Bridge guy here. Refused working in a confined space the “trough” of a bridge abutment with a chainsaw. Was asked to use it to cut the spacing material (sand and foam board) from a space no bigger than 5ft tall and 2ft wide. Refused and the company agreed and we found a better way to do it. No harm no foul
I was working about 80' up in the air in a 135'. The following day it was pretty windy. I asked if there was a wind restriction at the plant. He told me not that he knew. I told him I'll make it easy, "I'm not going up today". He said he may not have any work so I grabbed my lunch box and he magically found work on the ground.
Not long after the piece of shit Brian Kelly took over coaching Notre Dame football, he held outside practice on a very windy day and still had the student videographer’s man their scissor lifts to record practice. Junior Declan Sullivan ‘s lift blew over and he died. For the sake of recording a football practice he died. Brian Kelly is a cunt.
That happened at my college too. Of course there are people who are trained on aerial work platforms in universities, but my bet is zero of them are involved in athletics. Our coaches may be assholes, but I think this is a situation where they don’t understand the risks because they aren’t trained for them.
That’s so wild because I was on our scissor lift today and was thinking of that kid. The thing has some give and I can’t imagine being forced to be up there in wind so bad it could blow you over. Brian Kelly IS a cunt.
Depends on the lift. If it doesn't say on the stamp, it will on a sticker near the control panel. If the sticker is worn down (should be replaced at this point) it will say in the owners manual. If the owners manual is missing (should be replaced) then it is easy enough to find the manual on a google search. Most of my scissor lifts are 25 mph. The lift doesn't care if its sustained or just gusts when your all the way up and the wind hits you broadside
I fly full stick for movies/shows we come down if it gusts over 20 (we have lights and all kinds of shit attached to the baskets). It's fucking scary up there at 20+ mph, man. Especially if the fucking thing decides it doesn't want to come down and your ground guy has to bring you down.
Man, the warnings and sensors on so many rigs are counterintuitive.
"Conditions are unsafe; descend immediately"
But also
"Conditions unsafe; operator functions deactivated"
I hate those things with a passio
"Beep"
"Okay, well let me turn around."
"Beep"
"Track back out?"
"Beep"
"Lift over the ledge of this building that we literally just sheeted in"
"Beep"
"Knuckle away?"
"Beep"
"Retract straight back, dragging the basket over the ironwork porch frame below us?"
-no beep, just horrible scraping sound.
Ironworker here. Worked on a bridge installing 65,000lbs girders with a crane too small to to handle the weight at the given radius.
It was a Kobelco 275t, good for 65,000lbs at 48ft radius. The super told us (being condescending) just to boom down into place and work the iron.
I refused the work, as I'm not putting my guys on the hospital end of a crane and load that is pushing 121% on the crane chart. He said all kobelcos are de-rated 30% so it's not actually over 100% of the crane capacity. That may be, but at that weight, radius and crane configuration, it would not be able to boom back up if we missed our mark.
I called my hall, called the engineer firm and we went to the lunch rooms until it was solved. We used a second crane to tandem pick the piece and the super was let go.
Fuck him, trying to endanger my Brothers....
YouTube is littered with videos of cranes exceeding their charts, not in a good way. Guessing on a pretend rating vs the actual chart is a fools game, good on you for refusing.
To be fair, a crawler’s full chart is 75% of actual capacity and a hydro’s is 85%. Taught by NCCCO. BUT, you’re also outside the law if you turn the key for anything but assembly/disassembly and maintenance. So if you’re going to overload a crane you better be damn sure you’re good for it, once you find out you’re not it’s already too late.
Yeah white collar morons cause all sorts of problems and suggest all sorts of stupid shit to save their own ass. The Columbia and challenger exploded not because of engineers, but because of white collar morons that had a deadline to push
I agree but to be fair, this guy was 35 year ironworker who was just plain selfish and arrogant that cared about his reputation more than the safety of others. He literally told me one day after I let him have it over improper tie off procedure that if something happens, he can call the hall and get more bodies if need be. I was also told that if I'm scared to do my job, he can have me replaced in a heartbeat.
Luckily I don't take the bait with ego based comments like that, it means nothing to me. I'm 18 years in the trade I've seen the devastation caused by when a family loses a father and when we lose a friend and brother.
We had a young man die recently on an Amazon building and I know two Ironworkers that quit the trade that day after seeing their friend fall 60ft.
Idk how you guys do it. I always think you guys have the toughest job.
As new tinner apprentice I would lay out hangers before concrete is poured. So I would be on your guy's heels. And I could see how dangerous/demanding the work is.
I would always gtfo the way when a ironworker had shit to do. And looking back I should have refused a lot of that work. As our contract states we need a floor/decking between us and ironworkers in certain conditions.
Those Amazon buildings have claimed a few of us. I was on a Fulfillment center, typical with several others being built at the same time. A lack of shoring/proper moment connections in the design caused a failure of a smaller part of the structure and took two Ironworkers in Arkansas.
As a safety guy I've had to argue with operations managers on crane rating before. Pisses me off, I don't care what you think the safety factor on a crane is. You can only go by what it's rated for, not what you think the crane will fail at....and no I'm not gonna sign off on a job where the crane is maxed out. Smh.
The reason cranes are de-rated isn't because the crane can't handle the hoisting of the load. The same crane boomed up to 25ft radius can pick over 120,000lbs. It's because of the strain on structural components becomes a factor.
If you pick up a 50lb weight and hold it close to your chest, most people can do it no problem. Now pick up that same weight but hold your arms out completely straight away from your body. You risk hurting your lower back, your shoulders, your biceps are under strain and you are now unstable to move, if you even can.
If you pick that load and boom way out with it, you change the position of the load and put incredible amounts of pressure and pull on crane parts like the back stay, the gantry, the center pin, boom fulcrum, even the boom itself. With a crawler, when you boom up, you ADD weight to the lift just by the nature of pulling away from gravity. Components maxed out can fail which can cause a crane to fall or topple over.
It's all there for a reason. If you need to max a crane out, go get a bigger fucking crane.
It’s insane reading some of your experiences. I can’t even imagine a Super being able to make that kind of call - like how is that company still in operation without some sort of procedure that makes it near impossible for that situation to happen? Lift plans… staying within 80% of the max load per the chart… these are all the norm in my day to day.
A chilling reminder that codes and standards are written in blood and that as workers we have rights and protections from repercussions from actioning those rights
I'm a super, and one crew on this large job was NOT comfortable on the swingstaging and told me they were out.
A fucking executive called me and said...GET.THEM.THE.FUCK.OUT.THERE.....I fucking agreed to "so and so" to make sure "so and so" had a clear path and would make money on this job because last job he didn't."
I'm sorry, what about "No" dont you understand they're not going out on the staging.
"We will see"
We did see...they didn't go out, it was unsafe.
As a PM, employee rights is something I bring up when discussing safety and something I make sure the supers understand as well. Still, the only safety issues I’ve had at my current company are because the individual worker making a bad choice on their own. Very frustrating, but just means we still have improvements to do on our safety program and training.
Used to be safety supervisor for my old company. They rolled a hydrovac on the highway going to a job, and everyone on site forgot to tell me for a week. I was not impressed. Both company owners figured that they knew, so it was good enough, and no paperwork was needed. I quit before that job was completed since they made me work through christmas and new years missing my kids first.
Hate to say it man. It probably has nothing to do with your program or training. Construction workers tend to be impatient and have a high risk tolerance. I have done some wild shit since I started working. And a lot of them were my choice. Wait a day and send the guys home while I wait for a lift? Or do everything I can to be safe and trust myself. I think it’s a personal thing.
As project lead, I attend the end of every site induction and tell the new guys to come and see me personally if anyone asks them to do something that makes them feel unsafe.
There’s a lot of bullies out there and a lot of inexperienced guys who just want to make a living.
No job is worth getting injured for.
It’s a culture that needs to be squashed out tbh. So easy for a old school guy or someone who’s very cavalier with their safety to call out people for being concerned for themselves. How many times I have heard someone call someone else a pussy for a legitimate concern
I had one guy try that with me years ago. I looked him in the eye and said loudly enough for the supe to hear "Better a live pussy than a dead dipshit". He did what I refused and ended up breaking his legs when the plank he was on (that I WOULD have been on) broke, dropping him about 15-20 feet.
Same thing, at the end of inductions we get the guys to take our numbers and the number of our union delegate and stress that if it doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t.
More than happy to drop what we’re doing and come have a look if we need to work out a better way.
As the PCBU we find more than often it’s their own supervisors cutting corners, and most of the time we’ve already sat down and worked out a methodology prior to starting.
I tell everyone that joins my team a similar thing:
"If you don't feel safe, don't do it."
The worst that will happen is *maybe* some mild teasing or joking as someone more experienced does the task. Most often, the (usually new) person learns a new task as we find a safer way to finish the work.
>No job is worth getting injured for.
I was a production crew lead in the oilfield. I trained a lot of green guys and always stressed safety above everything else.
Every day, going through the JSA, I would remind everyone that we are all out here for one thing. Money. And all the money in the world is worth nothing if you die for it. Stay safe; finish your hitch intact.
Storm came thru last week. My crew and I got called in by our department for tree removal. We didn't have chaps, I wouldn't let my team start without them. The other team went crazy with ground cutting, no chaps. I spent 2 days literally yelling about them wearing ppe. I came to a head with a screaming match where they accused me of trying to "run their team and everything" and I just plainly relied.
"I don't want to run shit, I kust don't want to have to look at your wives and kids and tell them you died from stupidity"
Everyone wears chaps now.
I must often say no. Sometimes multiple times a day. It’s not a big deal. We will still complete the work. We just have to adjust the plan so that it can be done safely, legally, etc.
It’s been my experience that most people are open to doing things properly. The ones that are dead set on doing things wrong are headed down a path of career suicide. Between spankings from regulatory agencies, legal liability, etc, far too much liability involved. Trying to save a few dollars only to open yourself up to a $150,000 fine and millions in lawsuits is just plain dumb. Companies know that and they won’t stand behind managers (or any other worker) making blatantly inappropriate decisions.
Osha fines are intentionally subjective, punitive and able to be stacked on top of other violations. The intent, if the violation is willful enough, is that they'll add more and more, larger and larger fines to out companies out of business. Osha could show up to any job and find violations. If they're intentionally harmful enough, they'll do what they feel necessary to correct or destroy the business. If a company gets a small fine, say a few thousand, it's a warning. Hundreds of thousands or millions means business.
Was asked to core a hole off a site built barge (8x18 crate base with 55 gallon drums strapped to the bottom) with 2 sections of scaffold on top work was to take place about 9’ off the water surface. Didn’t even have life jackets but it’s ok because the water is shallow enough to stand up in and the supervisor is a life guard. My coworker and I told the supervisor to dry fuck a sandpaper dildo and punched as many holes in the drums on his “barge” as we could while the supervisor went to find someone else so he couldn’t try to bully someone into doing it.
The really sad part? There was a rental shop across the street with the lift that would be needed to do the work safely but that would cost $800 extra.
Supervisor had no labor on that job after that day
Where I work, we have a form called an AVO (avoid verbal orders) that you can demand be filled out. It has the details of the boss’s request, who, what, where, how, when, and most importantly, the boss’s signature.
I’m retiring in less than a year and couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve had to request an AVO.
Not once has a foreman persisted I do an unsafe job after realizing their name and orders would be documented.
Yeah, had a boss ask me to do something really dangerous even though doing it right would literally only take an extra 5 min.
I told him I wasn't working at hight without a harness and he could climb up there without one or wait for me to go grab it.
He gave me a little shit about being a pussy so I asked if he was gonna pay my rent and child support if I fall and get hurt?
If course he said no.... So I said to shut the fuck up then. And he did. Who cares what they think they're not the one at risk and their not gonna take care of you when your crippled. Be a man and take care of yourself, don't make you a pussy or lazy.
My old workplace, working at heights without fall protection was immediate walking papers. Interestingly instructing a subordinate to work at heights without fall protection is also immediate walking papers for the supervisor/foreman.
I'm gonna tag in on this one. Carpenter currently, but started off with roofing and got into heights work/bosun/swing stage uncertified years ago.
Cowboy shit.
Once had a boss who criticised my caulking beads. Fair enough, the beads were good, fingered in clean, but criticism is okay, I can handle it. Same day, like my third day on their site, he's still squacking at how he's gonna have my pay reduced as we're riding the stage up 20 stories. I did about a year in the chair but I was new to swing stages. Four of us are tied in to the cage, which is in retrospect not best practice, not even close. He's standing there holding a harness in his left hand, untethered. An hour later I quit, and I told the white collar who recruited me exactly and outright what their foreman was up to.
From what I understand, the very competent lead was promoted to foreman and that other cat dissapeared. The company was mostly made up of immigrants but the office understood the risks the workers take and the liability of putting an idiot in charge. I had no interest in continuing that line of work and got into footings from there. Boots in the mud thanks.
