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Depending on what kind of workplace you work in, the chances are there is at least one safety sign placed somewhere on the premises. Because there are tons of things that can go wrong at work. And although a steelworker and an office clerk face different potential dangers at work, both employers have to ensure they’re safe and secure in that environment.
This is where OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and safety inspectors enter the game. And as we’ve seen in Bored Panda’s previous features about OSHA that you can check out here, here and here, their game is on the next level.
As you can suspect, not everything the safety instructors see while on duty puts a smile on their faces. Often, it’s on the contrary. So in order to find out what craziness they have to deal with at workplaces that put safety at the bottom of their priorities, we looked at these two viral threads (this and this) where inspectors and OSHA employees share the worst things they have seen.
Below, we wrapped up the most eyebrow-raising stories, so pull your seat closer.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I'm not a safety inspector but this came to mind.... I am an electrician in Las Vegas. One jobsite I was on was the remodel of the hotel tower at Caesars Palace. We started at the bottom floor and worked our way up the tower one floor a week for a year. It was horrible air conditions, major demolition, massive dust(because the hotel windows in Vegas don't open in order to keep people from jumping out), they rely on exhaust fans to circulate air but don't run the fans for the subhuman construction workers like myself.
Then after almost a year, coughing and gagging when we were on the VERY LAST FLOOR(level 44) a team of men showed up in hazmat suits and shut the job down. Appearently all of the sparkly dust we were breathing everyday was almost entirely asbestos. FML
Grace and Lucy 3 years ago
Thought the same thing. Time for a lawsuit because this is a big deal.
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Jerry Mathers 3 years ago
That is an OSHA violation for sure. Not mention that most places have rules when you are doing work on buildings built before a certain year. Lead and asbestos top the list. What strikes me as interesting is they didn't run the fans. You never run fans, heaters, AC etc. when you suspect asbestos as it can spread it. There is evidence that someone knew this hotel had a problem with that. And if you weren't informed, provided the proper PPE and trained how to safely remove and handle that, you have a case for gross negligence. Those can be lucrative as the award for Gross Negligence is usually something like 3x damages. You need to get a good lawyer and sue the hell out them. Depending on your age, this company potentially stole 20-30 years of your life.
BakedKahuna 3 years ago
Wow... Yes, can sue, but it might take years and years before any kind of result shows. The companies strategy would be to stall the whole process hoping at the end not many workers are left they have to compansate. In the mean time the families of the workers are affected as well with the asbestos particles being brought home and in the car over a year. So messed up.
BenMaharaj 3 years ago
Or they settle quickly. Especially if the casino’s lawyers tell those reptiles they are 90% going to lose big
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Phillip Forrester 3 years ago
Had nearly the same experience at the Harrahs remodel. I'm a sheetmetal worker in Las vegas
Destiny Thornton 3 years ago
I didn't even know Ceasar's Palace was an old enough building to have that much asbestos in it, but by gummy, it is. Sorry this happened to you. I would file the biggest and best lawsuit you can muster. Plenty of lawers will be foaming at the mouth to help you and your coworkers. Stay safe and well. ♥️
JMC5003 3 years ago
Workers' Comp should pay the medical bills for any health issues that arise, but only if there's proof that the exposure happened on the job site. Very important to hire a good attorney ASAP, before all the evidence is destroyed.
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Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Audrey Tang, a chartered psychologist, media spokesperson and author of multiple books, including "Be A Great Manager Now", "The Leader's Guide to Mindfulness," and "The Leader's Guide to Resilience,” who happily shared some insights into health and safety at work with our readers.
Dr. Tang argues that “we need to be clear that we are not talking about breaches that are completely illegal, as the laws of the country will deal with that (although in my experience delivering Fire Safety Training, there are still things such as smoke alarms being covered, missing fire extinguishers, and fire doors being propped open, which do occur).”
RELATED:
#2
I worked in a lab doing cytomegalovirus research. One day we had workers in replacing the lights and one said ‘wow- I always thought those shower things were real!’ Pointing at one of the emergency showers in the lab. These are for heavy duty chemical spills where you run under the shower and pull a handle to decontaminate. Turns out ours were just the shower heads in the ceiling not connected to any water. We used extremely dangerous chemicals every day. We got the showers hooked up pretty quickly after that.
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
Surely that should have led to a serious internal investigation? That could have killed people.
Mistiekim 3 years ago (edited)
Depends. From my experience certain departments will get their stuff taken care of right away, while others don’t get anything done until administrators are forced to because they got a citation on an inspection. Our department had no access to air conditioning because they never made sure we were apart of the system wide duct work. Just recently they had to do some maintenance and switch to another set of duct work we never had installed. The temp was unbearable and we had to move refrigerators out because they kept going out of temp. My supervisor had to stay on plant ops every day to get it fixed.
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Shari Dubs 3 years ago
I thought those had to be turned on and tested monthly. They do at my job at least. 🤷🏾♀️
Biofish23 3 years ago
We only do it twice a year, but yeah definitely should have a regular testing schedule. If nothing else you need to run the water occasionally to flush out any rust ir sediment
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LongCoolWomanInABlackDress 3 years ago
at leat they found out before they actually needed them.. but again, how can anyone think this is acceptable?
Giles McArdell 3 years ago
Their functionality should be regularly checked too, if that is not happening report the company.
#3
I taught skydivers to be tandem instructors. One dropzone bought a new type of tandem rig and faked their training... management had them lie about it to me and another examiner. Chief instructor's excuse: "They're all the same anyway." He had a malfunction caused by his not knowing how the rig worked, and his poor paying first-time passenger had no idea the danger this arrogant prick put him through. The worst thing was the training was free! Seriously, WTF...
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
That is without a doubt the worst entry on this list. What a horrible way for a completely blameless person to possibly have died, and they would have paid for the privilege.
Anonymous 3 years ago
It is horrible, but that one in Las Vegas is a decent contender.
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Jerry Mathers 3 years ago
I got a feeling that there aren't many long term, crappy employees in this field.
HarriMissesScotland 3 years ago
Please tell me this isn't Florida. I live a mile from a jump zone, where I did my first jump in 1974 when I was 17. Tandem didn't exist then. You, your shoot and a radio. I loved it!
Jessica Bertram 3 years ago
i would still recommend. my advice? choose a company with good reviews, make sure their planes are all up on their safety inspections, and ask to jump with the owner as your tandem. seriously.
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Pat Lenzo 3 years ago
I take exception to this. I got my pilot's license when I was 16. Sky diving was just moving from the military to regular folks, but only male folks, so I couldn't take part. Moved on, married, raised 4 sons, etc. For my 70'th birthday, I treated myself to a dive and my only regret is that I've never had the chance to learn to solo! It was glorious!
Load More Replies... #4
I used to work as a safety consultant for an insurance broker. One of our insureds had an employee who was tasked to apply a “Do not enter, compactor starts automatically” sign on a cardboard box compactor. The idiot set the can of spray adhesive on the lip of the compactor, knocked it in, and then jumped in the compactor to get it. Of course it started automatically because it’s a machine that can’t tell idiot from box. He’s lucky some else was walking by and saved his life.
Edit: he went into the compactor AFTER sticking the sign to the front of it.
James G. Currie 3 years ago
No more than the people (by the hundreds) I've heard of working at McDicks or similar stores, whom have dropped pens, watches, cellphones, etc.; into the deep fryer then plunged their hand in to grab it. The lucky ones recover to 90+% mobility. None have ever prevented damage to whatever it was they dropped.
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Brandon Marlowe 3 years ago
"compactor starts automatically" sounds like a recipe for disaster.
ChickyChicky 3 years ago
If the compactor starts automatically, a simple sign telling you not to go there is not good enough. There should be all kinds of physical barriers making it impossible for a human to get in there.
Richard Henderson 3 years ago
Why the hell would you make an automatic compactor?! Sure, it’s dumb af to jump in one but it could at least require an actual human to press a ‘start’ button!
Makajha Banjjjak 3 years ago
Why would a compactor start automatically thought? Guy was an idiot, yes, but wtf about person who agreed for this machine in the workplace??
She explained that the reason she mentioned those is that “while perhaps one can say they are 'lucky' nothing has happened, that sort of behavior - the minor breaches - can lead to much bigger ones, or be indicative of general malaise or slipshod behavior, which can mount up and eventually cause huge problems,” Dr. Tang said and added that “when you let one thing slide, what else might you turn a blind eye to?”
“However, with regards to the impact on employees - we only have a finite amount of energy we can devote to productive work within a day,” Dr. Tang explained. “We know when we are ill, for example, that ability to focus diminishes and performance suffers - if a workplace is making someone sick, you have already reduced productivity (not to mention breached the trust of the employee), but also, even if an employee is worried about something they have noticed that is awry, their own mind will be distracted and in turn affect performance.”
#5
Not the OSHA guy, but it happened in the plant I was working in. Idiot is told by junior manager to clean the floor after a chemical spill (I don't recall what it was for certain, but we used a LOT of industrial adhesives, so maybe that). Idiot ignores all his safety training, and the entire closet full of cleaning gear, and decides to clean the spill with acetone. And a steel wire brush.
