The Absolute Worst Working Environment? 1716
goodEvans writes "As I write this, there is a window open behind me with a small jet engine outside. This is supplying vast amounts of compressed air to the aircraft undergoing heavy maintenance in the hangar right outside my door. There is a 6-inch diameter air hose going through the office and out the door. All this requires that I sit at my desk wearing a body warmer to keep out the cold, and both ear defenders AND ear plugs to keep out the noise! And this will go on for half a day once a week! What are the worst conditions you have ever had to work under?" Can you top that? (If top is the word ...)
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (Score:0, Informative)
People with IBS know what I mean...
Shit- (Score:5, Informative)
How about inspecting a toxic waste dump, recently uncovered in a marina, left over from the Vietnam era days, drums and drums of Agent Orange.
Asbestos factory plants shut down an abandoned, with asbestos piles higher than most apartment complexes.
Lead reclaimation factories that never should have gotten permits to begin with.
Frat-boy dorm rooms (I had to wear a gas mask in one section, it was so bad)
Public housing projects where aborted fetuses are hidden under stair cases, along with use diapers from the other kids.
You got nothing on what I have seen...
sounds like an OSHA violation (Score:5, Informative)
-A
Re:Are you being shot at? (Score:2, Informative)
Stay safe.
Re:Thats really minor (Score:3, Informative)
I have to second that one... having done controls work in a foundary and in iron making (blast furnace) areas, I've seen nasty conditions. I've visited cokemaking as well - truly a bad environment.
My personal worst is either the foundary, with the black foundary sand / dust getting all over (and in) everything - nothing like having to wash your hands after typing anything on your laptop, or a slag granulator at a blast furnace - there was a fire that burned up half the plant, there was a flood of 12 feet of water, and there were the conditions in the casthouse - nothing like a stream of molten slag being quenched by 10,000 gpm of water, generating a ton of steam and a nice strong H2SO4 steam.
It's not a challenging working environment until you add the requirement of hard hat, safety boots, ear plugs, a sulphur removing respirator, and fireproof clothing. And this is controls work!
Cables (Score:2, Informative)
1) Remove carpet - get gluey
2) Attempt to locate BNC - flashlight, upside down for quite a while
3) Locate BNC - pull correct carpet/floor
4) Pull BNC while upside down maneuvering around desks.
5) Repeat, but do not damage the BNC cable...we may need it someday.
Through that job I foudn out that my entire body can fit under a drop floor...and that people loose shoes in the damnedest places.
Re:Are you being shot at? (Score:5, Informative)
Where I work, we had a stray bullet come through a window and pass through where someone would've been sitting, had she/he not gone to lunch early that day.
Two people were stabbed to death right across the street. Two 70-year-old women, in a flower shop, during a robbery.
Our buildings are filled with asbestos. We can't drink the water due to bacteria in the pipes. The HVAC is constantly messed up: my boss' office is about 58 degrees F (14C) right now, but a couple weeks ago they had to send us home because it was 90+F (32C). Occasionally, we've been stuck without water for flushing toilets and washing hands.
One time, a sewage backup came out of one of our (already unusable) water fountains.
Ceiling tiles have collapsed on people's desks or right in front of some people from the GSA (Government Service Agency - they own the buildings) here to tour the building. Leaking pipes are the norm.
One time they told us to open the windows to encourage ventilation due to microbes in the air. Then they told us not to open the windows due to lead paint being used on the windows.
Here's an article [washingtonpost.com] from 2000 summarizing the problems.
These are the conditions US Census Bureau employees have to work in. Many, many people leave because of the problems.
--RJ
Re:Shit- (Score:3, Informative)
Frat dorms were to undergo a renovation, a building inspection for potential hazards was required before the city would grant permits.
nope (Score:2, Informative)
A co-worker tried to blow the whistle on our supervisor - the main conduit through which the organization was embezzling money - and our supervisor and his co-horts harassed him in a similar manner as they later did me. Thus, they truly were embezzling money (there is no question about that - they got in trouble for a similar thing about twelve years before my working there) and used their diagnosis as a method to drive me away from the company.
I can tell the difference between a voice that someone says and one that comes out of the sky, etc. and after this do you really think I'd ever take a med from a shrink again? No way.
sharks (Score:2, Informative)
I have seen at least 2 people take some bad stuff (cargo DC8 and a DL767) directly to the face/mouth.
OSHA (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Women (Score:3, Informative)
*shudder*
Thankyou slashdot, for bringing back up those well suppressed memories!
Re:House Calls (Score:4, Informative)
Worth it and appreciated. I'm glad you do the work you do.
Re:House Calls (Score:1, Informative)
oh aye? (Score:5, Informative)
I did work in a pit in yorkshire - just outside Hull. The working day consisted of getting up at 5:30am, setting off at 5:50 arriving at the charcoal pits about 6:30 - think of giant power station chimmneys, half-height with the tops blocked off. We'd get changed into our disposable overalls and face-mask, enter a bunker which was lit by giant and very very hot floodlights. A big truck would be backed-up against the doors and we'd start unloading it. This meant climb up, grab a sack of charcoal, carry it back into the bunker, split it with your knife and tip it out. Go back again. Split it, tip it, go back again. Split it, tip it, go back again, etc. We did three bunkers a day, four hours a bunker. We'd take a break between each one - a fourteen hour day, not counting travel. We got 4 quid an hour.