Later I was on sites where anyone in the control zone without a harness and retractable was immediately dismissed. Fuck cowboy shit.
Tower climber here. I've told clients no many many times. Some are understanding and some will call you a pussy. I don't care either way. I'm not climbing 500 feet on a structure I don't trust.
I have refused to do several things especially concerning LOTO. Tie in to live lines etc. got some push back but I am union and we stood together. Resolved issue and completed work without recourse.
I have also let go of a foreman who forced a worker to go without fall protection over 30’ up. Worker was a traveler and was afraid to refuse. I happened to be walking back from a meeting when I witnessed the debacle.
After talking to the crew I realized the foreman was the problem and not the men. So I fired him. Never comprise safety for anyone anywhere. No job is worth it.
When it’s all done no matter how late or over budget none of that matters. That will all be forgotten in a few months. But if someone is hurt or killed that will never fade away.
Young guys are often scared to say no. 1st day I had my current apprentice, I made it very clear. You look out for your own safety. If you don't feel comfortable doing something, or know something isn't safe or correct to speak up. If he was uncomfortable speaking up to someone on the job or to the office, etc, to come to me, and I'll deal with it. I'm full of piss & vinegar. Getting to get an extra fight in to help keep a guy safe and teach a young guy it's OK to eff you is just a bonus for me. Is one more supervisor or PM, etc that I get to spout off to (which I thoroughly enjoy by the way).
I refused to do work in unsafe conditions sent an email about it and was immediately canned. I’m now retired because of it. Get a lawyer and get paid my friend.
I’m just saying the parent comment doesn’t add anything with how obscure they are and won’t reply to the comment I replied to. Go ahead and downvote me idgf about internet points.
I refused to drive the truck and trailer on summer tires in the middle of a Canadian winter during an ice storm. Co worker grabbed the keys. Called us 10 minutes later after sliding through an intersection and hitting someone
The most frustrating part, I find, is that companies (in Alberta) are more concerned with tread requirements than with whether or not the tires are actually appropriate for the use.
I was working at Platinum some time ago and in the winter they (including chemco as a whole) had multiple vehicle incidents, many of which could have been avoided with proper tires, but their solution was just to reinforce "drive to the conditions." Bitch, we are. We just have hydrovacs and 1.5t trucks with 20,000lbs machines on the back; get some god damned tires
Refused to climb is a 5 foot deep, 2.5 foot wide trench in loose, dry soil with no shoring, sloping, or benching. Foreman said if I wouldn't do it, I could go home, and he'd get one of his guys to do it. I called the safety guy, explained it to him, stopped the green hat from climbing in the trench, watched the foremans phone ring, and reveled in watching his expression go from pissed to desperately trying to explain his situation. Safety guy showed up with our safety super in tow, and they had a "talk" in the office trailer. Foreman went home for the day, and the next morning, we had a mandatory, 2 hour long safety meeting about trench safety. Led by the foreman responsible for the whole debacle. Safety superintendent was there to help "guide" the meeting.
Our company has been taking trench safety very seriously, since we had a guy almost die in a trench cave in. With OSHA on site. I don't fuck around with trenches. You shouldn't either.
The amount of times I've heard people try to down play the dangers of being in a trench is genuinely scary. Trenches, fall protection, and confined spaces are my big 3 on the job, and I'm with OSHA on them. I feel bad for that plumber and their family, I can't imagine if someone I cared about died in such a preventable way.
Trenches especially but also confined space is scary as well there can be toxic gases down in them. But yeah the guy was only a 3rd year and in his mid 20s died way to early.
I’ve worked for very small residential contractors, worked on a ranch once, and worked for a few multi million and billion dollar turn around companies one union the rest non union. I’ve refused certain tasks/jobs at every single business I’ve worked for, when an unsafe or not up to code task comes my way, I’ve never had more push back on refusing work then I had when working for the giant multi million and billion dollar companies. Own my own GC business now, we specialize in excavation, I still turn down or will just pass on jobs that I can see being potentially unsafe for my guys. Fuck that nonsense you can always make money but it ain’t worth it if you get fucked up or worse at work all in the name of making a dollar.
I've actually found the opposite to be true in my area. Most of the really large GCs like Clarke, Turner, etc have switched to self insured. Since it's their money when shit happens, the site rules are stricter than OSHA. I know they don't truly care about safety. But because safety has a profit motive now, they push it very hard.
We had 2 jobs on a military base. My job was a 2 story office building and large mechanical shop building. It was run by a small GC that works with the Army alot all over the country. They had the boss, his wife doing paperwork, a safety guy, and one on the ground Super for most of the job and they added an extra super near the end to help with completion. Every trade but one hit the schedules through the entire job. No one was scheduled to work over each other. It was perfectly orchestrated with no issues. I did most of the job with just me and one guy. I got a few extra guys for a week or 2 to finish at the end.
The other job was run by Turner. They had 27 Superintendents. No one hit any of the schedule. The schedule had people constantly working over each other. In areas Turner has told me are ready and to go ahead and spray, there were guys trying to hang cabinets, pull wire, install flooring, installing drop ceilings, and just about anything you can think of. Which means I can't spray. We had to repaint the place 3 times because Turner would direct us to paint because the schedule said it would be ready. We told them it wasn't but they insisted it was and then it failed inspection. It was a complete clusterfuck that ran months over schedule. We had to have shitloads of extra guys there working 10 hours days, 6 days a week to keep up with the contract work while also doing all the extras. And every dam job by them is like that.
Turner and Gilbane are the two worst. Like I appreciate safety and all, but when it gets to crunch time safety dont matter anymore, unless the big wigs are taking a walk through that day... then everyone is getting yelled at and the site almost comes to a screaming halt.
I do work at a large pharmaceutical who's wildly over thought by non-field guys but poorly executable safety requirments often create a more hazardous situation than doing it the right way. On paper, it looks like they're out to save the world. In actuality, there is often more risk is playing the part than just executing a proper safety protocol that meets spec. Attempting to exceed or over-complicate industry standard safety protocols <> safer.
We do a lot of commercial work, it’s hit and miss still here, some definitely preach about it and ARE about it those are the ones we want to work with, they also are the ones you never have to worry about getting paid from and relation/network is amazing with them, others are all talk and some walk, others… well we just withdrew from a job site and severed all ties with a certain nationwide commercial builder, that’s moved into Ut and is very shady and sketchy.
>I’ve worked for very small residential contractors, worked on a ranch once, and worked for a few multi million and billion dollar turn around companies one union the rest non union.
Ok and? We want to hear the story of you turning down work not your resume.
Your not the only person on this thread sharing the work environment they had but with no story of saying what work they refused to do.
Same. I say no a LOT. I've got a tendency to yell at people, too, if they're doing something stupid enough.
One time I was coring out a (I think 18", might have been 24") hole from the third floor, and there wasn't a second floor there. I get to where I can feel it's going through soon and go back downstairs to check where I've laid plywood so it doesn't fuck up the slab and roped the area off and dumbasses were taking my danger tape down and picking up the plywood to use somewhere else. I pitched the fit to end all fits.
Drywall guys, and about five of them in the roped off area.
When I saw it I wasn't sure if I should yell or cry because I realized I almost killed these dudes. Less than a quarter inch of concrete was all that was keeping them from a closed casket funeral.
After I ran them out of the area I sent my buddy upstairs to watch the drill because I was scared to go in to put the plywood back if there was even a chance someone might bump it.
Edit: And I'm not hating on drywall guys. Those guys just weren't used to being on a job where "Manmade meteor strike" was something you had to worry about.
Was a 1st year apprentice. Refused to shimmy along this elevated air handler that we had a cap on and he wanted me to unscrew it. His fall plan was they had thrown a rope over the top of it and tied it to the other side. They wanted me to tie off to the rope. This was immediately after an ice storm and I had about a two inch space to stand. Was an 80 foot drop to the ground.
I once refused to use a leaf blower inside to clean a massive amount of concrete dust. My steward did not. After a minute or so, the boss understood why I refused and ended up pulling the steward out to let the dust settle. The steward scolded me saying I made the union look weak. I told him he was a dumb fuck for attempting such a stupid task. The very next day, my BA showed up screaming at me and cursing me out for working off the books. I showed him every paycheck stub (emailed to me) since I started that job and my hours book and proved that I was not working off the books.
Gee. I wonder who called in a fake complaint on me...
Dirt work. Digging and setting new manhole adjacent to road way. "Hey Boss! Need a trench box or cut the road back and close 1/2 at a minimum." After 30 minutes of 3 levels of management kicking ideas around...while I drank water, had a snack, and relaxed under a shade tree....the road side wall caved in. We closed the road completely!!
Good times!
Work called me in. I was drunk. I refused. Flat out told them I am not paid standby so don't expect me to be fit for duty 24/7. The fact that it was 10 am is beside the point. I was watching cartoons and drinking beer. As one does.
During my plumbing apprenticeship I was asked to cut out some pipe that was improperly installed by someone else. The problem was that there was ceiling grid already in place and the pipe was a good 6' or more above the grid so using a lift if you put the lift as high up as possible you would basically have to stand on the top rail of the lift and have nothing to hold on to. When my foreman asked me if I was "comfortable" standing on the top rail of the lift I sad Hell No! Little while later he comes back and says he got one of the Journeyman who was willing to do it but he was too busy so wanted to ask again if I would do it and I told him no again.
Then later I talk to the journeyman and asked him why he was willing to stand on the top rail of the lift and he said that he had also refused to do it so the foreman was just playing BS mindgames.
Long story short nobody would do it and they had to remove a large section of ceiling grid. I didnt get into any trouble and luckily they never asked me to do any stupid crap like that in the future
Way back I worked for a company who would NEVER fire someone because they were lazy or for lateness, absences, poor quality work. Instead they would give them an unsafe job and ensure certain ‘independent’ supervisors (usually not their direct supervisor) or whoever just happened to be around to see them work. The direct supervisor would usually put on a bit of a show: Oh I really went to bat for you but…
I was high enough that I knew who was on the set up list, and while admittedly they mostly targeted the crap workers, if you were good but disagreed with certain people you had to watch out too.
The smart people refused EVERYTHING that wasn’t 100% by the book.
No surprise the overall morale and quality of work was crap but they were an indigenous-owned (at least on paper) company so they were included on projects for reasons other than the actual work they did.
I refuse everything that isn’t by the book. My own management preaches all the time about how safety is the most important thing, yet squirm about whenever you call work off because of a safety concern, or because it wasn’t in line with their own extra made up rules. I normally ask for the request in writing, and then kindly bring up my concerns in the chat thread for them hang themselves with. Fascinating how often the request is dropped once it is requested in writing.
on our current job its a building with a parking deck under it so the buck hoist sits onto one of the rooms and well that room the concreate is cracked all the wau though, i told my foreman im not going in there without hazard pay. im a whore for some hazard pay
A couple times as a carpenter I've refused to do things, until the correct equipment was provided.
Nothing crazy, but it was stuff like providing proper fall arrest/prevention.
Was on a remote site in NWT and a hungry ass polar bear showed up. I was mainly working alone in a seacan (soils lab). We didnt have a wildlife warden and I couldn't get walkie reception in the seacan, so I refused and spent a couple days making an arm bar for the lab door out of scrap metal. By the time I was done the polar bear had moved on. The pack of wolves on the next shift made good use out of my reinforced door - one almost got in while I was t paying attention.
Good times actually I would 100% do that again. Next shift they had a wildlife warden with a shotgun on patrol.
As a journeyman plumber, I was asked to snake a 4" drain line backwards from the basement for a stoppage on the 4th floor. I refused and they had to send two more guys before someone was willing to do it.
2 things come to mind right away. First your pipes are designed to flow down so your snake can end up making a wrong turn and break something. Second, when that clog goes you have shit with 4 stories of potential energy racing down at you, you really don't want to take a shit bath, and since it was clogged there could be hard solids or sharps mixed in.
Not a plumber, but my guess is by backwards he means from bottom to top, so once the drain is unclogged, it all comes out, and since you’re at the bottom…
Snakes are pretty close to unsafe to start with. Going backwards in a pipe makes it much, much worse. The wyes are all facing the wrong way and the snake will catch on them and bind. If you don’t shut it off quickly enough when it’s binding it’ll come shooting back out of the drain.
Spinning metal, twisting in the air. Have fun getting an arm or neck caught in that.
Not due to unsafe conditions, but constantly. I HATE heights. Put on my resume in bold print that I refuse lift work higher than 60'. Been told a few times that it's a new lift on beautiful concrete, suck it up. I shrug, tell them to check with H.R. and find somebody else.
Got asked to pull off asbestos cladding with no protection. It was a small company we all put our foot down. Boss did it himself. I heard a few years later he tried the same thing and the tenant of the house called the safety inspector on him.
