Why We Wear Hard Hats in Tree Work — And Why It Has Nothing to Do With OSHA

If you don’t wear a hard hat, it shows that you don’t care about yourself.

I’ve hit my head countless times over the years. During tree removal projects, due to dynamic forces, I’ve had hangers fall and hit me in the head while ascending trees. I’ve had branches fall out of a grapple while raking nearby. In one case, a branch swung as it fell, gained velocity, and struck me. I was probably standing closer than I should have been, but it still happened.

A couple of those hits rang my bell. If I hadn’t been wearing a hard hat, I would have at least ended up in the hospital. A couple of branches that have hit me were under 2 inches in diameter. Another was closer to 3 to 4 inches. That one shook loose and hit me while I was ascending.

Why do hockey players wear padding and helmets? Not because it’s a rule, but because of the risk.

Why do soccer players wear shin guards? Not because they love rules, but because getting kicked in the shins is common.

Why do police officers wear bulletproof vests? Because of rules, or because there is a risk?

Tree work is no different. Arborists wear hard hats because they work.

People judge you by how you look. That’s reality.

If you look sloppy, dirty, and like you don’t take care of yourself, people assume you won’t take care of their property either. They wonder if you’ll do just enough to get by, sweep mistakes under the rug, or hide problems instead of taking responsibility.

You may think that’s not fair, but it’s how the world works.

There’s also something powerful about looking like a team. When everyone shows up wearing proper PPE, including hard hats, it sends a clear message that you are part of a coordinated, professional operation. Not a group of individuals just getting through the day, but a team that trains together, works together, and holds itself to a standard.

Unfortunately, we have rules and laws because a small number of people took advantage of others or didn’t care about the consequences of their actions.

For example, why do we need laws that say it’s illegal to steal from someone, or illegal to break a contract? Not because everyone is a thief, and not because most people don’t keep their word. In fact, I believe most people, once they’re adults, don’t steal and genuinely want to honor their agreements.

Those laws exist because of a few people, a minority, who didn’t.

Rules are created to protect everyone else.

When judging rules or laws, I wish organizations and governments would ask a simple question first: is this rule meant to allow for expansion, success, and growth, or is it simply meant to stop people and charge them money?

Why are we doing it?

Is this rule going to allow a company or a country to grow, expand, and do better, creating more opportunity and success, or will it cause that company or country to shrink, contract, and become more restricted?

If rules were consistently judged this way, weighing whether they create more positive outcomes than negative ones, we would be in a much better place.

Some rules have far more downsides than benefits. Others clearly make sense.

In the case of hard hats and PPE in a business like ours, the positive consequences far outweigh the negative ones. They reduce serious injuries and fatalities, protect the people doing the work, protect the company, and ultimately protect everyone’s livelihood. The downside is minimal. The upside is enormous.

This is one of those rules that genuinely works.

There’s also another reality: I don’t just represent myself. I have employees and team members. If something happens to them, I am held accountable. If I ignore safety standards like this, it doesn’t just risk my own health or my own bank account. It puts the entire company at risk. The business could be shut down. Everyone could lose their job.

Allowing that to happen over a standard that doesn’t infringe on anyone’s rights and clearly improves safety would be irresponsible leadership. I won’t do that.

Wearing a hard hat isn’t about compliance. It’s about:

For homeowners, this standard is visible from the moment our crew arrives. Every person on an O’Neil’s job site wears a hard hat, safety glasses, ear protection when operating equipment, and chainsaw-rated protective pants when running a saw. Not some of them. All of them.

This matters to you for two reasons. First, a company that enforces safety standards on its own people is a company that takes the work seriously. The same discipline that produces a crew that wears PPE every day also produces a crew that plans a job before starting it, communicates with the homeowner, and cleans up when the work is done. Second, if something goes wrong on your property, you want the people doing the work to be covered by legitimate insurance with every employee listed. A company that does not enforce basic safety standards is also more likely to be operating with inadequate coverage or workers who are not on the policy.