Safety First, Injured Second

Safety in today's workplace has come great lengths over the past few decades. In some ways, I honestly feel as though there has been an over compensation taking us to the other side of the spectrum, hampering productivity ... but that's another post, another day. Today, I would like to focus on when safety glasses became mandatory in many commercial production settings. Apparently, insurance companies become quite tired of paying claims for eye injuries in the workplace ... hence mandatory eye protection. Around then, I was working at a plant as private contractor and had a less than good working relationship with the maintenance supervisor. I swear that man's day revolved around catching me without safety glasses on. Well one day, the sprinkler fitters were working in the same area as I was and were using an old, and quite unstable scaffolding setup. And because the guy on top was too lazy to climb down, unlock the wheels, and reposition the rig, he would reach up and pull the entire 35 foot high ensemble by grasping an I beam. Well needless to say the wheel got hung up, the scaffolding tipped over, and the fitter came crashing down to the concrete floor. My "favorite" supervisor came running in, stepped over (literally) the gentleman who just fell (and by the way was injured) to yell at me about my lack of eye protection. After reaming me out for three minutes (yes, I timed him), he then turned his attention to the fallen worker.