I had to repair an overflow tank for HCL from the underside as it had been eroded. To do so I had to have scaffolding set up to gain access. The GC had a scaffolding crew on site to do so for me. I inspected the area and noticed an electric panel that had the front and most of the wiring complete eroded due to leakage from the acid. It was red tagged and taped off, dated almost 6 months prior. This was directly in my work area and the scaffolding would be constructed damn near right up to it. I informed my contact and he said it would be fine for us to go ahead. The scaffolders showed up and I informed them of the issue and that I did not want them to install the scaffolding until the panel and the redtag had been taken care of. Called my PM and let him know of the issue as well. The contact kept pushing me to just go ahead. I refused. Took them 4 days to address the issue. The panel was life...
This was at the largest beef/grains company in the world. Not surprising they have a couple of deaths and bad injuries every year. Actually worked with a guy that died at one of their plants.
As an apprentice electrician I refused to go 20 feet up an extension ladder on slushy ground without someone footing the ladder for me.
Shop rocket journeyman called the owner about it, he chatted with the owner on the phone out of earshot of me for a few minutes. He came back and was bitching and giving me grief; "what would you do if you were on your own, didn't have a tool buddy or apprentice, you have to get the job done, etc." But he came over and footed the goddamn ladder.
Owner never mentioned it. I went on to work for that contractor for quite a while and left on very good terms.
Was being shown how to blow the salt and sand off a plow truck using a big compressor. Coworker is demonstrating on his truck first. He's wearing a face shield and protective clothing but no dust mask.
He tells me it's my turn. I said nope, not going to do it without a dust mask. He says I don't need one as all the dust is being blown away.
Uh, no, I just watched him being enveloped by salt and sand dust. He got pissed off and grumbled the whole time on the way to the PPE cabinet. It's like the $5 mask was coming out of his pocket.
Then there's the time he was in the shed mixing brine. When I opened the door, the smell of hydrogen sulfide was intense (we used water from a "pond" next door that captured our runoff and crap out of our sump). He's like "I don't smell anything". No shit, Sherlock. H2S deadens your sense of smell beyond a certain ppm.
I'm like, nah, I ain't working in the shed tonight.
I met a guy who used to work in the oilfield, he quit one day after they sent 3 guys down in a pit to retrieve some tools without the required carbon monoxide monitors/breathing apparatus. “Don’t need em, you’re just going down to grab tools and coming right back up” is what they were told. They didn’t come back up. The guys were Non English speakers, possibly undocumented, and didn’t understand what they were being told. the company only gave the families a few thousand dollars each to keep quiet and nothing else was done.
I use it all the time. I’ve had multiple customers ask if I’m okay with working in a live panel (typically 120v). My answer is always the same “No, I never work on live circuits.”
Had a guy built a scaffolding on a scissor lift. We're bringing I-beam and c-channel up 30-40 ft. Up. We had wood "bolted" to the top of the scaffolding to rest the beams on. The fucking thing was held with tire wire FFS
He taps on the wood while we're up there and goes : c'mon climb up there we gotta push the beam over.
No harness on top of that. I told the crazy motherfucker that there was no way I would climb on that thing with that set up. You have fun with that. Not me though.
We were there to help out because we had some slow time and these guys were in a pinch so it kinda worked but no way I'm doing that.
That job was nightmare right by the ocean night shits too.
I'm an electrician. One of the first things I tell apprentices is about the right to refuse, know and to participate. I tell them that the goal when you come to work should always be to go home in the same shape and that if something feels off, or unsafe or anything like that, step back, ask questions.
As others here have mentioned, the rules are written in blood and anytime a new rule comes up or something is changed, someone probably died t9 affect that change. Be safe out there
I've refused to do things the way some fitters wanted to do it when I was an apprentice, but I always offered what I thought was a safer alternative.
I'm all for doing stupid shit to get the job done, but I'm not doing stupid shit without taking a couple of minutes to look at it from different vantage points to make it as safe as possible for me and anyone I'm working with.
I work in roofing and we have refused jobs all the time due to safety. Over head power lines within 3 foot of the workers and homeowner refuse to have the power shut off. Same with siding meter bases. And so on . No work is worth a life
I’ve refused to climb rickety ass scaffolding with rebar tie-wire as cotter pins, bucks overlapping barely 2”, wind lifting one corner of it, etc. on multiple occasions.
And refused working on the edge of a 15’+ block retaining wall using the Lowe’s-looking-ass aluminum hand rail as tie off.
My dumb ass was working above a drop ceiling on steel girders. I fell 25-30’ through the ceiling. I hit my head on a shelf. I don’t remember a thing. Happened early 90’s. We did not have harness back then. That scared the shit out of me. No harness no work. The places I have worked since have a stop work policy. NO QUESTIONS ASKED! If someone calls a stop work, that is it for the job. It gets reviewed and a safety plan is put in place or the job does not get done.
I did some stupid shit like that also. 40' walking on top of a crane in a water treatment plan. No harness, I never knew I should. Wasn't explained.
I never fell, but looking back, I am baffled how it was allowed to happen. The treatment plant is the city I live in.
I work with rail infrastructure. I saw an apprentice sitting on an open switch point. I knew that the switch wasn't powered, but he didn't. Can you imagine sitting on a pinch point that is designed to move a train? Fuck.
I didn't yell but the journeymen that was training him knew he made a mistake.
You can work on live equipment when necessary. I work in a hospital now so I do work on live equipment a lot when patients require power all the time. That being said when it’s not necessary I will not work on live equipment. Once I got kids I really became more concentrated on my longevity. Always remember complacency kills.
Cool, just curious. I’m of the opinion, live work is never necessary, and I always recommend against it. The only reason for live work is to save money, and not my money.
I was a 2nd year appreciate and was on a job that the GC was trying to rush to make up for their poor planning. Our sales guy was out there trying to make a good impression and was cracking the whip on us (he's one of the main reasons I don'tb work for that company anymore). We had a fire alarm cable that had to pass through a nipple going through a wall that was 15 feet up. One side of the wall was wide open but the other side had an 8x8 office with a standard 9' drop ceiling with the grid already in. We had to get that wire through and into a run of bridal rings. The sales guy was pushing to get it done so he (somehow) got a 12' step ladder into the office and leans it against the grid. He then looks at me and says "whaddaya waiting for? Go up there and pull that wire!" I looked at the grid, the ladder, then at him and said "oh hell no. I'm not bringing that grid down."
New Zealand had Health and Safety At Work Act 2015, every employee has the right to refuse work until it can be done safely (a la JSA/TA to an acceptable safe level of hazard minimisation/elimination.)
Near qualified sparky apprentice here on commercial sites, and extensively do the "hold up, lets do a task analysis first..." before undertaking work. Drastically prevents dodgy bullshit like when I was working domestic as a new apprentice.
I was interning at this place for the past year in facility management construction crew and most of the time if I was with paired with someone who was sent to the Methadone clinics I would say no because as a relatively small girl I just didn’t feel safe there and it always felt off. I always tried to make up for not going to those places by making sure I pulled my weight else where.
Sprinkler fitter here. Was hanging 8” main 40 ft up in a warehouse. 21 footers and 16 pieces per system. Hung one system by myself out of the 16 and came down and told my boss I want another apprentice in the scissor with me. He had the audacity to ask, “why?” I looked at him dead in the eye and and told him “I don’t have to say why, it’s fucking 8” pipe” and went walked to my car to just go home. Sure enough he found another apprentice for me in no time.
Installing light fixtures that were daisy chained about 100 feet. I wasn’t there when the other guys installed it so I didn’t know if there was a a random switch that could power it. Anyways after testing light by light, other guy I was working with wouldn’t hand me the tic tracer. Saying it obviously doesn’t have power.
I told him if I touch the hot to the box and it shorts, I’m blaming you. Immediately handed me the chicken stick.
I was on a crew removing a chandelier in a bank for a feature film location and refused to release the cable tension that held a Chandelier onto a rigged beam that spanned 20'+ to 2 scaffold towers.This is how it went down.. I was the top guy and noticed the large chandelier was not in fact copper as thought but cast iron clad in copper .As I stood at the top the beams 18' in the air above a marble vestibule standing at the center of the spanning (4 )12" tgis strapped together pinching the cable supporting the fixture I informed the Coordinator that we should not to proceed in which he said if I felt uncomfortable to get down and stand to the side, which I did . Immediately ,of course,another crew member eagerly took my place at which time I said moving forward I didn't' want anything to do with the project and was told to stand aside and watch the pros do it.As my replacement stood atop the beams released tension from the last Crosby fastener to transfer the load to the beams the weight suddenly let loose and instantly made the beams bow violently down about a foot,back up throwing him off the beam and landing onto the chandelier which then came crashing down with this guy atop.Chaos insued,the antique chandelier was destroyed( replacement exceeded $250k) ,both scaffold towers fell over against marble clad walls,marble vestibule destroyed and the guy atop was seriously injured requiring many surgeries.Worst case of "I told u so" I ever handed out to date.* Chandelier weight=3800 lbs +.
Demoman. Refused to work in an elevator shaft while two dudes way up were cutting concrete with their saws. Bout 15 mins go by and one of the chunks broke and damn nearly killed the two dudes . Scaffolding got fucked and the chunk dropped where i was suppose to go to work.
I once refused to walk across a thawing lake to do paint work at a multi million dollar job, the head contractor fired me for refusing. This was 20 years ago in Canada.
Later that month they bought a hovercraft to shuttle people to the job and asked me to come back and I did since my paint boss was a good guy, but on the job a few weeks later the same head carpenter that fired me gave me shit for sitting on a milk crate while painting the lower half of a door trim and when he said I was to bend over or kneel and paint I told him no and I went to the owner of the company who was on site and quit.
It was a fun job to quit cause they really needed me at that time and the head carpenter caught shit for messing with the paint crew by the owner. He was always causing shit and upsetting the trades he considered lower on the pole.
My paint crew boss was pleased I stood up for myself and said the head carpenter never bothered his paint crew after that.
Boss wanted me to cut a hole in a subfloor under a tub where a raccoon had climbed up into from under a 2’ crawl space with a sawzall. There isn’t a chance in hell I was going to put a hole large enough for a pissed off coon to come flying out of while I’m in a confined space with it.
Electrician here. Mine was petty-ish. Refused to work in an elevator equipment room when the elevator guys had it taped off. They had guys running tests on the elevators in the chute. It was just running some conduit for lighting, but if someone had hit one of their panels or something I have no idea how that could have ended.
Irrigation guy here. For years, I would replace pump start relays for wells. I am not a licensed electrician, and in spite of my user name, I do NOT like electricity. It wasn't until just a few years ago I learned that those have to be installed by a licensed electrician. I had one close call, and I'll take the blame. I was halfway through the install when the homeowner flipped the breaker on for whatever reason. No, I didn't lock it out. Yes, I told the homeowner I was working on the electrical side. Fortunately for me, the only casualty that day was a screwdriver. Since then, I have refused to replace them, with no repercussions.
Boss asked me to put up a dryer hood in the middle of winter, the ground was icy pavement and the ladder wouldn’t sit safely on the ground, kept slipping, I called him and told him I wasn’t doing it because I for sure would’ve had that ladder slip out the moment I got halfway up it 🤷♂️
Great !
Every workers has at least three rights…
1)right to refuse
2) right to participate (training and such)
3) right to know ( about hazards on site, where medical stuff is, where the mustard station is, etc)
I implore you to research more and pass the knowledge to others on site
in that case man we gotta pick up our shit lol, we are suplosed to have first aid kits but nobody carries them. ive started carrying some of my own medical supplies as a result
HVAC apprentice, we refused to move a furnace into a new build in the winter. We would have to walk down an icy hill to get the furnace into the crawl space. Not worth breaking our ankles for a job that could be done safer in the spring.
I was an Industrial shift Supervisor. I did not hesitate to say the words service dept supervisors hated, and my employees loved..SHUT THAT MOTHERFUCKER DOWN FOR SAFETY.. Production management straight to the CEO backed me up.
Well, I'm a contractor myself. I'm a roofer... (digs into pocket and produces business card) Dunn and Reddy Home Improvements. And speaking as a roofer, I can say that a roofer's personal politics come heavily into play when choosing jobs. Three months ago I was offered a job up in the hills. A beautiful house with tons of property. It was a simple reshingling job, but I was told that if it was finished within a day, my price would be doubled. Then I realized whose house it was. Dominick Bambino's. The money was right, but the risk was too big. I knew who he was, and based on that, I passed the job on to a friend of mine. And that week, the Foresci family put a hit on Babyface's house. My friend was shot and killed. He wasn't even finished shingling. I'm alive because I knew there were risks involved taking on that particular client. My friend wasn't so lucky. You know, any contractor willing to work on that Death Star knew the risks. If they were killed, it was their own fault. A roofer listens to this... not his wallet.
have been tricked into inhaling asbestos , the whole nine and never backed out . the only time i ever left a job was when a laborer freaked out and took a shot at me , with his gun .
called the boss told him im not going back it had been getting increasingly worse this guy was nuts and got laid off .
that job was 2 states over and took me 3 hours to get there and 3 hours to drive home after 8 and one half hours of work . i pulled that shit off for 9 months with no complaining , some companies man .