It wasn't so much of an explosion as a deep "whumph" sound that sucked most of the air out of the room. He was horribly burned. His clothes melted into his skin. 3rd degree burns covered his body. Incredibly, he was still alive when the Fire and Paramedics got there. He opened his eyes, asked for a cigarette, and died right there on the floor. What did we do? Hosed down the floor, and the line was back up by that afternoon. Quit that job as soon as I was able.
María Hermida 3 years ago
In the his case, I don't think the company was to blame. The employee had got properly safety training and safety gear, but he decided to ignore everything and "invent" a stupid solution.
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Colin Timp 3 years ago
I used to work in printing. Every now and then a sheet will get caught in the IR dryer and begin to smolder. The operator couldn't find it because of the buildup of cornstarch powder we use for anti-offset. So he starts banging around knocking the powder loose; apparently not aware that the powder is flammable. It was one of the biggest fireballs I've ever seen. Shot out of the access he was leaning into and the front of the press. He got his head out just in time. Lost his eyebrows though.
Miz Chelle 3 years ago
I know someone like this. He has done so many things that are not safe that were caught on camera. They used the footage to make a safety training video of what NOT to do!! Lol
María Hermida 3 years ago
Not an expert but I think the problem here was the steel wire brush. Most industrial adhesives are highly flammable, and acetone, obviously. The floor was probably concrete, so the moment he started scratching with the wire brush there was a spark. And all the flammable materials caught fire in a second.
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#6
I was on the Workplace Health and Safety committee. The committee head at the time decided to change a lightbulb. Do you think that she used a step ladder on the sloped surface? Nope, office chair with wheels and nobody to hold it still. So many stupid decisions in that last sentence. Of course she fell, broke her arm, and received work place compensation.
The kicker? The light bulb wasn't blown, she was just using the wrong light switch.
LongCoolWomanInABlackDress 3 years ago
Where I live you wouldn't get compensation for doing something as unsafe and stupid as this. It only counts as accidents if unforeseeable events lead to it, and this one seems to have been quite forseeable
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
Yeah, you wouldn't get anywhere in the UK because there is a base line of 'is it reasonable to expect that a person would already be dealing with this in their day to day life?'. You don't need training or PAT testing for an office kettle because the expectation is that people know what a kettle is, how to use it, and can recognise when it is behaving oddly, because basically everyone has come across one in their normal life.
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Urbangirlatl 3 years ago
Welcome to Anerica. You cab do even dumber, and if you are doing it at work, it's covered.
Benita Valdez 3 years ago
Not everywhere in America. Can't pull that in New York. And in certain cases private investors are hired to make sure you aren't doing things because of the injury. If you hurt your back on the job and claim you can't work and then found like climbing a ladder to the roof then you just screwed your compensation.
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Autistic apricot 3 years ago (edited)
My dad stood on a spinny chair to change a light, he broke his arm and now has 2 screws in it
Seadog 3 years ago
Worked for 2 different auto parts chains. One has a maintenance person who comes around regularly to take care of any non-critical issues. The other? You're on your own. Of course with todays electronic ballast florescent lights, they don't last long like the old thermal ballast lights did. Yours truly had the job of changing ballasts. First time around we tried turning off the power but since all of the lights are only on 3 breakers, that pretty much meant customers couldn't see to shop (no way they're going to close) and it left me working by flashlight, I had to revert to the only other option, change it live. I got really good at it. I could have it done in under 15 minutes including dragging out the ladder and returning it. Now sure what corporate would think of that method but as far as I was concerned, they should've put in better lights instead of those crappy electronic units.
#7
Watch 8 tonnes of pipe fall from about 20m because someone was in a rush and used the incorrect rigging.
The kicker is everyone there (20-30 people) were totally willing to let it go unreported, except me. I never really did make too many friends after that. Oh well.
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
Good for you. We all have to live for the rest of our lives knowing the decisions we have made. If it had happened again and killed someone you would never have slept again if you'd not reported it.
Lazy Panda (she/her/hers) 3 years ago
I want to believe things like this are one off freak accidents, but when nobody is willing to speak up I wonder how often things like this happen
ChickyChicky 3 years ago
Almost all the time they are not freak accidents. There is a clear reason why it happened, and usually it's not just a dumb worker making a bad choice, it's stuff like this.
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Lantana Howell 3 years ago
I cost 2 nurses their licenses after I turned them in for stealing morphine. No regrets! It was the right thing to do.
James G. Currie 3 years ago
Don't blame you... Suicide on you own time dipwads...I have no desire to be a witness to you offing yourself or someone else because you're too lazy to do the safe thing.
Samira Peri 3 years ago
Does nothing if people actively ignore safety rules, sadly.
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Dr. Tang argues that research into wellbeing at work looked at "hygiene factors," “so called because they affected the satisfaction of employees if they weren't present (a bit like if one didn't wash their hands, they could become ill).” These include things like working conditions, behavior of immediate management, and the physical workspace.
Moreover, “more recently, research into organizational health speaks of 'psychological safety' as another element of health - at least emotional and mental health(!) - in the workplace,” she said.
According to Dr. Tang, “if a worker doesn't feel psychologically safe, i.e. they don't feel heard, or perhaps they are criticized all the time, perhaps they don't feel they can ask if they need support - this can be hugely detrimental to motivation, retention and performance, not to mention the employee's mental and emotional wellbeing.”
#8
When i used to work at Walmart they use to block FIRE EXITS.
they probably still do it yet i dont think OSHA does anything about that.
Paul Pienkowski 3 years ago
No, they still do it. One was blocked by a pallet of top soil at my Walmart just yesterday.
Marcus Lynch 3 years ago
"Bullseye" does the same thing. Blocks fire doors with carts. Was screamed at by management once for moving one that blocked a door. Cost pompous manager his career after he tried to fire me for moving it. Way to go Kurt!
David Martin 3 years ago
I worked in a security monitoring call center for a while...call the police/security when alarms go off, follow up on the progress of the incidents, etc...so of course we needed the call center to be highly secure and prevent people getting in who shouldn't. As such, we only had one door in and out, through a short hallway, to a second locked door. No designated fire exit, no second door at all. And they literally told us in training "This section of wall backs up to the employee lounge. In the event of a fire, use this three foot metal rod to break through here if the door doesn't unlock"
Troy Parr 3 years ago
You're thinking about this wrong... That's a whole pallet of fire extinguishers! In case of fire use the lot of them! (only kidding, I have seen this too. The boss of the place will just blame the staff - every time.)
lazyNinjaCat 3 years ago
yeah at my old highschool there are multiple buildings and in one of them, you can't hear the fire sirens unless someone tells the class to shut tf up, and even then its very very faint
Lawrence Halprin 3 years ago
Department of Labor Logo OSHA News Release - Region 4 U.S. Department of Labor October 17, 2022 Inspections find Dollar General continues to discount safety as violations, penalties pile up for blocked exits, unsafe storage areas, other hazards Chain faces $1.6M in penalties after recent inspections, more than $9.6M since 2017 ATLANTA – Dollar General Corp. and Dolgencorp LLC – operator of more than 18,000 Dollar General discount stores in 47 states – has again ignored federal workplace safety standards, this time identified during inspections at four locations in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. The company faces $1,680,216 in proposed penalties after these inspections, a portion of the more thttps://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/region4/10172022han $9.6 million in total initial penalties the company has received since 2017.
Lawrence Halprin 3 years ago
Department of Labor Logo OSHA News Release - Region 4 U.S. Department of Labor October 17, 2022 Inspections find Dollar General continues to discount safety as violations, penalties pile up for blocked exits, unsafe storage areas, other hazards Chain faces $1.6M in penalties after recent inspections, more than $9.6M since 2017 ATLANTA – Dollar General Corp. and Dolgencorp LLC – operator of more than 18,000 Dollar General discount stores in 47 states – has again ignored federal workplace safety standards, this time identified during inspections at four locations in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. The company faces $1,680,216 in proposed penalties after these inspections, a portion of the more than $9.6 million in total initial penalties the company has received since 2017.
#9
Wasn’t our plant but another plant for our company. We have these huge steel drums that we fill with 100s of pounds of ingredients that go onto an hydraulic lift that lifts and tilts the drum and pours the contents into a kettle.
The drum shifts forward a little bit on the lift while all the way up and falls back into place on its way down. The operator was resting his hand on the bottom of the lift while lowering it back down and the drum fell back down on his finger and pretty much turned it into mush.
That’s not the worst part. Afterwards the safety lead was doing a review of the incident and another operator showed the safety lead EXACTLY what happened and smashed his finger in the same manner.
Richard Willis 3 years ago (edited)
I heard a similar story over 50 years ago, reportedly at British Nylon Spinners in Gloucester. A man managed to chop off a finger in a press, supposedly impossible, and when he came back to work the safety manager asked him to show him how he did it. He did, and chopped off another finger.
#10
Not directly relevant, but I worked for a company where the Risk Management Executive accidentally shot himself in the leg checking to see if the safety was on on a pistol.
Ivo H 3 years ago
Next time he'll set the building on fire to see if smoke detectors are working properly.
Troy Parr 3 years ago
Well, I have known, and seen, people who are told, "be careful with this as it's very sharp!" only for them to immediately cut themselves with it, just tying to see how sharp. Twice I have seen this done by policemen.
