How hazardous is your job

[Fred W]

Computer programmer...the dreaded paper cut :blink: is always looming.

Three words for you, Cota: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

...oh, the humanity!!

 

[Fred W]

Steelworker automation technician. As I'm typing this with my dirty and 'blackened' hands, I'm in my office having a warmed-up bowl of spaghetti and that elusive 2nd cup of coffee. I notice the make-shift, 3-day-old, (now black) air filter on the return HVAC duct and the surrounding dirt on my desk and phone. I'm sitting here in my hardhat, safety glasses, Metatarsal shoes, flame/heat resistant-Arc Flash pants and shirt, with air filter mask and hearing protection' straps strung around my neck.
Beside me is the latest published list of employees killed at my location since the beginning of this plant. It is four pages of single-lined spaced names, their department, their years of service and date killed. There must be a couple hundred or so. Now days, each week I'm 'e-mailed' a fatality report from our corporate safety division about a co-worker that was killed in an accident, (we are a larger company now so the number of events have increased).

Outside the false security of this office and all around me, molten steel is being poured and cast into slabs. Fork lifts are wizzing around and EOT cranes with loads that weigh more that a semi-truck are passing overhead. Down the roadway a couple hundred yards are multiple chlorine tanks used to treat process water and across the ore yard are several blastfurnaces ready to spew thousands of PPM of carbon monoxide in the form of blastfurnace gas if someone 'slips up' or a piece of equipment fails.

Co-workers are stressed to no end, working 16 hour days, many 6~7 days a week for more than two years now. One mechanic millwright fellow only took two days from his schedule last year to marry off his daughter! My personal limit is 12 hours a day during the winter, less during the summer (to ride the bike of course) unless there's a work related emergency. I've half-jokingly pleaded with more than one person to give me 5 minutes of advanced notice before they start shooting. Most guys that I've heard that choose to end their life, do so away from work, either CO in the garage, hanging, or running into a tree or pole on the way home. Occassionally at work though, someone will 'fall' off of some high structure and believe me there is no shortage of them here! Somehow I've dodged the bullet with little more than a herniated disk, a few cuts and bruises, and a twisted ankle, from doing "too much". An occassional pain and ache now and again reminds me of my mis-spent youth taken risks in the steel industry for 31 years. :glare:

Yikes, man! Change fields!

 

[Foxhuntr]

Quality Assurance in a Spice company. I might get run over by a forklift or inhale too much jalapeno pepper or get tangled up in a piece of bottling equipment. So far so good, no injuries. I thinks its more likely that I'll crash my FJR on the twisty roads I ride to and from work every day 70 miles round trip.

 

[Fencer]

Outside the false security of this office and all around me, molten steel is being poured and cast into slabs. Fork lifts are wizzing around and EOT cranes with loads that weigh more that a semi-truck are passing overhead. Down the roadway a couple hundred yards are multiple chlorine tanks used to treat process water and across the ore yard are several blastfurnaces ready to spew thousands of PPM of carbon monoxide in the form of blastfurnace gas if someone 'slips up' or a piece of equipment fails.

Been there and done that Too

A.C.I.P.CO. American Cast Iron Pipe Company- Actually, not a bad company to work for. A few summers there helped pay for coludje

Dad said it would help me to appreciate my education. He's been there 40+ years and counting the days to retire.

 

[Scab]

Who needs "on the job" safety hazards? I am the poster-boy for safety violations. I have had burns, abrasions, cuts, chemical over-exposure (isocyanate poisoning), stab wounds, eye wounds (both foreign matter projectile and severe burns causing temporary blindness), back injuries, broken bones, and pretty much anything else you can do without dying. All classified as "self-inflicted due to stupidity." Oh, and then there was my whole second marriage. Still not sure how I survived that one.
But actually "on the job?" Well, I work with mostly women. Just how long do you think it will be before I say something totally stupid and insensitive?

Dang Scab, you remind me of another character,

Joe Btfsplk -- Joe is so unlucky that he doesn't even have any vowels in his last name.

Ha! And here I consider myself the luckiest person I know! I'm still alive, have a motorcycle, and am married to the lady in my avatar!

