Workplace Incidents You’ve Witnessed

A

Aunt Mavis

I have met the enemy and he is us. Pogo
One that stands out. Employee (male) reports to work to find his office painted a bright pink and symbols that included a rainbow, a unicorn, a fairy and miscellaneous other stickers with a similar theme. The painters were four ladies evidently. Is this good clean fun or ?
 
Working at a tech startup in CA in the early ‘80s, a coworker completely lost it one day. We were all under tremendous pressure, working crazy hours. For some reason he picked up a pile of greenbar printouts, balled them up, threw them all over his office, then picked up his heavy handset phone and threw it against the wall (a wall he shared with the VP of Ops). Screamed something about he couldn’t take it anymore and he was going to hang himself. Then he stormed off and left for the day. Came back the next day like nothing happened. Later he got promoted - that ended badly, but that was another story.

From then on the rest of us would say “I guess we should go hang ourselves” whenever having a perceived bad day!
 
EmptyCup said:
Working at a tech startup in CA in the early ‘80s, a coworker completely lost it one day. We were all under tremendous pressure, working crazy hours. For some reason he picked up a pile of greenbar printouts, balled them up, threw them all over his office, then picked up his heavy handset phone and threw it against the wall (a wall he shared with the VP of Ops). Screamed something about he couldn’t take it anymore and he was going to hang himself. Then he stormed off and left for the day. Came back the next day like nothing happened. Later he got promoted - that ended badly, but that was another story.

From then on the rest of us would say “I guess we should go hang ourselves” whenever having a perceived bad day!
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Reminds me of when George quits his job, then pretends like nothing happened.

 
I was foreman in the California Conservation Corp. I had a crew of about10 young men. We were felling large trees to make a fire break. We used sharp double bladed axes to limb the trees. I instructed them to never stand close to anyone swinging an ax. One day a guy cut through a limb with one stroke and followed through and struck someone behind him (too close) and hit his thigh. It cut it all the way to the bone. We put a tourniquet on and rushed him to the hospital. He got like 120 stiches and survived. What a mess!!!
 
While working at a large holding company the staff in our office were all aware that our boss had a phobia about getting a simple health checkup once a year in the company medical office. He would openly complain about it every year. All staff at his level were required to get the checkup. It involved a blood pressure check, heart rate check, and giving a urine sample.

Somehow the office staff got to talking about pulling a joke on the boss...

My wife worked at a medical office and I had her bring home an official UA sample container. I took it to work the day after our boss had his tests. We all got together and prepared a typed note from the company nurse, stating that our bosses UA sample was misplaced, and he needed to provide them with another one. We put this note, and the container in an interdepartmental envelope marked CONFIDENTIAL. We laid it on his desk when he was out to a meeting.

We he came back we all carefully watched, it was our intent to have one of us go in the public bathroom on our floor and advise him of the joke. He left his office, and I waited a bit and then went in the bathroom to warn him. To my horror, he was not in the bathroom. We all were worried he must have already got on the elevator going to the nurse's office. After over 20 minutes we all agreed we needed to call the nurse and advise her of the joke. So, I called her, she advised me he had already brought in his sample, and she told him she did not know what he was talking about. He had just walked out!

Oh crap! This was not good. When the boss got back to his office he was 'red faced' and went in his office and shut his door. After about an hour he came out of his office, he was not happy and announced he did not appreciate the gag and ask that we refrain from anymore.

Then he smiled and said that we really did get him this time...! I was especially relieved. He really was a good guy.
 
While working at the steel mill we were on the casting floor doing maintenance, while the laborers were doing cleanup, as the mill was down on Saturday swing shift. A laborer was directing the ladle crane operator in moving a tundish, which is like a trough for the molten steel and weighs probably 10~20 tons empty. Somehow the laborer gets caught in between the tundish and an upright "I beam" girder. His one thigh was instantly pinched and broken, with the compound fracture ends protruding through his pant leg. We sent someone to call an ambulance, we found a coat or blanket to cover him with, as he had gone into shock. Someone fashioned a tourniquet to slow the bleeding. He was off work for six months but did recover fully.
 
I was working in the gallery on a busy Saturday afternoon. I went to use the restroom, and when I opened the door I saw a man and a woman. She was sitting on the sink. He was standing between her legs with his pants down around his ankles. You can fill in the blanks. I flung open the door and yelled into the gallery, "If anyone's interested in seeing a live animal exhibit, there's one going on now in the restroom!" Needless to say, they were out of there in a flash. I didn't call the cops, but I felt like I needed a stiff drink. God help me, lol. I could have lived without seeing that. They could've at least locked the door!
 
I was working at a saw mill when a new guy almost lost a sizeable chunk of his torso, if not his life.

He was being trained on the Hurdle saw and the side of his overalls got caught in the upright edger blades. Fortunately, his trainer hit the big, red emergency OFF button before the kid got pulled into the edger. The trainer must have seen it coming, because those blades can pull in and cut through a full sized log within a few seconds.

The kid (about 20yrs old) was wearing loaner overalls that were about 2 sizes too big. Certain parts of his training stopped until he was issued one that fit.

As you can imagine, I witnessed a lot of injuries while I worked at the mill, some of them very serious, but that kid could have lost his life....within seconds. But not only did he stick with it and become an excellent worker, after only 3 years he was promoted to Safety Manager.
 