Cashme Outside 3 years ago
When I was a small arms instructor in the military one of the most dangerous people I ever had on a range was a reservist who was also NYPD. It was one of those “I know what Im doing, dont worry about me” situations. He had zero muzzle awareness, and also couldn’t hit any of the targets we set up. He flagged the line (pointed his weapon at the other people on the range) once and was VERY sternly warned about it. He did it again and another instructor grabbed his rifle and choke slammed him to the ground. Lets just say he didnt get to qualify that day. He was actually doing his quals in order to go to Iraq and my understanding is they pulled his orders and sent him back home over it. Didnt see him again. Ive got soo many stories about stupid people on our ranges
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Rrr Ccc 3 years ago
Yeah, so? A pistol can be a revolver. The safety is having the hammer partly pulled back, no?
Load More Replies... James G. Currie 3 years ago
Not directly, but related... I know of a company that wanted to start an Armed Guards division (think Brinks). They hired the first Armed Guard, paid for his Firearms Safety Course, he attended, passed, and showed-up at the company's office on his first day on duty. Somehow managed to disable the safety, and shot himself in the foot while holstering the (loaded) pistol. … They let him go the same day.
Stannous Flouride 3 years ago
There was a similar case in Oklahoma a few years back when a police (or sheriff's deputy) giving a weapons safety class in an elementary school did the same thing.
Cashme Outside 3 years ago
No, safeties on firearms do not typically resemble the trigger in any way.
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James G. Currie 3 years ago
Why? You want to see *more* teens shot in classes? If you want to see the result of a fully armed society, check the death by firearm rate in San Fran in the early 20th. Makes NY in the 90's look like a Sunday stroll in the park.
Load More Replies...The concept of "health and safety" also extends beyond the 1974 Act poster which is always displayed, Dr. Tang argues, with places like Singapore introducing the “Green Mark for Healthier Workplaces” in 2018.
Dr. Tang said that the five features they outlined for a sustainable workplace benefitting both people and planet were: “1. Sustainable design and management (of the basic building design); 2. Energy and response management (e.g. Water, electricity, heating, air conditioning); 3. Office environment (e.g. Lighting, glare control, overall comfort); 4. Workplace health and wellbeing (e.g. Food options, fitness programs, smoking cessation programs, biophilic properties); 5. Advanced features (e.g. Energy monitoring, energy disclosure, workplace health promotion),” (BCA Greemark, 2018).
#11
I didn’t see it personally, but someone smoking & another person eating lunch inside of what was a “high risk” containment during an asbestos abatement.
In a high risk you have to be naked under your body suits, shower when you leave, cannot bring anything in or out that hasn’t been washed & you have to wear a full face mask. It’s supposed to be very sterile. These guys had their face masks off inside the containment eating & smoking.
Pat Head 3 years ago
Perhaps these people stayed at a Holiday Inn the prior night.
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FreshGanesh 3 years ago
It’s kinda like normalcy bias. There are people who, if they can’t see direct causation, don’t treat the circumstance as anything but normal. If it’s not tangible, like fire or heavy fumes, they never consider danger. Especially true with carcinogens.
James G. Currie 3 years ago
Related - I used to work with a company that built vehicles. They had oversized industrial paint booths in two locations in the factory. Idiot 1 and idiot 2, wearing full tyvex suits, covered in back splatter, standing in a booth that they had just finished moving a painted vehicle out of - the air still full of volatile fumes, lit-up cigarettes, and smoked them in the booths. He reamed them new ones, filed a full report with HR, whom told him they would handle it. He thought they were terminated. A month later, when their Suspension was over, the company lost what most people on the line admitted was one of the best Supervisors the company had, when spotted them, he walked into HR and handed in his notice!
Miz Chelle 3 years ago
So these posts are the reason for my favorite quote of all time. "The only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." Albert Einstein
#12
Equipment operator used brake cleaner to remove grease from his hands and arms, then proceeded to light up a cigarette on his way out of the work area... Fairly significant second degree burns on both hands and forearms.
LongCoolWomanInABlackDress 3 years ago
I wonder if they are just poorly educated or if after a while on the job you get carelesse because "nothing ever happened"..
Hooked 3 years ago
The second. Witnessed stupid things on the floor soooo many times and it was ALWAYS because they thought they were "immune" because they had done it so many times before...
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Trisha Howson 3 years ago
A lot of people do stuff like this. Because most of the time or a lot of the time you don't get burnt it just the one time that sucks. An then you will never do it again an if live another day you look everything in a new light.
Colin Timp 3 years ago
That's surprising. Brake cleaner evaporates very quickly. Must've soaked into his sleeves or something.
#13
Got called to a factory where the workers had to cut metal on large conveyor belts.
There were large boxes with built in gloves that you stuck your hands in to operate the press.
So, for safety, workers had on one set of gloves ( that everyone wore on the factory floor because sharp hot metal ) and then stuck their hands in a second pair attached to the belts to reach the materials.
One of the workers felt like this slowed him down so he cut a hole in the safety box to be able to just reach in and adjust the metal to the press... Except, the press came down ON his hand, leaving 4 of his fingers perfectly preserved inside the glove.
They recovered his wedding ring, neatly dangling right above the cut off finger bone.
KJ 3 years ago
It's as though the safety box was there for a reason, I wonder what it was to prevent.
LongCoolWomanInABlackDress 3 years ago (edited)
gruesome, but unfortunately some people only learn by experience. My father always brought his grandkids to see his carpenter friend who was missing 2 fingers because he didn't deem it necessary to wear gloves when operating the big electric saw.. he said the only good outcome is that he can now serve as a "how not to do it" model to kids
Jennik 3 years ago
Had a similar experience when I was at uni. I worked in an industrial ceramics factory during the holidays. Some products were made with dry pressed clay granules instead of wet clay. One of the workers propped open the safety barrier on the press because it was slowing her down. She got a finger caught under the press. I was first on the scene. The finger was lying there in this bed of bright yellow clay granules.
James Edwards 3 years ago
I used to run these machines where you had to connect safely cables to your hands that would pull them away when the machine activated.
WordWeaver 3 years ago
Was there an investigation? Why did he feel so time pressured as to take such a stupid risk?
Kayla Belsches 3 years ago
My dad had a coworker working on a table saw and the big boss was yelling at him from behind to get the job done faster. Dude panicked and didn't pay attention and cut all four fingers off... BOTH hands. He was left with two thumbs and nothing else..
Dr. Tang also wrote an excellent book titled "The Leader's Guide to Resilience" where she also discussed this topic.
In a book, she wrote that environmental psychologists will agree that behavior can be shaped by the setting. “Having areas that generate a sense of wellbeing such as designs capturing our biophilic preference for curves, or buildings constructed from natural materials such as wood, the smell of pine or evergreens or the sound of running water can all contribute to energizing your human resource.”
#14
I actually am and OSHA Inspector but I work for a state that has their own state OSHA Plan (same as Federal OSHA but a little more strict). I can almost guarantee you that if you work construction in my state you have seen us or we have seen you. My office alone which is just one county has over 40 Compliance Officers. Yes, a lot of people hate us and yes their are some bad Compliance Officers, just like their are some bad Police Officers. When we come on site we would love nothing more than to find zero violations. The amount of paper work we have to do is astronomical. We have to treat every case as if it is going to court even though maybe only 2% do. People die at work every day from very preventable reasons. Yes, sometimes injuries and deaths are caused by employees not following company rules or taking shortcuts, but statistics also show that the companies with very good safety programs have lower accident rates and are typically very profitable. As for worst violation that I have seen. I investigated a multiple death incident at a company. An employee entered a permit required confined space without utilizing the proper precautions. The employee became unconscious due to the inert gases that were not properly purged from the space. Another employee walks by sees the unconscious employee, tries to rescue him, that employee then became unconscious. Then again with another employee. Now they have 3 unconscious employees who eventually died from lack of oxygen. After the investigation the company had no written confined space policy or rescue procedures. We found out after performing employee interviews that they were told to hold their breath while they performed work in the space because they were only checking a gauge and it would only take like 30 seconds. After about $500,000 in fines and the owner actually going to jail for 5 months the company went out of business. And the worst part is a fire department was located across the street and they were trained in confined space rescue.
Colin Timp 3 years ago
5 months. For 3 dead employees. Sickening, but better than most. Most companies pay a fine and go back to doing business as usual. Imagine how good things could be if people were held to account for their actions. It's the shareholders and taxpayers that foot the bill for this nonsense while a few get rich.
Sue User 3 years ago
It is baffling to me how corporations have rights like individuals but not individual liability.
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James G. Currie 3 years ago (edited)
Sometimes, all the training in the world doesn't matter. Worked at a company that had a multiple death situation several years prior to my working there. Gentleman went into a storage area, to retrieve something, or do some work. Short time later, his friend walked by, and saw his buddy laying on the floor, so he rushed in to help him. Next person saw two people laying on the floor, and called for EMS. The responders went in with breathing gear on, and removed the bodies. It was determined that an odourless and colourless chemical had been left improperly sealed, or accidentally bumped, causing the cap to open... All the employees had been trained on proper response, and it was stressed after that (even with contractors and vendors) to make sure enclosed spaces were ventilated before entering. No judgement was entered against the Company, since they were able to prove their staff was trained. Compassion for a friend sometimes can be lethal.