 

[TruWrecks]

I am the psycho in the cubical that may start shooting at any moment! With the changes at work, and a pending divorce, I may have to start shooting soon.

Edit: Damn! I need to ride more.

 

[Fencer]

I am the psycho in the cubical that may start shooting at any moment! With the changes at work, and a pending divorce, I may have to start shooting soon.
Edit: Damn! I need to ride more.

Just remeber, the first person you should always target before going on a spree is yourself. Headshots are a great way to start the day :assassin:

Now go ride!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[krashdragon]

I am an alternative ed middle school educator for the inner city of York PA. (Teaching the Alt Ed high last year was less dangerous)I am a minority in that I am a fairly small framed (a buck fifty) white boy. I have been threatened too many times to count, rushed at by a full class once (Had to put one of them against the all), and physically attacked by a student who thought dry humping a desk in front of class was acceptable. I ended up restraining the student until help arrived. When I let him go he got up, he threw a metal rack at me (dented the white board) and threw a desk towards me, luckily a another student stepped in to stop it before the desk left the student's hands. We have a lack of security and supervision. If a hall monitor is out sick, we do not have the coverage and student's know they can get away with things. For example, yesterday (Friday) student would leave class when they felt like it, run around the hallways and come up on adults like they want to hurt you. It is not a pleasant scenerio!Our public education system is not designed to appropriately handle these types of students and most parents are unreachable or just do not understand what the problem is.Although I enjoy working in the inner city and specifically with alternative ed students, it is currently safer to work in a high level correction facility.

I agree...middle school sucks...I prefer high school or elementary school stuents... you can usually talk to them, those 13 yr old 8th graders know everything! <G>Even my SPED students... except how to read or do math....Wasn't real inner city kids tho, it was in a working lower middle class Hawaii area.... the school newsletter was written in English, Illacano, Soamoan and Marshalese. Mary

I am the psycho in the cubical that may start shooting at any moment! With the changes at work, and a pending divorce, I may have to start shooting soon. Edit: Damn! I need to ride more.

Bikes are good after divorces...One divorce, now three bikes! <BG>mary

 

[zorkler]

And the winner is ?

 

[Fencer]

Solderfiremancopteacherheavymachinist with a crazy cubical person next to them

Who is beat by the frontline M.P. (or S.P) who teaches Firefighting in an industrial invironment B)

 

[Fred W]

And the winner is ?

Damn. I didn't know we were competing. I'd have made some better stuff up.

 

[ionbeam]

And the winner is ?

Damn. I didn't know we were competing. I'd have made some better stuff up.

I think it's safe to say that 'competing' is in the DNA of everyone that buys FJRs instead of Cruisers or Touring. We compete in IBRs, who's tires last the longest, the most miles out of a tank of gas, best oil , worst commute, best commute, most farkles, brightest lights, loudest horn.... I dare you to top this list :lol:

I vote for the men of fire -- steel mill & firefighter. Oh wait, we wern't asked to vote

 

[Wingman]

And I thought my day was dangerous. . .driving all day through rush hour traffic, speeding kamikazi drivers with lawyers on retainer, and the everpresent road construction with abscent-minded workers seems to pale in comparison to some of the dangers you guys face on a daily basis. I recently switched jobs to drive refrigerated trailers over the road. I love the job and the freedom it gives me, but some days I wonder how I got the truck from one place to another without becomming another statistic. (And the pending divorice only complicates things.)

These horror stories just seem to put my life back into perspective. Life is good. Wait. No it isn't. I'm in South Carolina and my FJR is in my brother's garage in Arkansas. And bikes out enjoying a ride keep passing me up like I was standing still. (I do my best to stay out of your way). Dammit. Life sucks again. :angry2:

Well, not really. . .If I can just figure out how to take the bike with me. I wonder if anyone would notice if I cut a small hole in the side of the truck to load the bike into, and removed the lower bunk, and. . .moved the under bunk hvac system, and that damnable quallcomm. No, surely no one would notice that.

Thanks everyone. At least my baby is in good hands, my brother promised he would take her for a ride at least once a week so she doesn't feel neglected and mistreated.

David