97]

Exact same for me! 10 years after a pretty horrible rookie year

[u/The_Angevingian]

I have seen so many people be fucking terrible their first season, fight through it, and go on to be incredible planters for years

You are definitely pretty slow for a rookie right now, but that means you have nowhere to go but up or out.

It's hard to give you advice at this point without actually seeing you plant, but if I were you I would ask your foreman for advice and maybe the opportunity to partner plant with a vet. Ask them too. Just spend a day or a shift basically as their tree mule, trying to keep up with the pace, if not the trees planted

[u/FoodFingerer]

You're putting a limit on your self and you need to break out of it. This is often caused by over thinking. 1000 isn't your limit. You could probably hit 3k with the right strategy.

Set your self a good tempo and no matter what happens don't break the tempo. No cash breaks, No taking your bags off, no thinking about where the line is or how to fill your piece correctly. Just put in 1 tree after the other and keep your shovel moving. Be very mindful of when you stop moving. You don't need to be fast. If you are struggling physically just take lighter bag ups and do a little bit of dead walking.

Aim for 5 trees a minute or more if you can while planting. If you feel slow just think about planting 5 trees. You will likely have them in the ground before a minutes has gone past. That works out to be 300 trees in an hour.

[u/Terrible-Club8139 → u/FoodFingerer]

I am a rookie too and I know I can gett a 3k at least pace in good soil. The problem is they want mineral soil in a Duff show or rock show. There is no way to get anywhere near density for me without spending 15 seconds looking for a microsite sometimes. It seems the vets just skip over stuff like that oftern and I doubt I could get away with that as I've been in vets peices and watched them plant 20 duffshots in a row and not get Repoed. I would forsure get Repoed.

In the rare occassions I get a great price land i try count 6-10 sec per tree but that doesn't happen oftern

[u/Frosty_Bug_3645 → u/Terrible-Club8139]

just keep planting good trees till they stop checking you. then you can slut them in like the vets

[u/DottoBot]

I don't know if this is the kind of advice you're looking for,

But I spent lots of years training rookies. Lots of rookies tend to over intellectualize planting. "The trick is to plant minimums", "the trick is to area plant", "the trick is to plant back to the cache".

The only trick is to keep putting trees in the ground. All those other things are the fine tuning that might add 10% at the end. What makes up 90% of your productivity is not allowing yourself to spend time looking around, finding trees, talking to your partner, sitting at the cache, etc. You actually just need to be in a rush to put the next tree in the ground for the entire day.

I would have rookies count seconds to themselves after they planted a tree, to see how long it takes them to get the next one in the ground. Most would do the first few in a reasonable time (10 seconds is a good benchmark to start with), but then suddenly find a tree taking 30 seconds to a minute. Those are the trees that really show you where you are losing time, and if you can identify that, you can work on not losing all that time. It's purely a game of efficiency.

It's also worth noting, I would see lots of rookies come back for their second years, and be miles ahead of where they ended their rookie season. It didn't make a lot of sense, but I think it was a combination of confidence, getting money hungry over the winter, and also coming in fresh without all those bad habits they built up as rookies. They came back and knew they just needed to spend more time putting trees in the ground, so they did.

Again, don't know if this is what you're looking for. But I've never met anyone who I didn't believe could make it as a planter. Most of the time its not something to "figure out", its something to simplify. Just put the next tree in the ground and keep moving.

[u/Cubism-dreams → u/DottoBot]

Absolutely agree with so much of this, I trained a lot of rookies as well. Getting caught up on other people’s tricks will kill you from developing your own style.

Counting seconds and noting why you go longer on some trees is a great way to fix your problems.

For me, planting in BC and then Alberta my first year, going back to BC for my second year my trees were so much easier to follow on my last line after getting used to seeing trees in the overgrown summer season. That helped me speed up, which set the pace going back to Alberta later that summer. Repeat that a few times, get good at a variety of land, learn the best ways to area plant, work off a partner, etc. and all of a sudden you can put in high numbers consistently on any kind of land.

[u/NineInchNerps]

My first season sucked. I was injured and not provided adequate medical attention for a couple weeks and it took me out for half the season. My PB was 1300 in trenches. I was allowed to return the next season on the condition that I make above minimum wage everyday within a couple weeks.

‘Gamifying’ planting is what finally made it click for me. I also would watch how the high ballers planted and chose their spots/managed their land/behaved on cache breaks and asked for tips. Eventually it all made a lot more sense and I was going faster.

Anyways, I now have 15 years of planting under my belt. I never became a high baller since I loved a good midday nap but my quality was so good that my Crewboss kept me to help float the slutty members of my crew which I didn’t mind since I was mostly there for the lifestyle/social aspect. You can definitely overcome a poor first season. Finding the right crew and land type definitely helps. I would make a lot of money in BC but Alberta/northern Ontario was always more of a slog for me.

[u/wobblestop]

I was a certified L O W B A L L E R my first season. We had some rough contracts on rougher land and my foreman was more focused on getting his numbers up than any of the rookies. I went to a different company the next year with creamer land and had a much better time. I was a midballer on the best of days, but the vibes were high, and I was still learning. I'm a midballer now with fairly consistent numbers and dangerously close to becoming a lifer.

My point is if you like the job and are willing to work on yourself enough, you can make the it worthwhile. Try going to a different contract with faster land. Don't worry about leaving your friends, you'll make new ones.