Scott Rackley 3 years ago
Our confined space policy requires air exchange between outside/confined spaces. Basically a barrel fan outside with a long 12" diameter wind sock into the confined space, that must be manned by someone outside to has a visual on the workers inside. These are space specific (using up to 3 of them depending on volume of space and workers present) and doesn't matter if one of the walls of the space is chain link fence, you still use the cyclers.
Seadog 3 years ago
The only job I've ever had where OSHA would make periodic inspections, OSHA would actually notify the company of what day they were coming. Hence lots of safety gear being passed out until they left, then it would all be collected and put back in the store room until next time. What's the use of having an inspection if you're going to tell someone you're coming?
Lizzy Crit 3 years ago
Rule one of rescue, make sure it's safe to enter the scene so you don't need rescued too.
#15
I've worked for a couple of engineering contractors in the past, my first firm was by far the worst for lack of work ethic and sheer incompetence. OSHA would have a field day with them.
One time, our reciprocating saw broke; the foot that held the blade in place was busted, so rather than follow protocol and get another saw, my coworker fastened the blade in place with a plastic wire tie and proceeded to use it.
The same firm worked as contractors for the company my Dad worked for, so he has the best/worst stories about them. On one site, they'd found that sections of a pipeline had been sealed with asbestos gaskets. The boss of my firm (I'll call him Jim) was present on this site, and had to call in a specialist to remove the asbestos.
Jim would never wear safety gear like the other guys, claiming to be "exempt", and so when the specialist turned up in full breathing gear and overalls and tried to do his job, Jim just stood leaning on the pipe in his normal clothes talking to him. My Dad and the others are stood well away from the asbestos at this point, and he shouts out:
"JIM!"
"What?"
"Are you immune?!"
"Immune to what?"
"F*****g asbestos!"
"Ah, I've breathed loads of it in in the power stations, it's all political."
My Dad says that Jim has defied all facets of medical science by staying alive this long.
LongCoolWomanInABlackDress 3 years ago
my grandfather said the same about smoking - he didn't believe it causes cancer becaue "he ain't got it". Well, he died of pancreatic cancer years later..
Paul Pienkowski 3 years ago
This is my dad. F****r thinks nothing can hurt him. And he's right. He must have a pact with Satan. COPD, emphysema, and he still smokes. It seems to cause him no issues as long as he uses his COPD inhaler. Abusive shithead will never die.
WordWeaver 3 years ago
There was one woman with COPD and on oxygen. Burnt to death when she lit up for a smoke.
Load More Replies... Rrr Ccc 3 years ago
The big harm from asbestos is a form of cancer that is only caused by asbestos. However, it's still a roll of the dice. Avoid asbestos and your chances are zero. But, with every exposure, your chances go up. It's just never 100%. There are other diseases caused by asbestos exposure, none of them pleasant. Dying of a lung disease is one of the worst. You gradually are less and less able to breath, until you are being suffocated. An uncle with lung cancer lived for weeks, not as a human, but a shell, lying in bed, his entire body struggling to get even a tiny bit of air into his lungs. I finally could not stand to be in the room watching that. It is more gruesome than anything I've ever seen in the movies or a TV show. Avoid at all costs, any lung disease.
Miss Frankfurter 3 years ago
He better copy the phone number down for the law firm that deals with mesothelioma. That’s cancer. You get that kind of cancer only from exposure to asbestos. There is no cure. Practically no treatment. People need to take asbestos incredibly seriously!
Seadog 3 years ago
Worked with a guy that had asbestos lung. Once a year he had to have fluid drawn from his lungs. He described the whole process, basically they took a large needle went through his back into each lung. Needle was large enough to leave a scab. If that's not enough to make you stay away from it, then you're just plain stupid. I renovated a 1920 house and wore a respirator and used a vac system just on the off chance that there "might" be asbestos in the plaster.
Niall Mac Iomera 3 years ago
I live near Wittenoom, an asbestos mining town that was closed down decades ago. Your still not allowed to go there or even drive by the town with your windows down because it's so dangerous. Thousands of people died there.
Richard Henderson 3 years ago
Mean while a woman in New Zealand died from asbestosis because, as a little girl, she hugged her electrician dad after he came home from work with some asbestos dust on his clothes.
#16
The safety committee at the state psych hospital I worked at was going building to building, making a surprise inspection. They walked into the Hospital Chapel and found the Chaplain sitting at his desk - getting a blow job by one of the patients who was under his desk.
That old f****r should have gone to prison but they let him take early retirement.
Katinka Min 3 years ago
I will never understand the midneset of these kind of people. Why on earth don't they just have a peaceful wank at home, like we all do?? Why do something this illegal, at work, just for a bit of sexual pleasure? I will never understand it.
Dekker451 3 years ago
Well, it's certainly inappropriate, but I don't see how this is safety related, other than it being the safety inspection team who happened to make the discovery.
Seadog 3 years ago (edited)
Guess it would depend on the reason for the patient being there as to whether any laws were broken.
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On the other hand, “certain certain contexts are conducive to crime, e.g. the 'Broken Windows' theory (Wilson & Kelling, 1982) or that population density leads to aggression, as dramatized in Ballard’s 2012 “high rise” based on Calhoun’s 1960s 'Rat utopia' – so over-crowded work spaces, no opportunity for privacy, a lack of consistent personal territory can be as problematic for your teams as constant demands or uncontained client stress.”
In "The Leader's Guide to Resilience," Dr. Tang stated that “creating a positive environment through sustainable practices is an easy win, and will help the planet, your people, and in turn, most likely, your profits."
#17
My uncle is a safety inspector and is always going off about dumbasses in the workplace. Same uncle broke his arm in four places trying to clean the gutters of his workplace with a too short ladder on top of an oversized toolbox in wet weather.
Mary Bricklin 3 years ago
Whenever I hear this saying I always answer with 'monkey see, monkey do'.
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Lyyyy 3 years ago (edited)
This reminds me. My father was a construction worker. At one industrial building site the plumber had a problem; he had to do some work in the ceiling, but they had no forklift or another method to lift him up. He and three construction workers, my father included, conspired how to ”work around” the problem. They found a nice long plank that they took to the industrial halls loft, put it half over the edge under the fixture that needed work and the tree stood on the half that was on the loft floor and the plumber climbed over the loft railing onto the plank and walked over to the fixture that he was just able to reach when standing on his tiptoes. Crazy. Edit: This happened in the 90s. I have heard literally dozens of stories like this, because my dad worked in construction for nearly 40 years.
#18
I'm a HSR at my workplace.
I recently had management trying to pin a couple of guys on my shift for putting a pallet of product to close to a fire hose.
Ok fair, yeah it's a safety issue.
Only problem was more than half of the fire hoses on site are blocked or inaccessible due to rows of product blocking them.
Poor storage planning on managements behalf, yet 1 pallet near a fire hose is enough cause for a written warning and talks of terminating said employees.
Safe to say when I politely pointed out how many safety hazards and violations that were the fault of the management. They quickly dropped their talks of terminating employees.
Still working on getting those other fire hoses unblocked though.
Like banging your head on a brick wall sometimes I swear.
Colin Timp 3 years ago
Sounds like they are looking for excuses to terminate employees for cause so they can deny unemployment benefits. I've seen companies like this.
sofacushionfort 3 years ago
You don’t see fire hoses except in older buildings. They weren’t kept in good condition, and during fires would fall apart under water pressure. Nowadays overhead water sprinklers are used, or non-toxic fire suppression gas for areas like server rooms to avoid water damage
Seadog 3 years ago
Had a salesman (likes to think he owns the place) get in my face for locking the room where our servers are located because there are electrical panels in that room as well. Claims it can't be locked in case of a fire. Thinks because he's a volunteer fireman he knows everything. I knew better as most businesses have panels that are either locked or behind locked doors for safety reasons. Just to be sure I checked with the marshal. I was right. Marshal then went on to point out all the violations (such as having flammable items stored within 3 feet of panels) but Mr. Know-it-all didn't see a problem with that. Mr. Know-it-all is the same person that insisted I would get electrocuted swapping a breaker in a live box by the wire attached to the breaker that was no longer in the panel. That's not how power works and I'm also not dumb enough to actually touch the wire just in case somehow something is back-feeding it (which if that were true, it would blow the breaker.)
#19
My dad went to his work OHS committee to ask them to mow the patch between the parking lot and the building because the grass had gotten so long that snakes were living in it. The committee decided it was too risky to have someone mow it because there were snakes in the grass and the person mowing might get injured.
Lazy Panda (she/her/hers) 3 years ago
We’d call a herpetologist to deal with it but it’s too dangerous because there are snakes in there.
HarriMissesScotland 3 years ago
I accidentally decapitated a snake that lived next to my mailbox. We were good neighbors because he helped keep the grove rat population under control. I had to stop, and cried for hours.
John Mason 3 years ago
And what about the safety of the snakes if someone runs a mower though the grass.
