the official: I work with an idiot thread..

[HSanders]

Mostly, the only "good" think about OSHA is that it gives you documentable reasons to fire someone and less lawsuit bait in doing so.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

The correct answer is ALL.

This reminded me of a similar incident. I used to work in an office that provided computer and phone support to technicians working outdoors, up on telephone poles and at customer premises etc.

Since we worked with them on a regular basis we all knew the techs pretty well even though their reporting location was a garage across town.

So, one day a woman named Kathy mentions in passing to a new manager, Ginny, that she got a paper cut and showed her the tiny wound. Ginny didn't know her ass from a stick of butter and figured that she better report the "accident" or risk dereliction of duty.

So, then comes a mountain of paperwork, phone calls with corporate and interviews and the upshoot of it was that at the garage's monthly safety meeting a report was read that went something like this:

"This month we had several dog bites, a motor vehicle accident, a near electrocution and two guys cut out of their poles and fell causing serious injuries......oh, and at the support center it seems that Kathy Jones got a pretty bad paper cut."

The whole crew then just fell out laughing their asses off and they never let her forget it.

Sorting thru the mental synapses to put one of the many Kathy's in place....

 

[Hawg73]

Mostly, the only "good" think about OSHA is that it gives you documentable reasons to fire someone and less lawsuit bait in doing so.

OSHA is a classic example of how something that seems like a good idea on the surface gets hopelessly hosed up due to bureaucratic nonsense and I've seen examples of both it's use and abuse.

I once worked at a place that as a form of Christmas gift, gave us a small wooden desk plaque that had a message and also a thermometer on it. This meant that during the summer months, when the sun beating on the flat roof often raised the temperature in the office to over 90 degrees, phone calls were made and the OSHA inspector was able to walk around the office and look at everybody's desk thermometers for verification, that, yes, it was pretty phucking hot in there.

We were later "asked" to remove the thermometers from our desks and the company, to it's regret, was forced to upgrade the air-conditioning. That one was a small victory for the worker bees.

 

[HSanders]

OSHA is a classic example of how something that seems like a good idea on the surface gets hopelessly hosed up due to bureaucratic nonsense and I've seen examples of both it's use and abuse.

EXACTLY RIGHT. Should there be safety standards? Yes. Should there be idiotic applications of same? No...but people aren't paid to think...lol

I once worked at a place that as a form of Christmas gift, gave us a small wooden desk plaque that had a message and also a thermometer on it. This meant that during the summer months, when the sun beating on the flat roof often raised the temperature in the office to over 90 degrees, phone calls were made and the OSHA inspector was able to walk around the office and look at everybody's desk thermometers for verification, that, yes, it was pretty phucking hot in there.

We were later "asked" to remove the thermometers from our desks and the company, to it's regret, was forced to upgrade the air-conditioning. That one was a small victory for the worker bees.

LOL, nice!

 

[O_P_T]

The correct answer is ALL.

This reminded me of a similar incident. I used to work in an office that provided computer and phone support to technicians working outdoors, up on telephone poles and at customer premises etc.

Since we worked with them on a regular basis we all knew the techs pretty well even though their reporting location was a garage across town.

So, one day a woman named Kathy mentions in passing to a new manager, Ginny, that she got a paper cut and showed her the tiny wound. Ginny didn't know her ass from a stick of butter and figured that she better report the "accident" or risk dereliction of duty.

So, then comes a mountain of paperwork, phone calls with corporate and interviews and the upshoot of it was that at the garage's monthly safety meeting a report was read that went something like this:

"This month we had several dog bites, a motor vehicle accident, a near electrocution and two guys cut out of their poles and fell causing serious injuries......oh, and at the support center it seems that Kathy Jones got a pretty bad paper cut."

The whole crew then just fell out laughing their asses off and they never let her forget it.

Well there's a pretty good reason why many companies have a policy that you're supposed to "report" any and all injuries that happen at work.

I'm on the safety committee at work and I see all the OSHA reportable and days away cases stuff.

One of our facilities has numerous cases where the initial injury wasn't reported and a few days later the worker says they're injured.

A lot of these consist of back strains or other soft tissue injury.

At this particular facility, if the person is hurt at work, they get paid time off to recover for the injury. If they get hurt at home, then they have to use vacation time or aren't paid for lost time.

If they don't report the injury at the time it happens, then you have hard time determining if they are gaming the system for an injury they had at home or not.

Many of the reports I've seen the worker will say they felt the initial injury at work, didn't think it was a big deal, and it only became a problem later.

This could be correct for most if not all of the injuries. However, if it isn't reported, then the possibility exists that they got hurt at home and simply said they got hurt at work.