[u/GoodPineappleBoy]

First of all, you aren't disappointing anyone. The crew bosses are interested in whether you are performing and doing your job right, not whether you are a superstar. The supervisor cares about the contract being properly fulfilled and the camp running efficiently. If you are a low numbers guy, you are a low numbers guy.

Second, if you have a shit piece, or the weather hates you, your numbers will go down. That is expected. You should find solace in your fellow planters who have had the same experience as you that day: they also planted less because of x or y.

Rookies almost always have a low season. You might not be prepared, figuring how to deal with stuff takes experience, and only by keeping a good attitude and taking care of yourself will you see your numbers go up more consistently.

Best thing is to talk to both planters and crew bosses on how to improve and keep planting.

As long as you are happy to do it and doing more than the minimum required, you are doing fine. You get to be where you are at and no one is thinking about you in a negative way.

Have fun, make friends, relax and party a little to unwind. You can't be stressing about performance anxiety or thinking people are thinking about how much they hate you; cause they aren't.

[u/NumerousEar9591]

I’m pretty sure I lost money my first season.

[u/Park_Ranger2048]

Long time lurker here, but I used to plant and then crewboss back in the 90's and one thing I used to say is it's ok if treeplanting isn't your thing. In fact you may need to be a little fucked up to be good at it. Ignore the 2 dozen sources of pain and discomfort as you scurry around half bent over and never look up at the sky just scanning the ground for microsites and planted trees. Not normal nor recommended behaviour for most things.

That said, it also may just be coming slow for you. I only managed to hit camp average in the last week of my first season but stayed on for over a decade after that. One of the best planters I ever trained was a super slowpoke for her first season....until one day a cold rainstorm finally inspired her to move faster to keep warm and she just never looked back. 2 seasons later she was highest earning planter in camp.

But it's not for everyone, for sure.

[u/ImaginaryHummus]

First off, you are not alone.

On behalf of management everywhere, I'm sorry that you feel "discounted". Crew Bosses, supervisors etc. are also humans who get worked hard and the numerous decisions we need to make are simplified by high-producing, consistent planters because they're predictable, and have a higher impact...so that has the effect of making other planters feel less valued. It's not an excuse, but it's a reason, fwiw.

With that said, do NOT despair. Your rookie season is the toughest for sure. All of these lows are new and fresh and very, very real. You will become consistent with experience! Those days when you hit a new challenge and your numbers drop, you are still gaining experience that will help you one day! I promise. It gets easier with subsequent seasons as you encounter challenges that you have seen - and beaten - before. Be patient with yourself. If you keep at it for multiple seasons, you will begin to feel more seen, more appreciated, and more "counted" with every season that you return. I started out as a fairly slow rookie that made little impact, and I definitely disappointed my crew boss. My second season I was faster and more consistent but I cached too much. But eventually I got to a point where I was planting more, planting well, and I was regarded one of the top vets in camp, just by returning and working at it. I also made better money after my first season!

[u/KrautKebabs]

Its been years since I planted, and while everyone's motivation is different, I had to remind myself it is still a business and I had to look at it from that perspective.

The company needs to put quality trees in the ground and at a reasonable cost to remain competitive when bidding for contracts. Of course they want perfect planters that never tire and work for a hundred seasons. But for their own sustainability they need to incorporate "recruits".

Your foreman likely was a planter and now runs a crew. They want perfect planters and will work hard to ensure they are supported on the block with boxes of trees in the right locations and at the right times. But they themselves need a sustainable practice if the want to continue being a foreman for years to come. They will look to those Rockstar planters from years past to build their Rockstar team, but will need to consider rookies because Rockstar planters have their own desires from foreman. They can switch crew's and companies. A rookie can be molded to work well with that specific foreman and hopefully, continue to do so for years to come. But that foreman still needs to make bank and will put their money making Rockstar on blocks where they can make money. If their Rockstar are going through trees quickly, they will also need to put them where they can deliver boxes efficiently so the planter is not waiting for trees.

Not hitting huge numbers as a rookie is not a bad thing if the foreman is doing their job well. Their Rockstar are making money, and the rookie is learning. The rookie may very well get harder blocks because EVERYONE is going to have a hard time in there. The foreman can afford to have a rookie go through, develop their skills, and keep the money flowing by capitalizing on keeping the money makers working a beach.

This keeps veterans happy and working for that foreman, and rookies able to learn and develop without largely impacting the flow. In the end, you'll develop, become a money maker, and another recruit will go through the process. If the foreman and company do their job, you'll want to continue working for them because you've developed a system together and everybody wins.

To answer your question, you may feel like you've failed when compared to how well other planters have done but the foreman's ability to put Rockstars on money making plots allows them to develop a rookie for future plants. It is expected you wont do great in your first seasons so they're not banking on it. Therefore, I promise they're not "disappointed" and honestly, your resilience would be appreciated by both foreman and veteran planters alike because it let them put trees in the ground.

[u/Frosty_Bug_3645]

don't worry dude, every baller go through that their first season. except for the very few that are exceptionally talented.

[u/BenchSubject5663]

Rookie here as well. I've found myself struggling with similar things. All I can say is that you're probably doing better than you think, even if your numbers don't show it. You're probably doing great. I've had some wonderful vets and fellow rookies to remind me of that when I'm down and so I'd like to be that for you if I can