Russell Tilling 3 years ago
Yeah, wildlife! Get rid of it or burn it to hell!
Load More Replies...According to the HSE's Labour Force Survey, around 1.7 million workers are suffering from work-related ill health (new or long-standing), and this addresses physical health in 2020/21, and this is followed up with a statistic of 822,000 workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety (new or long-standing) also in 2020/21.
Dr. Tang argues that it is unclear if there is a crossover between the statistics as it would stand to reason if you have ill physical health this can affect your mental health.
#20
Fire Inspector here, finding a guy using a propane grill inside a building. He was initially pissed off when I told him he couldn’t do that, until I showed him the stratified smoke that was about a foot off the ceiling.
James G. Currie 3 years ago
Even today...stupid people have been seen smoking while pumping their own gas...
Allan Breum 3 years ago
Actually, a lit cigarette can't ignite gaoline vapors, it doesn't get hot enough. Lighting it, yeah that could do it. You're far more likely to start a fire at a gas station with a static spark from getting in/out of your car.
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Mandy Delaforce (PC Girl) 3 years ago
Never use a fire like this inside. You could die from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Rrr Ccc 3 years ago
Don't they run propane fork lifts indoors? I've seen a propane floor polisher in a super market.
Lizzy Crit 3 years ago
If it's something specifically designed to burn propane indoors, it's fine. Propane furnaces are quite common. A grill is not.a clean burning device
Load More Replies... #21
I interned at OSHA. I got to ride around with a former electrical union superintendent and I’m still telling stories. As an intern they honestly let me ask anything. The inspectors were so glad that someone actually respected them and wanted to learn so they just spilled.
Personally the worst was a couple dozen guys hung their coats up to cover the hot commercial electrical box they had pig tailed their broken radio directly to. The OSHA inspector saw it and just turned to them and said “do you have a family? Do you ever want to see them again?” Turned out the crew chief had a brand new baby girl at home. He basically cried his face off about how stupid they were and shut it down until they could make it safer. No fines were issued. Even though it could’ve bankrupted all 3 companies on site. Just real talk.
In case you didn’t know that amount of electricity would kill you in the worst way (unable to let go and feeling every single shock) and leave you a pile of dust.
Katinka Min 3 years ago
I am so glad I live in a country with alternating current. I got a fairly bad shock once from faulty wiring in my appartment. It threw me off the ladder (I was painting the walls) but fortunately nothing else happened. (I know, blodclots can happen and that I shoudl have gone to the hospital, but I just didn't go)
Isaac Nemo 3 years ago
I don't really understand this one. They had a radio... and they wired it directly into a mains, basically? Other than blowing up the radio, what would this do?
Rost it 3 years ago
Damaged radio and probably wired direct to the terminal lugs. Over 20 years ago I was an electrician helper and was tasked with removing a panel cover to have a large breaker replaced. The breaker was more damaged than we realized and literally exploded when I went to lift the cover off. Something shifted and when it shorted and arcd over, the panel was blown back with me in front of it. We both landed twentyish feet away. My gloves finger tips were burnt to a crisp, my hardhat was cracked and my safety glasses were scorched. I was shaken up but physically fine. Safety gear ftw
Load More Replies... Seadog 3 years ago (edited)
Worst shock I ever received was from mirrors. roughly 150 on a buck, I placed my hand against them, shock went from my left hand and out of my left shoe. Left my left side numb for about 5 minutes. Don't think for 1 second just because something isn't wired it can't be charged and don't think just because something is non-conductive (glass) that it can't build a charge. In this case the glass is coated with silver and copper and even though it's coated with lead based paint, it still managed to transfer it's charge on the first opportunity.
#22
Port state Inspector, For me and most of my colleagues its things relating to fire safety, particularly fire doors. The amount of time I've found auto closing doors tied, wedged, weighted or just fixed in the open position is maddening. Fire is the worst thing that can happen on a ship, and these doors have to be able to be closed at any time but people are too f*****g lazy to open a god damn door so they tie them open, and then guess what, time and time again there is a fire and when we do the investigation (assuming there is anything left to investigate) we find a fire door fixed open that's allowed to fire to spreed. People in my industry literally die every year because some f*****g AB or assistant engineer to too f*****g lazy to open a door. Edit: So that's the most maddening, the dumbest would be when a captain tries to stop us from coming on board in the first place. FYI if you are working in the marine industry, never try this, it will end badly for you. One of two things will happen, We will just refuse your ship access and black list you, or we will allow you in and then immediately detain the ship. I remember one captain stood on the gangway and tried to block me and my boss from boarding, he said "this is unreasonable!, we have had no time to clean up or anything and demanding we come back after he had finished cargo operations" Hearty laughs were had and we told him he had however long it was going to take us to walk back up to the harbor master station and walk back down with Royal Police escort and that in the meantime the ship was detained.
Hugh Cookson 3 years ago
Good, having worked on ships back in the 80's and 90', I know there were / are far too many arseholes out there.....
“As always there is a power balance with regards to whether someone actively and knowingly chooses an unhealthy environment to work in if they are in need of a job and have little choice, it is possible people may be willing to put up with more, but unfortunately we often do not know until there is a problem how much that particular individual can withstand mentally or physically,” the psychologist and book author explained.
#23
Not an inspector but did work comp insurance for a bit. I saw this on cctv for evidence Factory that made foam for mattresses had a machine that would cut up medium sized chunks of foam into smaller ones to put into mattresses. Sort of like a wood chipper. One guy got tired of putting handfuls at a time (the recommended way) and decided to get a bucket and starts shoveling into the cutter. When it got stuck from too much foam he used the stick part of a broom to push it thru. This got the broom stuck. He then decides to put both hands in to dislodge the stick and stuck foam. The machine was still on this whole time. He somehow manages to get the stick out and the blades start going again. He amazingly only lost two fingertips and tried to sue his boss. We settled for 30k...
Almarako94 3 years ago (edited)
30k he paid to the company for his stupid and all the trouble or did he got 30k for the lack of a proper security training?
sofacushionfort 3 years ago
Google the price list known in the insurance industry as the “meat chart.” Non-index fingertips go for 10K, twice for pointer.
Nimues Child 3 years ago (edited)
Mistakes were made because he thought he knew better? Nah. Nah. No settlement for you.
James G. Currie 3 years ago
Not bad, the idiot having to pay his company 30k for being stupid enough to sue... (in my dreams, anyway...)
Lizzy Crit 3 years ago
No, company paid idiot 30k to avoid the expense of defending the case in court. Yeah they'd win, but the fight would be more expensive than the settlement.
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#24
Guy at my work was collecting a soil sample amd tested it. Right after he finishes the boss says now can you test it all for asbestos when hes been exposed to what he thought was just plain soil for the past few hours.
#25
Fire alarm/sprinkler leaking onto steel racking for so long it’s rusted. Racking was 6 tier high...
Management refused to treat it a hazard.
WordWeaver 3 years ago
Until it all comes tumbling down, while the water sprays over the lot. Then heads will roll (not theirs, of course!)
Rachel Reynolds 3 years ago
The roof leaks in our parts dept.. Specifically, It leaks directly over where the light bulbs and wiring harnesses are stored. Will we move the parts? No! we work for the government, if we change things no one can find anything. Will the roof be fixed? No! we work for the government, we're luck we have a bucket.
Dan Padgett 3 years ago
Had the same issue in a building I used to work. Listed building that was too expensive to repair. Got so bad, you would need waders to walk the isles. 6 tiers of heavy copper cylinders on racking that was being soaked every day.
sofacushionfort 3 years ago
Then the sprinkler system wasn’t maintained. Any water flow will drop the pressure and trigger the alarm.
Seadog 3 years ago
Problem there is the powers that be don't comprehend the full scope of it all. As with most companies they'll ignore it until 1)it goes south and destroys merchandise, 2) it goes south and causes extensive damage to the build and the merchandise and/or 3) it goes south and someone gets injured or killed. Then the PTBs will immediately demand why no one informed them of the issue and find a scapegoat.
Load More Replies... Dr. Tang also said that the pandemic has caused people to reassess their values and the "great resignation" was an opportunity for a "great reshuffle" or a "great reformation" where organizations too could focus on their values. “And LIVING them not just listing them,” she said. It proved to be an opportunity to “develop their purpose and direction, which in turn might make them more appealing to a workforce whose values align,” Dr. Tang concluded.
#26
I inspect fire sprinklers and I saw someone had a chain going through one to hang a light.
Urbangirlatl 3 years ago
Ask hotel folks how often dumb guests set them off by using the Sprinkler as a hanging station.
Colin Timp 3 years ago
I saw a story about a woman who hung her wedding dress on one on her wedding day. Whoops
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Shyla Clay 3 years ago
Well, we don't want to mess up the Christmas decorations hanging from the smoke detector, now, do we?
#27
Not an OSHA employee, but these guys I worked with were undermining a road. Cars were still passing over the dug area. No efforts were made to secure the trench (trench boxes or such), no ladders, a 6' pile of the trench spoils were right on the edge, phone, gas, and power ran nearby but locates weren't done...
I'm honestly surprised it didn't collapse, the cars driving overhead shook loose plenty of gravel from the sides of the hole.