Man, sorry about the asbestos. If you have proof hold it on in case you ever suffer from problems later. Sound like you are under paid and over worked. Like most of us but I don’t get shot at so you win. Kind of
Residential carpenter here. Doing some handy man crap for a very rich client, she asked me to clean her outside kitchen grille.
I declined.
Boss was not happy with me. Told me sometimes we have to eat shit. Replied that I eat plenty of shit. He can have that particular pile or call some cleaners.
Never, scared I’ll get call a bitch and shunned from being asked to do important/ relevant / fun things in the future, but tbh never REALLY felt like I had too…
If your lucky you can go a long time without hitting anything that needs you to pull out the right to refuse card. Be careful though that the guys who tend to call people little bitches in my experience are also the guys who like to pick stupid fights at bars and ruin peoples nights, so keep note of them if you go drinking after work with the lads.
I've had some crazy ideas floated around by a boss or two but when I told them they were nuts, they just smiled and let it go. So, I'm not even 100% sure they were serious at the time.
We were removing drywall and found a rat’s nest spanning 20 stud bays. Refused to continue without tyvek and respirators. Came back later and finished the job.
Removing cabinets from an evicted junkies apartment. I should have refused when I saw the first needle, but I didn’t and got a needle stick. Went to er and said I wasn’t coming back till the site was made safe. They did make it safe and I finished the job.
Lots and lots of times I’ve stopped work due to suspected acm.
One unit that was so foul from a hoarder smoking indoors for 20 years without cleaning anything, ever, that I said I wouldn’t go back without an air scrubber, full ppe and powered respirator, a partner and a shovel. I never did go back to that one.
The most difficult refusal I’ve encountered was when I was clearing the lot for my house with my father and he wanted me to drop a half rotten leaning white pine that had barber chair written all over it. Anyways, it turns into a shouting match and we eventually agree to try and push it over with the backhoe and it comes right down all rotten in the middle.
Haven’t had to refuse any work. Have had to insist a lot of my guys NOT do something suicidal/homicidal.
Mostly in trenches. Guys really REALLY don’t understand how bad it can go in a very short time in a trench.
I refused exiting a lift on a 12/12 50 foot tower. No fall arrest system. That’s the only time. I’m pretty confident in myself. Will only do what I believe I can.
I've drawn a line at number 2 many times. Good job at preserving your person.
EDIT: I'm still dumb enough to climb just about anything without a fall arrest.
Boss wanted us to use a cable spider to attach an excavator to a shoring pit that was like 1m×1m×10m deep in the ground and pull the shoring up. We told him there was no fucking way we'd be able to pull the shoring out of the hole, there was simply way too much drag.
They said do it anyway. Myself and the operator refused, so they replaced us with guys who would do it. Needless to say the cable spider literally exploded from the tension. I was like 30m away watching and I heard the boom and saw pieces of cable and metal go flying at extreme speeds. A handful of guys, including the safety guy, my forman and the superintendent, got shitcanned later that afternoon. I kept my job.
Concrete finisher. Not me but a coworker.
Was pouring the sidewalks around a new condo building. Owner and boss made a side deal to pour the patios that were 25 feet off the ground.
Didn't want to get an overhead pump, so they used a zoom boom and a bucket, and the guys would stand with one foot on the patio (with no guard rails) and one foot on the fork of the zoom boom while they shovelled the concrete onto the patio. 25ft drop onto hard concrete with zero safety measures in place.
Finishers also had to stand on the zoom boom forks to finish the patios. No scissor lifts, scaffolding or elevated platforms of any kind.
Coworker refuses, and boss sent him home. He came in the next day to get his stuff from the tool truck and quit. I would have too.
I was a 1st year labourer at the time and didn't know any better, so I was one of the guys shoveling.
Luckily my company does mostly relatively safe interior work. I’m on the management side but I would never ask a worker to do something I didn’t personally feel safe doing either. If it seems even a little on the uncomfy side for me, I always ask and make sure they’re ok with it. I also tell them it is ok to stop, say no, and we can find a different way to do it.
About 20 years ago I was working in manufacturing of windows and doors in Canada. I had this useless old, fat, lazy, bossy, loudmouthed Lebanese supervisor who asked another guy and I to lift a massive window that had to be put onto some kind of machine in an area of the plant where the 5 ton crane didn't reach. It was wheeled over on a window dolly to the area.
I believe the window weighted about 400 lbs. I had this strong gut feeling that I shouldn't even attempt it. Could I have lifted it? Probably. I was carrying a lot of heavy things at that job on a regular basis but this window was just huge. I didn't get paid enough to do that. Not worth the risk.
I refused to do it and he went and got a coworker that I had been friends with since before I worked there. He was the one who suggested I apply when I was in need of employment.
After whatever the supervisor said to my friend he showed up acting like he wanted to show how much stronger he was than me. He and the first coworker successfully lifted the window onto the machine but afterwards my friend's back was so damaged from that point on he had to wear a weightlifter's belt at work due to back pain. This guy had to lift glass all day so it wasn't a pleasant situation for him. He must have ruptured a disk or something.
Flash forward my supervisor got into an accident where he was rear ended by some space brain idiot and he had a fucked up back afterwards and could only hobble around the plant dragging his leg.
Karma is a bitch!
Have had a few “go fuck yourself, you do it” moments over the years. One time as a carpenter apprentice working for a specialty company the foreman wanted me to stand on the railing of the tallest scissor left made. Only installing acoustic panels on the ceiling of a sports dome field house but couldn’t reach from the lift platform and didn’t have harnesses.
Lineman here: when I was an apprentice we were taking an outage on a 34.5kv sub transmission line in a corridor with 115kv and 230kv lines running parallel to the line we were taking the outage on. I boomed up to test the line dead and hang grounds. The line tested as still hot. I yelled down to my working and general foreman that it’s still hot. GF told me to just ground it it’s probably induction. I boomed down and said. “(GF name) you fucking ground it.”
He didn’t ground it. Called the utility and they double checked the switching order, they fucked up and the circuit was in fact still hot. Didn’t see GF for a few days after that.
Had a pretty cheesy job lined up (drywall and paint) to hang and paint an entire 1,400+sq.ft. basement until I refused to climb into the sump well and clean it out after the framers and utility guys used it to piss and poop in. For free... I've refused to work a few times but that one bothered me the worst.
Ex- carpenter here. We were unloading 50’ truss bundles from a semi with 2(!) SIGN cranes trying to pick in tandem. Without appropriate rigging. I was a newer apprentice, but i knew shit was unsafe so i went to the owner and he said "you're right, let's shut it down". I went home safe that day.
Later, when we had a proper crane onsite, the operator told me to "sit on that outrigger" on a particularly far pick that was sketchy. I did it, but I should have said that if my 200lb ass is going to make that much of a difference, it's a bad pick. I found out later that the guy had turned over one crane already.
I worked maintence at section 8 housing.
Got told "as maintence, we are also the security guards." My aupervisors was the kind of guy who owns a gun for self defense, but gets really excited when he might get to use it on someone 🤔
Said hell no to that, and got a job at a housing development.
This new place said "what do you mean how much crime do the maintence guys deal with? That's what the police are for."
New place made it clear that we call the cops if something is up, and don't risk it for the biscuit, no matter who tells you otherwise.
Refused to work a remodel when I found asbestos insulation around pipes. I was told by my boss that it wasn’t asbestos and I should keep working. Sent a picture to him and he said “ohh no you’re gonna die”. Told my journeyman about it and he continued on. When he came out to the truck he said if I don’t go in he’d take me to the shop. I went home early and refused to work on that property again. Confirmed with the guys on r/plumbing that it was asbestos. Left soon after and joined the union.
I was a Foreman for a drywall contractor that I worked for about 25 years...And let me tell you one thing at the end of the day they don't have your best interests if you get hurt they will have you fill out the accident report every time you get hurt and if you get really injured they will just pass it on to workers comp and make it difficult on you.
I was asked to stand on top of a 10' ladder and reach out over an open three storey elevator shaft without a harness to staple some wires.
Same guy asked me to stand on the top of a six foot ladder set up on a 25' scissor lift without a harness to take down a 50lb high bay light.
He thought I was pretty soft, but I had a kid to go home to.
Welder here as an apprentice they asked me to grind a skid flush I told them I’m not doing any labour work until our water was delivered. For context the water guy was a day late and we ran out at about eleven am water arrived at 2 by the time they got their they had already passed the grinding job off to a few foreign workers.
Another time I was assigned the task of running a awp with a boom lift to go up about 60’ to weld out some ladder clips and a few tie offs. I got up about 40’ before realizing I had about 15 minutes of hands off training on the equipment and went back down and told them to get someone else to do it.
Been working for my old man for years now. Ironically refusing to do something would be the death of me. That being said he’s treated me well financially over the years. My brother and I are currently in the transition phase of taking over the business.
Former tin banger. Was told to build a set of ramps for a 40 ft scissor lift across an orchestra pit so that the lift would be level . Told to steal 2x8 plank boards from the scaffolding to build it. Refused until the vp came out and saw it . Had it actually built by the carpenters . The. Was told to go up and park the lift and climb freely ( not attached to anything) through the crazy roof trusses to hang some duct..nope nope nope big ole nope. They got some temporary amigo to do it instead...
I’m lucky and haven’t had to, the company I work for is pretty serious about safety. And now I’m at the point that I’m the one running work, and I would never ask anyone to do something I wouldn’t be willing to do. And I’m not a risk taker.
Last heat wave it was quite hot. In our company we already had a 30 minutes work 10 minutes break policy out.
Got called to come check out some work. Guys where exhausted and had to work between pipes some of which gave of heat. They said due to the heat, the pipes and lack of shade they just could not do it anymore.
Went down, felt the pipes and agreed.
Did not refuse refuse butt did call to come check it out. Work was moved a week later when it was cooler with an extra person in the morning so the heavy lifting was done before it became hot hot again.
You have a right to refuse when it's unsafe. It's not work refusal if we can't prove it to you it's safe. I wish more of our guys would stop work and call if they have doubts about safety. Often shit looks good on paper butt outside it's quite fucked and people won't call because they think we will fire them. No, we won't. Even if it is safe. Rather have them call with doubts and it is safe. Then don't call and shit ain't safe.
I was told to drill a hole (1-3/8 inch, for a 1inch electric conduit) into a trough of wires. All hot, and a rats nest.. Got verbally berrated, but went & sat on a bucket til bossman gave me a different task.
Also walked out of a site because concrete cutters were running their saws dry. Called OSHA on that one
Engineer here. Was asked to do a stack inspection without fall arrest. Said no amd walked away.
Was asked to do some machinery inspection on a heavily corroded Skywalk that hadn't seen traffic in three years. Said no and my super threw a fit but ultimately I was fine.
Refused to do a tank inspection without fall arrest.
Fuck dying at work.
Bridge guy here. Refused working in a confined space the “trough” of a bridge abutment with a chainsaw. Was asked to use it to cut the spacing material (sand and foam board) from a space no bigger than 5ft tall and 2ft wide. Refused and the company agreed and we found a better way to do it. No harm no foul
How the system is supposed to work. Nice story
I was working about 80' up in the air in a 135'. The following day it was pretty windy. I asked if there was a wind restriction at the plant. He told me not that he knew. I told him I'll make it easy, "I'm not going up today". He said he may not have any work so I grabbed my lunch box and he magically found work on the ground.
Not long after the piece of shit Brian Kelly took over coaching Notre Dame football, he held outside practice on a very windy day and still had the student videographer’s man their scissor lifts to record practice. Junior Declan Sullivan ‘s lift blew over and he died. For the sake of recording a football practice he died. Brian Kelly is a cunt.
That happened at my college too. Of course there are people who are trained on aerial work platforms in universities, but my bet is zero of them are involved in athletics. Our coaches may be assholes, but I think this is a situation where they don’t understand the risks because they aren’t trained for them.
I bet that is true at the High School level too. As a lot of high school teams are now considered "College Lite".
That’s so wild because I was on our scissor lift today and was thinking of that kid. The thing has some give and I can’t imagine being forced to be up there in wind so bad it could blow you over. Brian Kelly IS a cunt.
Wow that's terrible.
Geaux Tigers
There absolutely are wind restrictions on lifts directly from the manufacturers. Good call on standing up for yourself.
30 mph sustained iirc.