You'd have a shower when you got back, but it'd take a hour to get properly clean, and even then you'd still cough up black stuff for the rest of the night. And my god, did your back ache!
And you try and tell someone how lucky they are to be working at a computer, and they just don't believe you!
Re:Looxury! (Score:3, Informative)
Hey! You pinched that from me! [macslash.org] you insensitive clod.
Re:Asume Yorkshire accent: (Score:2, Informative)
One day my job description ivolved finding and replaceing the starter on a drill rig. I found the rig in a swamp. (warning... run-on rant)I spent 2 hrs on my back in the swamp before I found out that the starter they gave me went to the engine that was in it before they replaced the engine with an older one which wasn't compatible.
I remember my clothes freezing to a garage floor once replacing an alternator on a honda civic, but it must have been a different job I had(nevermind that wasn't job related. It was work just not somthing that I got paid for).
On a different day I drove a company vehicle up to a different site where a few of the other workers got there vehicle stuck. After a long day of being a drillers assistant out in a field the other workers left in my vehicle expecting that I got theres unstuck(ie. great coworkers).
A few days later I was in a 2 story diameter by 200 yard rotating kiln used for making concrete. It was stopped for inspection due to a malfunction. But it was still cooling at 90 oC. By the end of the day I was finding cured concrete in my nose.
The list goes on and on with similar yet less spectacular stories of that summer job.
Re:most disgusting place ever (Score:3, Informative)
Sounds like you were wading thru unprocessed slaughterhouse scrap, which will sorta self-render if left in the sun long enough. Yicch!!
BTW you can't use horns, hide, hooves, and other such waste for dog food; used as a main protein source, it eventually gives the dogs kidney failure.
Re:Whatever (Score:3, Informative)
Before they even moved anyone back in to 4487, the roof and windows were leaking. They never really got it fixed before he had to move to another building.
The shuttle orbiters are in grand shape, compared to many of NASA's other work environments.
If it's true, it's NOT funny (Score:3, Informative)
I'm assuming this is in the US...
Hearing-protection or not, this arrangement almost certainly violates one more workplace safety regulations at the state or federal level, or both. Were you threatened with any kind of punishment (eg, firing) if you didn't work under these conditions? Are you the only person affected? Did you make any efforts to get your employer to make reasonable accommodations, like temporary relocation of your office? Since it's only one four-hour block per week, did you offer to work a non-standard schedule instead of working in the office during that time? If you had a problem with your boss, and it's a company of any size, did you talk to your HR representative? Larger companies almost always have people in HR who are well aware of work-safety requirements, and whose job is to keep ignorant or asshole supervisors from getting the company crosswise with the law.
see "worst jobs in science" (Score:5, Informative)
Popular Science Mag: The Worst Jobs In Science [popsci.com]
(slashdot reference [slashdot.org])
Re:Fiberglass Insulation (Score:2, Informative)
The best way to stop the itching from 'glass is to wash in acetone. MEK works well to, but that burns. And don't use toluene unless you enjoy being cancer man.
I worked a summer in a marina doing all kinds of nifty boat repairs. Which was basically lots of chemical burns and exposure to cancer causing chemicals. The best part was climbing masts though, except when you're standing in the bos'un's chair 60' off the deck replacing a VHF antenna and someone decides to jump from the dock to the boat. Yeah, it may only move a little bit down there, but extend that up 60' feet and suddenly you're moving though a 6' arc. grrrr....
Re:My short job last year (Score:3, Informative)
Joi Internet (Score:3, Informative)
They pay $2-3 less than the market value for so-called "tier 2" representatives, that take all incoming sales/service/support calls.
There are no cubicles, you're forced to sit at a desk with another person, two pc's on the desk, two chairs crammed next to each other, with all the cables strung across the floor waiting for you to trip over them. The AC/Heating cuts off at 10pm nightly, and doesn't come on at all on weekends.
The doors are keylocked to get in *or* out, and most access cards stop working at 2am (locking the overnight people in the call center until 8am, preventing bathroom breaks)
The half hour of breaktime per day is all you get, and they make you split it up into two 15 minute breaks, which doesn't give you time to run out and get food. They make you pay $50/month for parking, or $3.50/day to take mass transit round trip.
They promise benefits (crap medical) 90 days after hire, but rarely follow through, even when harrassed.
Some of the desks are hand made from 2x4's and countertop (such as you'd buy at home depot), and are quite splintery/rickety.
The so-called 'kb' is Chasm's help desk page that was wget'd, then edited out to remove all of his logos.
No one at the company except the president and vp, and a few select others, has any power to cancel accounts. Customers must email, fax, or write a letter to cancel, they cannot do so over the phone. Billing issues are always sent to the black void of billing@domain, and are mostly ignored until the user contacts the bbb.
Server outages are common, usually happening nightly, with no explainable cause, and no communication from the network admins as to when they expect it to be fixed.
They provide nothing other than a water cooler and instant coffee (no cream/sugar) for refreshment. There is also no eating at the desks, so you have to blow your breaktime to eat in the closet of a breakroom.
They don't offer direct deposit, and the day you get your checks is questionable, as is the amount you're going to get paid (they use an electric time clock, but don't round up or down to a quarter, they get you down to the minute), and the checks are mailed from Israel, so if you expect to come in on the first and get paid, you may be out of luck.