Colin Timp 3 years ago
Just had a trench collapse kill 2 guys where I live a couple weeks ago.
Sue Knerl 3 years ago
Maybe locates were called and lazy locators didn't do their jobs. See that a lot. We're busy can we come tomorrow then never show up.
Seadog 3 years ago
I understand companies have to go with what locators tell them about buried items but sometimes the property owner knows best. Happened at my house. Power company had locators mark the water main, I told them the marks were wrong because the area they marked didn't exist until recently (filled in a valley), told them exactly where the main is. I no more than got the word out of my mouth when they hit it with a backhoe. The main was exactly where I said it was. Needless to say PSA scrambled to get a crew out to relocate the now found main. (previous locators marks were 65 feet away from the line - he merely marked point A to point B in a straight line, never took into consideration the old road bed where the line was laid didn't go in a straight line)
Load More Replies... #28
Former safety rep who specialized in industrial food manufacturing working for the largest food companies. I am now in school for psychology so am interning at a clinic. In my interview I said that was my previous career so they asked me to do their EAP and exit maps. Yet they wont buy the fire extinguisher signs. The thing I repeatedly tell them to do is unlock one of the doors leading to a exit door. They have a storage/file room with one of the emergency exits and you cant walk in the room even if the door is unlocked.
#29
Worked as a Storeman at a retail store. We were having renovations done to the building at the time so there were a lot of construction workers around. One day I walked in on a bunch of Eastern European workers holding a ladder on top of a trolley while one of them climbed it to reach something on the wall (high af ceiling). I flipped my s**t at them and had a go at their foreman as well.
LongCoolWomanInABlackDress 3 years ago
well as a regular worker you don't question your manager's decisions when you know you can lose your job over it, even if it puts yourself at risk. Sad reality for a lot of construction workers.
#30
Guy was a warehouse worker. Qualified to use the forklifts, but this was a special one where the entire cabin lifts up so the forklift worker has better vision. What does the guy do?
He gets out 3.5 meters in the air and steps on the pallet to adjust some of the products. The guy faced 0 repercussions. He was a nice guy, but crazy.
Niall Mac Iomera 3 years ago
...being 3 metres up in the air, over a concrete floor, with almost nothing to stand on, and nothing to prevent you from falling doesn't sound bad to you?
Load More Replies... #31
I have so many I can barely choose. Once I noticed workers welding on a table with their leathers between their waist and the table. Apparently bad wiring in the building was causing the full outlet electrical current to charge the table when the machines were set up so for years people just knew not to touch anything near or on the table during welding work.
Once I couldn't stop a place from not welding outside next to their flammable cylinders.
A manager was having an employee scale lime deposits off equipment with essentially CLR and letting it just run free into the storm drain next to him. It literally dyed the pavement for over a year.
Had 2 morons try to get something off a wall in a warehouse. One held the base of a ladder (standard, not A-frame) while the other got to the top wrung and started jumping to reach whatever it was. I shouted to them and the moron holding the base turned to look at me and let go; as you can imagine moron 2 had a quick trip back to the ground.
Ivo H 3 years ago
the last one - shouting at them was like wake up a sleepwalker on the roof. Of course something bad will probably happen when you scream something at those people! The right thing to do would by speak to them calmly, or come to them carefuly. It’s exactly what you do with children holding the glass bowl.
#32
Worked in a hospital lab and higher ranked coworker asked me to take inventory of things from our liquid nitrogen storage tank (-200C mind you). I asked her for the proper mitts to handle our stuff and she told me to just use our usual latex gloves. WTF.
*My company rents the lab space of the hospital so I’m assuming she doesn’t know where it is and doesn’t care to ask*
I proceed to ask the hospital lab staff for proper mitts to which I was given.
After I took inventory, coworker decided she wanted to do a verification inventory check and had the audacity to ask me for the proper mitts. gtfo
Brandon Marlowe 3 years ago
Jennifer, EVERYTHING is not political. Give it a rest.
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#33
A powder actuated hammer is a gun that fires nails into steel using gunpowder. I once had to prevent someone from looking down the barrel of one when it jammed. Tons of fun around demolition crews too, like preventing them from demo'ing the parts of the building holding up the area they're standing on, commonly mistaking the live wires for the clearly marked out disabled wires, or constantly starting fires. When you need to work out some stress, usually they don't mind lending you a sledge hammer to go work out your frustrations on. Anything to do with traffic around cities is a goddamn nightmare, give sympathy to the flaggers, they deserve a lot.
#34
Worked in a warehouse that repaired tools and equipment for erecting wind turbines. There was one beloved program manager that always met schedules early and under budget. All the execs loved him. But his equipment came back basically disassembled and reassembled with all the safety checks removed so they’d work faster. The way they rigged up the electrical equipment was downright scary. He’d hire unqualified lifting equipment inspectors for his worksite instead of relying on the corporate guys who took their time and kept documentation on everything. Stuff like that. Cutting corners whenever he could. But he got everything done on time so he was a golden goose. Every time I hear of an accident at a wind farm I wonder if it’s related to that guy.
#35
I Work as a Fire Safety and H&S Officer, at one of my sites, this particular one being a small-medium sized shop, I was made aware of a "hidden" room. There's a narrow corridor to enter that they blocked off whenever they knew I was coming, no fire-door so any fire spreads straight onto the main shopping area. The room contains a plethora of 400/415 volt panels, and is absolutely rammed with wood, cardboard boxes, and what felt like every combustible material possible, roughly 30 years worth of c**p. Essentially, the mother of all fire hazards with enough immediate fuel and oxygen to burn down the building and neighbouring stores. The maddening part of it was essentially all the staff at the shop were aware of it but did nothing to fix the issue and even actively worked to hide it, if you see a fire hazard please fix it or report it! Also the sole fire escape was jammed due to the door warping and would not open at all, having not been checked in I imagine the roughly 2 months since I was last on site.
#36
The ones that make me maddest are the blatant health violations. Mica dust everywhere. No respirators, no exposure assessments, no awareness among anyone at the location of the hazards of mica dust. When asking the EHS folks at the site about it, they just didn't know at all, and I was like "it's your responsibility to know this stuff." I also audited a site that uses very dangerous pharmaceutical compounds, but had nothing in terms of exposure assessments. They just put it all in a glove box and assumed it was ok. The twist - they had not done any sort of testing on the glove box, or training on cleaning, or validation that the box was actually air tight. There is zero excuse to have no program in place... and employees were symptomatic. Their IH professional was a CIH with a lot of experience so it's not like he didn't know he had to do that stuff... he just hadn't done it.
WordWeaver 3 years ago
Attitude = Save money, make profit. Plenty more workers out there when these ones die.
#37
This is coming from my step brother. He managed a warehouse that had industrial sized rolls of aluminum and other metals. These rolls weighed multiple tons each. They would use an automated crane. They would program each space available, and the crane would place the rolls where they were delegated. My brother tells me about an employee that knew how to work the system with FMLA, this guy was lazy as hell, and knew how to get away with it. It turns out he programed a slot on the top of a stack to be a dead zone, no rolls would go to that one spot. He setup a makeshift bed and would crawl up and take naps. He kept this secret, obviously. If someone had seen this spot was unused and reprogrammed it, the automated crane would have placed a 4 ton roll on top of him while he slept. Some people are wild.
Seadog 3 years ago
Local tire plant. Had some down time for some reason so rather than go home, guy elects to take a nap behind a bin. Worked fine until someone came along and shoved another bin against that one thereby squashing him between the bin and wall. He was 1 of 3 unrelated fatalities in 2 weeks. The other 2 got pulled into machinery when they entered no go zones.
Alicat Wombat 3 years ago
Risking his life based on the assumption that no one could possibly be as smart as him.
#38
Employee (with no competency) stole a telehandler. He then proceeded to drive into a fence . When questioned regarding this action he answered that "He was too lazy to walk to the canteen" . 400m away from the work area.
#39
My dad works on a large renovation project for a national landmark. He identified a hazard where workers putting up scaffolding would have to walk along the sloped incline of a plateau that functioned as the foundation for a construction shack, all the while carrying the scaffolding components. They didn´t have to walk up the hill, or down the hill, but along the entire width of the sloped base. This is a hazard since workers had no form of handrails/other support and could easily twist their ankles or lose their balance. He notified the foreman about this in the morning, he didn´t think it a problem. He notified the site manager of this in response, but he was in meetings all morning. That afternoon, he spots a group of three guys walking on the construction site. Shorts, sandals, and no helmets. He walks up to them; "So gents, what are we doing? You now you need steel toed boots and helmets right?" "Yes sir, but we're just leaving and heading home. We all twisted our ankles and can't continue working." Sure enough, all of them had scraped/bruised knees and shins. That were the workers putting up the scaffolding, every single one of them. Half an hour later, the foreman comes walking over to him: "What the hell do you think you're doing, going over my head like that! I have got a schedule to finish here! Those scaffolds need to be up by tomorrow and wired by the end of the week! I don't have time for this." "I don't know if you've noticed, but all the workers for the scaffolding have gone home injured. And now, since they can't finish the scaffolding, the electricians can't start on the wiring the day after tomorrow and the whole project is looking at a 2 weeks delay at least."
