ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Occupational Safety Discussion Hurry Up!!

Hmmm How long is long ?

When you trip out a generator farm in the middle of rural Bosnia and the army get twitchy as there are some not nice individuals outside. Kitchen main board tripped - this was our main load so the gen sets thought Yep time to cool off awhile - so the all shut down apart from the lead set. Little knowledge comes along sees the tripped breaker and resets it. Chaos as the gen set tried to supply the load, the others wake up and start but they have no hope in syncing up with dancing one which eventually trips. So a few momnets of dancing lights and then darkness and then a hell of a lot of scared squaddies.

Our huts were at the opposite end of the camp but we had the torches and we were running. Lead set blew a few fuses and took out a control card so we'd to re config another set as lead get her started and onto bus, then we had to get lights on. talking a good 15 minutes or so. The topbrass with floating about except for the one that flicked the breaker back on. If only he had shut it down again wed have managed to scape through. It was a brown toruser that one, but we were treated to a few beers once we'd got the lights back up.

Next thing wed a few notices put round on our switchgear indicating that on no account should it be touched and in the akward areas there were a few padlocked covers attached.

We spent a good few months after the incident putting up emergency fittings and a few distributed back up ligthing towers that would start if the power went down.

Rugged

When I worked in the Shipyard, we worked some hot jobs 24/7, and were always told to hurry up. Most of them were finished and just sat, collecting dust, for a long time after. Everyone got overtime though.
In the Pentagon, there was always a mad rush to complete projects that were behind schedule because they were not planned properly, and many of them had their funding borrowed for other jobs before we even started, then management had the audacity to say we used all the manhours up!
I worked a commercial job, and quality was secondary to speed, so I quit and worked for a madman in residential that was 6 years older than me and could not get anyone to keep up with him. He was always in a hurry, but made very little mistakes.
He always told me to hurry up, but he never compromised quality.

When I was a maintenance mechanic at an amusement park the inside joke between us in that dept was "Is this ride open?"

The reason was customers would always ask us that while we were servicing a ride.

Had the transmission and transfer case on the ground beside the train ride it came out of.

Customer; Is this ride open?

Myself and another worker where wrestling a 200 pound gear box into place on a 'Tilt-a-whirl' its heavy and it's over 90 F on the Midway.

Customer interrupts us Is this ride open?

That time it took quite a bit of self control not to snap and tell the person what was ion my mind.

Bob

Back when I was just a kid working for GE as a field engineer; our managment told us that safety was first, last and only. One of my fellow trainees almost got himself fired during training class for working unsafe. If we were getting hassled to the point of being distracted or unable to continue our work safely, we were authorized to pick up our stuff and leave the jobsite. Period. And our managers would actually take OUR side when the customer called in all p***ed off. I'm glad that I had such a safety conscious boss when I was starting out.

It's many years later and I still work that way; the more you make me nervous...the slower and more deliberately I work. There's no point in MY getting hurt just so that some other poor soul can fill in for me and get hurt because of the same 'Nervous Nellie' who just can't stand that his machine isn't working at maximum efficiency at that precise second.

I once saw a poster with the cartoon character Maxine on it that I wish I had bought for my wall..."In a hundred years it won't matter; HELL, it hardly matters NOW".

Bob and Ghost,
It is my honest opinion, that anyone with a short fuse, should never be involved with Industrial or Commercial work.
Mainly because there are plenty of idiots (managers) to wind you up during important work, as in Live work.
My standard line is "You want to do this sweet-heart?, c'mon get your hands in here, it's only 400V!"

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 04-16-2006).]

when getting asked repeatedly " how much longer ?" or " How soon ... "
Just tell them that the more they ask you the same question, the more times I have to stop working. The more times I stop, the longer it will take to finish up. The longer it takes to finish , then more it will cost YOU ! So keep on asking the same question, I got ALL day and tomorrow hasn't been touched yet !
Most impatient people figure it out then.

Trumpy, I think that was the reason behind their position at GE's training center. If you're upset, angry, or just plain rattled...stop working and calm down. If the situation keeps you from being able to work safely, walk out while you can still walk.

The folks who get upset and rush through the job are the ones who don't last long (literally).

Just remember...our area of the gene pool is self-chlorinating.

[This message has been edited by ghost307 (edited 04-17-2006).]