Don't do your job; it's not safe!

[LillFilly]

As contracted security, we often go places on and in the property that are technically off limits to or unsafe for the employees. That's part of our job; to take risks to keep others safe. Well, some the employees don't seem to get that. This company is very safety conscious, which I appreciate; however, employees are constantly complaining to their bosses and my boss that 'security is being unsafe.' Like walking along the loading docks; yes, they should be avoided by foot traffic as much as possible, but we have to patrol every inch of the building, so we just have to be mindful of the equipment and remember that it has the right of way. Which I was doing today, stopping and making sure all equipment had gone by and the way was clear before crossing another dock. But someone yelled from their equipment "Hey, what you're doing is really unsafe!" I just shrugged; it was really too loud to talk. But we have to go on the docks at least once in a shift to properly do our jobs. Darned if we do, darned if we don't.

[bbbr]

My companies old facility was a complete rats nest of rooms and corridors that the security guards had to check on several times after hours (some the environmental equipment ran 24/7/365 but would occasionally freak out necessitating a call to an area leader to resolve). The guards got the basic training on safety and what not to do since quite a few areas were full of toxic chemicals, never heard of a problem with em. The regular employees on the other hand were pretty bad...

Some bg: I helped run one process that involved a fuming liquid we called a "two step chemical" (also known as "liquid evil" for the reasons below). Basically if you took in a lung full- you'd take two steps and die from your lungs being destroyed courtesy of one nasty chemical burn. The stuff broke down into hydrochloric and sulfuric acid of a ph around 3 in the presence of any moisture in the air and went airborne as a fume cloud. It'd burn your sinuses clean just from residual fumes from opening and closing the drums on a humid summer day. There are bolts on the Titanic that look better than 2 month old stainless steel ones left in that environment. Nasty little process, highly dangerous and easy to get severely burn the local hospital couldn't handle. Frankly the fact we only had 2 incidents that sent people (I was part of one of them) to the hospital in 10 years with this stuff is astonishing.

I can't tell you how many times my boss and I would be in our isolated little room with full protective gear and gas masks on only to have some unprotected and random coworker wander in. This despite all the warning signs on the doors, the strong smell of death in the air, clouds of toxic vapors rolling across the room and us screaming at the top of our lungs to "GET THE HELL OUT!!!"

The guards all knew what areas were safe to be in and which ones to be extra cautious in. The employees not so much...

[IT Grunt]

I've run into that with my job sometimes.

<BG> The client I am presently contracted with (at least until the end of the month, then on to new client. Long story.) does manufacturing, so I've been doing IT support in one of the plants. The company is highly safety conscious, and I do my part by following all the rules (stick to pedestrian walkways, all PPE on in appropriate locations, etc). However, because some of the IT equipment, like network switches, are in places off the beaten path, working with them means leaving the safe areas and crossing production areas. </BG>

The client is currently looking to perform network upgrades, including wireless so any wifi device will work anywhere on the plant floor. Useful for audits and inspections so they can carry their tablets with them instead of having to write everything down and type it in later, so fully understandable. However, this also means finding where the best places are to place the access points for maximum coverage with the fewest units possible. Gotta save those coins.

For that part a vendor came in and my job was to show him where the current locations where, where all network switches were so we knew how far we'd have to run lines to hook them in, and basically escort him around since the security rule was no un-escorted visitors on the site. Obviously, this meant walking all over the plant floor with a laptop to check signal strength and map out the edges of coverage for each temp location we set up. For the most part, we had no trouble, until near the very end, and one of the office workers comes down the walkway near where we were standing running the test.

Her: "Hey! You guys can't be over there! You've got to stay on the walkways!"
Me: "This is necessary for the wireless upgrade. We've already talked to <safety manager> and have his approval as this test has to be done everywhere."
Her: <obviously not listening> "I know that, but you still have to stay on the walkways!" <WTF?>
Me: "We've already got <safety manager>'s approval, you can talk to him.

That seemed to do the trick, but like LillFilly says, sometimes the job means going places you normally don't go and that's that!

[LillFilly]

Gah. Just happened again yesterday. A guy driving equipment complained that I was walking by stacks of product in an area off limits to foot traffic. Well yes, but there are doors here and our job requires us to check the doors, thus my boss told me we can walk by the stacks carefully.