#40
I'm not even an inspector nowhere near but once in culinary class we took a trip to our school cafeteria (I'm still in highschool btw) because my teacher wanted to show us cleanliness. Well foolish of her she took us straight there no warning or heads up to the lunch ladies and it was filthy. Im talking roaches everywhere rat s**t on the floor unknown to us liquids on the floor and then picking their ears and eating the ear wax and going right back to prepping food that would be eaten and hour later by kids. This I the reason the only thing I eat are pb&js because they're in packages and a juice on the side
Unknown 3 years ago
I think you received true real world behind -the-scenes of way too many business
Seadog 3 years ago
exactly. If you knew 1/2 the things that go on in restaurants, you'd never eat out again. Ever. Local steak house that went under a few years ago, building owner is a tightwad and didn't want to pay for HVAC in a vacant building and turned it off. 90+ summer days. Mold was growing inside to the point it hung like Spanish Moss. Had a local go in and clean things up and leased it to another restaurant. No, they did not gut the building. No professional biohazard crew to properly abate the mold. Just wipe everything off, throw on some paint and call it good. Have I eaten there? NO WAY. You couldn't pay me to set foot in that place. Woman I know was a waitress at the new place, even if the mold issue didn't exist, I still wouldn't eat there because of what she saw in the kitchen. I dated a health inspector, I can't understand how places like this ever open let alone stay in business. I guess when you're the right person, payoffs make a lot of things happen.
Load More Replies... #41
I seen two Spanish lads grinding a 12" Sched 80 Moly Pipe, only they had no clamp, so one held it at face level, and they had no glasses or face guards, so they were both desperately looking away to avoid sparks in the eyes
René Sauer 3 years ago
Maybe it was to show that s**t can happen in other countries too? Because unless it is mentioned or at least hinted at, I normally assume that everything I read on the Internet happend in the US. And I am probably not the only one.
Load More Replies...
#42
Ohhh I can tell you lots of stories. I do manufacturing safety now but was in petroleum before, primarily construction. (1) Was in a DCP midstream plant in Hobbs NM about 50 feet away from a guy joyriding on a forklift who slammed his boom into an overhead pipe, popped a wheelie and ended up with the boom *between* that pipe and another one. When we traced back the pipe he had nearly caused to burst we found it was a 600 PSI fuel gas line. The whole plant would have gone boom. (2) On the same DCP midstream project, was working a Hydrogen Sulfide disposal well across the street where they were replacing the casing. The well was 35% H2S (1000 parts per million will f*****g kill you in a single breath) and they didn’t want to wear respirators or evacuate and let us check the area under supplied air when alarms went off. We finally told them we were walking off the job if they didn’t straighten their act out - safety personnel legally had to be there and we were the only provider in the area. (3) At my current employer our CDL driver was backing a trailer up to a dock door at the warehouse, and got out to go inside and make sure he was lined up correctly. He didn’t set the brakes on the truck though and it proceeded to roll freely through the parking lot wiping out people’s cars. (4) Just recently had two forklift repair technicians use one forklift to pick up another forklift by its overhead guard and then stand under it to do a repair.
#43
I do EHS and watched a bunch of guys using a forklift to literally lift an entire box truck over a fence instead of just pushing it through the gate. They thought I was at lunch. I was not.
#44
safety inspector for an engineering service company. the amount of basic f**kups when any floor staff tried rigging equipment to be lifted is too damn high, these people have had the correct training but seem to think "getting it done quicker" is a lot better than "getting it done safely"
Seadog 3 years ago
Friend is a tower crane operator. When building, crews will place a dumpster in the bottom of the elevator well and it will be lifted out in the end. When they ran the straps under it for the lift, they accidentally ran the straps under the I beam the dumpster was sitting on. When the lift began friend said he noticed the boom dip, figured it was just a heavy load. Then the straps snapped. He watched the boom spring up, saw the supporting cables go slack as he felt the entire tower began to lean backwards. He figured this was the end of him. At this point the tower lost it's momentum and the boom began to fall. Luckily the supporting cables took the weight as the boom returned to its normal position and luckily the entire structure withstood the ordeal. The process of raising the height of the tower is something else I wouldn't want to be involved in.
#45
I manage safety for a medium size company in the UK. Best one to date was where I received a phone call informing me a supervisor on the factory floor had damaged their hand in a razor sharp guillotine (approx. 1200mm wide x 1800mm in length). This is an automatic guillotine which cuts material to specified lengths at approximately 5 second intervals. I turned up to find the supervisors hand wrapped in a cloth which had now turned red due to the large amounts of blood. Turns out that some material became stuck in the guillotine preventing the blade from cutting properly , the supervisor without isolating the machine tried to beat the 5 second count and free the obstruction but the guillotine cut right through the palm of his hand. Turns out the blade just missed one of the main arteries in his hand so he was extremely lucky!
#46
We just had a guy fall on Friday. He had been complaining about the ladders used for CIP. That they were too small didn't hold enough weight and some were busted. Been complaining for 6 months in every safety evaluation and safety meeting. Dude was taken out in an ambulance. I hope he is alright but I also hope he sues. They don't give a f**k about us here.
#47
I noticed someone on the CCTV cameras riding around in a hover-board while moving a wheelbarrow and was actually impressed until he knocked someone over outside in the pavement. We called him Dangerous Roy and he broke three ribs by jumping onto a rock, slipping and falling onto the cement mixers handle bars. We nearly had to report it to RIDDOR but he left because the pay wasn’t good enough. Was not mad at all.
#48
We received a complaint about workers using liquid nitrogen inside of a confined space. I went out to this sand and gravel company and saw this 30' long above-ground storage tank. There was a liquid nitrogen tank outside the opening and two workers outside. I showed my ID and discovered one of the workers outside was the foreman and the other was monitoring the air quality for the workers. All good, right? Nope. The entrance was a small square opening at the end. There were about 4 workers inside the tank using liquid nitrogen to cool the tar in the tank so it could be chipped out. So, they were introducing a gas which could displace oxygen. The person doing air monitoring had a probe only a couple feet long, so it was only really checking the air quality of the fresh air mixed with tank air, NOT the air in the worker's breathing zone. The workers were about 15' into the tank. They had no confined space training, no confined space permit, no rescue plan. The foreman then copped an attitude and told me I was wasting their time. I red-tagged the operation (normally reserved for only when voluntary immediate compliance seems unlikely) and told them it was illegal for them to continue work or re-enter the tank until they met the confined space rules. It was a pretty hefty fine - the company didn't appeal. I think the foreman got fired as management seemed unaware that the activity was taking place and was further upset at the foreman's reaction. Normally, sand and gravel companies in my area do a good job with health and safety - it was a rare miss for them.
Alicat Wombat 3 years ago
It’s just horrifying how casual people are with other people’s lives.
#49
I have many years doing safety inspections, I have seen some "fun" things in my time. I have seen industrial fan's cords spliced onto an extension cord with the bare wires exposed and charred and the employer saying it's fine because it still worked. An owner of a nursing home reach into a used and full sharps container to prove that needles were not being recapped. A guy outside of a window on a third story of a house on the edge of a board removing a window pane without any fall protection while his two buddies are inside on the other side of the board holding him up (there is level of trust that I do not have with most folks). Walking up to a house and the owners had made a makeshift driveway out of asbestos siding that they had removed from the building the previous day and seeing kids playing in the area. A compressed gas cylinder filling station would receive old cylinders and they would have to empty them prior to repairing or destroying them, the guy doing this would take them out back and, while holding his breath, would secure them and open up the valves to empty them and then go inside. This worked okay for a while until it didn't and he got dosed with a massive exposure to arsine gas (the company usually didn't deal with this gas but had received from one of their customers for disposal) which almost cause complete renal failure. These are just a few that I can recall that kinda stuck with me. There are lots and lots of run of the mill safety issues that I see all the time but the majority of the time it's ignorance of the law and not malice for most employers.
Alicat Wombat 3 years ago
I had to read the sentence about the board three times. WTF?! People really are straight up crazy.
#50
I had an employee using a hydraulic shear, 10 tons of cutting force, to down size very hard metals. He got to a piece that was larger than the guard would allow so, of course, he removed it. He went back to sizing the metal of normal thickness. The position of the machine was an L, so his left hand would move the material then actuate the machine with his right. The machine had a deadman's switch so if the handle was released the hold and the shear would pop back up. Long story short he cut his thumb off with 10 tons of force. EDIT: There's more to this story; no touch tools, grandfathered machinery, etc. but the long and short is a guy stuck his hand in a industrial metal scissor and pulled the lever!
#51
I once worked for a family owned company that built tow boats and barges. When I asked my friend/boss who got me the job about mesothelioma and why it was so prevalent in the industry he told me, “I’ve been instructed by our lawyer not to answer that question”. Not to mention all of the other things I was told to overlook when I became part of management.
Nimues Child 3 years ago
"Just don't talk about it and it will be a great workplace!" - nope. just nope.
#52
Obligatory not OSHA, but I go to a lot of sketchy body shops all day, so I see some unsafe practices. I have two. Once saw a guy using an angle grinder to cut metal. He wasn't wearing any eye protection, and the sparks were flying straight into his face. He wasn't even looking away. I also once saw a guy using a MIG welder with no welding helmet. Staring straight at what he was working on. Bonus points because he was smoking a cigarette.