Nathan said:
While working at the steel mill we were on the casting floor doing maintenance, while the laborers were doing cleanup, as the mill was down on Saturday swing shift. A laborer was directing the ladle crane operator in moving a tundish, which is like a trough for the molten steel and weighs probably 10~20 tons empty. Somehow the laborer gets caught in between the tundish and an upright "I beam" girder. His one thigh was instantly pinched and broken, with the compound fracture ends protruding through his pant leg. We sent someone to call an ambulance, we found a coat or blanket to cover him with, as he had gone into shock. Someone fashioned a tourniquet to slow the bleeding. He was off work for six months but did recover fully.
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I had a similar situation happen. Driving on patrol one night about 10 pm, I got a 911 call for an emergency at a farm near my position. I farmer had phlebitis in his left leg and the vein had popped and he was bleeding like a stuck pig. The ambulance had already been alerted and was in route. In the meanwhile, I grabbed a bunch of rags nearby and wrapped his leg and held pressure on the leg until the ambulance arrived and the EMT placed his tourniquet on the leg, loaded him onto a gurney and transported him. I never knew so much blood could flow out of a vein. It actually scared the crap out of me.

Another time, we had two bank robbers cornered in northwest PA with them firing 2 shots at us. My partner decided to make a move to get closer for a better shot. I held my position hoping one of them would stick their head out from behind the corner of the building. As my partner started to move, he stepped on a small cat that was at his feet and he didn't see it. This gave the other guys a good shot at him and he took a .38 in his right arm. I ran over to where he was and was able to reach out and grab his feet and drag him back behind our vehicles.

Just a few minutes later, other Troopers showed up and was able to take control of the situation and talk the robbers out and took them into custody. My partner was transported to the hospital, treated and released. He did return to work.

BTW, what's a tundish?
 
Back in the 60's, I was doing temp work during summer break and the agency sent me out to be the secretary for a construction manager.

First day, I was sitting at a desk in the corner of his big office, which had a big picture window looking out into the general office.

He was on a phone call that was not going well and he was getting louder and louder and more profane. Suddenly, he picked up the whole phone, hurled it through the window and stomped out. Glass everywhere.

It was lunchtime, so I picked up my purse, exited the building and went to the agency to request another assignment.
 
Aunt Mavis said:
One that stands out. Employee (male) reports to work to find his office painted a bright pink and symbols that included a rainbow, a unicorn, a fairy and miscellaneous other stickers with a similar theme. The painters were four ladies evidently. Is this good clean fun or ?
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Was this many years ago. It feels like they were outing him for being gay, trans… Whatever their reason for doing it, I don’t consider it clean fun, nor did he obviously.
 
Jules said:
Was this many years ago. It feels like they were outing him for being gay, trans… Whatever their reason for doing it, I don’t consider it clean fun, nor did he obviously.
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That’s how he/I took it. BTW, this happened last year.
 
One day two supervisors made an attempt to put toner in the copier machine at the district over the weekend. Not knowing how to refill the copier, they spilled on the carpet. So they went out to get the shop vac to clean it up. When they turned it on, it went in one end & out the exhaust hole like a volcano causing the entire room to be covered in black powder. That shop vac had been used on day shift to clean up water & they left the filter sitting on top of the tank until it (the tank) dried out for it to be put back in. Guess they didn't know how to run the shop vac either.
 
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Lilac said:
One day two supervisors made an attempt to put toner in the copier machine at the district over the weekend. Not knowing how to refill the copier, they spilled on the carpet. So they went out to get the shop vac to clean it up. When they turned it on, it went in one end & out the exhaust hole like a volcano causing the entire room to be covered in black powder. That shop vac had been used on day shift to clean up water & they left the filter sitting on top of the tank until it (the tank) dried out for it to be put back in. Guess they didn't know how to run the shop vac either.
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I hate to laugh, but ... that's hysterical!
 
at one place I worked there was a big amount of favoritism and some people got away with things against policy others would not.
I instructed several employees if they were mad they could anonymously report actions.... well one day one of the "special " people verbally attacked a favorite co-worker that simply did not deserve it..... I made the call .. many in management got in hot water...
the security manager came to me and ... they took me to lunch and said
"People like you and you know a lot of the gossip going on... can you please find out for us WHO turned us in" i told them i would do my best ... met a few times got free coffee and kept saying no one seems to know for sure.... never did they figure it out or suspect I never said a word
 
Jeni said:
at one place I worked there was a big amount of favoritism and some people got away with things against policy others would not.
I instructed several employees if they were mad they could anonymously report actions.... well one day one of the "special " people verbally attacked a favorite co-worker that simply did not deserve it..... I made the call .. many in management got in hot water...
the security manager came to me and ... they took me to lunch and said
"People like you and you know a lot of the gossip going on... can you please find out for us WHO turned us in" i told them i would do my best ... met a few times got free coffee and kept saying no one seems to know for sure.... never did they figure it out or suspect I never said a word
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Bless you.....
 
I saw the aftermath of a really dumb thing, done at a welding shop here in Toronto. A man was moving a large size compressed oxygen tank across the shop by hand. He did NOT have the safety cap on the top of it, to cover the valve. He dropped the cylinder breaking off the valve and the neck of the cylinder. The compressed gas was released and the heavy iron cylinder became a flying rocket that smashed through FOUR concrete walls of the building, and then penetrated the side of a 40 foot shipping container before coming to rest.

My Ambulance partner and I responded to what was described as an "Industrial Explosion ". Fortunately, no one was injured by this flying cylinder, which was propelled by the compressed gas which was rated at about 2,000 pounds per square inch of pressure.

Second dumb thing, but not in a work setting. A young woman had recently moved into a basement apartment. The living room rug had some grease stains on it, so she decided to clean it using GASOLINE. Afterwards, she lit a smoke, and died in the flash explosion of the gasoline vapors, and the house was destroyed by both the explosion and the fire that followed it. She was just 19. JimB.
 
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