Grade Expectations

I had been working as a technician for this small company when I was asked to do a normal, usual, nothing-special job.

During the course of this job, I was asked by my boss to send a picture of my work (our relationship was already very strained by this point). In this picture, I included my work and the ladder I was working on because I wasn’t going to move it just for a picture for my boss.

As I arrive back at the office, my boss calls me into his office, with a paper to sign, saying I performed an unsafe work act (his goal was to try to give me three strikes so he could fire me without severance). The act in question: I used a customer’s ladder, something that we as a company had done for the four years that I had been there, including this very same boss.

He talks to me about ladder grades, how I shouldn’t have used the ladder since I didn’t know its grade, and how much weight it can support. And then he sent me home early and told me not to come in the next day as a suspension.

I was angry. Luckily, I know union reps from other companies that handle safety regulations. So, I get a hold of the official government booklet and begin my day of study.

The very first day back, my boss again asked me to take the company ladder and go do a job. I look at every company ladder and identify that they are all classified as Grade 3 household ladders. None are within grade to support my weight of 250lbs, let alone my tools.

I break the news to my boss. It turns out none of the jobs he wanted me to do that day could be done, since he needed to instead provide ladder training that he failed to provide when I joined the company, and find a few very expensive A1-grade ladders.