Here is one that I was put in today. We are retrofiting lights in this High School auditorium with a 40ft suspended ceiling. We only have 1 genie lift to put up fixtures so the foreman has one guy putting up the fixtures and has a few guys up in the ceiling wiring the fixtures and jack chaining them. Well today he asks me to go up in the ceiling and wire some fixtures. So I hop in the scissor lift to get brought up into the ceiling. When I get up there there is one plank to use to get around so here is what you have to do. Wrap yourself around the perlings(sp) With one arm supporting yourself grab the plank, move it to the next perling, crawl across to the next perling, once again, hold on for dear life to the next one, with one arm supporting yourself, grab the plank and so on. There is nothing overhead to tie a harnass onto so basically one false move and your falling 40ft.
I was up in the ceiling for 10 minutes trying to move around and I had the foreman come pick me up in the lift. I told him that I couldn't work up there since I didn't feel safe and asked if there was anything else on the job that I could do. He tells me to go home, so I say screw it and leave since I am not willing to fall 40ft and get paralyzed just cuz he wants his fixtures wired with a half ass plank setup. I then called the big foreman and asked him if there was any other jobs he could send me and he told me its either the ceiling or stay home. So I then called the owner and explained to him that I didn't feel safe up in that ceiling and asked him if he could send me somewhere else. His answer was "stay home". So I guess I won't be working for a while. Did I do the right thing? Would you guys put yourselfs in that situation? I am interested to hear some of your horror stories too. Thanks.
[This message has been edited by GOROSSI46 (edited 12-13-2005).]
[This message has been edited by GOROSSI46 (edited 12-13-2005).]