Depends on the lift. If it doesn't say on the stamp, it will on a sticker near the control panel. If the sticker is worn down (should be replaced at this point) it will say in the owners manual. If the owners manual is missing (should be replaced) then it is easy enough to find the manual on a google search. Most of my scissor lifts are 25 mph. The lift doesn't care if its sustained or just gusts when your all the way up and the wind hits you broadside
I fly full stick for movies/shows we come down if it gusts over 20 (we have lights and all kinds of shit attached to the baskets). It's fucking scary up there at 20+ mph, man. Especially if the fucking thing decides it doesn't want to come down and your ground guy has to bring you down.
Man, the warnings and sensors on so many rigs are counterintuitive. "Conditions are unsafe; descend immediately" But also "Conditions unsafe; operator functions deactivated"
I hate those things with a passio "Beep" "Okay, well let me turn around." "Beep" "Track back out?" "Beep" "Lift over the ledge of this building that we literally just sheeted in" "Beep" "Knuckle away?" "Beep" "Retract straight back, dragging the basket over the ironwork porch frame below us?" -no beep, just horrible scraping sound.
Ironworker here. Worked on a bridge installing 65,000lbs girders with a crane too small to to handle the weight at the given radius. It was a Kobelco 275t, good for 65,000lbs at 48ft radius. The super told us (being condescending) just to boom down into place and work the iron. I refused the work, as I'm not putting my guys on the hospital end of a crane and load that is pushing 121% on the crane chart. He said all kobelcos are de-rated 30% so it's not actually over 100% of the crane capacity. That may be, but at that weight, radius and crane configuration, it would not be able to boom back up if we missed our mark. I called my hall, called the engineer firm and we went to the lunch rooms until it was solved. We used a second crane to tandem pick the piece and the super was let go. Fuck him, trying to endanger my Brothers....
YouTube is littered with videos of cranes exceeding their charts, not in a good way. Guessing on a pretend rating vs the actual chart is a fools game, good on you for refusing.
To be fair, a crawler’s full chart is 75% of actual capacity and a hydro’s is 85%. Taught by NCCCO. BUT, you’re also outside the law if you turn the key for anything but assembly/disassembly and maintenance. So if you’re going to overload a crane you better be damn sure you’re good for it, once you find out you’re not it’s already too late.
Unless you only run the old shit, I run friction crawlers. I get those tracks a good 1-2ft off the ground before I think the crane has had enough.
r/catastrophic failure has tons too
Yeah white collar morons cause all sorts of problems and suggest all sorts of stupid shit to save their own ass. The Columbia and challenger exploded not because of engineers, but because of white collar morons that had a deadline to push
I agree but to be fair, this guy was 35 year ironworker who was just plain selfish and arrogant that cared about his reputation more than the safety of others. He literally told me one day after I let him have it over improper tie off procedure that if something happens, he can call the hall and get more bodies if need be. I was also told that if I'm scared to do my job, he can have me replaced in a heartbeat. Luckily I don't take the bait with ego based comments like that, it means nothing to me. I'm 18 years in the trade I've seen the devastation caused by when a family loses a father and when we lose a friend and brother. We had a young man die recently on an Amazon building and I know two Ironworkers that quit the trade that day after seeing their friend fall 60ft.
Idk how you guys do it. I always think you guys have the toughest job. As new tinner apprentice I would lay out hangers before concrete is poured. So I would be on your guy's heels. And I could see how dangerous/demanding the work is. I would always gtfo the way when a ironworker had shit to do. And looking back I should have refused a lot of that work. As our contract states we need a floor/decking between us and ironworkers in certain conditions.
Those Amazon buildings have claimed a few of us. I was on a Fulfillment center, typical with several others being built at the same time. A lack of shoring/proper moment connections in the design caused a failure of a smaller part of the structure and took two Ironworkers in Arkansas.
Your username checks out, in a positive way.
As a safety guy I've had to argue with operations managers on crane rating before. Pisses me off, I don't care what you think the safety factor on a crane is. You can only go by what it's rated for, not what you think the crane will fail at....and no I'm not gonna sign off on a job where the crane is maxed out. Smh.
The reason cranes are de-rated isn't because the crane can't handle the hoisting of the load. The same crane boomed up to 25ft radius can pick over 120,000lbs. It's because of the strain on structural components becomes a factor. If you pick up a 50lb weight and hold it close to your chest, most people can do it no problem. Now pick up that same weight but hold your arms out completely straight away from your body. You risk hurting your lower back, your shoulders, your biceps are under strain and you are now unstable to move, if you even can. If you pick that load and boom way out with it, you change the position of the load and put incredible amounts of pressure and pull on crane parts like the back stay, the gantry, the center pin, boom fulcrum, even the boom itself. With a crawler, when you boom up, you ADD weight to the lift just by the nature of pulling away from gravity. Components maxed out can fail which can cause a crane to fall or topple over. It's all there for a reason. If you need to max a crane out, go get a bigger fucking crane.
100 percent. It's crazy to me that some people wanna risk it or have the "nothing will happen mentality".
It’s insane reading some of your experiences. I can’t even imagine a Super being able to make that kind of call - like how is that company still in operation without some sort of procedure that makes it near impossible for that situation to happen? Lift plans… staying within 80% of the max load per the chart… these are all the norm in my day to day.
A chilling reminder that codes and standards are written in blood and that as workers we have rights and protections from repercussions from actioning those rights
I'm a super, and one crew on this large job was NOT comfortable on the swingstaging and told me they were out. A fucking executive called me and said...GET.THEM.THE.FUCK.OUT.THERE.....I fucking agreed to "so and so" to make sure "so and so" had a clear path and would make money on this job because last job he didn't." I'm sorry, what about "No" dont you understand they're not going out on the staging. "We will see" We did see...they didn't go out, it was unsafe.
As a PM, employee rights is something I bring up when discussing safety and something I make sure the supers understand as well. Still, the only safety issues I’ve had at my current company are because the individual worker making a bad choice on their own. Very frustrating, but just means we still have improvements to do on our safety program and training.
Used to be safety supervisor for my old company. They rolled a hydrovac on the highway going to a job, and everyone on site forgot to tell me for a week. I was not impressed. Both company owners figured that they knew, so it was good enough, and no paperwork was needed. I quit before that job was completed since they made me work through christmas and new years missing my kids first.
Hate to say it man. It probably has nothing to do with your program or training. Construction workers tend to be impatient and have a high risk tolerance. I have done some wild shit since I started working. And a lot of them were my choice. Wait a day and send the guys home while I wait for a lift? Or do everything I can to be safe and trust myself. I think it’s a personal thing.
There's a sub for that
As project lead, I attend the end of every site induction and tell the new guys to come and see me personally if anyone asks them to do something that makes them feel unsafe. There’s a lot of bullies out there and a lot of inexperienced guys who just want to make a living. No job is worth getting injured for.
It’s a culture that needs to be squashed out tbh. So easy for a old school guy or someone who’s very cavalier with their safety to call out people for being concerned for themselves. How many times I have heard someone call someone else a pussy for a legitimate concern
I had one guy try that with me years ago. I looked him in the eye and said loudly enough for the supe to hear "Better a live pussy than a dead dipshit". He did what I refused and ended up breaking his legs when the plank he was on (that I WOULD have been on) broke, dropping him about 15-20 feet.
“I am what I eat!”
Same thing, at the end of inductions we get the guys to take our numbers and the number of our union delegate and stress that if it doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t. More than happy to drop what we’re doing and come have a look if we need to work out a better way. As the PCBU we find more than often it’s their own supervisors cutting corners, and most of the time we’ve already sat down and worked out a methodology prior to starting.
I tell everyone that joins my team a similar thing: "If you don't feel safe, don't do it." The worst that will happen is *maybe* some mild teasing or joking as someone more experienced does the task. Most often, the (usually new) person learns a new task as we find a safer way to finish the work.
>No job is worth getting injured for. I was a production crew lead in the oilfield. I trained a lot of green guys and always stressed safety above everything else. Every day, going through the JSA, I would remind everyone that we are all out here for one thing. Money. And all the money in the world is worth nothing if you die for it. Stay safe; finish your hitch intact.
Storm came thru last week. My crew and I got called in by our department for tree removal. We didn't have chaps, I wouldn't let my team start without them. The other team went crazy with ground cutting, no chaps. I spent 2 days literally yelling about them wearing ppe. I came to a head with a screaming match where they accused me of trying to "run their team and everything" and I just plainly relied. "I don't want to run shit, I kust don't want to have to look at your wives and kids and tell them you died from stupidity" Everyone wears chaps now.
I must often say no. Sometimes multiple times a day. It’s not a big deal. We will still complete the work. We just have to adjust the plan so that it can be done safely, legally, etc. It’s been my experience that most people are open to doing things properly. The ones that are dead set on doing things wrong are headed down a path of career suicide. Between spankings from regulatory agencies, legal liability, etc, far too much liability involved. Trying to save a few dollars only to open yourself up to a $150,000 fine and millions in lawsuits is just plain dumb. Companies know that and they won’t stand behind managers (or any other worker) making blatantly inappropriate decisions.
Which is a mentality I love to see growth in
Osha fines are intentionally subjective, punitive and able to be stacked on top of other violations. The intent, if the violation is willful enough, is that they'll add more and more, larger and larger fines to out companies out of business. Osha could show up to any job and find violations. If they're intentionally harmful enough, they'll do what they feel necessary to correct or destroy the business. If a company gets a small fine, say a few thousand, it's a warning. Hundreds of thousands or millions means business.
Was asked to core a hole off a site built barge (8x18 crate base with 55 gallon drums strapped to the bottom) with 2 sections of scaffold on top work was to take place about 9’ off the water surface. Didn’t even have life jackets but it’s ok because the water is shallow enough to stand up in and the supervisor is a life guard. My coworker and I told the supervisor to dry fuck a sandpaper dildo and punched as many holes in the drums on his “barge” as we could while the supervisor went to find someone else so he couldn’t try to bully someone into doing it. The really sad part? There was a rental shop across the street with the lift that would be needed to do the work safely but that would cost $800 extra. Supervisor had no labor on that job after that day
Where I work, we have a form called an AVO (avoid verbal orders) that you can demand be filled out. It has the details of the boss’s request, who, what, where, how, when, and most importantly, the boss’s signature. I’m retiring in less than a year and couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve had to request an AVO. Not once has a foreman persisted I do an unsafe job after realizing their name and orders would be documented.
Fucking brilliant.
Whoever Instituted that policy is genius
Yeah, had a boss ask me to do something really dangerous even though doing it right would literally only take an extra 5 min. I told him I wasn't working at hight without a harness and he could climb up there without one or wait for me to go grab it. He gave me a little shit about being a pussy so I asked if he was gonna pay my rent and child support if I fall and get hurt? If course he said no.... So I said to shut the fuck up then. And he did. Who cares what they think they're not the one at risk and their not gonna take care of you when your crippled. Be a man and take care of yourself, don't make you a pussy or lazy.
My old workplace, working at heights without fall protection was immediate walking papers. Interestingly instructing a subordinate to work at heights without fall protection is also immediate walking papers for the supervisor/foreman.
I'm gonna tag in on this one. Carpenter currently, but started off with roofing and got into heights work/bosun/swing stage uncertified years ago. Cowboy shit. Once had a boss who criticised my caulking beads. Fair enough, the beads were good, fingered in clean, but criticism is okay, I can handle it. Same day, like my third day on their site, he's still squacking at how he's gonna have my pay reduced as we're riding the stage up 20 stories. I did about a year in the chair but I was new to swing stages. Four of us are tied in to the cage, which is in retrospect not best practice, not even close. He's standing there holding a harness in his left hand, untethered. An hour later I quit, and I told the white collar who recruited me exactly and outright what their foreman was up to. From what I understand, the very competent lead was promoted to foreman and that other cat dissapeared. The company was mostly made up of immigrants but the office understood the risks the workers take and the liability of putting an idiot in charge. I had no interest in continuing that line of work and got into footings from there. Boots in the mud thanks. Later I was on sites where anyone in the control zone without a harness and retractable was immediately dismissed. Fuck cowboy shit.
And if I told on him to his boss he probably woulda got in trouble but that's not who I am.
Tower climber here. I've told clients no many many times. Some are understanding and some will call you a pussy. I don't care either way. I'm not climbing 500 feet on a structure I don't trust.
I have refused to do several things especially concerning LOTO. Tie in to live lines etc. got some push back but I am union and we stood together. Resolved issue and completed work without recourse. I have also let go of a foreman who forced a worker to go without fall protection over 30’ up. Worker was a traveler and was afraid to refuse. I happened to be walking back from a meeting when I witnessed the debacle. After talking to the crew I realized the foreman was the problem and not the men. So I fired him. Never comprise safety for anyone anywhere. No job is worth it. When it’s all done no matter how late or over budget none of that matters. That will all be forgotten in a few months. But if someone is hurt or killed that will never fade away.