Requiring that any and all injuries be promptly reported is one way to reduce this possibility.

Yes, a paper cut is a minor issue, but if you use that logic for everything you can run into problems.

For example, suppose someone is lifting something and feels a small twinge in their back. At the time, it feels like a minor no big whoop thing and so they don't feel it should be reported.

It could develop into a more sever discomfort or problem later. So that's why companies would like it reported initially.

How could a paper cut become a problem?

I suppose it could get infected somehow.

 

[HSanders]

If they don't report the injury at the time it happens, then you have hard time determining if they are gaming the system for an injury they had at home or not.

The thing is, the law still allows them to tie up company resources to try to figure that out. It should simply be if you do not report it, you are SOL as far as ANY benefits.
I worked in HR for quite a while and much more than half of our short term disability cases were BS. That type of stuff enrages me.

 

[Hawg73]

The thing is, the law still allows them to tie up company resources to try to figure that out. It should simply be if you do not report it, you are SOL as far as ANY benefits.
I worked in HR for quite a while and much more than half of our short term disability cases were BS. That type of stuff enrages me.

My wife is not technically part of HR, but one of her areas of expertise is absence/disability cases and dealing with insurance companies, abritration, the union, etc. so I hear it all the time and abuse runs rampant. If somebody was able to put a dollar figure on the amount of money disability abuse costs this country it would be staggering.

There have been a few occasions where I have asked former co-workers to share favorite stories of ridiculous disability claims and some of them are hilariously bogus. If people put as much effort into their doing their actual jobs as they spend trying to beat the system then many companies would be a hell of lot more profitable, but that's another can of worms.

One such story I heard was actually a tragic one in that a woman slipped and fell on company property and supposedly suffered a miscarriage as a result. It was no sure thing that the story was legit, but that was what she claimed happened. "That sucks", I said, "how long was she out for?" The guy replied "fifteen years and she was getting paid". Somehow she found a doctor that signed off that she was traumatized to the point where she could not work and the only reason she ever came back was because that doctor died and she couldn't find another one to work with her. No worries though, because she was back for a month and then retired with a pension and benefits.

My favorite case is a woman that had and still gets intermittent FMLA leave due to a condition known as SOS. That stands for Spontaneous Orgasm Syndrome. True story. It's sufferers report that it's a living hell and you never know when one is coming on hence the FMLA. Somehow, I don't think that's what the Clinton administration had in mind when they signed it into law.

 

[HSanders]

Ooof...Hawg...funny and sad at the same time.
That type of stuff is why I don't like federal laws telling employers what benefits they have to provide, etc. I think it would be better if an employer could (but didn't have to) say we will allow "X" yearly as a benefit as part of your salary and based upon it and you can choose what coverages you would like based on that amount or something. as in, if you are a woman, and want extended maternity leave, you can "buy" it with your allowance or something.
People who call companies greedy because they see "$10 hr wages"!!!1111! Why not more when the "profits" are so high???" have no clue.

 

[Hawg73]

This isn't related to the current sub-topic of disability stuff, but I just recalled one of my more bizarre co-workers and figured I'd share the tale.

I once worked with a sweet, clueless 50-ish woman named Betty who had some odd personal habits-- namely the need to give herself frequent enemas at work.

From what I understand, these enemas weren't related to any digestive issues, but rather she found them relaxing and a temporary antidote to her hypertensive tendencies. When she got stressed at work she'd grab her "toolbag" (a shopping bag containing her enema kit) and rush to the ladies room to clean the pipes out and then she'd be happy as a lark for a few hours or so until the tension level crept up again.

I was really amazed when I learned this, but the level of detail in the reports convinced me it was legit. The other women in the office hated being in that ladies room when she was in there hosing down her colon due to the colorful array of sounds and aromas that she would produce while the deed was done.

One day things went bad when Betty lost control of her ass tube and made a hell of mess on the bathroom floor and there were so many complaints lodged that she was banished from that bathroom and had to travel to an abandoned office on another floor to take care of her business.

You can't make this stuff up. So ends my story of Betty the Enema Queen.

 

[HSanders]

Omg lmao

why would it be relaxing to do something like that at work?????

 

[Hawg73]

Omg lmao

why would it be relaxing to do something like that at work?????

Beats the hell out of me.

I have heard that for some folks there is a sexual pleasure/fetish component to having an enema, but that is really tough for me to imagine in her case.

She explained in response to the curious that it "relaxed" her, so....I have no earthly idea what she got out of it, only that it went on for years. It was like "My Strange Addiction" or something.

One odd part for me was that I had noticed her carrying that toolbag dozens of times without ever wondering what she was doing with it. Once informed, though, the bag took on a whole new significance and I would watch her heading for a session and just shake my head in awe.

