Post by William McCormick on Feb 5, 2014 20:31:01 GMT -5
I have seen it from both sides. I have seen the safety standards used as a tool against the workers. A lot or even most of the, day to day maintenance, needs to break some safety rules. Mostly because those that design, buildings, mechanical rooms, equipment, and even work areas, are more interested in saving space, then considering the years of maintenance, work and the men that will perform such maintenance and work. No safety standard is going to fix that.
You end up with a company that is proficient at working in poor conditions biding and holding those contracts. Their workers know what they are dealing with, and just get the job done, usually without incident. Very frankly because of the poor planning, there is no safe way to work in those areas. Unless you wish to tear down most of the city buildings. So the more safety is stressed, the more the worker is opened up to, "not having refused to do his job, because the job did not fit safety regulations". It is usually a job that is actually impossible to do safely, but is performed hundreds of times a day all around the world.
The safety organizations end up just hanging safety equipment on workers until the workers are injured enough times, because of the safety equipment. Safety equipment often blocks vision, hooks or catches in tight quarters, onto equipment either stopped or moving, ends up pulling throwing, tripping or pushing the worker into harms way. If you have ever worked in an elevator mechanical room, you would understand. Workers start to build up points against their safety record because they left the hard hat that is not safe to wear, by the tool box. Rather then to let it hang from their belt, or be within arms reach. It is mostly nonsense if you ask me.
So although it sounds like a beautiful dream, the truth is that a trained person, a person with years of hands on experience can safely work without safety equipment or safety regulations, very safely. I have been injured five times on the job, and three times, were because of safety equipment. And the odd problems safety equipment causes. The other two times I was injured because I put expedience ahead of life and limb. It had nothing to do with safety equipment. It was purely a monetary decision.
Once you wear safety goggles for a while, you pick up bad habits, like putting your eyes in the path of debris from cutting equipment. You start moving your face closer to the moving machinery because the safety goggles, glasses, or face shield, quickly becomes scuffed, dirty, or they get oily, and this reduces visibility. Often someone will suddenly forget his safety goggles and instantly get hurt when he starts working. This will not happen to someone that never wears safety goggles.
Safety harnesses get caught on objects on the floor, and often cause falls and trips and injury. Hard hats often make passing under low, hung duct work and piping a hazard, because it cuts down on visibility. So workers cut their backs open on a rusty kindorf unistrut trapeze, duct or pipe hanger, and or the threaded rod that often supports the trapeze. Because they cannot see it, because of the hard hat. The truth is that if you need a hard hat, your job site is admittedly too dangerous. All the colorful bells and whistles aren't going to help you anyway. All that safety stuff is supposed to justify sending in a low paid new guy into a hellish environment. I just do not see big safety organizations doing much to fix things. Poverty is the problem, poverty is unsafe. If they can fix that I will back them. You can also injure yourself from lack of visibility while using, scissor lifts, bucket lifts or any moving tool you ride in.
Sincerely,
William McCormick
You end up with a company that is proficient at working in poor conditions biding and holding those contracts. Their workers know what they are dealing with, and just get the job done, usually without incident. Very frankly because of the poor planning, there is no safe way to work in those areas. Unless you wish to tear down most of the city buildings. So the more safety is stressed, the more the worker is opened up to, "not having refused to do his job, because the job did not fit safety regulations". It is usually a job that is actually impossible to do safely, but is performed hundreds of times a day all around the world.
The safety organizations end up just hanging safety equipment on workers until the workers are injured enough times, because of the safety equipment. Safety equipment often blocks vision, hooks or catches in tight quarters, onto equipment either stopped or moving, ends up pulling throwing, tripping or pushing the worker into harms way. If you have ever worked in an elevator mechanical room, you would understand. Workers start to build up points against their safety record because they left the hard hat that is not safe to wear, by the tool box. Rather then to let it hang from their belt, or be within arms reach. It is mostly nonsense if you ask me.
So although it sounds like a beautiful dream, the truth is that a trained person, a person with years of hands on experience can safely work without safety equipment or safety regulations, very safely. I have been injured five times on the job, and three times, were because of safety equipment. And the odd problems safety equipment causes. The other two times I was injured because I put expedience ahead of life and limb. It had nothing to do with safety equipment. It was purely a monetary decision.
Once you wear safety goggles for a while, you pick up bad habits, like putting your eyes in the path of debris from cutting equipment. You start moving your face closer to the moving machinery because the safety goggles, glasses, or face shield, quickly becomes scuffed, dirty, or they get oily, and this reduces visibility. Often someone will suddenly forget his safety goggles and instantly get hurt when he starts working. This will not happen to someone that never wears safety goggles.
Safety harnesses get caught on objects on the floor, and often cause falls and trips and injury. Hard hats often make passing under low, hung duct work and piping a hazard, because it cuts down on visibility. So workers cut their backs open on a rusty kindorf unistrut trapeze, duct or pipe hanger, and or the threaded rod that often supports the trapeze. Because they cannot see it, because of the hard hat. The truth is that if you need a hard hat, your job site is admittedly too dangerous. All the colorful bells and whistles aren't going to help you anyway. All that safety stuff is supposed to justify sending in a low paid new guy into a hellish environment. I just do not see big safety organizations doing much to fix things. Poverty is the problem, poverty is unsafe. If they can fix that I will back them. You can also injure yourself from lack of visibility while using, scissor lifts, bucket lifts or any moving tool you ride in.
Sincerely,
William McCormick