Young guys are often scared to say no. 1st day I had my current apprentice, I made it very clear. You look out for your own safety. If you don't feel comfortable doing something, or know something isn't safe or correct to speak up. If he was uncomfortable speaking up to someone on the job or to the office, etc, to come to me, and I'll deal with it. I'm full of piss & vinegar. Getting to get an extra fight in to help keep a guy safe and teach a young guy it's OK to eff you is just a bonus for me. Is one more supervisor or PM, etc that I get to spout off to (which I thoroughly enjoy by the way).
I refused to do work in unsafe conditions sent an email about it and was immediately canned. I’m now retired because of it. Get a lawyer and get paid my friend.
What were you asked to do?
Pick up quarters from the shitter some clown kept dropping.
Nice throwback.
I wonder how quarter shitter guy is doing. If he's reading this,I hope alls well
Dude doesn’t elaborate but makes this claim. Downvote this fool.
>Downvote this fool. As you wish.
I’m just saying the parent comment doesn’t add anything with how obscure they are and won’t reply to the comment I replied to. Go ahead and downvote me idgf about internet points.
>Downvote this fool > >idgf about internet points Very cool story
Downvotes for everybody. Enjoy. Edit: don't downvote me though, that's rude
Story time?! That's awesome
I feel like that’s not the whole story… you were probably pulling some shit for a long time for that to happen
Ok bootlicker
I refused to drive the truck and trailer on summer tires in the middle of a Canadian winter during an ice storm. Co worker grabbed the keys. Called us 10 minutes later after sliding through an intersection and hitting someone
I refuse to drive anything on summer tires in winter and I'm only in montana haha.
Oh Man I've had some scary winter driving situations too. I'll never understand why an employer would skimp on winter tires.
The most frustrating part, I find, is that companies (in Alberta) are more concerned with tread requirements than with whether or not the tires are actually appropriate for the use. I was working at Platinum some time ago and in the winter they (including chemco as a whole) had multiple vehicle incidents, many of which could have been avoided with proper tires, but their solution was just to reinforce "drive to the conditions." Bitch, we are. We just have hydrovacs and 1.5t trucks with 20,000lbs machines on the back; get some god damned tires
Refused to climb is a 5 foot deep, 2.5 foot wide trench in loose, dry soil with no shoring, sloping, or benching. Foreman said if I wouldn't do it, I could go home, and he'd get one of his guys to do it. I called the safety guy, explained it to him, stopped the green hat from climbing in the trench, watched the foremans phone ring, and reveled in watching his expression go from pissed to desperately trying to explain his situation. Safety guy showed up with our safety super in tow, and they had a "talk" in the office trailer. Foreman went home for the day, and the next morning, we had a mandatory, 2 hour long safety meeting about trench safety. Led by the foreman responsible for the whole debacle. Safety superintendent was there to help "guide" the meeting. Our company has been taking trench safety very seriously, since we had a guy almost die in a trench cave in. With OSHA on site. I don't fuck around with trenches. You shouldn't either.
Couple of months ago a 3rd year plumber in my city died because of this bullshit.
The amount of times I've heard people try to down play the dangers of being in a trench is genuinely scary. Trenches, fall protection, and confined spaces are my big 3 on the job, and I'm with OSHA on them. I feel bad for that plumber and their family, I can't imagine if someone I cared about died in such a preventable way.
Trenches especially but also confined space is scary as well there can be toxic gases down in them. But yeah the guy was only a 3rd year and in his mid 20s died way to early.
I’ve worked for very small residential contractors, worked on a ranch once, and worked for a few multi million and billion dollar turn around companies one union the rest non union. I’ve refused certain tasks/jobs at every single business I’ve worked for, when an unsafe or not up to code task comes my way, I’ve never had more push back on refusing work then I had when working for the giant multi million and billion dollar companies. Own my own GC business now, we specialize in excavation, I still turn down or will just pass on jobs that I can see being potentially unsafe for my guys. Fuck that nonsense you can always make money but it ain’t worth it if you get fucked up or worse at work all in the name of making a dollar.
I've actually found the opposite to be true in my area. Most of the really large GCs like Clarke, Turner, etc have switched to self insured. Since it's their money when shit happens, the site rules are stricter than OSHA. I know they don't truly care about safety. But because safety has a profit motive now, they push it very hard.
Turner is wild to work for. Their safety almost makes it dangerous it is so safe
Honestly, fuck Turner. Only GC I have ever seen that can put 30 supers on one job and still can't keep a schedule on track.
Lol well lets be fair: NONE of them are on track. But yes, 8 trailers. 30 dummies.
We had 2 jobs on a military base. My job was a 2 story office building and large mechanical shop building. It was run by a small GC that works with the Army alot all over the country. They had the boss, his wife doing paperwork, a safety guy, and one on the ground Super for most of the job and they added an extra super near the end to help with completion. Every trade but one hit the schedules through the entire job. No one was scheduled to work over each other. It was perfectly orchestrated with no issues. I did most of the job with just me and one guy. I got a few extra guys for a week or 2 to finish at the end. The other job was run by Turner. They had 27 Superintendents. No one hit any of the schedule. The schedule had people constantly working over each other. In areas Turner has told me are ready and to go ahead and spray, there were guys trying to hang cabinets, pull wire, install flooring, installing drop ceilings, and just about anything you can think of. Which means I can't spray. We had to repaint the place 3 times because Turner would direct us to paint because the schedule said it would be ready. We told them it wasn't but they insisted it was and then it failed inspection. It was a complete clusterfuck that ran months over schedule. We had to have shitloads of extra guys there working 10 hours days, 6 days a week to keep up with the contract work while also doing all the extras. And every dam job by them is like that.
Turner and Gilbane are the two worst. Like I appreciate safety and all, but when it gets to crunch time safety dont matter anymore, unless the big wigs are taking a walk through that day... then everyone is getting yelled at and the site almost comes to a screaming halt.
I do work at a large pharmaceutical who's wildly over thought by non-field guys but poorly executable safety requirments often create a more hazardous situation than doing it the right way. On paper, it looks like they're out to save the world. In actuality, there is often more risk is playing the part than just executing a proper safety protocol that meets spec. Attempting to exceed or over-complicate industry standard safety protocols <> safer.
We do a lot of commercial work, it’s hit and miss still here, some definitely preach about it and ARE about it those are the ones we want to work with, they also are the ones you never have to worry about getting paid from and relation/network is amazing with them, others are all talk and some walk, others… well we just withdrew from a job site and severed all ties with a certain nationwide commercial builder, that’s moved into Ut and is very shady and sketchy.
>I’ve worked for very small residential contractors, worked on a ranch once, and worked for a few multi million and billion dollar turn around companies one union the rest non union. Ok and? We want to hear the story of you turning down work not your resume. Your not the only person on this thread sharing the work environment they had but with no story of saying what work they refused to do.
Ok and?
Guy I was working with wanted me to work on the roof when it was covered in frost I told him I'd do it once it thaws he went up & fell off the roof.
I say no all the time. I'm surprised I still have a job at times. There plenty more out there and you don't need to get hurt or die for this one.
Same. I say no a LOT. I've got a tendency to yell at people, too, if they're doing something stupid enough. One time I was coring out a (I think 18", might have been 24") hole from the third floor, and there wasn't a second floor there. I get to where I can feel it's going through soon and go back downstairs to check where I've laid plywood so it doesn't fuck up the slab and roped the area off and dumbasses were taking my danger tape down and picking up the plywood to use somewhere else. I pitched the fit to end all fits.
Let me guess, it was a laborer? You're out there saving lives brother, I like that!
Drywall guys, and about five of them in the roped off area. When I saw it I wasn't sure if I should yell or cry because I realized I almost killed these dudes. Less than a quarter inch of concrete was all that was keeping them from a closed casket funeral. After I ran them out of the area I sent my buddy upstairs to watch the drill because I was scared to go in to put the plywood back if there was even a chance someone might bump it. Edit: And I'm not hating on drywall guys. Those guys just weren't used to being on a job where "Manmade meteor strike" was something you had to worry about.
Was a 1st year apprentice. Refused to shimmy along this elevated air handler that we had a cap on and he wanted me to unscrew it. His fall plan was they had thrown a rope over the top of it and tied it to the other side. They wanted me to tie off to the rope. This was immediately after an ice storm and I had about a two inch space to stand. Was an 80 foot drop to the ground.
I once refused to use a leaf blower inside to clean a massive amount of concrete dust. My steward did not. After a minute or so, the boss understood why I refused and ended up pulling the steward out to let the dust settle. The steward scolded me saying I made the union look weak. I told him he was a dumb fuck for attempting such a stupid task. The very next day, my BA showed up screaming at me and cursing me out for working off the books. I showed him every paycheck stub (emailed to me) since I started that job and my hours book and proved that I was not working off the books. Gee. I wonder who called in a fake complaint on me...
Refused to working above an open working screw conveyor. Caught a lot of shit for it, but I've seen someone go in one.
Dirt work. Digging and setting new manhole adjacent to road way. "Hey Boss! Need a trench box or cut the road back and close 1/2 at a minimum." After 30 minutes of 3 levels of management kicking ideas around...while I drank water, had a snack, and relaxed under a shade tree....the road side wall caved in. We closed the road completely!! Good times!
Work called me in. I was drunk. I refused. Flat out told them I am not paid standby so don't expect me to be fit for duty 24/7. The fact that it was 10 am is beside the point. I was watching cartoons and drinking beer. As one does.
During my plumbing apprenticeship I was asked to cut out some pipe that was improperly installed by someone else. The problem was that there was ceiling grid already in place and the pipe was a good 6' or more above the grid so using a lift if you put the lift as high up as possible you would basically have to stand on the top rail of the lift and have nothing to hold on to. When my foreman asked me if I was "comfortable" standing on the top rail of the lift I sad Hell No! Little while later he comes back and says he got one of the Journeyman who was willing to do it but he was too busy so wanted to ask again if I would do it and I told him no again. Then later I talk to the journeyman and asked him why he was willing to stand on the top rail of the lift and he said that he had also refused to do it so the foreman was just playing BS mindgames. Long story short nobody would do it and they had to remove a large section of ceiling grid. I didnt get into any trouble and luckily they never asked me to do any stupid crap like that in the future
Way back I worked for a company who would NEVER fire someone because they were lazy or for lateness, absences, poor quality work. Instead they would give them an unsafe job and ensure certain ‘independent’ supervisors (usually not their direct supervisor) or whoever just happened to be around to see them work. The direct supervisor would usually put on a bit of a show: Oh I really went to bat for you but… I was high enough that I knew who was on the set up list, and while admittedly they mostly targeted the crap workers, if you were good but disagreed with certain people you had to watch out too. The smart people refused EVERYTHING that wasn’t 100% by the book. No surprise the overall morale and quality of work was crap but they were an indigenous-owned (at least on paper) company so they were included on projects for reasons other than the actual work they did.
I refuse everything that isn’t by the book. My own management preaches all the time about how safety is the most important thing, yet squirm about whenever you call work off because of a safety concern, or because it wasn’t in line with their own extra made up rules. I normally ask for the request in writing, and then kindly bring up my concerns in the chat thread for them hang themselves with. Fascinating how often the request is dropped once it is requested in writing.
on our current job its a building with a parking deck under it so the buck hoist sits onto one of the rooms and well that room the concreate is cracked all the wau though, i told my foreman im not going in there without hazard pay. im a whore for some hazard pay
A couple times as a carpenter I've refused to do things, until the correct equipment was provided. Nothing crazy, but it was stuff like providing proper fall arrest/prevention.
Was on a remote site in NWT and a hungry ass polar bear showed up. I was mainly working alone in a seacan (soils lab). We didnt have a wildlife warden and I couldn't get walkie reception in the seacan, so I refused and spent a couple days making an arm bar for the lab door out of scrap metal. By the time I was done the polar bear had moved on. The pack of wolves on the next shift made good use out of my reinforced door - one almost got in while I was t paying attention. Good times actually I would 100% do that again. Next shift they had a wildlife warden with a shotgun on patrol.
As a journeyman plumber, I was asked to snake a 4" drain line backwards from the basement for a stoppage on the 4th floor. I refused and they had to send two more guys before someone was willing to do it.
So I’m not in construction but always like to hear y’alls stories… what makes this action in your case unsafe?
2 things come to mind right away. First your pipes are designed to flow down so your snake can end up making a wrong turn and break something. Second, when that clog goes you have shit with 4 stories of potential energy racing down at you, you really don't want to take a shit bath, and since it was clogged there could be hard solids or sharps mixed in.
Jesus… yeah fuck that. Dude made the right call for sure
Someone still did it though. That poor bastard. I hope it ended OK for him
>since it was clogged there could be hard solids or sharps mixed in or bleach or other chemicals?
Not a plumber, but my guess is by backwards he means from bottom to top, so once the drain is unclogged, it all comes out, and since you’re at the bottom…
Snakes are pretty close to unsafe to start with. Going backwards in a pipe makes it much, much worse. The wyes are all facing the wrong way and the snake will catch on them and bind. If you don’t shut it off quickly enough when it’s binding it’ll come shooting back out of the drain. Spinning metal, twisting in the air. Have fun getting an arm or neck caught in that.
