Depending on what kind of workplace you work in, the chances are there is at least one safety sign placed somewhere on the premises. Because there are tons of things that can go wrong at work. And although a steelworker and an office clerk face different potential dangers at work, both employers have to ensure they’re safe and secure in that environment.
This is where OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and safety inspectors enter the game. And as we’ve seen in Bored Panda’s previous features about OSHA that you can check out here, here and here, their game is on the next level.
As you can suspect, not everything the safety instructors see while on duty puts a smile on their faces. Often, it’s on the contrary. So in order to find out what craziness they have to deal with at workplaces that put safety at the bottom of their priorities, we looked at these two viral threads (this and this) where inspectors and OSHA employees share the worst things they have seen.
Below, we wrapped up the most eyebrow-raising stories, so pull your seat closer.
#1
I worked in a lab doing cytomegalovirus research. One day we had workers in replacing the lights and one said ‘wow- I always thought those shower things were real!’ Pointing at one of the emergency showers in the lab. These are for heavy duty chemical spills where you run under the shower and pull a handle to decontaminate. Turns out ours were just the shower heads in the ceiling not connected to any water. We used extremely dangerous chemicals every day. We got the showers hooked up pretty quickly after that.
Image credits: Smokeylongred
#2
I used to work as a safety consultant for an insurance broker. One of our insureds had an employee who was tasked to apply a “Do not enter, compactor starts automatically” sign on a cardboard box compactor. The idiot set the can of spray adhesive on the lip of the compactor, knocked it in, and then jumped in the compactor to get it. Of course it started automatically because it’s a machine that can’t tell idiot from box. He’s lucky some else was walking by and saved his life.
Edit: he went into the compactor AFTER sticking the sign to the front of it.
Image credits: mad_wood_scientist
#3
Not the OSHA guy, but it happened in the plant I was working in. Idiot is told by junior manager to clean the floor after a chemical spill (I don’t recall what it was for certain, but we used a LOT of industrial adhesives, so maybe that). Idiot ignores all his safety training, and the entire closet full of cleaning gear, and decides to clean the spill with acetone. And a steel wire brush.
It wasn’t so much of an explosion as a deep “whumph” sound that sucked most of the air out of the room. He was horribly burned. His clothes melted into his skin. 3rd degree burns covered his body. Incredibly, he was still alive when the Fire and Paramedics got there. He opened his eyes, asked for a cigarette, and died right there on the floor. What did we do? Hosed down the floor, and the line was back up by that afternoon. Quit that job as soon as I was able.
Image credits: Corsair09
#4
I was on the Workplace Health and Safety committee. The committee head at the time decided to change a lightbulb. Do you think that she used a step ladder on the sloped surface? Nope, office chair with wheels and nobody to hold it still. So many stupid decisions in that last sentence. Of course she fell, broke her arm, and received work place compensation.
The kicker? The light bulb wasn’t blown, she was just using the wrong light switch.
Image credits: meri_bassai
#5
Watch 8 tonnes of pipe fall from about 20m because someone was in a rush and used the incorrect rigging.
The kicker is everyone there (20-30 people) were totally willing to let it go unreported, except me. I never really did make too many friends after that. Oh well.
Image credits: ski–free
#6
When i used to work at Walmart they use to block FIRE EXITS.
they probably still do it yet i dont think OSHA does anything about that.
Image credits: HouseofPain1
#7
Wasn’t our plant but another plant for our company. We have these huge steel drums that we fill with 100s of pounds of ingredients that go onto an hydraulic lift that lifts and tilts the drum and pours the contents into a kettle.
The drum shifts forward a little bit on the lift while all the way up and falls back into place on its way down. The operator was resting his hand on the bottom of the lift while lowering it back down and the drum fell back down on his finger and pretty much turned it into mush.
That’s not the worst part. Afterwards the safety lead was doing a review of the incident and another operator showed the safety lead EXACTLY what happened and smashed his finger in the same manner.
Image credits: vickers24
#8
Not directly relevant, but I worked for a company where the Risk Management Executive accidentally shot himself in the leg checking to see if the safety was on on a pistol.
Image credits: Curlaub
#9
I didn’t see it personally, but someone smoking & another person eating lunch inside of what was a “high risk” containment during an asbestos abatement.
In a high risk you have to be naked under your body suits, shower when you leave, cannot bring anything in or out that hasn’t been washed & you have to wear a full face mask. It’s supposed to be very sterile. These guys had their face masks off inside the containment eating & smoking.
Image credits: vegans-ate-my-cat
#10
Equipment operator used brake cleaner to remove grease from his hands and arms, then proceeded to light up a cigarette on his way out of the work area… Fairly significant second degree burns on both hands and forearms.
Image credits: daishiknyte
#11
Got called to a factory where the workers had to cut metal on large conveyor belts.
There were large boxes with built in gloves that you stuck your hands in to operate the press.
So, for safety, workers had on one set of gloves ( that everyone wore on the factory floor because sharp hot metal ) and then stuck their hands in a second pair attached to the belts to reach the materials.
One of the workers felt like this slowed him down so he cut a hole in the safety box to be able to just reach in and adjust the metal to the press… Except, the press came down ON his hand, leaving 4 of his fingers perfectly preserved inside the glove.
They recovered his wedding ring, neatly dangling right above the cut off finger bone.
