A Shocking Lack Of Concern

The company I work for is based in a rural part of the country, about an hour out from the nearest big town. Being remote means it’s difficult to employ staff, which means sometimes you take the ones that you can afford, and in this case, the ones that could be afforded were some oddballs.

Luckily, I work alone most of the time, only bothered if there is an issue. I keep getting called to an issue with one of the machines. It keeps tripping the power randomly. It will be fine all week and then trip multiple times a day. It is on a maintenance contract, so I check it, reset it, and place a service call. Their company’s repair guys show up, find nothing, and leave. This happens multiple times.

Then, on one visit, their repair guy calls me down, shows me some frankly scary wiring setup: an overburdened cube extension with all many things plugged in, many with damaged cables, and some where I can see the wire.

I take everything away and let the supervisor know. He thanks me and talks to our employee working in that area.

All sorted? The next day, it trips. I go straight to the socket, not the trip, and find the mess of cables. Our employee is charging his phone, boiling a kettle, and charging his vape.

Me: “Not again.”

Employee: “What?”

Me: “You can’t keep plugging all that mess in. It keep tripping the fuse.”

Employee: “I’ve been doing this for years; I’ve never had one issue! I’ve worked my whole house. It isn’t a problem.”

Me: “The issue is that it’s tripping the fuse! All the machines on the ring will need resetting!”

Employee: “Not my problem.”

Fine. I will make it his problem.

I got his supervisor and told him his whole line would be down until that safety hazard was removed. He called my bluff, but I was prepared to go higher if I needed to. He didn’t seem bothered or think that this was actually an issue.

I saw the employee in passing, and he made sarcastic comments aimed at me being a killjoy, know-it-all, a pansy — I could go on.

I didn’t see him again for a while but thought nothing of it. It turned out that he got burnt pretty badly when there was an electrical fire at his home. He’ll live but will have some scars to show for it.

Suddenly, everything actually IS a massive risk. Everyone is banned from bringing anything from home. Sockets have been removed from walls, etc.

This didn’t last very long, as I reported a smashed socket that apparently had been like that for years, and that wasn’t a big deal because “there’s never been an accident before.”

I left before the place killed me.