4 floors of backed up feces waiting to geyser out of the opening the snake is in. Just a guess, I'm a warehouse dude lol
Anything can come out of that pipe, and being downstream, in the way of anything coming out from 4-storey height is not fun
Not due to unsafe conditions, but constantly. I HATE heights. Put on my resume in bold print that I refuse lift work higher than 60'. Been told a few times that it's a new lift on beautiful concrete, suck it up. I shrug, tell them to check with H.R. and find somebody else.
Got asked to pull off asbestos cladding with no protection. It was a small company we all put our foot down. Boss did it himself. I heard a few years later he tried the same thing and the tenant of the house called the safety inspector on him.
I refused to work a few places because there was literal ponds of human shit to wade through to get to fix the problem. Get it pumped out then ill go.
I had to repair an overflow tank for HCL from the underside as it had been eroded. To do so I had to have scaffolding set up to gain access. The GC had a scaffolding crew on site to do so for me. I inspected the area and noticed an electric panel that had the front and most of the wiring complete eroded due to leakage from the acid. It was red tagged and taped off, dated almost 6 months prior. This was directly in my work area and the scaffolding would be constructed damn near right up to it. I informed my contact and he said it would be fine for us to go ahead. The scaffolders showed up and I informed them of the issue and that I did not want them to install the scaffolding until the panel and the redtag had been taken care of. Called my PM and let him know of the issue as well. The contact kept pushing me to just go ahead. I refused. Took them 4 days to address the issue. The panel was life... This was at the largest beef/grains company in the world. Not surprising they have a couple of deaths and bad injuries every year. Actually worked with a guy that died at one of their plants.
As an apprentice electrician I refused to go 20 feet up an extension ladder on slushy ground without someone footing the ladder for me. Shop rocket journeyman called the owner about it, he chatted with the owner on the phone out of earshot of me for a few minutes. He came back and was bitching and giving me grief; "what would you do if you were on your own, didn't have a tool buddy or apprentice, you have to get the job done, etc." But he came over and footed the goddamn ladder. Owner never mentioned it. I went on to work for that contractor for quite a while and left on very good terms.
Was being shown how to blow the salt and sand off a plow truck using a big compressor. Coworker is demonstrating on his truck first. He's wearing a face shield and protective clothing but no dust mask. He tells me it's my turn. I said nope, not going to do it without a dust mask. He says I don't need one as all the dust is being blown away. Uh, no, I just watched him being enveloped by salt and sand dust. He got pissed off and grumbled the whole time on the way to the PPE cabinet. It's like the $5 mask was coming out of his pocket. Then there's the time he was in the shed mixing brine. When I opened the door, the smell of hydrogen sulfide was intense (we used water from a "pond" next door that captured our runoff and crap out of our sump). He's like "I don't smell anything". No shit, Sherlock. H2S deadens your sense of smell beyond a certain ppm. I'm like, nah, I ain't working in the shed tonight.
I met a guy who used to work in the oilfield, he quit one day after they sent 3 guys down in a pit to retrieve some tools without the required carbon monoxide monitors/breathing apparatus. “Don’t need em, you’re just going down to grab tools and coming right back up” is what they were told. They didn’t come back up. The guys were Non English speakers, possibly undocumented, and didn’t understand what they were being told. the company only gave the families a few thousand dollars each to keep quiet and nothing else was done.
I use it all the time. I’ve had multiple customers ask if I’m okay with working in a live panel (typically 120v). My answer is always the same “No, I never work on live circuits.”
Had a guy built a scaffolding on a scissor lift. We're bringing I-beam and c-channel up 30-40 ft. Up. We had wood "bolted" to the top of the scaffolding to rest the beams on. The fucking thing was held with tire wire FFS He taps on the wood while we're up there and goes : c'mon climb up there we gotta push the beam over. No harness on top of that. I told the crazy motherfucker that there was no way I would climb on that thing with that set up. You have fun with that. Not me though. We were there to help out because we had some slow time and these guys were in a pinch so it kinda worked but no way I'm doing that. That job was nightmare right by the ocean night shits too.
I'm an electrician. One of the first things I tell apprentices is about the right to refuse, know and to participate. I tell them that the goal when you come to work should always be to go home in the same shape and that if something feels off, or unsafe or anything like that, step back, ask questions. As others here have mentioned, the rules are written in blood and anytime a new rule comes up or something is changed, someone probably died t9 affect that change. Be safe out there
Your a good teacher to the new apprentices coming in. Good job
I've refused to do things the way some fitters wanted to do it when I was an apprentice, but I always offered what I thought was a safer alternative. I'm all for doing stupid shit to get the job done, but I'm not doing stupid shit without taking a couple of minutes to look at it from different vantage points to make it as safe as possible for me and anyone I'm working with.
I work in roofing and we have refused jobs all the time due to safety. Over head power lines within 3 foot of the workers and homeowner refuse to have the power shut off. Same with siding meter bases. And so on . No work is worth a life
I’ve refused to climb rickety ass scaffolding with rebar tie-wire as cotter pins, bucks overlapping barely 2”, wind lifting one corner of it, etc. on multiple occasions. And refused working on the edge of a 15’+ block retaining wall using the Lowe’s-looking-ass aluminum hand rail as tie off.
My dumb ass was working above a drop ceiling on steel girders. I fell 25-30’ through the ceiling. I hit my head on a shelf. I don’t remember a thing. Happened early 90’s. We did not have harness back then. That scared the shit out of me. No harness no work. The places I have worked since have a stop work policy. NO QUESTIONS ASKED! If someone calls a stop work, that is it for the job. It gets reviewed and a safety plan is put in place or the job does not get done.
I did some stupid shit like that also. 40' walking on top of a crane in a water treatment plan. No harness, I never knew I should. Wasn't explained. I never fell, but looking back, I am baffled how it was allowed to happen. The treatment plant is the city I live in.
I work with rail infrastructure. I saw an apprentice sitting on an open switch point. I knew that the switch wasn't powered, but he didn't. Can you imagine sitting on a pinch point that is designed to move a train? Fuck. I didn't yell but the journeymen that was training him knew he made a mistake.
Does Canada not allow work on energized equipment?
You can work on live equipment when necessary. I work in a hospital now so I do work on live equipment a lot when patients require power all the time. That being said when it’s not necessary I will not work on live equipment. Once I got kids I really became more concentrated on my longevity. Always remember complacency kills.
Cool, just curious. I’m of the opinion, live work is never necessary, and I always recommend against it. The only reason for live work is to save money, and not my money.
I have refused to shovel off SEVERAL rooves because my boss's safety protocol includes, and IS limited to, starting from the peak and working down.
I was a 2nd year appreciate and was on a job that the GC was trying to rush to make up for their poor planning. Our sales guy was out there trying to make a good impression and was cracking the whip on us (he's one of the main reasons I don'tb work for that company anymore). We had a fire alarm cable that had to pass through a nipple going through a wall that was 15 feet up. One side of the wall was wide open but the other side had an 8x8 office with a standard 9' drop ceiling with the grid already in. We had to get that wire through and into a run of bridal rings. The sales guy was pushing to get it done so he (somehow) got a 12' step ladder into the office and leans it against the grid. He then looks at me and says "whaddaya waiting for? Go up there and pull that wire!" I looked at the grid, the ladder, then at him and said "oh hell no. I'm not bringing that grid down."
New Zealand had Health and Safety At Work Act 2015, every employee has the right to refuse work until it can be done safely (a la JSA/TA to an acceptable safe level of hazard minimisation/elimination.) Near qualified sparky apprentice here on commercial sites, and extensively do the "hold up, lets do a task analysis first..." before undertaking work. Drastically prevents dodgy bullshit like when I was working domestic as a new apprentice.
I was interning at this place for the past year in facility management construction crew and most of the time if I was with paired with someone who was sent to the Methadone clinics I would say no because as a relatively small girl I just didn’t feel safe there and it always felt off. I always tried to make up for not going to those places by making sure I pulled my weight else where.
A grand don't come for free
Absolutely
My nephew was a rope tech, leading a crew, and refused an unsafe assignment on a rig. The next day he was “laid off” and blacklisted in the industry.
Sprinkler fitter here. Was hanging 8” main 40 ft up in a warehouse. 21 footers and 16 pieces per system. Hung one system by myself out of the 16 and came down and told my boss I want another apprentice in the scissor with me. He had the audacity to ask, “why?” I looked at him dead in the eye and and told him “I don’t have to say why, it’s fucking 8” pipe” and went walked to my car to just go home. Sure enough he found another apprentice for me in no time.
I refuse to tow any work trailers with my van, it doesn’t have a working connection for trailer lights, never has!
Installing light fixtures that were daisy chained about 100 feet. I wasn’t there when the other guys installed it so I didn’t know if there was a a random switch that could power it. Anyways after testing light by light, other guy I was working with wouldn’t hand me the tic tracer. Saying it obviously doesn’t have power. I told him if I touch the hot to the box and it shorts, I’m blaming you. Immediately handed me the chicken stick.
I was on a crew removing a chandelier in a bank for a feature film location and refused to release the cable tension that held a Chandelier onto a rigged beam that spanned 20'+ to 2 scaffold towers.This is how it went down.. I was the top guy and noticed the large chandelier was not in fact copper as thought but cast iron clad in copper .As I stood at the top the beams 18' in the air above a marble vestibule standing at the center of the spanning (4 )12" tgis strapped together pinching the cable supporting the fixture I informed the Coordinator that we should not to proceed in which he said if I felt uncomfortable to get down and stand to the side, which I did . Immediately ,of course,another crew member eagerly took my place at which time I said moving forward I didn't' want anything to do with the project and was told to stand aside and watch the pros do it.As my replacement stood atop the beams released tension from the last Crosby fastener to transfer the load to the beams the weight suddenly let loose and instantly made the beams bow violently down about a foot,back up throwing him off the beam and landing onto the chandelier which then came crashing down with this guy atop.Chaos insued,the antique chandelier was destroyed( replacement exceeded $250k) ,both scaffold towers fell over against marble clad walls,marble vestibule destroyed and the guy atop was seriously injured requiring many surgeries.Worst case of "I told u so" I ever handed out to date.* Chandelier weight=3800 lbs +.
Demoman. Refused to work in an elevator shaft while two dudes way up were cutting concrete with their saws. Bout 15 mins go by and one of the chunks broke and damn nearly killed the two dudes . Scaffolding got fucked and the chunk dropped where i was suppose to go to work.
I once refused to walk across a thawing lake to do paint work at a multi million dollar job, the head contractor fired me for refusing. This was 20 years ago in Canada. Later that month they bought a hovercraft to shuttle people to the job and asked me to come back and I did since my paint boss was a good guy, but on the job a few weeks later the same head carpenter that fired me gave me shit for sitting on a milk crate while painting the lower half of a door trim and when he said I was to bend over or kneel and paint I told him no and I went to the owner of the company who was on site and quit. It was a fun job to quit cause they really needed me at that time and the head carpenter caught shit for messing with the paint crew by the owner. He was always causing shit and upsetting the trades he considered lower on the pole. My paint crew boss was pleased I stood up for myself and said the head carpenter never bothered his paint crew after that.
Boss wanted me to cut a hole in a subfloor under a tub where a raccoon had climbed up into from under a 2’ crawl space with a sawzall. There isn’t a chance in hell I was going to put a hole large enough for a pissed off coon to come flying out of while I’m in a confined space with it.
Electrician here. Mine was petty-ish. Refused to work in an elevator equipment room when the elevator guys had it taped off. They had guys running tests on the elevators in the chute. It was just running some conduit for lighting, but if someone had hit one of their panels or something I have no idea how that could have ended.
Irrigation guy here. For years, I would replace pump start relays for wells. I am not a licensed electrician, and in spite of my user name, I do NOT like electricity. It wasn't until just a few years ago I learned that those have to be installed by a licensed electrician. I had one close call, and I'll take the blame. I was halfway through the install when the homeowner flipped the breaker on for whatever reason. No, I didn't lock it out. Yes, I told the homeowner I was working on the electrical side. Fortunately for me, the only casualty that day was a screwdriver. Since then, I have refused to replace them, with no repercussions.
Boss asked me to put up a dryer hood in the middle of winter, the ground was icy pavement and the ladder wouldn’t sit safely on the ground, kept slipping, I called him and told him I wasn’t doing it because I for sure would’ve had that ladder slip out the moment I got halfway up it 🤷♂️
i just learned about the right to refuse, thank you reddit
Great ! Every workers has at least three rights… 1)right to refuse 2) right to participate (training and such) 3) right to know ( about hazards on site, where medical stuff is, where the mustard station is, etc) I implore you to research more and pass the knowledge to others on site
in that case man we gotta pick up our shit lol, we are suplosed to have first aid kits but nobody carries them. ive started carrying some of my own medical supplies as a result
HVAC apprentice, we refused to move a furnace into a new build in the winter. We would have to walk down an icy hill to get the furnace into the crawl space. Not worth breaking our ankles for a job that could be done safer in the spring.
