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OSHA did away with all that on paper. In reality, OSHA compliance varies considerably across manual labor jobs. Here's how: Suppose you're a manager/foreman.

OSHA did away with all that on paper. In reality, OSHA compliance varies considerably across manual labor jobs. Here's how: Suppose you're a manager/foreman. You never outright tell your staff to ignore safety regulations; you simply give them a huge workload with a deadline and set of equipment that make it impossible to feasibly accomplish the workload within compliance. Your workers catch on that in order to get the job done, they need to ignore the safety regs. As a manager, you look the other way as they ignore the rules. If an injury happens on the job, you then blame the worker for ignoring the safety regulations, which of course you instructed them to follow. Follow up by giving them a drug test so you might even be able to get out of paying them workers comp. This is how it works in the real world. Source: seen it, done it.

salawat 4y ago
... So why didn't you push back and hold the manager foreman's feet to the fire for the scheduling if you knew it caused OSHA violations? If you do not push back against management, nothing changes, and unfortunately, to get anything provable in a court of law beyond he said she said... It has to be on paper/in an email. Go on. Text your boss you can't get the job done on his schedule without violating OSHA standards. Then come back tomorrow and finish it. If they decide to fire you, sue. All the evidence you need will be discoverable. Don't absorb risk for people not putting their neck on the line.
- 8note 4y ago
  Where this comment is missing is how you pay rent after doing this
  - salawat 4y ago
    For heaven sake. You're enabling this type of behavior. Every manager will push and squeeze to get everything out of you they can. Here's the secret though: It's their ass on the line if it doesn't get done. If they're a middle manager, they now have to go back with hat in hand and tell their higher up they made a mistake. That repeats for however many layers of middle management exist until resources get properly allocated. It's their business that takes the hit if it gets out to client's that project their having built is meat grinding their laborers. You the end laborer, hold the power in this case. A manager cannot knowingly force you to conduct your work in such a way as your rights to a safe workplace are jeopardized. You have the power to expose it, and make it unequivocably known to your higher ups that these violations are happening. You can report your employer to your local OSHA enforcement arm. A law on paper but never enforced is no law at all, and a workplace where everyone lets the boss abuse one another is the only outcome if you won't stand up for you, and sometimes, encourage someone else to stand up for themselves. I did it for my people damn it. You need to do it for yourselves and your peers. This is why labor organization is important. Businesses can abuse you because people don't act in concert to the degree the business does. No work is so important it cannot be done as safely as possible. No one has the right to conspire to put you in harms way. An employer who provably does is not entitled to be an employer in the United States. That is a privilege, not a right. Fight, damnit! Fight! Or vote with your feet by finding something else to do! If you don't set the bar for people to not work for, and refuse to make their life more difficult by making them accountable for their own malfeasance, you're passing the buck to the next crazy motherf'er who will, and we are in short supply.
    - ddingus 4y ago
      The problem is chronic. Activists of all kinds have to eat, see the doctor, pay rent, and so forth. Those things are currently damn tough for most people, and that's where FIGHT DAMMIT!! ...breaks down. You aren't wrong. Having been in those scenarios, when it was my turn to make the calls, the stuff got done safely, work / life balance is appropriate, and so forth. It's expensive too! Tons of economic pressure on not doing the right things for and with people. The farther away from the edge people are, the more they are able to do those things you say. The more robust their support network is, the more able they are.

salawat 4y ago

... So why didn't you push back and hold the manager foreman's feet to the fire for the scheduling if you knew it caused OSHA violations? If you do not push back against management, nothing changes, and unfortunately, to get anything provable in a court of law beyond he said she said... It has to be on paper/in an email. Go on. Text your boss you can't get the job done on his schedule without violating OSHA standards. Then come back tomorrow and finish it. If they decide to fire you, sue. All the evidence you need will be discoverable. Don't absorb risk for people not putting their neck on the line.

8note 4y ago
Where this comment is missing is how you pay rent after doing this
- salawat 4y ago
  For heaven sake. You're enabling this type of behavior. Every manager will push and squeeze to get everything out of you they can. Here's the secret though: It's their ass on the line if it doesn't get done. If they're a middle manager, they now have to go back with hat in hand and tell their higher up they made a mistake. That repeats for however many layers of middle management exist until resources get properly allocated. It's their business that takes the hit if it gets out to client's that project their having built is meat grinding their laborers. You the end laborer, hold the power in this case. A manager cannot knowingly force you to conduct your work in such a way as your rights to a safe workplace are jeopardized. You have the power to expose it, and make it unequivocably known to your higher ups that these violations are happening. You can report your employer to your local OSHA enforcement arm. A law on paper but never enforced is no law at all, and a workplace where everyone lets the boss abuse one another is the only outcome if you won't stand up for you, and sometimes, encourage someone else to stand up for themselves. I did it for my people damn it. You need to do it for yourselves and your peers. This is why labor organization is important. Businesses can abuse you because people don't act in concert to the degree the business does. No work is so important it cannot be done as safely as possible. No one has the right to conspire to put you in harms way. An employer who provably does is not entitled to be an employer in the United States. That is a privilege, not a right. Fight, damnit! Fight! Or vote with your feet by finding something else to do! If you don't set the bar for people to not work for, and refuse to make their life more difficult by making them accountable for their own malfeasance, you're passing the buck to the next crazy motherf'er who will, and we are in short supply.
  - ddingus 4y ago
    The problem is chronic. Activists of all kinds have to eat, see the doctor, pay rent, and so forth. Those things are currently damn tough for most people, and that's where FIGHT DAMMIT!! ...breaks down. You aren't wrong. Having been in those scenarios, when it was my turn to make the calls, the stuff got done safely, work / life balance is appropriate, and so forth. It's expensive too! Tons of economic pressure on not doing the right things for and with people. The farther away from the edge people are, the more they are able to do those things you say. The more robust their support network is, the more able they are.