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When I worked in the outdoors section of a sporting goods store I used to get bitched at for climbing the shelves to get grills down instead of using a ladder because osha.
Then I pointed out that the shelves were bolted to the ground while the ladder wasn't.
Yes, because shelves only support a certain weight and the whole thing can come crashing down like the World Trade Center, especially if heavier colleagues figure "if they can do it, so can I."
I think you're imagining shelves that were much less sturdy than these were. The uprights and horizontals were 3-4" steel I-beams and were bolted to threads imbeded in concrete every 5 feet.
A 500lb person wouldn't even make them budge.
That's not a guarantee things won't come down.
A fuckton of Newtons perpendicular to a support beam is different from 1k Newtons downward
That's what they all say right before the workplace accident training video gets filmed
My issue wouldn't be with the shelving stability but with the ability to safely take down and carry something large while hanging on. I get it, sometimes you can make things work, but there's going to be the one time where something goes wrong too, and that's probably why policy and OSHA rules are in place, because it's happened before.
That you don't have the right equipment to do things correctly is a problem waiting to happen. It's not a rare thing, companies like to trim and slide by as much as they feel they can, while quoting the "safety first" mantra. That's why you quote that right back at them when asked to do things, especially when they don't provide the means. This is also where HR can be on your side, since HR is all about protecting the company via their policy. As long as you and the policy are saying the same thing, HR is your ally. That's the only time.
Climbing shelving is not a good idea, ever.
So they were bolted to the ground, but not the wall? Is this why you weren't doing an engineering major? ☺️
I'm not sure why you think free standing shelves need to be bolted to the wall. These were made of 3-4" steel I-beams.
Not all stock shelves bolt to a wall. But I guess you're too educated to know that.
Lmao bunch of fucking idiots have never worked retail or in a warehouse making it super obvious right now
Correction: The idiot who installed the shelf ALWAYS forgets to bolt the shelf into the wall unless you personally verify.
Trusting equipment you didn't check gets you killed.
You shouldn't be using a ladder to get a grill. You need a electric ladder with enough room to hold a grill.
Other option is to put it on a pallet
Neither of those were an option to us.
That is a OSHA violation. Companies get sued over those. You should report any violations to your supervisor and if that doesn't work report it to the US department of Labor
This was over 15 years ago, so that ship has long sailed.