Hey all. I work a blue collar manufacturing job. We’re pretty used to temps coming in and out. Recently we got a kid (19) come in, very eager and ready to work. We have a machine called a walk behind, which is basically like a forklift you walk with, which we use to unload product as it comes off the manufacturing line.
Nobody trained this kid how to use the equipment, he just watched people and started doing it himself. As I said, we’re so used to temps we hardly get to know these people and don’t know what they are qualified to do and not do. But I introduced myself to him and we had a lot of similarities.
I went to scrap bad product and he was sitting in his chair breathing heavily. I asked him if he was tired, because we were near the end of the shift. A guy came up with a cart and told me that the kid ran over his foot with the walk behind. It ripped the steel toe out of his boot. They hauled him to the medical center.
While he was in there, his temp agency called and said not to use an ambulance unless necessary. And HR and the manager asked him if he drove a straight drive or an automatic so he could be getting home.
Well the kid comes in again today to work. Has to stop several times to ice his foot. He told me it was severely discolored. I asked him if he saw a doctor yet and he said,
“Why would I do that”.
“To get a paper trail started in case things get worse. Best case. The doctor says you’re bruised and are fine. But if you have nerve damage or bone damage, it may sneak up down the road and work will say it wasn’t that bad because you have no proof”, I told him.
He didn’t want to believe me but I finally talked him into it. He laughed at the idea of workers comp.
What he doesn’t know is now management is looking for a reason to fire him as soon as he heals.