Seadog 3 years ago
And if you say something to him about he'll say he can't see what he's doing if he wears goggles, glasses or helmet
Load More Replies... #53
I do environmental compliance, specifically air pollution control. One day, we received a complaint from a former employee of a company about a whole laundry list of stuff his former employer was doing wrong. That's not super unusual, people get fired or quit on bad terms and call basically every agency they can think of for 'payback'. Anyway, we responded. When we got there, there were a few things that weren't right...but the icing on the cake was that they had this pollution control device that was supposed to be collecting dust from one of their processes. One problem though...all of the dust was on the ground around it. We told them in no uncertain terms that it was unacceptable, and that they needed to clean it up immediately. We also told them we would be back to make sure they did. A couple weeks later, we *scheduled* a visit. I cannot stress enough that this time they *knew* we were coming. Guess what we saw on our return? Dust all over the ground. The kicker is, they had this broom and shovel out there the first time, and it was still there the second time...just leaning on the wall like 3 feet from where it was the first time. For those keeping track, that means they either a) never cleaned up the dust, or b) that they cleaned up the dust and subsequently spilled more...but either way someone had to go out there and move the shovel. So, despite us telling them that they could not do this, and that we were going to come back and make sure it was corrected, they went ahead and did actual nothing to improve the situation. I've got tons of stories like this one. People do some really dumb stuff, and then get mad when the notice of violation shows up in the mail.
Seadog 3 years ago
EPA rolled through our town. The best one though, while inspecting a fuel oil distributor, guy was filling his truck and it overflowed. The guy looks at the inspector and said, "ah, that's no big deal, been doing it this way forever." They'd been in business since the 40's? Multiple spills per day for who knows how long. To top it off, they were located (upstream) within 1000 feet of a creek. They weren't in business much longer after that. The site was never dug up. Guess they just decided it would be too destructive to the surrounding area to do anything about it since trying to eliminate the contamination would also certainly mean disruption of a railroad and reconstruction of the ridgeline it and a road was on.
#54
While working on a small pipeline project, one guy had a 6-pack of beer under the back seat of his truck. Obviously the beer was warm. We figured we could cool the cans by tipping a propane bottle upside down and spraying them with liquid propane. I guess there is a safety device to prevent this, so we put a hose on the tank and cut the hose. One guy held the cans with his bare hands in the stream of liquid propane on the worksite. Good times.
#55
I wasn't a WHS officer but I worked in HR. I once had a work over claim come through my desk for an employee who broke their arm pulling a plant out the ground.
What do you think ?
2x4b523p 3 years ago
Not so much safety violation but makes you wonder how companies work. A week ago I noticed a water leak on a road outside our house. Reported to water company. Next day the road caved in. Reported to water company. They came and closed the road, did not fix the leak. There has been water gushing out for a week, meantime we had a heatwave and received three letters from that same company asking us to use less water and how every drop counts. The bins have not been emptied and no mail because road is closed. Every time I call they are “working on it”.
Emma 3 years ago
Hopefully they actually are and they've been waiting for parts to come in.
Load More Replies... Phil Rubin 3 years ago
I worked on sales for an electronic distributor. Got a call from a hospital engineer for a quote on hospital grade power strips. These things cost several times the ones found on a hardware store. Followed up, didn't get order. A few days later get a call from the hospital engineer asking if the devices are still in stock; they were. He asked for them to be shipped overnight (expensive). I asked him what happened.... it turned out someone in purchasing thought she was smart and ordered cheap power strips from Home Depot and they were being used on patient-attached equipment AND they were leaking electrically. I wanted to ask if someone died, but didn't.
Chich 3 years ago
I was a shop steward. In the field and missed when the office foundations shifted. Cracked the concrete floor slab, support columns were off kilter and though none broke, the big plate glass widows gave out a very loud "dongggg" sound. Site supervisor was going to make everyone come back into work the next day as in his mind there was nothing wrong with the building. I met with him and said he had to find alternate facilities until assesment and repairs or I would close the building. Got furious, yelling there was no f*****g way a shop steward was closing *his office. I pointed out that if anyone got injured one of us was loosing his job and getting sued and it wasn't me. Next morning in a staff meeting (offsite) "Working hand in hand with the union we have made arrangments for...."
Jessica N 3 years ago
Not inspector but former restaurant worker. At Hardee's when i was 20 we were 2 days away from getting $100 bonuses for no workplace accidents. New guy, 3rd or 4th day working, drops a chicken filet off basket into fryer and tries to grab it with his bare hand...out of 375° oil. Burns the hell out of his hand and 20+ employees lose out on our safety bonus. We all hated him not just for that but it was the icing on the cake. Another place guy tried to rinse out a fryer with water while it was on...popped water/oil 30' across the room. I had to make a shield out of cardboard and pizza pans and crabwalk over to fryer to unplug it.
ChickyChicky 3 years ago
This is why you don't have 0 accident bonuses. It encourages people to NOT report injuries. It also puts all the blame on "dumb employees" instead of companies not doing proper training and protections.
Load More Replies...
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
The safety regulations are there for reasons. So are safety inspections. Stop b*tching if you want to live. (Said that last bit in a Terminator voice.)
Jeffrey Keffer 3 years ago
So here is a fun little story . Amazon in Edwardsville Illinois makes employees sign a non disclosure agrement , a friend of mine who worked there watched an accident happen he was told " If you say anything to OSHA or a lawyer we will sue you" ... He of course being like an uncle to me told me all about this ... Saddly he passed a few months ago , but on the bright side he cant be sued and I never signed a non disclouser agreement ... This is also the Amazon that let employees die in the Tornado last year .. Look it up spread the story I hope they pay
Jose Carlo 3 years ago
He he he . . . go ahead and TRY to violate ANY safety where I work! You WILL cry! I guarantee you!
2x4b523p 3 years ago
Not so much safety violation but makes you wonder how companies work. A week ago I noticed a water leak on a road outside our house. Reported to water company. Next day the road caved in. Reported to water company. They came and closed the road, did not fix the leak. There has been water gushing out for a week, meantime we had a heatwave and received three letters from that same company asking us to use less water and how every drop counts. The bins have not been emptied and no mail because road is closed. Every time I call they are “working on it”.
Emma 3 years ago
Hopefully they actually are and they've been waiting for parts to come in.
Load More Replies... Phil Rubin 3 years ago
I worked on sales for an electronic distributor. Got a call from a hospital engineer for a quote on hospital grade power strips. These things cost several times the ones found on a hardware store. Followed up, didn't get order. A few days later get a call from the hospital engineer asking if the devices are still in stock; they were. He asked for them to be shipped overnight (expensive). I asked him what happened.... it turned out someone in purchasing thought she was smart and ordered cheap power strips from Home Depot and they were being used on patient-attached equipment AND they were leaking electrically. I wanted to ask if someone died, but didn't.
Chich 3 years ago
I was a shop steward. In the field and missed when the office foundations shifted. Cracked the concrete floor slab, support columns were off kilter and though none broke, the big plate glass widows gave out a very loud "dongggg" sound. Site supervisor was going to make everyone come back into work the next day as in his mind there was nothing wrong with the building. I met with him and said he had to find alternate facilities until assesment and repairs or I would close the building. Got furious, yelling there was no f*****g way a shop steward was closing *his office. I pointed out that if anyone got injured one of us was loosing his job and getting sued and it wasn't me. Next morning in a staff meeting (offsite) "Working hand in hand with the union we have made arrangments for...."
Jessica N 3 years ago
Not inspector but former restaurant worker. At Hardee's when i was 20 we were 2 days away from getting $100 bonuses for no workplace accidents. New guy, 3rd or 4th day working, drops a chicken filet off basket into fryer and tries to grab it with his bare hand...out of 375° oil. Burns the hell out of his hand and 20+ employees lose out on our safety bonus. We all hated him not just for that but it was the icing on the cake. Another place guy tried to rinse out a fryer with water while it was on...popped water/oil 30' across the room. I had to make a shield out of cardboard and pizza pans and crabwalk over to fryer to unplug it.
ChickyChicky 3 years ago
This is why you don't have 0 accident bonuses. It encourages people to NOT report injuries. It also puts all the blame on "dumb employees" instead of companies not doing proper training and protections.
Load More Replies... Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
The safety regulations are there for reasons. So are safety inspections. Stop b*tching if you want to live. (Said that last bit in a Terminator voice.)
Jeffrey Keffer 3 years ago
So here is a fun little story . Amazon in Edwardsville Illinois makes employees sign a non disclosure agrement , a friend of mine who worked there watched an accident happen he was told " If you say anything to OSHA or a lawyer we will sue you" ... He of course being like an uncle to me told me all about this ... Saddly he passed a few months ago , but on the bright side he cant be sued and I never signed a non disclouser agreement ... This is also the Amazon that let employees die in the Tornado last year .. Look it up spread the story I hope they pay
Jose Carlo 3 years ago
He he he . . . go ahead and TRY to violate ANY safety where I work! You WILL cry! I guarantee you!
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