Image credits: WideFix
#12
I actually am and OSHA Inspector but I work for a state that has their own state OSHA Plan (same as Federal OSHA but a little more strict). I can almost guarantee you that if you work construction in my state you have seen us or we have seen you. My office alone which is just one county has over 40 Compliance Officers. Yes, a lot of people hate us and yes their are some bad Compliance Officers, just like their are some bad Police Officers. When we come on site we would love nothing more than to find zero violations. The amount of paper work we have to do is astronomical. We have to treat every case as if it is going to court even though maybe only 2% do.
People die at work every day from very preventable reasons. Yes, sometimes injuries and deaths are caused by employees not following company rules or taking shortcuts, but statistics also show that the companies with very good safety programs have lower accident rates and are typically very profitable.
As for worst violation that I have seen. I investigated a multiple death incident at a company. An employee entered a permit required confined space without utilizing the proper precautions. The employee became unconscious due to the inert gases that were not properly purged from the space. Another employee walks by sees the unconscious employee, tries to rescue him, that employee then became unconscious. Then again with another employee. Now they have 3 unconscious employees who eventually died from lack of oxygen.
After the investigation the company had no written confined space policy or rescue procedures. We found out after performing employee interviews that they were told to hold their breath while they performed work in the space because they were only checking a gauge and it would only take like 30 seconds.
After about $500,000 in fines and the owner actually going to jail for 5 months the company went out of business.
And the worst part is a fire department was located across the street and they were trained in confined space rescue.
#13
My uncle is a safety inspector and is always going off about dumbasses in the workplace. Same uncle broke his arm in four places trying to clean the gutters of his workplace with a too short ladder on top of an oversized toolbox in wet weather.
Image credits: anon
#14
I’m a HSR at my workplace.
I recently had management trying to pin a couple of guys on my shift for putting a pallet of product to close to a fire hose.
Ok fair, yeah it’s a safety issue.
Only problem was more than half of the fire hoses on site are blocked or inaccessible due to rows of product blocking them.
Poor storage planning on managements behalf, yet 1 pallet near a fire hose is enough cause for a written warning and talks of terminating said employees.
Safe to say when I politely pointed out how many safety hazards and violations that were the fault of the management. They quickly dropped their talks of terminating employees.
Still working on getting those other fire hoses unblocked though.
Like banging your head on a brick wall sometimes I swear.
Image credits: Yenschy
#15
My dad went to his work OHS committee to ask them to mow the patch between the parking lot and the building because the grass had gotten so long that snakes were living in it. The committee decided it was too risky to have someone mow it because there were snakes in the grass and the person mowing might get injured.
Image credits: Mr_A
#16
I interned at OSHA. I got to ride around with a former electrical union superintendent and I’m still telling stories. As an intern they honestly let me ask anything. The inspectors were so glad that someone actually respected them and wanted to learn so they just spilled.
Personally the worst was a couple dozen guys hung their coats up to cover the hot commercial electrical box they had pig tailed their broken radio directly to. The OSHA inspector saw it and just turned to them and said “do you have a family? Do you ever want to see them again?” Turned out the crew chief had a brand new baby girl at home. He basically cried his face off about how stupid they were and shut it down until they could make it safer. No fines were issued. Even though it could’ve bankrupted all 3 companies on site. Just real talk.
In case you didn’t know that amount of electricity would kill you in the worst way (unable to let go and feeling every single shock) and leave you a pile of dust.
Image credits: briannananers
#17
Not an inspector but did work comp insurance for a bit.
I saw this on cctv for evidence
Factory that made foam for mattresses had a machine that would cut up medium sized chunks of foam into smaller ones to put into mattresses. Sort of like a wood chipper.
One guy got tired of putting handfuls at a time (the recommended way) and decided to get a bucket and starts shoveling into the cutter.
When it got stuck from too much foam he used the stick part of a broom to push it thru. This got the broom stuck. He then decides to put both hands in to dislodge the stick and stuck foam.
The machine was still on this whole time.
He somehow manages to get the stick out and the blades start going again.
He amazingly only lost two fingertips and tried to sue his boss.
We settled for 30k…
#18
Guy at my work was collecting a soil sample amd tested it. Right after he finishes the boss says now can you test it all for asbestos when hes been exposed to what he thought was just plain soil for the past few hours.
Image credits: jaybloggs
#19
Fire alarm/sprinkler leaking onto steel racking for so long it’s rusted. Racking was 6 tier high…
Management refused to treat it a hazard.
Image credits: donthatedaplaya
#20
I inspect fire sprinklers and I saw someone had a chain going through one to hang a light.
Image credits: beefstewforyou
#21
Not an OSHA employee, but these guys I worked with were undermining a road. Cars were still passing over the dug area. No efforts were made to secure the trench (trench boxes or such), no ladders, a 6′ pile of the trench spoils were right on the edge, phone, gas, and power ran nearby but locates weren’t done…
I’m honestly surprised it didn’t collapse, the cars driving overhead shook loose plenty of gravel from the sides of the hole.
Image credits: anon
#22
Former safety rep who specialized in industrial food manufacturing working for the largest food companies. I am now in school for psychology so am interning at a clinic. In my interview I said that was my previous career so they asked me to do their EAP and exit maps. Yet they wont buy the fire extinguisher signs. The thing I repeatedly tell them to do is unlock one of the doors leading to a exit door. They have a storage/file room with one of the emergency exits and you cant walk in the room even if the door is unlocked.
Image credits: Negaface
#23
Guy was a warehouse worker. Qualified to use the forklifts, but this was a special one where the entire cabin lifts up so the forklift worker has better vision. What does the guy do?
He gets out 3.5 meters in the air and steps on the pallet to adjust some of the products. The guy faced 0 repercussions. He was a nice guy, but crazy.
Image credits: Roel93
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