Some folks are just hard to fathom.

 

[Baron Samedi]

This goes back aways...

I had something that I needed to order for a job, and it was something of an emergency.
I entered a Purchase order for Next Day Air shipment, to arrive the next morning. It was about 11 O'clock AM, and most companies have a cutoff time for Next Day Air orders to be placed in order to get it out the door that day.
So, I always call to confirm that they have my order and process it immediately.
I called....got an answering system (the bane of all American business, by the way, robot answering services..."Press 1 for this, press 2 for that"...and the option for customer service is always around '6')...I press the button for customer service, and get the on hold music. I wait....I wait some more....I wait some more....after 5 minutes, I put the phone down with speaker so I can hear when someone picks up. 5 minutes pass....10 minutes.....30 minutes.....I stay on hold. 1 hour 10 minutes in, and it is past 12 O'clock, the normal cutoff time for priority orders.
FINALLY someone picks up...and here is how it goes...

"Hello, can I help you?"
"Yes, do you know I've been on hold for an hour and ten minutes?"
"Yes sir, I'm sorry about that, we were in a meeting."
"You were in a meeting?"
"Yes, sir."
"The whole company was in a meeting?"
"Yes, sir."
"What was the meeting about?"
"Customer Service."

No lie.
I swear to God and on my Grandfather's grave....true story.

 

[Baron Samedi]

Oh, and another story....

A few years back, we hired a college girl for the summer to help out in the office.

I gave her an order to fax to a vendor, and think nothing more of it.

After awhile, I notice that she has not returned to the desk. I go looking for her and find her at the fax machine, apparently having problems.

I ask her what the problem is, and she says the fax machine is not working. I begin to check the wires and look for naughty blinking lights and all that, and then I ask her to try it again....so she does.

Fax goes through, the confirmation gets printed out.

She says "See, it keeps coming back"

 

[patswin]

In my teens I worked pumping gas at a service station in the center of town. We had this mechanic who was a thieving SOB and stole quite a bit of gas over his time there but that's another story. This guy liked to walk up behind people and whack their nuts when they were bent over under the hood of a car, working on it. Why it was tolerated I have no idea, but I saw him do it one day and he was laughing out loud, and told me I was next. I told him that wouldn't be a good idea. Very next day, he whacks me in the nuts ( and it freaking hurt) and I turned around and cold-cocked him. He hit the floor, and I was on him again, grabbed him by the throat and screamed at him " I f-ing warned you! and I broke his nose with another shot. I was insanely out of my mind pissed off. It took 3 guys to get me off him.
He quit the next day... nothing happened to me!! Worked there for a few more years.

 

[Beaglebay]

During my employment at the transfer station, I worked with many idiots, especially the summer help.

One guy in particular was a real doozy. Whenever the trash trailers were full, I'd climb down the ladder to the platform, unhook the box, switch off the power button, and move the "open" sign to the empty hopper. A few minutes later, the jabroni, noticing the push plate wasn't moving, climbed down the ladder, turned the power button back on, and proceeded to send the push plate into the full, "closed" hopper, not noticing that the 24 inch, 60lb hooks were not engaged. The box, which contained about 26 tons of trash, moved out about ten feet from the platform, and the landing gear was bent almost parallel to the ground. It took a whole day's work to lift the trailer and get it hitched to a cab, and it cost $10,000 to repair the landing gear.

The real idiot, however, was the town administrator, who kept him on for the summer, and hired him again the next year.

 

[Baron Samedi]

In my teens I worked pumping gas at a service station in the center of town. We had this mechanic who was a thieving SOB and stole quite a bit of gas over his time there but that's another story. This guy liked to walk up behind people and whack their nuts when they were bent over under the hood of a car, working on it. Why it was tolerated I have no idea, but I saw him do it one day and he was laughing out loud, and told me I was next. I told him that wouldn't be a good idea. Very next day, he whacks me in the nuts ( and it freaking hurt) and I turned around and cold-cocked him. He hit the floor, and I was on him again, grabbed him by the throat and screamed at him " I f-ing warned you! and I broke his nose with another shot. I was insanely out of my mind pissed off. It took 3 guys to get me off him.
He quit the next day... nothing happened to me!! Worked there for a few more years.

This is a common game amongst bartenders. When pouring a drink you grab the bottle off the shelf, and if the other bartender is nearby, you walk him in the nuts with the bottle as you take it off the low shelf.

The idea is try and keep a straight face if you are the whackee, and try to make the other guy not keep a straight face if you are the whacker.

It's a stupid game, but it happens.

 

[Big/Sky/Fly]

I worked with this guy in my last job: