Posted By Jasonjg A long story but so very true A few years ago (about 4) I worked for a newly developing Plastic recycling company owned by a man who was also keen on property development. I was just a Nebosh student at the time and only in the early days of the course. Previous to this I was a disillusioned jack-of-all-trades who had become extremely bored and frustrated of his career development and history. Anyway I call this story: - Get a Bigger Digger. It all started when the boss decided he wanted to build an extension on to the existing building and lease it off. He instructed Steve a hefty bold ("I Can do that") type of bloke to dig a 10ft deep trench so as to lay the underground electricity cables. So Steve hired a digger and though licensed he had not drove for some years. Off he went digging the trench and actually got a good 50 metres before the sides caved in and covered the whole lower half of the digger. Hmmm maybe time to sit a re-consider the plan of action you may think. Well no, the boss views the situation and instructs five members of staff to climb into trench and dig out the digger. They dig a dig over the whole day but Digger still refuses to free itself. That afternoon whilst digging yet another cave in of trench sides and one worker is pressed firmly against the digger by half a tonne of sand (yes sand). Luckily not hurt people dig out this workers legs and free him. Hmmm maybe reason will prevail this time round. Boss appears and gets told this is getting pretty dangerous. Solution of getting a bigger digger to pull out small digger is then agreed. In comes new bigger digger and easily pulls out little digger. Well Steve is no longer trusted to continue the work and a large guy called Geoff who is much more mature is asked to take over. Geoff has no licence but says he knows the things like the back of his hand. Off he set working the next day, but Geoff in his infinite wisdom decides that he and digger shall remain on top of trench and back shovel dirt out. A few hours go bye and yells are heard from area being worked on. Geoff had only managed to drive to near edge and trench side collapses sending Geoff and bigger digger in. I was still in the process of washing the smaller one at the front of the premises. Geoff luckily gets dug out of cabin and curses for some minutes before deciding to re-enter the digger and use the shovel to hoist himself and the digger out of trench. After some 20-30 attempts he actually manages to do this. We are all at this time taking the mick. Were told to shut up and go back to work. The end you might think! I’m afraid not! This plan of the trench came near an electricity pylon but Geoff said he knew the risks and was to be left alone. Whilst back to work inside building, Steve and me catch sight of Geoff coming into building looking white as ghost. "What’s up?" we say. Turned out Geoff had only dug through the earth cable of the pylon and according to his version, the cab was electrified and his wellies saved him. Boss returns, looks at the situation and decides to call the help of a local small time construction company that looked more like Gypsies with diggers. They sort out the entire trench and start levelling the ground. Just to top this unbelievable story off, the new digger driver manages to pierce the water storage tanks for the fire sprinkler system. As you may have guessed, I did not stay their very long. But believe it or not, the place is still running today and Steve, whom I saw last week is currently claiming for a broken leg that occurred some six months ago. It was after that incident that I knew there was still reason behind the need for beurocratic H&S folk to spread the word. Personally I think the Boss should have been prosecuted but rumour had it, that he complained about the last H&S inspector and threatened to close the business resulting in the disciplining of the H&S Inspector. Just goes to show what people believe on shop floor. What’s your vies on common sense now?

Posted By Lumpy In my first job as a laboratory assistant it was necessry to fumigate the clean rooms on a regular basis to ensure sterility. This was done by sealing the lab with tape and then boiling off about 12 litres of Formaldhyde / water mix. You left the room overnight then vented the room. It is the latter part of this procedure that, looking back, was absloute madness, but being 16 at the time I did what I was told. To vent the room you had to turn on the ventilation ... you guessed it, the switch was inside the room !! To get to the switch I had to don some swimming goggles, take a deep breath and run about 10m across a damp lino floor. God only knows why I am still here today. Lumpy.

Posted By Frank Hallett Lumpy - who did did you used to work for? I think I know as I had a considerable input at our local site some years ago but I don't wish to embarass the organisation unnecessarily. Gob-smacked doesn't even come close to how I felt when the procedure was explained in full!! Please respond on my email if you wish to confirm my suspicion. Frank Hallett

Posted By Chris Black about 17 years ago I was working as a chemical process op in a big swiss-owned multinational. I was being trained in the control room by a Guy called Andy, whose friend Charlie worked the process floor. I say friend, these two had worked together for donkeys years, followed each other about from unit to unit and travelled to work together, all the while hating each other's guts. If either had a problem then the last thing they would consider would be to approach the other for help, which led to this situation. as lunch-time approached one day I started preparing the solution vessels by adding the process water, when the time came to add the solids for dissolving I would then add either caustic or acid, whichever was called for by the process and in order to add the chemicals you had to start the stirrers. I noticed that the stirrers on one vessel had started manually and the temperature was rising, i assumed Charlie was heating it up in anticipation of adding resin beads. after about five minutes the stirrers went off again, nothing happened for twenty minutes until Andy had left for lunch. charlie stuck his head round the door " I've got a problem, I added the resin and forgot to ask for caustic" It's ok" I said, "at least you put the stirrers off". "The ******* stirrers cut out on me, There's half a tonne of resin in the form of toffee in the vessel". "That's still OK" says I " You get the mobile agitator and stand by while i overide the controls and add some caustic, then we reset the stirrer". "But Andy will be back by then". "Doesn't matter, its the only way" says I. I start putting overide codes in to the PLC, after about to minutes i hear an almighty "whoosh" which sounds like a harrier jump jet just flew through the process floor. I look up at the digital indicators on the mimic panel and see that the temperature in the toffee vessel has risen from 60C to 92C in a couple of seconds. Charlie, fearful of an earful from Andy, had done a fag-packet calculation of how much solid NaOH would be required to replace the liquor that should be in the vessel. He then dissolved about 30kg in a plastic tub and turned it straight in to the vessel, it hit the solid (hot) resin inside causing a very localised exothermic reaction, the superheated caustic solution shot straight back out the vessel in a plume (hence the "whoosh") and soaked Charlie from head to toe. In the ten seconds it takes for me to get to the vessel, Charlie has made it to a drench shower, I arrive to find him red as a lobster and nearly naked bar his rubber boots. The caustic was dissolving his overalls and underwear, starting with the stitching. I remark on how fit he looks for a man in his late fifties and bring over a fire hose to augment the shower. Fortunately he was wearing a vynil apron and safety goggles which limited his injuries to nothing worse than the equivalent of a moderate case of sunburn and bruised pride. Just to make sure he learned his lesson I kept him in the shower until Andy got back from lunch. That whoosh will live with me forever.