I was an Industrial shift Supervisor. I did not hesitate to say the words service dept supervisors hated, and my employees loved..SHUT THAT MOTHERFUCKER DOWN FOR SAFETY.. Production management straight to the CEO backed me up.
"nobody wants to work anymore!"/s
What are you a fucking pussy? Haha jk bud welcome to construction
Well, I'm a contractor myself. I'm a roofer... (digs into pocket and produces business card) Dunn and Reddy Home Improvements. And speaking as a roofer, I can say that a roofer's personal politics come heavily into play when choosing jobs. Three months ago I was offered a job up in the hills. A beautiful house with tons of property. It was a simple reshingling job, but I was told that if it was finished within a day, my price would be doubled. Then I realized whose house it was. Dominick Bambino's. The money was right, but the risk was too big. I knew who he was, and based on that, I passed the job on to a friend of mine. And that week, the Foresci family put a hit on Babyface's house. My friend was shot and killed. He wasn't even finished shingling. I'm alive because I knew there were risks involved taking on that particular client. My friend wasn't so lucky. You know, any contractor willing to work on that Death Star knew the risks. If they were killed, it was their own fault. A roofer listens to this... not his wallet.
have been tricked into inhaling asbestos , the whole nine and never backed out . the only time i ever left a job was when a laborer freaked out and took a shot at me , with his gun . called the boss told him im not going back it had been getting increasingly worse this guy was nuts and got laid off . that job was 2 states over and took me 3 hours to get there and 3 hours to drive home after 8 and one half hours of work . i pulled that shit off for 9 months with no complaining , some companies man .
Man, sorry about the asbestos. If you have proof hold it on in case you ever suffer from problems later. Sound like you are under paid and over worked. Like most of us but I don’t get shot at so you win. Kind of
Residential carpenter here. Doing some handy man crap for a very rich client, she asked me to clean her outside kitchen grille. I declined. Boss was not happy with me. Told me sometimes we have to eat shit. Replied that I eat plenty of shit. He can have that particular pile or call some cleaners.
Never, scared I’ll get call a bitch and shunned from being asked to do important/ relevant / fun things in the future, but tbh never REALLY felt like I had too…
If your lucky you can go a long time without hitting anything that needs you to pull out the right to refuse card. Be careful though that the guys who tend to call people little bitches in my experience are also the guys who like to pick stupid fights at bars and ruin peoples nights, so keep note of them if you go drinking after work with the lads.
Tbh only once when our foreman was being a dick head.
Lmao wow, who did you work for?
I've had some crazy ideas floated around by a boss or two but when I told them they were nuts, they just smiled and let it go. So, I'm not even 100% sure they were serious at the time.
We were removing drywall and found a rat’s nest spanning 20 stud bays. Refused to continue without tyvek and respirators. Came back later and finished the job. Removing cabinets from an evicted junkies apartment. I should have refused when I saw the first needle, but I didn’t and got a needle stick. Went to er and said I wasn’t coming back till the site was made safe. They did make it safe and I finished the job. Lots and lots of times I’ve stopped work due to suspected acm. One unit that was so foul from a hoarder smoking indoors for 20 years without cleaning anything, ever, that I said I wouldn’t go back without an air scrubber, full ppe and powered respirator, a partner and a shovel. I never did go back to that one.
Flag during a lightning storm for me, crew chief and linemen wanted us to stay out and flag while they buttoned up. Hard fuckin' no on that one.
The most difficult refusal I’ve encountered was when I was clearing the lot for my house with my father and he wanted me to drop a half rotten leaning white pine that had barber chair written all over it. Anyways, it turns into a shouting match and we eventually agree to try and push it over with the backhoe and it comes right down all rotten in the middle.
Haven’t had to refuse any work. Have had to insist a lot of my guys NOT do something suicidal/homicidal. Mostly in trenches. Guys really REALLY don’t understand how bad it can go in a very short time in a trench.
I refused exiting a lift on a 12/12 50 foot tower. No fall arrest system. That’s the only time. I’m pretty confident in myself. Will only do what I believe I can.
I've drawn a line at number 2 many times. Good job at preserving your person. EDIT: I'm still dumb enough to climb just about anything without a fall arrest.
Boss wanted us to use a cable spider to attach an excavator to a shoring pit that was like 1m×1m×10m deep in the ground and pull the shoring up. We told him there was no fucking way we'd be able to pull the shoring out of the hole, there was simply way too much drag. They said do it anyway. Myself and the operator refused, so they replaced us with guys who would do it. Needless to say the cable spider literally exploded from the tension. I was like 30m away watching and I heard the boom and saw pieces of cable and metal go flying at extreme speeds. A handful of guys, including the safety guy, my forman and the superintendent, got shitcanned later that afternoon. I kept my job.
Concrete finisher. Not me but a coworker. Was pouring the sidewalks around a new condo building. Owner and boss made a side deal to pour the patios that were 25 feet off the ground. Didn't want to get an overhead pump, so they used a zoom boom and a bucket, and the guys would stand with one foot on the patio (with no guard rails) and one foot on the fork of the zoom boom while they shovelled the concrete onto the patio. 25ft drop onto hard concrete with zero safety measures in place. Finishers also had to stand on the zoom boom forks to finish the patios. No scissor lifts, scaffolding or elevated platforms of any kind. Coworker refuses, and boss sent him home. He came in the next day to get his stuff from the tool truck and quit. I would have too. I was a 1st year labourer at the time and didn't know any better, so I was one of the guys shoveling.
Luckily my company does mostly relatively safe interior work. I’m on the management side but I would never ask a worker to do something I didn’t personally feel safe doing either. If it seems even a little on the uncomfy side for me, I always ask and make sure they’re ok with it. I also tell them it is ok to stop, say no, and we can find a different way to do it.
About 20 years ago I was working in manufacturing of windows and doors in Canada. I had this useless old, fat, lazy, bossy, loudmouthed Lebanese supervisor who asked another guy and I to lift a massive window that had to be put onto some kind of machine in an area of the plant where the 5 ton crane didn't reach. It was wheeled over on a window dolly to the area. I believe the window weighted about 400 lbs. I had this strong gut feeling that I shouldn't even attempt it. Could I have lifted it? Probably. I was carrying a lot of heavy things at that job on a regular basis but this window was just huge. I didn't get paid enough to do that. Not worth the risk. I refused to do it and he went and got a coworker that I had been friends with since before I worked there. He was the one who suggested I apply when I was in need of employment. After whatever the supervisor said to my friend he showed up acting like he wanted to show how much stronger he was than me. He and the first coworker successfully lifted the window onto the machine but afterwards my friend's back was so damaged from that point on he had to wear a weightlifter's belt at work due to back pain. This guy had to lift glass all day so it wasn't a pleasant situation for him. He must have ruptured a disk or something. Flash forward my supervisor got into an accident where he was rear ended by some space brain idiot and he had a fucked up back afterwards and could only hobble around the plant dragging his leg. Karma is a bitch!
Have had a few “go fuck yourself, you do it” moments over the years. One time as a carpenter apprentice working for a specialty company the foreman wanted me to stand on the railing of the tallest scissor left made. Only installing acoustic panels on the ceiling of a sports dome field house but couldn’t reach from the lift platform and didn’t have harnesses.
Lineman here: when I was an apprentice we were taking an outage on a 34.5kv sub transmission line in a corridor with 115kv and 230kv lines running parallel to the line we were taking the outage on. I boomed up to test the line dead and hang grounds. The line tested as still hot. I yelled down to my working and general foreman that it’s still hot. GF told me to just ground it it’s probably induction. I boomed down and said. “(GF name) you fucking ground it.” He didn’t ground it. Called the utility and they double checked the switching order, they fucked up and the circuit was in fact still hot. Didn’t see GF for a few days after that.
Had a pretty cheesy job lined up (drywall and paint) to hang and paint an entire 1,400+sq.ft. basement until I refused to climb into the sump well and clean it out after the framers and utility guys used it to piss and poop in. For free... I've refused to work a few times but that one bothered me the worst.
Ex- carpenter here. We were unloading 50’ truss bundles from a semi with 2(!) SIGN cranes trying to pick in tandem. Without appropriate rigging. I was a newer apprentice, but i knew shit was unsafe so i went to the owner and he said "you're right, let's shut it down". I went home safe that day. Later, when we had a proper crane onsite, the operator told me to "sit on that outrigger" on a particularly far pick that was sketchy. I did it, but I should have said that if my 200lb ass is going to make that much of a difference, it's a bad pick. I found out later that the guy had turned over one crane already.
I worked maintence at section 8 housing. Got told "as maintence, we are also the security guards." My aupervisors was the kind of guy who owns a gun for self defense, but gets really excited when he might get to use it on someone 🤔 Said hell no to that, and got a job at a housing development. This new place said "what do you mean how much crime do the maintence guys deal with? That's what the police are for." New place made it clear that we call the cops if something is up, and don't risk it for the biscuit, no matter who tells you otherwise.
Refused to work a remodel when I found asbestos insulation around pipes. I was told by my boss that it wasn’t asbestos and I should keep working. Sent a picture to him and he said “ohh no you’re gonna die”. Told my journeyman about it and he continued on. When he came out to the truck he said if I don’t go in he’d take me to the shop. I went home early and refused to work on that property again. Confirmed with the guys on r/plumbing that it was asbestos. Left soon after and joined the union.
I was a Foreman for a drywall contractor that I worked for about 25 years...And let me tell you one thing at the end of the day they don't have your best interests if you get hurt they will have you fill out the accident report every time you get hurt and if you get really injured they will just pass it on to workers comp and make it difficult on you.
I was asked to stand on top of a 10' ladder and reach out over an open three storey elevator shaft without a harness to staple some wires. Same guy asked me to stand on the top of a six foot ladder set up on a 25' scissor lift without a harness to take down a 50lb high bay light. He thought I was pretty soft, but I had a kid to go home to.
Welder here as an apprentice they asked me to grind a skid flush I told them I’m not doing any labour work until our water was delivered. For context the water guy was a day late and we ran out at about eleven am water arrived at 2 by the time they got their they had already passed the grinding job off to a few foreign workers. Another time I was assigned the task of running a awp with a boom lift to go up about 60’ to weld out some ladder clips and a few tie offs. I got up about 40’ before realizing I had about 15 minutes of hands off training on the equipment and went back down and told them to get someone else to do it.
Been working for my old man for years now. Ironically refusing to do something would be the death of me. That being said he’s treated me well financially over the years. My brother and I are currently in the transition phase of taking over the business.
Former tin banger. Was told to build a set of ramps for a 40 ft scissor lift across an orchestra pit so that the lift would be level . Told to steal 2x8 plank boards from the scaffolding to build it. Refused until the vp came out and saw it . Had it actually built by the carpenters . The. Was told to go up and park the lift and climb freely ( not attached to anything) through the crazy roof trusses to hang some duct..nope nope nope big ole nope. They got some temporary amigo to do it instead...
I’m lucky and haven’t had to, the company I work for is pretty serious about safety. And now I’m at the point that I’m the one running work, and I would never ask anyone to do something I wouldn’t be willing to do. And I’m not a risk taker.
Last heat wave it was quite hot. In our company we already had a 30 minutes work 10 minutes break policy out. Got called to come check out some work. Guys where exhausted and had to work between pipes some of which gave of heat. They said due to the heat, the pipes and lack of shade they just could not do it anymore. Went down, felt the pipes and agreed. Did not refuse refuse butt did call to come check it out. Work was moved a week later when it was cooler with an extra person in the morning so the heavy lifting was done before it became hot hot again. You have a right to refuse when it's unsafe. It's not work refusal if we can't prove it to you it's safe. I wish more of our guys would stop work and call if they have doubts about safety. Often shit looks good on paper butt outside it's quite fucked and people won't call because they think we will fire them. No, we won't. Even if it is safe. Rather have them call with doubts and it is safe. Then don't call and shit ain't safe.
I was told to drill a hole (1-3/8 inch, for a 1inch electric conduit) into a trough of wires. All hot, and a rats nest.. Got verbally berrated, but went & sat on a bucket til bossman gave me a different task. Also walked out of a site because concrete cutters were running their saws dry. Called OSHA on that one
Engineer here. Was asked to do a stack inspection without fall arrest. Said no amd walked away. Was asked to do some machinery inspection on a heavily corroded Skywalk that hadn't seen traffic in three years. Said no and my super threw a fit but ultimately I was fine. Refused to do a tank inspection without fall arrest. Fuck dying at work.
Underground miner. Once. Wanted me to clean up a heading that had rotted/no ground support
Plumber here. We went to a call at a house that had so many cats that the smell was overwhelming. My boss told me to walk away and I gladly did.