That's just stupid

This morning I did a contractor safety orientation. I normally don't do these anymore, but the person who normally does was busy, so I stepped in. The guys were really nice. They asked after viewing the video if they need to tie off in a scissor lift. I told them yes as it's our facility rule (this is not an OSHA requirement. Anyone who tells you that is WRONG.) At the end they asked if they'd see me again. I said if they need me to ask and someone would find me. I also told them that if they saw me involuntarily it wouldn't be pleasant.

Later in the morning, I took some cardboard out into the plant for recycling. While I was out there I felt like I needed to do a safety walk through. I've learned to trust these feelings. I got back to where the contractors were working, and what do I see? One of the guys has his lanyard hooked to his harness. Yeah, that does NO good. I asked him what he was hooked to. He grabbed his lanyard and followed it to the end where it was connected to his harness. Let me tell you, he knew good and well it wasn't hooked to anything. I did not hatch out of my egg last night. His buddy in the lift starts laughing because he knows the guy's in trouble.

I told guy #1 he had to tie off. What's he do? Ties the lanyard back on itself around the railing of the lift. No and no. You can only tie specially made lanyards back on themselves. This wasn't one of them. You can't tie off to the railing as they aren't rated to take the kind of force a fall would generate. I told him to look on the floor for tie offs. They are marked as such. He found one but the hook on his lanyard wouldn't fit. That's because it wasn't a tie off point. Grr. I told them to lower the lift so I could look at it and point out the proper anchor points. When they do, I notice that guy #2 (who'd been laughing at his friend for getting busted) wasn't tied off either. Double grr. At this point I was majorly not happy. I said "Didn't we just discuss this?". I then said "If I see this again, you're ejected from the job site". I also included "I told you if I saw you involuntarily it wouldn't be pleasant." I of course then e-mailed a summary of this incident to the appropriate internal people. The person whose contractor this is will also be contacting the company to tell them about it.

I went back and told my coworker (and backup safety person) about this. I told her how dumb this was. She said it wasn't dumb. "Dumb is like ignorant. You can fix it. This is just stupid." I have to concur.