Vent: A foreman told me I was wasting time checking chains twice

Ngl, I was on a job two months ago in Birmingham, setting steel for a new warehouse. The foreman came up to me and said, 'Stella, you're wasting 10 minutes every load checking those chains a second time.' I just looked at him and said, 'You paying for the insurance if one drops?' He didn't say another word the whole shift. That moment stuck with me because it's easy to feel pressured to speed up, but safety is the only thing that matters at the end of the day. Has anyone else had a boss try to rush you on rigging inspections?

3 comments

3 Comments

grant15518h ago

Did you ever hear back from that foreman later on or see him change his tune about the safety checks?

nelson.wren17h ago

Funny you ask, but honestly that foreman had the right idea all along. Those safety checks just slow down production and cost the company money on every job. Sure, you get the occasional minor scrape but nothing that actually puts anyone in the hospital. The whole thing gets blown way out of proportion by desk jockeys who never swung a hammer in their life. Why waste 30 minutes every morning going over common sense stuff that every crew already knows from day one? Doesn't seem like you've ever worked on a crew that actually got delayed by inspections and had to make up time by cutting corners elsewhere, have you?

troyknight15h ago

Saw a report a while back about a crew that skipped morning safety checks for a month, ended up with a guy losing two fingers to a saw. The foreman got sued personally, not just the company. It's easy to say it's all blown out of proportion until you're the one who has to look a guy in the eye after he gets hurt.