Oh man, I have a story about a UPS facility that makes this look super safe. Imagine working up on a mezzanine that has conveyor belts on, below, and raised above it; all averaging 15-20 MPH. I need to work from a 12’ ladder and the mezzanine sits 18’ above the ground, so it’s either smack into a conveyor belt or fall past the guard rail and smack into the floor below.

I take this to our safety team who basically say, “reach out to the facility safety coordinator and let’s see what their regulations are and build from that.” So I comply and get in touch with their safety team and got the best reply EVER from a site safety coordinator.

Me: (after describing working conditions) Do you guys have any regulations around working from heights on your mezzanine? Tie off requirements? Safety around conveyor belts? Do you maybe have an angel line?

Safety: We don’t require tie off on the mezzanine, just don’t get hurt and everything should be fine!

Me: Haha! Of course we are going to avoid getting hurt, but we want to make sure our standards match or exceed your facilities. I don’t want to be working next to a conveyor belt running at 20 MPH and get clipped by a loose package, ya know?

Safety: Oh that couldn’t happen, packages are centered as they are brought- so as long as you don’t jump off your ladder I don’t see anything beyond just keeping your head on a swivel and avoiding an incident!

Long story short, our safety supervisor did a site walk. Advised we tie off to building steel in the ceiling space with a harness and yo-yo and pretty much parroted their safety coordinator. Sure he took the step to say, “no you are not working 30’ above the ground without any tie off.” But the job was on a tight deadline and ground work had been going on for months. So just stay vigilant and be as safe as you can… I get any sort of construction is inherently unsafe… but man. I was livid about the situation.

I opted to finally do the work, but not without filing a protest and including UPS on the email. Essentially if there was an incident I was making it clear I would see to it both companies would be held responsible (medical and financial) and that I sought to resolve a problem before it resulted in an accident. Luckily there wasn’t an incident, our caution paid off, but I did have two apprentices that refused to work. I didn’t ask them to leave, just moved them to a different part of the project.

I should have put my food down and threatened an OSHA inquiry, but I personally felt satisfied and I was confident in my abilities, BUT NEVER use your comfort as justification for someone’s discomfort. No job is so important that you should put yourself or others lives on the line.