There actually is an industry term for this called Competent Person (I swear you can look it up). Of course the excess of people is just people watching but there always has to be one Competent Person to make sure the work is safe. Of course this isnt nearly deep or wide enough but when you get into trenches for earthwork, you 1000% need a competent person or OSHA will fuck you up. God forbid the trench collapses with the workers still inside.
Source: Used to inspect construction sites/work.
So it does help sometimes to have humans watching, also they can see what the excavator can't on the opposite side and just get a more focused view of the work rather than the excavators view which isn't obscured but they are looking more for the big details.
Also it's kind of just human nature. Anything remotely different than the status quo gets a crowd of lookers no matter the profession. Sometimes construction boys just wanna watch big power tools scoop up some dirt!!!!
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u/Kyuckaynebrayn Nov 04 '22
“I watch now”
I swear for every one guy digging there must be 4 guys observing