Another ladder moron

[evilhomer]

It's just not my week for ladders. Earlier in the week, I get this clown who orders me up a ladder solo. Well surely that's going to be a one shot incident, who else would be so uncaring and dumb enough to expose their company to that kind of injury liability. Oh no, I get this gem on Friday.

Once again I'm ordered to head up into the ceiling. She's asking for something that isn't my job, but whatever, it's simple enough, so let's keep her happy; off we go. No no no, we don't need two guys for this. Okay, I'm sorry, health and safety guidelines require an assistant for anyone climbing a ladder. Once again she argues this with me, because all I've got to do is lift a ceiling tile and plug something in. While this argument is ongoing, we're heading into the storage room to get the ladder... This thing is a 50 year old wooden ladder that should have been decommissioned 60 years ago. Okay, I'm not comfortable climbing that ladder period, there is no fucking chance in hell that I'm doing so solo. With a roll of the eyes she grudgingly agrees.

I climb this thing, and should have told her that she can shove it up her ass from the first wobbly step, but I kept remembering the story of some guys from a few weeks back who got in trouble for refusing unsafe work (I'll post that when I can), so I got my partner to get a good grip on it and get the job done.

I let her know that I will not ever climb that ladder again. If she ever requires ladder work in the future, she needs to advise our shop and we'll bring our own ladder. With that, she tells me that if I had a problem with this ladder, we could have just got a better one from maintenance. I managed to resist wrapping said ladder around her neck.

[wolfie]

I kept remembering the story of some guys from a few weeks back who got in trouble for refusing unsafe work (I'll post that when I can),

WTF? In Canada, one of the cornerstones of industrial health and safety legislation is the right to refuse unsafe work. If someone gets in trouble for such refusal, they need to go to the Ministry of Labour. Please post the story.

[evilhomer]

WTF? In Canada, one of the cornerstones of industrial health and safety legislation is the right to refuse unsafe work. If someone gets in trouble for such refusal, they need to go to the Ministry of Labour. Please post the story.

Technically, they didn't get in trouble for refusing the work. I wasn't there, so I've only got a one sided version of the story, but I do know that nobody got officially reprimanded for the event, just a bitching customer, and a guy who got banned from that location, but apparently that was for an unrelated event.

The short version of the story is that they were expected to move some 500 lb fireproof cabinets, loaded with about 1,000 lbs of paper. They refused the work for obvious reasons, namely that extra help was needed to move something so heavy. The customer was totally cool with this to their face, but later complained. There was no official reprimand for this event, but one of the employees has been banned from returning to that site. However, his banning is apparently completely unrelated because the same day, he decided to call a customer stupid because the customer was being stupid.

Like I said, I've only got the one sided version of this story, but there's definitely been no official reprimand directly related to this event.

[raudf]

Given it was Friday the 13th.. I'd have told her that in honor of the day, that she absolutely needed to walk under while you were up there. Just to prove to you that it was "safe."

[TonyDonuts]

This thing is a 50 year old wooden ladder that should have been decommissioned 60 years ago.

How many times do you suppose the damn thing's been thrown out, only to have some idiot climb into the dumpster to "save" it?

There's things I've taken apart and buried under filled trash bags, only to return the next day with some Eager Scout expecting a pat on the head for saving it from the garbage.

Bonus points if Eager Scout ignored his/her assigned tasks to save garbage.

BONUS, bonus points if the assigned task was a no-shit, drop-dead, get this done now task.

Jesus wept.

[evilhomer]

How many times do you suppose the damn thing's been thrown out, only to have some idiot climb into the dumpster to "save" it?

There's things I've taken apart and buried under filled trash bags, only to return the next day with some Eager Scout expecting a pat on the head for saving it from the garbage.

Bonus points if Eager Scout ignored his/her assigned tasks to save garbage.

BONUS, bonus points if the assigned task was a no-shit, drop-dead, get this done now task.

Jesus wept.

Unlikely. It's not like this thing is ever to be used by an "important" person, so who really cares if it's a piece of shit. Let's save the money that we should be putting into proper equipment so that I can afford the new Benz.

[TonyDonuts]

I worked for a guy whose boss, or boss' boss, would have to watch him throw broken equipment into the dumpster. (The same guy who had us using the coffee maker to heat water for cleaning instead of fixing the fracking water-heater!) Otherwise, he'd stash it away until they left, and then try to keep using it.

There's something that happens to low- to mid-level management types where they seem to think, "I must save money at all costs, even if it costs me money."

What's a decent step-ladder cost? Couple hundred bucks?

What would a job site-related injury cost? Several thousand bucks? To start? And how much OSHA, and insurance, and legal and other time and bucks?

But some people can't see past that two hundred bucks.

[wolfie]

Yep, I've seen a lot of short-term thinking.

In computers: Bean-counters wouldn't give me an answer as to whether, if I got a $50/year rider on the insurance policy for my car (covers equivalent of LDW for rental cars), I'd be able to expense it on the first business trip of the "insurance year" where I rented a car. I'd be sent on at least half a dozen 2-week trips per year, with LDW (that the company paid for without blinking an eye) of $20/day.

In the machine shop: There were a few 8-speed milling machines where the initial drive was a V-belt on a set of 4-step pulleys. Replacing the belt required bringing in a specialist to disassemble the machine's head. I showed our maintenance guy a brochure about Gates Power Twist Plus belts (sectional V-belt - because it starts out as a straight piece that you link the ends on, it could be installed through the same openings used to move the belt from one step to another, without disassembling the head, so on-site personnel could install a new belt in a couple minutes). Nope - it cost about 3 times as much as a standard V-belt.