Well he it is...

I was sent back to our yard after the site safety super called my boss and said they wanted another operator

There were 3 piles that I was concerned about being so close to 240000 volts I found out he backed me and refused them also. Good thing because the hair on my arms was standing straight up when I walked near the piles. the lines above were dead and grounded but the ones 20 feet away were live and hot.

Here is what happened I return to our yard and my boss comes at me with both barrels in full yell mode asking me whats my problem and I told him it was to close 15 maybe 20 feet and I felt unsafe before I could say another word he continued to yell at me and said you cant shut down a job only I can and why did you take a video of it. 

 < I took a video of it so I could show him the proximity of the live lines MAX 20 feet to the pour location>.

 But by then it was to late he fired me by then and was insulting me and by then I did not care.Also The site safety people told me I could not keep the video and told me to erase it and watched me as I did but it was saved in another part of my phone.

Too be honest I am happy I stood up for myself even though it cost me my job the other operator backed me and everyone went home today alive. 

What gets me is I had a safety oriontation just before this all happened and they preech safety,safety,safety and then when someone like me says hey this is not good and explained myself to them why I thought it was unsafe. They kick me off and try to get another operator to do it..... 

38z

Here is my two cents. None of us can tell you for sure if you did the right thing for certain. You have to use your best judgement, sounds to me like you did that. As the others would say, it's better to be alive looking for a job then dead. If the pump company owner does not understand that then I wouldn't work for them for anything. Their are far to many pump companies across the country to work for. A great deal of them are truley saftey oriented an will back you. If this pump company got so upset over one lost job because their operator made a good sound judgement call then they are obviously hurting for work and I would not want to work for them anyway. If you are in the DFW area give me a call and I will help you find a "good" company to work for. I only do jobs I am confident that I can finish in a safe manner. That does not mean you should turn stuff down that is hard, you have determine if you can finish and finish with your equipment and yourself and the other workers on the job intact.

I support you.

Russ

Z-man

        I am as happy as a dog with two tails. You did what you thought was right. In my opinion it doesn’t get any better than that.

        Sometimes in life there is a price to be paid for doing the right thing. Keep doing it no matter the cost. Those hairs that were standing straight up were your conscience; keep listening to them. As it is you only know the result of being safe; God only knows the result of doing the expedient thing. You may have been OK, or you could have killed 10 people. You are lucky you will never know the cost of not paying attention to the “I think this is stupid” feeling. That is the proper way to end the day.

        There are too many companies out there that preach safety right up to the point of where it has an effect on the bottom line. If your company was one of those then you did not get fired, you escaped with your life.

        My father says, when asked about justice in the short term; “Fair is in August. Just do what is right.”

        I do not know where you live or what your future plans are. If I can be of any help to you; finding a new job for example, I will be proud to do so. Please feel free to call if I can do this. I know a few people in our industry and will do whatever I can to see that you land on your feet.

        Thanks from all of us, and the people that you did not kill.

Bob Sanderson

770-403-1444

Excellent job Bob!!

I knew your support would be their!! 38 made the right decision. The industry should salute him for standing up for safety! He could have been the next Headline. Our kind get killed when the limit is pushed!

Hey Guys ,,,,, He can not fire you for that ,,,,, if he has or did so , he owes you a settlement for lost work due to unjust cause of dismissal !!!  this kinda crap just rips me ,,,we are told we are responsible for that job site and every one on it when power lines or plug-ups, hose whips and all ,,, I would expect my staff to stand up and say HEY!!!!!!