I’m just gonna post a novel in here describing my phone call with my bosses boss today, and you let me know if I’m in the wrong or chime in.
I’m a 4th year plumbing apprentice working for a great company in new construction high rises. I Love the trade, good company, but I hate the industry. I love coming into work and learning somthing new from a more experienced plumber/tradesperson, but I’ve always resented the power relationship between employee and employer. Mainly people who work in our office who are out of touch with what’s happening in the field. I mean after all, they make money off of our labour in the overhead costs. Anyway here is what happened today
Our office has recently put out this safety app that all workers are required to fill out every morning. The idea being if you can list hazards and safety precautions before you start your day, you can avoid getting hurt. Almost everyone has resisted this app at first. But eventually we all bent the knee to our corporate masters and started filling out the app. Almost everyone just copy and pasted the same reports every day just to make our office happy.
Now I’m a rough in tester, so basically all I do is run around with a garden hose filling up units and bathtubs with water…..not exactly a very dangerous task. Still I am required to fill out the app and list a hazard. So with the combination of this, and my anti authority attitude I fill out the app sarcastically, assuming nobody reads this.
For example under the hazards section I’ll write: Getting wet and being cold
Then under safety control I’ll write: Wear extra layers. Or wear a pool floatie. So on and so forth
Anyway, I get a call from our safety manager, where he proceeds to tell me I don’t take safety seriously, and I need to fill the app out to their standard. Despite never having a first aid incident in 3 years I’ve worked here.
To where I respond “this isn’t a safety app, this is a subordination app to track employee hours and keep us in line. You don’t care about our safety, you just don’t wanna pay extra insurance premiums in the event of a first aid incident. Yes I’m being a little unprofessional in my reports, but almost every other employee I work with agrees with me, the only difference is I actually speak up about it, whereas everyone else keeps their head down and follows orders.
We then had a back and fourth about the app for 10 minutes before I realized there was no combination of words in the English language I could say that would make them agree with me. And I’m ashamed to say I caved in and apologized. I’ve never felt so disgusted with myself.
In conclusion, my coworkers are telling me I’m being childish and disrespectful, and I need to fall in line and do as I’m told, whereas I think it’s more admirable to be honest and have an open dialogue with my employer.
Thoughts? Am I a disrespectful little shit? Thank you for your time